IRISH GARDENING. 



37 



Notes from Glasnevin. 



THE months of January and February are usually 

 considered dull and uninteresting- in a g^arden, 

 but on referring- to the list g-iven below it will be 

 seen that this is not necessary, and that it lies with 

 the gardener, be he professional or amateur, to have 

 it so or not ; also, the list g-iven of plants are not 

 those of merely botanical interest, the majority of them 

 are " every man's " flower. In January we have 

 Narcissus minimus, the smallest daffodil (see note in 

 Irish Gardening, April, 1906, p. 39) ; Iris Vartani, a 

 very pretty bulbous iris, with pale lilac blue flowers and 

 deep purple marking's ; Iris Tauri (see same note) ; Iris 

 stylosa and Iris stylosa alba. These latter two are ex 

 cellent subjects for indoor decoration if picked in the 

 bud. Adonis amurensis, a very pleasing little member 

 of the Ranunculus family, with yellow flowers and deli- 

 cate, soft foliage, a native of Manchuria and Japan, 

 where it is said some varieties are reddish. 



Among- the shrubs we have Garrya elliptica, an ever- 

 green with rich g-reen leaves and very g-raceful, creamy 

 catkins. A plant of Garrya elliptica, when in gfood bloom, 

 is a very beautiful sig-ht, and will well repay a little extra 

 care and attention. The larg-e bed of Daphne blag-ayana 

 outside the Orchid House at Glasnevin is well known 

 by visitors to these gardens, and, like so many of this 

 g-enus, its perfume is delicious. The following- treat- 

 ment after flowering- has been found to answer well : — 

 Take the young- g-rowths and place under and over 

 their bare stems some g-ood loam, and on this place a 

 stone sufficiently heavy to keep the spring-y shoot in its 

 place. At first your plant will look as if it had met 

 with rather drastic treatment, but the shoots will soon 

 pick up, and before very long hide most of the stones. 

 Daphne blagayana can be propag-ated by means of 

 cutting-s, and on its own roots does best. 



Hamamelis arborea, the Mansak of Japan. This is a 

 deciduous shrub, blossoming- before the leaves develop 

 in January and February, every branch being- covered 

 with bunches of yellow flowers with curious twisted 

 petals. H. mollis has hooked petals, and blooms about 

 the same time. 



Iris Danfordise, of the bulbous section — a very pretty, 

 clear yellow iris about four inches higfh, with g-reen 

 markings. This should be in all collections of these 

 early flowering- varieties. 



The following are in bloom in the open now (Feb- 

 ruary 1 2th) : — 



Shrubs and Trees. — Jasminum nudiflorum (yellow 

 jasminum), Ericacarnea alba, E. carnea, Garrya elliptica, 

 Chimonanthus fragrans, Hamamelis mollis, H. arborea, 

 Lonicera Standishii, L. fragrantissima, Alnus Ameri- 

 cana, Rhododendron parviflorum, R. davuricum, 

 Coriaria nepalense, Cydonia japonica, Lithospermum 

 rosmarinifolium, Polygala chamsebuxus, Daphne 

 blagayana, D. mezereum album, Cornus officinalis, Ulex 

 europseus fgorse-furze), Nuttallia cerasiformis, Azara 

 microphylla. 



Herbaceous, Bulbous, &c. — Saxifraga rocheliana, 

 S. Boydii alba, S. apiculata, S. sancta, S. coriophylla, 

 S. oppositifolia, S. cordifolia. Iris reticulata var. 

 Krelagei, I. reticulata, I. stylosa, I. s. alba, I. 

 Dandfordije, I. Tauri, Anemone blanda, Colchicum 

 hydrophyllum. Crocus Fleisheri, C. reticulata, C. etrus- 

 cus, C. Tomasinianus purpureus, C. Tomasinianus, 

 C. vernus (yellow), Eranthis hyemalis (winter aconite), 

 E. cilicicus, Calanthus (snowdrop), Elwesii, G. cilici- 

 cus, Adonis amurensis, Omphalodes verna, Petasites 

 lobata, Scilla bifolia, Pulmonaria grandiflora, Arabis 

 albida. Hellebores (Christmas roses), and Primroses. 



R. M. Pollock. 



The law of Nature is do the thing and you shall have 

 the power ; but they who do not the thing have not the 

 power. — Emerson. 



Clematis. 



IN reg-ard to the very interesting- article in 

 Irish Gardening on these handsome plants, 

 I wonder if that fig-ment about grafted plants 

 versus plants on their own roots will ever be 

 g-ot rid of. As a fact, every g-rafted clematis 

 quickly becomes an own-root plant. 



You take a piece of clematis root, say of 

 viticeUa, and g-raft it; the stock — i.e., bit of 

 root — only serves as a means to an end ; just 

 attaches itself and does no more. In fact it is 

 nothing- else but an easy way to strike clematis, 

 for that is what it really amounts to. Imme- 

 diately the scion has become united to the stock 

 it beg-ins to emit roots from its base ; and if 



Sketch showing how, when a Clematis shoot is grafted upon 

 a root, the old root branches on the stock die so soon as new 

 roots spring from th-' scion. A — Scion. B — Stock, c — Graft 

 Junction, d — New Root. 



you knock the plant out of its pot or dig- it up 

 long- after, you will find that the stock is just 

 as it was when the grafting- was done. 



The accompanying- rough sketch, made from 

 an actual nursery specimen, will make the matter 

 quite clear to any interested reader. 



If the planter will only select positions where 

 the stems of the plants are protected from 

 sunshine, there will be fewer deaths. These 

 scandent kinds always, in a state of nature, 

 g-row among-st scrub, up through which they 

 thread themselves, developing- their leaves and 

 flowers on the top. So their own stems are 

 always in the shade. 



As a rule, when a clematis dies it is at the 

 end of a hot summer's day, and is caused by 

 the ascending sap (on its way up the stem to 

 replace the wastage of water in the foliage), 

 being much over-heated owing to its unnatural 

 exposure to full sunshine. 



Daisy Hill Nurseries. T. Smith. 



