*^ The Month' 



JULY 



\^' 



Flower Crarden and Pleasure Grounds. 



Ry K. Kn\>\\li>in. F.R.H.S. 



BRIEF LIFE.— We havo iiad llu- lu-at. and moistiiro 

 has not been deniml. WIuml- tcocul, sniait work 

 put the summer bedding' timely in hand, com- 

 pleted it, and made all spick and span, there is now 

 pleasure in the outlook. At the same time, fifty per cent, 

 of the pleasure is that of anticipation, and no efforts 

 mav be spared to bring" the flower g-arden to its fulness 

 of beautv, and maintain it as long as our all too brief 

 summer permits. To effect this, good soakings of water 

 to some beds may still be helpful as an aid to proper 

 furnishing, although, if all have had that commendable 

 mulching of bog--mould mentioned last month, there will 

 be less need for it, as evaporation from the free and 

 porous, oft-worked soil will be checked. X'iolas as 

 edgings or carpetings must be thwarted in what tVom 

 now hence appears to be their one aim and object in 

 life — viz., the production of seed-pods -and it is a good 

 plan to pick off the pods as fast as they form, but a 

 better one, to remove the fading flowers, the stronger 

 growths where met with being pinched. All fading 

 trusses of geraniums should be promptly removed, and 

 strong growths pinched above a visible truss. One 

 gardening friend is daily worried by "the family" to 

 push things on, and he is sparing no effort to do so. 

 Another will not be worried by "the family" till their 

 return from London at mid-August, and he is wisely 

 holding things back by keeping the bulk of the blossoms 

 picked off. and persuading his plants into good habits 

 by pinching. Circumstances alter cases ; the moi-al is 

 obvious. 



A Nkw Fashion. — We have heard invidious com- 

 parisons made between the sustained gaiety of bedding 

 in the London Parks and that of even well managed 

 private gardens. But the London County Council has a 

 fine rate-roll to draw on, otherwise the quick-change 

 business which is responsible for the barbed hints could 

 not be carried on. How the changes are rung on — say 

 a bed of Canterbury Bells to-day in their fading harmony 

 to maybe a mass of lilies in the morning — is not enquired 

 into, otherwise the labour and expense entailed would 

 bring other reflections. Moreover, when the public has 

 considered " its lilies in all their pristine purity, and 

 things are getting stale, Heigh ! Presto ! and from 



iling iiM/c, .mil il London iovi-s il, by .ill nu';i 

 London li.ivi' it ; yd it is scinely a p 



g.utien lover, even should 

 kilh a manufactory for turn- 

 ig oui nil- decorjiiive "stuff" as needed. But and 

 .d.uk I even in the average, well-maintained garden, 

 wlu-ic lieiji ;ind reasonable outlay is not ginidged, 

 we know the strain imposed in spring by the bedding 

 pl.ints wliiili have scarcely left their lodgings ere 

 comes the cry of the cook for cucumbers, tomatoes, 

 and — and everj'thing else she knows cannot be ready. 



The F^i.ovver Borders. — Inula glandulosa, where 

 grown in (.piantity, has given a fine glow to the borders, 

 the way for which was prepared by the doronicums. 

 Que feels it scarcely possible to have too much of this 

 inula, but one does feel sometimes during spring that 

 some gardens are over doronicised. The inula, how- 

 ever, is far less weedy, although readily increased by 

 division. Now (as we write) the big flaunting Oriental 

 poppies are everywhere — in narrow borders, in wide 

 borders, and all sorts of borders. How we should like 

 to gather them all up into one imposing mass, in some 

 semi-wild spot where distance lends enchantment to 

 the view ! We can scarcely imagine anything finer or 

 more Turneresque in a summer landscape than half an 

 acre of the same Oriental poppies (the crimson, not the 

 hard orange-red), unless it be an acre, which would be 

 seen for miles, and worth going miles to see. Old 

 established roots are hard to transplant, but one capsule 

 of seeds has inherent capabilities to furnish a count}-. 

 The long-spurred Columbines are over, but they have 

 been very satisfj'ing. In one instance where seed is 

 being saved we noted some of the poor, prim-looking, 

 old thimble kinds, and we fear for a mesalliance. We 

 have recently seen a fine clump of the distinguished 

 Iris ochroleuca, each shaft-like growth fat with a 

 developing spike. It is a plant we have a profound 

 regard for, but cannot give the reason when in com- 

 parison with laevigata ( Kaempferi ), or even some of 

 the Anglican forms, unless it be that we grew it for 

 years without flowering it. 



Sweet Williams and Bl.\ck-Eved Susans.— It would 

 take a large garden and big staff, we suspect, to have 

 even a fair percentage of the improved forms of old- 

 fashioned and new-fashioned things so temptingly set 

 forth in an up-to-date seed list. Every week one finds 

 some writer expatiating on one or other thing he has 

 taken in hand, beginning or ending his note with " not 

 as well known, or grown, as its merit deserves." The 

 phrase is getting so stereotyped that we can well 

 imagine the printer man having a supply set up in type. 

 But alack and alas ! we cannot have everything, but we 

 can ring changes at times. One of our never-to-be-for- 

 gotten ventures in this direction was with a packet of 

 Sweet Williams ("good strain ") sown in boxes at this 



