OCTOBER 



IRISH GARDENING. 



57 



the letter-box, and impresses its importance by an ultra 

 uproarious rap (plena), the question of some or other of 

 the good .thing-s of plant life crops up in order that some 

 aids should be s^iven to spring's efforts, and blessed is 

 the man who has a good store of leaf-mould and well- 

 decayed manure. Spring bedders are gross feeders 

 and the wallflowers notoriously great robbers. The 

 best example of wallflower culture, by the way, we see 

 each spring in County Dublin, 

 or in fact in any county or 

 country, holds the secret of 

 much cow manure within its 

 bosom. This, however, is a 

 matter contingent on circum- 

 stances ; some find it more 

 convenient to give a dress- 

 ing when clearing off for the 

 summer planting, but in any 

 case it seems incumbent 

 under the dual system of 

 cropping that the flower beds 

 should have their annual re- 

 fresher, and that with no 

 niggardly hand. 



Dibble - V - Trowel.— We 

 have come to regard wall- 

 flowers as the piece cie resis- 

 tance of spring bedding, so 

 bright, so sweet, so coloury, 

 and so generally satisfying 

 are the improved varieties in 

 deep gold, blood red, violet 

 purple, and that pale Prim- 

 rose Dame, which is struggl- 

 ing to become a white. We 

 want a white, and we want 

 a b dier red, which doubt- 

 less our friends the florists 

 will give us in time, for there 

 is no limit to their efforts on 

 our behalf; but we hope 

 they will stop at Cactus 

 kinds, for one never knows 

 what freaks the florist and 

 fashion are going to inflict. 

 However, to plant what we 

 have. The proper way. of 

 course, is to lift each with a 

 nice little ball and quieth- pop 

 them in bed ; but after all the 

 trouble and vexation of spirit, 

 cui bono, when finding not a 

 few splitting up at the last 

 handling, parting with the 

 soil and leaving their roots 

 behind them. Ball practice 

 is splendid in theory but 

 foolish in fact. That, at least, 

 is our opinion after a good 

 many years at the work, and 

 our practice, since we learned 

 to do better, is to fork up the 

 plants in a way in which the 

 roots are taken and the soil 



left, and insert them with a dibble, followed b}' a 

 washing-in from the can spout, whilst a lot of worr}-, 

 some bad words, and useless labour are avoided. 



Prince and Peasant. — The wallflower has been 

 called the peasant of the flower family, but we do not 

 care what •"they" call the dear, old, smelly thing. As a 

 spring bedder it is universally and deservedly beloved, 

 and there is nothing, or ever likely to be, to take its 

 place. Still, it will stand the 

 association of a liltle higher 

 bred company and it is 

 astonishing how the tulip is 

 able to titivate it up. Golden 

 Crown and red wallflowers, 

 gesneriana and yellow wall- 

 flowers, picotee and red wall- 

 flowers again, and do not be 

 sparing of the tulips, for they 

 are cheap enough in all con- 

 science and will do again, 

 and again, and yet again ! 

 These combinations, of 

 course, are all right, for no 

 one thinks of putting red to 

 red, }ellow to yellow, and so 

 ^n. The principle would be 

 wrong. Nevertheless, wrong 

 principles often spring from 

 excellent motives, and if the 

 motive is to produce one of 

 the richest colour schemes 

 imaginable, then let the prin- 

 ciple go to the d — euce. We 

 have in our minds eye, and 

 pretty firmly fixed too, that 

 big bed of blood red wall- 

 flowers flirting with the 

 orange- red Prince of Austria 

 tulips in the People's Gar- 

 dens (PhcKuix Park) last 

 spring, and we strongly 

 advise those getting a little 

 tired of sameness in spring 

 arrangements, and those who 

 are not, to drop the principle 

 for once and transgress all 

 the ethics of art by doing 

 likewise. 



Kings and Ckowns.— We 

 have never hat! nuicli love 

 for the Dutch hyacinth for 

 bedding purposes, and various 

 little things have led up to it, 

 one o( which is we would 

 rather invest the amount 

 spent on them in tulips, 

 which, if they do not exactly 

 go on for ever, will i^o on 

 for some years with judicious 

 handling, and our Dutch 

 friend must hail from Holland 

 each season, and the other 

 reasons do not matter. Still 



CNKTI.V. 



From ;i pliotograph in the Royal Nurserfe; of Hugh 

 Dickson, Belfast. 



there are pros as well as 



