TRTSH GARDENING 



73 



at, from either a distance or close at hand, the 

 plants must be planted as to cover the earth, and 

 so give an unbroken blaze of colour. The beds 

 in the People's Gardens in Phoenix Park are a 

 first-rate lesson : also any one who has had the 

 opportunity of seeing som'e of the- French parks, 

 and also some of the bedding-out in private 

 places abroad, will know what good bedding-out 

 can be like. It may be due to the weather, but 

 it is also largely due to the fact that those in charge 

 understand and know how to use their plants. 



Towards the end of the month Primulas, 

 Polyanthuses. Primroses and Auriculas may be 

 divided up. Worthless varieties or poor colours 

 should be burnt, and only the best retained. 

 Any specially good plant might be marked, 

 divided, and in time a stock of one particular 

 colour collected. Unless these plants are divided 

 after flowering, they will be pushed up out of 

 the ground by the old roots, and they will be 

 starved and baked all through the summer 

 months. Young roots will be seen pushing out 

 just below where the leaves start, and unless the 

 plants are lifted, the old root stock removed, and 

 the plants replanted, these young roots will die 

 before they reach the soil. In the case of 

 Auriculas, one often sees old plants with from 

 three to four inches of old root stock above the 

 surface, and a few miserable leaves on the top 

 of these. 



Fruit trees on walls where the fruit has set may 

 be syringed when the weather is hot and dry, to 

 keep down fly. Quassia, either made on the 

 premises from chips, or the extract bought in 

 tins and diluted according to directions with 

 water, is a good liquid to use, and renders the 

 leaves bitter and so distasteful to insects. 



Where not already done, a layer of clean straw 

 may be put round strawberry plants, on which 

 the flowers can lie. later on it will keep the fruit 

 clean, and off which the rain can easily drain. 



Gp.kexhouse. — Arum Lilies which have done 

 flowering may be divided and planted out in 

 trenches out of doors. Azaleas, Cytisus and other 

 flowering shrubs from the greenhouse may be 

 removed to a sheltered corner, and stood there 

 in the open. They should, however, not be left 

 standing any length of tune on the ground, but 

 on an ash bottom, so that worms will not get 

 up into the roots, and will also keep the pots 

 off the damp ground. 



Attend carefully to ventilation. The weather 

 during this and the coming month will be un- 

 certain. If it should turn out hot and dry, damp 

 tlie floors during the middle of the day with a 

 watering-can to moisten the atmosphere, as 

 too dry and hot an atmosphere is as bad for 

 plant growing as one too moist. 



^* $£7* Q^* 



Poetaz Narcissi. 

 Many people who have almost a distaste for the 

 Polyanthus Narcissus, with their heavy scent, 

 will find the Poetaz Narcissi pleasing and 

 attractive. This new race is the result of a cross 

 between the Poet's Narcissus and the Polyanthus 

 Narcissus. From three to six flowers are borne 

 on a stem, and they are beautiful either forced 

 as pot plants or in the garden, while their 

 lasting qualities either as cut flowers or in beds 

 exceed most other kinds. 



Elvira and Alsace are two of the best varieties, 

 with white perianths and yellow cups, while 

 Jaime a Merveille and Klondyke are two good 

 yellow forms. 



Ourisias. 



This genus includes about twenty species, 

 although few are in cultivation, confined to 

 Andine, South America, New Zealand, and 

 Tasmania. Commerson received the first plants 

 from Governor Ouris of the Falkland Islands, so 

 the genus was named after him. 



Ourisia coccinea, the only member which has 

 really become popular in gardens, is a native of 

 the Island of Chiloe, situated near the south-west 

 extremity of Chili. 



A moist soil, peaty or otherwise, will suit the 

 plant, or near the edge of a bog bed, where larger 

 plants will not obtrude ; provided moisture is 

 abundant the sun will not be injurious, but if 

 the site is not well watered partial shade is 

 beneficial. By streams in our Wicklow gardens 

 Ourisia coccinea may be seen at its best, making 

 a carpet of deep green, prettily notched leaves, 

 and sending up flower stems a foot high, from 

 June onwards, bearing drooping tubular flowers 

 of a brilliant scarlet. 



Altogether different in appearance are the New 

 Zealand Ourisias which have been introduced, 

 such as O. Colensoi, Cockayniana. caespitosa, and 

 macrophylla ; with the exception of the latter they 

 have not been a success in our gardens. 



Possibly they are of doubtful hardiness, but 

 given the proper conditions O. macrophylla is a 

 plant that can be grown successfully, and is 

 worth taking some trouble to grow. At shows 

 one occasionally sees a drawn and attenuated 

 specimen which gives a poor idea of what it 

 should be. A good judge of hardy plants who 

 recently paid a visit to the Glasnevin Gardens, 

 when he saw the subject of our illustration, re- 

 marked : "I had no idea that Ourisia macro- 

 phylla was such a good plant." 



The plant figured has been in its present 

 position on the rockery for three years, being 

 one of a batch raised from New Zealand seeds. 

 Some of the seedlings planted in sunny places 

 promptly died, others in partial shade still linger. 

 This one, planted on a rocky bank facing north, 

 has flourished and has formed a tuft two feet 

 across. The soil in which it grows is half peat 

 and half loam, well drained, but remaining moist 

 through the summer. A large and partly over- 

 hanging stone gives some shelter through the 

 winter. 



This year the pretty pink buds showed towards 

 the end of March, and the flowers began to open, 

 and continued opening well into April. The 

 flowers are white, with yellow hairy centres, 

 three-quarters of an inch across, borne in whorls 

 on stout hairy stems which continue to lengthen 

 until they reach a foot or more high. 



The leaves are evergreen, deeply notched and 

 veined, a pointed oval in shape, about 3 to 4 

 inches long, produced from creeping stems, and 

 carried on channelled stalks. 



Another good point about the plant is its 

 freedom in producing seed, which, if sown in a 

 box as soon as ripe, will germinate as freely as 

 " mustard and cress," and in a cold frame the 

 seedlings soon form good plants. 



Cheeseman writes that the plant grows in dam}) 

 mountainous localities in New Zealand from sea 

 level up to 4,500 feet altitude. This author also 

 states O. macrocarpa is the finest species in the 

 genus, resembling 0. macrophylla, but stouter in 

 habit, and bearing larger flowers on smooth 

 flower-stems. 



