Augn.t4.i663.] JOIIRNAL OP HOETIOTLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



& 



WEEKLY CALENDAR- 



AUGUST 4-10, 18B». 



Chironia puIchelUi flowers. 

 Marsli Gentian flowers. 

 Prikck .\lfrku uohs, 18H, 

 Bumet Saxifrage flowers. 

 Mea'low Saffron flowers. 



10 SUKDAY AFTKH TrI.MTT. 



Waterwort fljwera. 



Average Temperature 

 near London. 



Rain in 

 I last 

 |3(j years. 



Day. 

 75.0 

 7a.9 

 72.S 

 74.5 

 74 5 

 74.4 

 75,5 



Night. 

 61.1 

 61.4 

 S1.9 

 50.6 

 49.7 

 50.4 

 52.9 



Mean. 

 63.4 

 63.6 

 62.3 

 62.5 

 62.1 

 62.4 

 64.2 



D.ivs. 

 16 

 17 

 16 

 12 

 15 

 14 

 17 



Sun 

 Rises. 



29af -i 



31 



32 



3i 



35 



37 



38 



Sfin 

 Sets. 



m. h. 

 43af7 



41 r 



39 7 



37 7 



30 7 



34 7 



32 7 



Jloon 

 Rises. 



m. h. 

 30 a 9 

 5,7 9 

 29 10 

 6 11 

 51 11 

 morn. 

 43 



Moon 

 Sets. 



m. b. 

 58 a 10 



iloon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



20 

 21 



c 



23 

 24 

 25 

 26 



U^^^Z^r-^^^^^ZJ^^f^^l^^ S=^,- ^a. .. ten^ratnre^.t. .e. is 74.4^ 



Day of 

 Year. 



216 

 217 

 218 

 219 

 220 

 221 

 222,' 



. and its night 

 The greatest fall of rain 



AUTUMN PBOPAGATION of BEDDES^G PLAKTS. 



' HIS is a topic wliick lias so often 

 been ekboriitely treated of in 

 tke pages of this Journal, and 

 ope about M-liicli it may be con- 

 sidered most difficult to say 

 anything to better purpose than 

 has already been advanced by 

 men of long and large experience. 

 He would be indeed a bold and pre- 

 sumptuons individual who would 

 suppose that by auj'thing like su- 

 perior force or authority he could 

 set aside all or anything that has 

 been so well and fully said. There 

 cannot be any who' believe less 

 than I in a gardening Hercules 

 who would presume to step into the 

 '■/■ ^■j- ^^''^ "*' gardening affairs, and at- 

 a^ SI ^enipl; to .Sii'idc all others into the 



/r ^mi course which he may think best. 



It^ may, however, be safely ad- 

 mitted that the authoritative say- 

 ing that "in the multitude of couu- 

 ciLlors tliere is wisdom," is pecu- 

 liarly applicable to every department of gardening. 

 Depend upon it, men of spheres the most circumscribed 

 may be as well able to teach and suggest on some par- 

 ticidar topic, as are those who h.xve the direction of 

 operations on the most gigantic scale ; and we have each 

 so much to learn in all that is comprehended in that 

 wide and ever-widening word— Gardening, that it ill 

 becomes any to hold forth with tones of miperious dog- 

 matism on whatever subject he mav think proper to 

 treat. The diversity of ways and means with which 

 different individuals accomplish results in many respects 

 alike are almost as diiferent, in some parts of their de- 

 tails at least, as are the individu.als themselves : hence 

 the never-failing interest that is kept up on the subject 

 of gardenmg, and the ceitainty that may be assumed 

 that, however different the doctrines that may be ad- 

 vanced and the method described, they cannot fail to 

 prove of service to a few, at least, of the many who 

 peruse these pages, even if from circumstances over 

 which they may have no control they may not bo able 

 to foUow out the ideas and practice which arc fiom time 

 to time brought forward. 



I therefore cast m my mite into the miglitv treasury 

 which has already been foniicd in the pages of this 

 Joumal on the subject of bedding plants, and hope that 

 as the season of propagation is close fit Jiaud, some tyro- 

 may benefit by what sljaU be briefly advanced. 



If we could but fully understand the means by which 

 the most important results are accomplished in the "reat 

 laboratory of Nature,, it would invariably be luund that 

 the means are m themselves simple, although, like all 

 else in the abstract, marvellous. And so I think it is 

 found to be in gardening : the simpler the means, in 

 Ko. 123,— Vol. V., Ntw Sekiee. 



most cases the greater and more satisfaetoiy the results^.. 

 For a good many years I have made it a point for attain- 

 ment to produce a given quantity of flower-garden plants: 

 by the simplest possible means consistent with the pro- 

 duction of a first-rate article. I do not mean bv this the 

 many resorts and makeshifts which might be called into, 

 operation, and which, after a good deal of experience im 

 that sort of tiling, I have come to regard as mosH; uustx- 

 tisfactory and the most expensive by far in the end. 

 Here as in everything else, depend upon it, what is worth 

 doing at all is worth doing well ; and in flower-g.ardeuing 

 as attempted in numerous instances at the present time^ 

 it would be a wise and satisfactory procedure if the area 

 of flower gardens were much reduced and the remainder 

 better executed. This would be a great step towards 

 rendering flower-gardening what it might be— one of the 

 most delightful departments of a gardener's duties, in- 

 stead of that which heaps upon him an untold amount of 

 drudgery. It would, moreover, cover the present style of 

 ffower-gardening from the many objections which some 

 raise against it. That the season of fuU beaulv could 

 be nearly doubled in duration by means of dillerently 

 managing the plants now in use is a fact whicli lias been 

 fi,illy proved; and this, too, without more hiljour— by 

 simply reducing the area to be planted, and which is 

 perfectly consistent with an enhanced degree of pleasure 

 .lud enjoyment ; for it is a fact bevoud all disi>i!te that 

 a few beds may be made far more exquisite and eiiective 

 than ten times their number as we sometimes meet with 

 them. 



And this is- only one of the many advantages that 

 would be gained by a different mode of procedure. It 

 would relieve hothouses which have been erecled ex- 

 pressly for other purposes from being turned iuto Pan- 

 dora's boxes. After having had a long spell at turning 

 out thousands of plants from forcing-houses and harden- 

 ing them off by almost every means that could be devised,;, 

 and on the other hand, after the exjjerience of a better- 

 ordered state of affairs, the fact has forced itself upon 

 me most convincingly, that the makeshift system is by 

 far the most expensive, fifty per cent, more laborious, 

 and equally more unsatisfactory in results, than when 

 erections are afforded for the purpose. In thij;. as in 

 even-thing else, there is a vast amount of niirrnitful 

 mental and bodily wear and tear, mishaps, and disap- 

 pointments, and to a great extent abortive results, when 

 that which is aimed at is altogether out of proportion to 

 the means at command. And in ilower-gardeuiug, as 

 now practised, gardeners themselves have plunged head- 

 long without adequate means iuto an amount of labour, 

 from which in many cases they would be glad te retreat ; 

 and after all, the sjjlendour of the parterre is only of 

 two or three months' duration, while it might be extended 

 to nearly double that period, if tlie means and extent 

 n ere niore in character and proportion. If ever flower- 

 gardening is to be raised many stejis al)cive its jiresentr 

 level some course of this .sort m-.ist l>c insisted on, as well' 

 as some alteration of the general principles now (.ibservcd 

 both in the eharact-er and arrangement of the plants. 



No. 775.— Vol. X.\X Oi,i> Sciii •. 



