September 1, 186S. ] 



JOITENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



161 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



SEPIEIIBER 1-7, 1S63. 



Partridgo »hooting: beg'ns. 

 Chamoniile flower^. 

 St. Bdiniibv's Thistle flowers. 

 Field M:irit:uld flowers. 

 Anirelitii tiow;;rs, 



U SUKDAV AFIER TrIMTV. 



A. Heiilriy died, 1859. Bot. 



Average Temperature 

 near London. 



Day. 



70.5 

 70.6 

 70.4 

 70.3 

 70 

 70.0 

 69 5 



Night. 

 47.3 

 47.6 

 47.9 

 46.8 

 47.6 

 45 8 

 47.5 



Mean. 

 58.9 

 69.1 

 69.2 

 58.6 

 68 8 

 67 9 

 58.5 



Rain in 



last 

 36 years. 



DaTS. 

 18 

 11 

 14 

 15 

 15 

 IS 

 17 



Sun 

 Kises. 



m. h. 

 13af 6 



Stin 

 Sets. 



m. h. 

 4aaf6 



Moon 

 liises. 



32 11 

 morn. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



m. b. 



60 a 9 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 after 

 Sun. 



18 

 19 

 20 

 21 



c 



23 



24 



Oaf 2 

 21 

 40 

 59 



Day of 



Year. 



214 



24ti 

 217 

 248 

 249 

 250 



From obserTotiuns taken near London during tlie last thirty-six years, the average day temperature of the week is 70.2°, anil it.s nlcht 

 teinper.uure47.2''. Xlio greatest heat was So', on the 1st, 1813; and the lowest cold, 28°, on tUe 7th, 1855. The greatest fall of rain 

 was 1.60 inch. 



CAN THE PERIOD OF FULL BLOOM BE 

 LENGTHENED IN OUE. FLOWEE GAEDENS.? 



HE transitoiy nature of the 

 display produced by the pre- 

 sent style of tlower-gardening 

 is not imfrequently one of 

 ^^ ^ ^^ -WrC? L the most powerful arguments 

 't-l ^.,1^ i. -n-hich are urged against it. 



It is not proposed in the remarks 

 that shaU. here be offered to re- 

 fute the charge : on the contrary, 

 it is frankly admitted that the 

 stirring appeal to our sense of 

 that which is beautiful, as pre- 

 ^.. .-. . sented by the pleasing combina- 



'^y'*V-, /}-!W^ nations of the gay host of flowers 



P* _ ,t T*^ "^ which form so conspicuous a part 

 of our flower gardens, is even 

 much shorter than is to be de- 

 sired. A frostj^ morning or a 

 ruthless blast towards the eud of 

 September disturbs our equani- 

 mity to no small extent ; and the 

 chances of such occurrences are 

 often discussed with a foreboding bordering on the me- 

 lancholy. And who is there that cannot sympathise with 

 the spirit that heares a sigh of regret at the prospect of 

 so much grace and beauty becoming a decaying putri- 

 fying mass in less thau twenty-four hours ? We did by 

 chance meet a few days ago with a heart so benumbed 

 to the influence of flowers, that it was frankly avowed 

 that flowers of any kind or to any extent had no charm 

 for him. We earnestly pitied so singular a subject. 



More particularly is the shortness of the effect pro- 

 duced to be regretted on account of the months of fore- 

 thought and hard labour which its production calls into 

 play and necessitates. One could almost wish that a 

 ■writer in " Once A Week," who has imbibed very senti- 

 mental ideas about the ease, and interminable and un- 

 disturbed pleasures and abimdant remuneration, that are 

 attached to a head gardener's situation, could be placed 

 in the shoes of many a gardener who has one of our large 

 flower gardens to manage novv-a-days. Leaving all other 

 departments out of the question, he would find out l)e- 

 fore very long that in this one department alone there 

 is enough to make a head gardener's office not one of 

 " unalloyed pleasure," and that there is something more 

 both behind the scenes and on the boards too than 

 "going about givmg orders," and that, worst of all, it 

 is not remunerated with splendid sums ranging from 

 £200 to £1000 a-year with other et-ceteras. He would 

 also, perhaps, make the Important discoveiy that to spend 

 so much of his time in artificially heated and confined 

 air, and to pace a soU gorged with decaying vegetable 

 matter, and surrounded with high walls and n-oods, was 

 not the " most healthy " position in the ^^■orld either. 

 When a man writes about a thing that he docs not know 

 about, such, generally, are his lucubrations. 

 No. 127.— Vol. V., Nkw Sebiks. 



It is, however, admitted on all hands, that sucli a dis- 

 play as is now produced in our flower gardens has never 

 been equalled by an}' system of arrangement that has 

 preceded the present. The materials are more brilliant, 

 and the ])rinciple of arrangement more imposing, than 

 anything that has previously exi.^ted ; and the objections 

 are raised, not against the beauty and effect produced, but 

 on account of the evanescent character of the bloom. 

 What is wanted is either to be alile to prolong the season 

 of blooming in autumn or secure it earlier in summer. 

 Our climate renders the former impossible unless by a 

 covering of glass. The latter, then, is what our hopes 

 must rest upon in a popular point of view. If tills be 

 tjie case, it becomes a matter of no small importance to 

 Inquire whether it be possible, by any principle of ma- 

 nagement and arrangement, to have our flower-beds gay 

 with flowers early in June that shall also last till frost 

 puts an end to it in autumn. It is considered that this 

 is attainable, and that, too, without adding much if any- 

 thing to the labour or expense at present incurred ul 

 this department of our gardens. In most establishments 

 the means and the end are sadly out of proportion in the 

 flower garden as compared with other departments. If 

 a gardener is expected to have crops of fruit he Invariably 

 expects to be supplied with proper means ; but he does 

 not hesitate to undertake the rearing of thousands of 

 plants for the flower garden by any makeshift his brains 

 can devise, and at planting-out time the plants are more an 

 apology for plants than anything else. That by different 

 management flower-garden plants could be made to pro- 

 duce the desli'od display of flowers at least a month earlier 

 is a point on which I have no doubt whatever. 



Let us take, for Instance, the Geranium brigade of the 

 great army of flower-garden plants, and see the great 

 clifference as to earliness of blooming that can be secured 

 by different management to that makeshift system which. 

 is farced upon gardeners in so many instances at present. 

 In some instances they have forced it upon themselves 

 by an ardent desire to cope with more favoured neigh- 

 bours, and from a mere love of the effect produced even 

 for a short time. How often are Geraniums potted-oii' 

 m spring when vineries and peach-houses are started, 

 and from the high temperature of 70° and the shade 

 of the Vines, are of necessity removed to sheltered 

 shady corners under mats, wooden shutters, and even to 

 trenches cut in the open quarters of the kitchen garden. 

 Here they are hardened-ofl' with a vengeance, and with 

 an amount of anxiety and labour whicli the writer m 

 " Once A Week " never dreamed of All these methods 

 I have myself adopted, and have besides shaken the plants 

 out of cutting-pots and boxes, and planted them in the 

 beds to be exposed to the drying breezes and hot suns 

 of early summer, by which the green sappy leaves are 

 turned brown in a day, and for the first mouth they get 

 " small by degrees and beautifully less." As to bloom- 

 buds or blooms there arc none at planting time woi-ili 

 the name, and what few there may be (more by chanca 

 than good gardening), are soon done for; the tender foot- 

 ,stalks"are blackened and share the same fate as the foliage 



Ku. 779 — Voi . XXX., Old Seuies 



