44 



IRISH GARDENING 



MARCH 



careful plans to siR-ooeil. liunij;!! by laii-ruily lookiii_n^ lo 

 your trees in the followinij months many errors can be 

 remedied. Shoiiki you liave pruneil your tree too 

 lijchtly you can rub oil" some of t lie weaker shoots, and 

 so jfet better shoots - shoots wliieh are placed properly 

 and not overcrowding each other like bullocks >;oin,uf to 

 a fair ! Not long- ago I saw a rose tree which was 

 reputed to iiave been a grand tree, but wliich lately liatl 

 been a bitter disappointment to the owner. Poor tn-c ! no 

 wonder; quality aiui quantity nearly had rung its death 

 knell, but by pruning the tree carefull}- I managed to 

 save its eviction. Those readers who are intending to 

 show in Dublin at July show must make up their minds 

 now before they prune. It is no use pruning anyhow, 

 and then in June suddenly deciding to show grand 

 flowers in July. This is one of the greatest causes of 

 disappointment to amateurs, and until they make up 

 their minds that they in March are on the way to the 

 show in July they will never get cups and medals. There 

 must be no half-heartedness — no compromising, all or 

 nothing — which is it to be. For the good of your garden, 

 for the society's good, let it be all. You need not be 

 timid when you come to the tent ; ask any other older 

 exhibitor if he can give you a hand to show you the 

 ropes, and believe me he will not deny you his advice 

 or help. When I went to my first show in Dublin it 

 was a pure case of ignorance and despair. Suddenly 

 an old hand offered his advice, with the result that I 

 got first prizes for my two boxes, and / won a rose 

 friend for life. Yes, he is a good man in every way. 

 and he made me regard my wins as auspicious, and 

 he developed the love in me for rose g-rowing which 

 lies in many a rose grower's mind latent iir.til it gets 

 brought to life as it was in ni\' own c.-ise. 



The Month's Work. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Grounds. 



By E. KMnvi.niN, F.R.H.S. 



THIXGS generally, from a superficial view, seem 

 pretty much on a par with our last notes on this 

 subject. A closer look, nevertheless, reveals all 

 sorts of little spears and prominences peeping through, 

 from the simple forrh of the daffodil that " dares," to the 

 curl with which the tulip comes into the light. As we 

 write, all is chilling, and wet to boot, but the singing of 

 birds has come, and well-rested roots have heard, 

 like our feathered friends, the call of spring. But, to 

 work. Let none be led astray by the notion that a hard 

 winter has cleared off the slugs, or any soothe them- 

 selves with the idea it has lessened them one iota. That 

 the slug- cannot depredate during frost we admit ; 

 but now he arises like a giant refreshed, and primed 

 with the pangs of hunger seeketh what he may 

 devour. Daffodils he won't touch, but the heart ot 

 a tulip is savoury meat his soul loveth — the heart, 

 the very heart — and he does the dastardly deed 

 in a mean, despicable way, for whilst one enjoys 

 all the pleasures of anticipation over a well-filled 

 tulip bed — and the pleasures are many — when viewing- 

 what " old Jarge " called their" robustiousness " of tops, 



i)o jH-r cent, ol tiieni ni.iy W- liopi-lessly riildleii through 

 just below the surface. Now is the time for their sal- 

 vation (the tulips, not the slugs !) Stir around each 

 little shoot as soon as visible with a flattish stick to re- 

 move a little soil, encircle each with a little dry soot, 

 and that is sufficient. Where the Dutch hyacinth is 

 employed fi>r bedilin- it is ;is well to ilo likewistv H.>x 

 edgings, oi coursi', are i-nTcnni.iliy anathematised for 

 iiarhouring slugs. Tiiat they are not guiltless goes 

 without saying, at the sami- time they chiefly ofler an 

 asylum to the " horny-dorny." the big fi-llow who carries 

 his house on his back ; but in our experience he is a 

 gentleman compared with tlu- slimy little wretch not a 

 tenth of his size, and then we have a friend in the thrush 

 to persuade him. .Still, he is bad enough ; and when 

 our good Editor breaks out into poetry, as he did last 

 month on the twenty-second page with — 



"The garden I love has a hedge of box, 



That's dimly, darkly green, 

 But it holds ..." our coinvion foe in /locks, 

 A ud he'd best cut it dotvti, I weoi' ' 



tempts us to take the liberty shown in italics. Just the 

 influences of spring, of course, from which the editorial 

 sanctum is not exempt, and even the printer, poor man ! 

 must have been a little off his level when changing our 

 Waverl}' Blue lobelia into " Heavenly Blue "(page 29). 

 But the comet, of course, can account for that ! 



In the early Dutch tulip and the May flowering tulips, 

 added to the Dutch hyacinths and all the glory of purple 

 and gold in aubretias .-uid alyssum, ive get all the form 

 and colour we want without prostituting fair daffodil to 

 the conventialities of the formal garden. Possibly, it is 

 mortal heresy which the orthodox who cannot leave the 

 daffodil out of their spring programme in the formal 

 garden will deem unpardonable, but we think too much 

 of the daffiuiil to see it — dare we say it? — so unhappily 

 placed, for there is one glory of the formal flower gar- 

 den and another of the picturesque pleasure groinids, 

 and it is in the latter place we want them, where, in 

 Wordsworth's words — 



" My heart with pleasure always fills, and dances with the daffodils." 



And once and for all we cannot dance with daffodils 

 when set out like Mary's garden — 



" Silver bells and cockle shells, and daisies all of row." 

 Again, given a dry soil surface, w-e must tighten in the 

 frost-loosened wallflowers, and with the back of a small 

 rake leave all decently and in order, for they will need 

 no further attention, and ere the month is out, if judi- 

 ciously spaced, will have closed up their ranks. Ere 

 leaving the flower garden, we venture to hope our com- 

 patriot under glass is preparing a good stock of the 

 handsome-foliaged and gorgeously-flowered cannas, 

 which hold an unique position in the summer display — 

 surely the most accommodating of all tender subjects, 

 as they rest cheek by jowl with the dahlia stools. If he 

 will do that we have a fine heap of dead, ripe cow- 

 manure (in our mind's eye), and some of '08 crop of oak 

 leaves in that delightful stage of semi-decay, the liberal 

 use of which will make the cannas put on flesh, and send 

 up strong spikes of bloom. 



" Ten thousand saw I at a glance. 

 Nodding their heads in sprightlj' dance." 



