October 9, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



265 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



OCTOBEB &— 15, 1873. 



Average Temoera- Kain in 

 tare near Loaaon. 43 ycai's. 



San 

 Rises 



Oxford Michaelmas Term begins. 

 Old Michaelmas Day. 

 18 Sunday after Trinity. 



Royal Jersey Horticultural Show. 



Days. 

 24 

 24 

 22 

 23 

 22 

 20 

 21 



m. h 

 16af 6 

 18 6 



Snn 



Sets; 



Moon 

 Kiaes. 



m. b. 

 ISalS 

 16 5 



51 6 



25 7 



10 8 

 6 9 



11 10 

 22 11 



Moon 

 Sets. 



82 10 



64 11 



after. 



6 2 



48 2 



20 3 

 42 



Moon*s 

 Age. 



DaTS. 

 18 

 19 

 20 

 21 

 < 

 23 

 24 



Clock , Day 

 after | of 

 Sun. I Year. 



TU. 8. \ 



12 48 



13 2 ' 

 13 17 

 13 82 



13 48 



14 

 14 13 



282 

 283 

 281 

 285 

 28(5 

 287 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 60.4° ; and its night temperature 

 41.8°. The greatest heat was 80', on the 14th, ISlil ; and the lowest cold -iV, on the lath, 1860. The greatest fall of rain was 1.04 moh. 



WINTER FLOWER GARDENING.— No. 1. 



UR flower beds will soon be freed from their 

 buiumer and autumn occupants. The beds 

 and borders will be prepared for the recep- 

 tion of the plants and bulbs that are to 

 render them gay during:; the spring months. 

 From now to spring for a time the flower 

 garden is a blank ! Beds planted with bulbs, 

 others filled with plants that are to gladden 

 the eye and heart of man when Nature calls 

 them into bloom and fragrance. What j 

 feelings do beds of bulbs or plants stir up within us for 

 full four months of the dullest period of the year ! Is it 

 not that we see in those bare mounds of soil (which I 

 never look upon without being reminded of molehills in 

 a pasture!, or those beds of green plants, a prospective of 

 brilliant colours, aiTanged with a view to contrast and 

 harmony ? They may be sorry-looking in November, 

 December, .January, and February, but they will amply 

 repay us for our patience and forbearance by the brilliant 

 array of colour they afford in spring, 



*' When early Primroses appear, 

 And vales are deck'tl with Datfochls." 



Verily, then, not before March, frequently not until April, 

 can we look for the display we expect of spring garden- 

 ing. The ai-ray after that none can dispute. The splen- 

 dour of the bulb-rooted flowers, and of the plants if not 

 so bright and dazzling as that afforded by the beds or 

 borders' summer occupants, is, nevertheless, nearly, if 

 not quite, as interesting and satisfactoi-y. But what of 

 the beds and borders fi-om October until then, and what 

 of the flowers, as Shakespere puts it, 



"Which conie before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty ? " 



What of the Christmas Rose, Hepatica, Winter Aconite, 

 and Snowdrop? Are they not all interesting and beauti- 

 ful, and who does not grow them ? Certainly every- 

 one cherishes these gems of the winter and early spring 

 months. They flower too early to be classed with the 

 spring-flowering plants, being past their best by or before 

 the Hyacintli, Tulip, Narcissus, Myosotis, Alyssum, &c., 

 are all aglow with their scarlet, white, blue, and gold ; 

 and it is this which prompts my dkecting attention to 

 winter flower gardening. 



It is all very well to be told " spring gardening means 

 flowers, weather permitting, from Christmas up to .Tune ;" 

 but what flowers have we before April '.' None, or but 

 few that will afford anything like a brilliant ai-ray — none 

 that will warrant our arranging them in a flower garden 

 with a, view to forming a contrasting or liarmonious 

 whole. Spring gardening with tlie plants usually em- 

 ployed often is early summer gardening, the plants not 

 attaining the height of their beauty until May, through 

 the lateness of the spring ; so tliat after we have put up 

 with a very tawdry display of flowers anything but 

 attractive land as for contrasting or harmonious arrange- 

 ment it is beyond the question i, we find we are no better 

 off as to flowers in March than we were in November 



No «54.— Vol. XXV., New Series. 



when the beds were planted. It amounts to our having 

 flower beds, but no flowers from October to March. Bare 

 or green beds may give hope of good things to come, 

 which seem to attain their meridian of splendour just 

 when the time arrives for planting their successors. 

 Flowers are delightful at any time, and, except in a late 

 spring, the state of things alluded to does not interfere 

 with the summer display ; but the fact remains that 

 before March, and often not then, the beds of spring 

 flowers might as well want their occupants as possess 

 them : therefore, up to that time, we would arrange to 

 have the beds filled with objects of interest and beauty 

 fi-om the beds being cleared in autumn until they can 

 be arranged in more brilliant colours. 



Spring gardening, as I have seen it and can comprehend 

 it, means no flowers worthy of the name on the wintry 

 side of March ; interest and beauty to the beds in winter 

 we may not be able to impart with flowers ; but are there 

 no other subjects of beauty — no forms that can gladden 

 man but flowers ? Some cannot see beauty in any other 

 form but that of the flower, and ignore every other form 

 of beauty. The beauty of the slirub and colouring of 

 many variegated and coloured-foliaged plants is altogether 

 ignored. Bare surfaces, self-coloured matter can be tole- 

 rated for four or five months only ; in due course the 

 blaze of bloom can be had. Well, 'be it so ; tastes differ, 

 and so do the subjects I shall enlist in behalf of making 

 the beds and borders of our gardens interesting and 

 beautiful at the dullest period of the year. Foliage has 

 been so improved of late years as to be almcst, if not 

 quite, as effective in colour as flowering plants, and in 

 foliage we have an endurance of wind and rain to which 

 flowers can lay no claim. 



I shall be told that in spring gardening ornamental- 

 foliaged plants are employed, so that beauty is had in the 

 beds from the removal of the plants affording tbe summer 

 display. All this we knew, and yet we can also see that 

 until the plants with which the foliage is associated come 

 into flower there is no effect — no contrast of colour, no 

 harmony. The " whole " is destroyed when the plants 

 are removed in autumn, it is not restored until spring. 

 Many long years ago this state of things was foreseen by 

 the founder of the modern system of flower gardening, 

 Donald Beaton, who also advocated the ornamentation 

 of the beds, after the removal of tlie summer and autumn 

 plants, with shrubs. He, the great instrument of plant- 

 ing tender and other plants with decided hues of colour 

 in masses, saw the condition the beds would bo left in 

 during the autumn and winter, and his fertile mind was 

 not long in suggesting the means by which they might 

 for a time at least be made presentable. The fiUing of 

 the beds with branches of evergreens was as novel as 

 effective. It v/as an improvement on the bare soil, which 

 at the present day is not altogether wanting; but the 

 branch and spray lost its beauty ere tbe time for put- 

 ting out the summer plants had returned. They were 

 witliered and browned, and it was seen the beds looked 

 better without them, and the beds were blank in the 

 spring — the time of hardy flowers. 



No. 130O.— Vol. L., Or.D Si'.KlES. 



