MARCH 



IRISH GARDENING. 



45 



Thus, daffodils in straying- patches on the grass, in 

 informal bays of the shrubberies, stretching away down 

 to the water, as in the People's Gardens, Phoenix Park, 

 or at Straffan, in big, broad sheets, meeting the LifFey, 

 and crossing it to the other side. From mid-March, 

 with obvallaris and princeps, till June, when the gar- 

 denia-flowered odoratus closes the season— and it is a 

 long season — we shall enjoy them. What is the secret 

 of the daffodil? It has none, may be said, for it will 

 grow everywhere. That is so. But — and not a small 

 but either - it does not blow everywhere as it blows in 

 some places ; at Straffan, for instance, and coupled 

 with that (per contra) the example of an acre of lasvn 

 where we set a couple of thousand princeps some years 

 since, on the free, gravelly sub-soil of County Dublin, 

 which show the effects of a comparatively dry season 

 by being all but flowerless the following spring, we take 

 it that the daffodil loves a moist footing. The Incom- 

 parabilis and Burbidgei sections have proved the best 

 for naturalising under dry sub-soil conditions. \Ve 

 notice, by the way, that Biflorous seems pretty well 

 the only narcissus adapted to continuously-fed pastures, 

 evidence of which was seen a few years ago in the his- 

 toric Scarva demesne. County Down. There, in con- 

 stantl}'-grazed grass, bold tufts of the late-flowering 

 Biflorus were remarkable on the closely - cropped 

 sward. 



Returning to the kept gfrounds, how stately are 

 isolated specimens of Maximus on the grass with their 

 elegant twisted leaves and noble, deep-golden trum- 

 pets ! The keynote of harmony in naturalising daffodils 

 seems to be not only to keep the species unmixed, but 

 the bold plantings of each out of rivalry, which is fairly 

 easy to do in the sinuous windings of a shrubbery or 

 woodland walk, where at every turn one may come on 

 a distinct feature. Soon we shall look for Montana, 

 wreathing all and sundry it has the chance of clinging 

 to in bridal gaiety. The best, and by far the best, 

 variety of this mountain clematis, glorified with the 

 title of grandiflora, is readily distinguished by its 

 purple bine, intensified in the early stagfes of growth ; 

 and happy the man who has recognised the claim of the 

 red Montana rubens as a companion to it. We notice 

 in not a few places of the County Dublin spruce firs, 

 thirty or forty feet high, which are sick to the extent of 

 being so nearly nude as to make any tree-lover ashamed 

 to look at them. Such are capital hosts for Clematis 

 montana. For years we have watched the struggle 

 between a neglected pine and a Montana on the Monks- 

 town Road. How the latter has managed to mount to 

 the higher branches from which its ropes depend, as it 

 were, for some thirty feet we do not know, but it has ; 

 and to see that poor old pine all a-blowing over its bald 

 head every spring is a revelation in plant gymnastics. 

 We have always found the month of March the best 

 for giving attention to mossy lawns and for general 

 good results, superphosphate the best corrective and 

 stimulant. .A good deal, however, lays, as Captain 

 Cuttle would say, in the application of it, an even dis- 

 tribution being essential. There are, of course, lawns 

 which are past redemption, where the finer grasses 

 have been quite ousted by daisies and coarser weeds, 

 vind where the drastic treatment of breaking up, thor- 



oughly cleaning, with proper firming and levelling, and 

 sowing down in .April, is the commonsense course ; but 

 apart from that all our greenswards pay for some little 

 kindness at this season after the cruelty of constant 

 mowing. In the cutting- down of laurels, where such is 

 contemplated, and can now be done with safety, it will 

 not be forgotten that such will pay for a top-dressing of 

 any fertilising material that can be spared, and a pre- 

 vious light breaking up of the surface will facilitate its 

 assimilation. If the muck barrow could run a little 

 oftener in this direction instead of so persistently to the 

 kitchen garden it would be better for both. We know 

 of more than one old kitchen garden sick to death of the 

 muck doctrine, and pining for the tonic treatment of 

 lime. That, however, is another story, and outside of 

 our province, to which a good deal more attention 

 should be given to our shrubs and ornamental trees in 

 the way of nourishment than they get as a rule, and the 

 few places, as at Dropmore, where the superb coniferae 

 are annually mulched with good, fat feeding are the 

 exception. 



The Fruit Grounds. 



By A. Barker, Carrigoran, Newmarket-on- Fergus, 

 Co. Clare. 



AS a general rule the most important of the winter's 

 work amongst hardy fruits has been got 

 through by the time that March comes round, 

 and the fruit grower may derive a considerable amount 

 of pleasure in contemplating his winter's work of prun- 

 ing, planting, and digging, &c.; feeling that the heaviest 

 of the winter's work is over, and he may now watch 

 with more or less gratification the early indications of 

 his prospects for the coming fruit season. However, 

 I am afraid that this year the pleasure must, in many 

 cases, be deferred or mingled with a great amount of 

 disappointment at the progress made. The abnormally 

 wet weather of January and February has v^ery much 

 retarded routine work, judging by the weather we have 

 had. Here it has been continually wet and stormy 

 during this period, and at the present time land is in a 

 very sodden condition, and work in garden and field has 

 rarely been so backward as now. We are having 

 " February fill dyke " truly this year (our rainfall is 

 already over three inches for this month). However, a 

 few dry days (being vouchsafed) will dry land and 

 brighten up prospects considerably, and the end of 

 March find all things in a satisfactory condition. 



Where digging or any cultivation is unfinished, do 

 not miss any possible opportunities to complete this 

 very important operation, and rather than longer delay 

 get it through "wet or dry." Where basic slag has 

 previously been dug in about fruit trees a dressing of 

 kainit now spread over the land, at the rate of 4 or 5 

 cwt. to the acre, would be of considerable benefit ; the 

 kainit may lay to be covered over by the next hoeing 

 or cultivating that the land may receive. Any of the 

 local manure merchants or agents will supply the kainit, 

 and the cost will ultimately be well repaid in increased 

 yields and better fruit, more especially so where a 

 satisfactory amount of farmyard manure is not available. 



