The Month's 



AUGUST 



F^v^-ui Jljl*''"' K*"'"'^' localities, 



■w -^ T 1 I'-" ]^ wluMi planted en in 



W O r R h f as a carpeting for h 



y \>>- mis subjects or ot 



I wise, is apt to get j(^a 



11— It yet we have seen 



Flower (harden and Pleasure Grounds. 



By E. Knowi.din. F.R.H.S. 



CUTTINGS.— CuUiiig time has come round again, 

 and the bedding geranium has to be called on to 

 provide stock for another season. For six 

 months out of the twelve has this mainstay of the 

 bedders to be coddled and catered for under glass, and 

 but little more than half the remainder can it bear the 

 breath of heaven with impunity, but we are not going 

 to run it down. Oh ! no, for whilst we have the bedding 

 will the geranium, like the poor, be with us ; and to 

 make the .best of it and avoid unnecessary trouble 

 cuttings should go in by the middle of the month, the 

 sooner now, in fact, the better, whether in pots or 

 boxes, or, for the matter of that, dibbled into a border, 

 provided the cuttings are fully exposed to the sunshine 

 and everything else— no coddling, and every properly 

 prepared twelve cuttings will give a dozen plants. 

 Later than the middle of the month it is another story, 

 and to leave the operation till St. Partridge's Day quite 

 so, so in the words of the immortal Jarley. "be in time," 

 or results will at least be qualified by George's opinion 

 of the Jarley pie, " middlin'." 



Trimmings.— Fortunately the full fortnight of fine 

 weather which July vouchsafed to us has minimised the 

 hay fever, which, if it has no business in garden 

 work, cannot, like King Charles' head in the Dick 

 dissertations, be kept out of it, and the nipping, pinch- 

 ing, trimming and tidying, so essential to satisfaction 

 in the formal garden, can be done in the unobtrusive 

 manner which leaves the powers that be a part of the 

 day at least in undisturbed enjoyment of it. Thoughts 

 crop up anent a Kentish banker's flower garden which 

 each season was brought to and maintained as long as 

 possible in perfection -perfection writ large with a big 

 P. Still, that banker of Beckenham was not happy be- 

 cause, forsooth, he or his friends could never enjoy it 

 by reason of shears, shirt-sleeves, baskets, barrows and 

 other impedimenta being eternally in evidence, till at 

 last in his wrath he fixed up a rule as firmly as the laws 

 of the Medes and the Persians, that no workman in 

 shirt-sleeves, or anything else, should ever be seen on 

 the flower garden after two p.m. 



Sowings.— Saponaria, silene and forget-me-not sown, 

 the first week in the month are invaluable for the spring 

 garden under the bedding system. The first named, 



truly, is a somewhat 



milVy subject in uncon- 



1 localities, and 



inasse 



bulb- 



ther- 



ppy, 



the 



lovely saponaria Scarlet 

 Oueen giving such glorious spring (late spring) effect on 

 I he flower garden as to out-rival aught else of its kind or 

 colour. The old silene Pendula in soft pink is less 

 subject to this dying out weakness, although we have 

 found the variety Compacta less amiable. However, 

 the old Pendula is of that nature that should a few gaps 

 occur the free growths of its flowering stems make up 

 I'oi- deficiencies, the whole, at its best, forming a 

 perfect pink cushion should the bed be large enough to 

 let it have its fling. Forget-me-not Royal Blue is not 

 likely to be forgotten by those who have seen masses 

 of this fine variety true. Another spring bedder for 

 present sowing is worth mentioning — viz., Limnanthes 

 grandiflora, of dwarf habit and profuse flowering, the 

 comparatively large, yellow flowers shading off at the 

 margin to white. The old Virginian stock is, too, very 

 pretty as an early spring flower, where it can be sown 

 permanently at this season ; for the others mentioned, 

 thin sowing on a bit of clean ground avoids preliminary 

 transplanting. 



Reflections.— There has been a great cry out at the 

 manner in which hardy flowers have behaved after the 

 spell of sunshine following the cool, wet June. They 

 rushed in and they have rushed out, but where all 

 vacancies had been occupied by temporary subjects, 

 they are not missed, their place being taken by the 

 odds and ends which are now appreciated. Single 

 dahlias, Cactus dahlias, with clumps of sweet peas on 

 the larger scale ; heliotropes and other bedders, with 

 sweet-scented tobaccos and gay but nasty smelling 

 French and African marigolds, all compensate for the 

 loss of the hereditary occupants, many of which have, 

 of course, yet to give us of their autumnal beauty, and 

 notably so, the beautiful groundsel, Senecio pulcher. 

 good clumps of which we expect to be particularly gay 

 later on, for it has enjoyed its early summer soaking, 

 but it is a late flower. Soon, too, we shall have the 

 dense, rosy-crimson heads of Sedum spectabile, telling 

 us that autumn is really with us, and over the cushion- 

 like heads butterflies, blowflies, and every fly in the 

 garden will hover, it being /he plant beloved of the 

 insect tribe. The gay gladioli is pushing spikes apace, 

 a stake to each spike being imperative. Why, we 

 wonder, are not the earlier summer-flowering gladioli 

 availed of, those we mean of the Insignis type, which 

 formed a notable feature of the last Dublin flower show. 

 OiR Climate.— As we write a party of Essex farmers 

 are touring through Ireland, and one member of the party 

 is the Instructor of Horticulture to the Essex County 

 Council. He is particularly struck with the freshness, 

 lush, vigour and greeness of our vegetation, both wild 

 and cultivated, everywhere in evidence throughout the 

 country. He is greatly impressed with the horticultural 

 possibilities of the " ould countrie," and charmed with 

 the rich tones in the colouration of our flowers. 



