May 80, 1887. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



371 



What the antninn may produce will, no doubt, be much superior, 

 though here, as in London, there is much the same indifference 

 on the part of cultivators. Intending English exhibitors might, 

 therefore, reflect with advantage before they be at the pains of 

 forwarding any fruits. Few natives exhibit, and very few 

 spectators visit tho sheds devoted to these classes, which are 

 readily discovered by those who wi.sh it. 



Taken as a whole, what is exhibited in the garden represents 

 in no adequate measure the state of horticultural progress in 

 France. With the exception of the tools and implements 

 there are no evidences of other horticultural materials worthy 

 of note. Ground vineries we find, together with Saynor's 

 splendid pruning instruments, in the English Agricultural 

 Annexe ; but these seem not to attract the natives. In fact, 

 it must be said our neighbours think their own ideas equal to 

 most emergencies, and in the case of gardening not the least 

 of all. 



Visitors having time should go to the City of Paris establish- 

 ment at La Muette, Passy, which I went over with much 

 satisfaction. From here the flower-beds in the park of Mon- 

 ceaux and other parts are supplied, and the glass houses of the 

 Exhibition garden are finally to be re-erected at La Muette. 

 The flower market, near the Madeleine, is also really worth a 

 passing visit, and furnishes some hints in the arrangement of 

 bouquets. — T. C. Bbehadt. 



SPRING FLOWERS. 



One receives so much interesting information in the pages 

 of this Journal from the writings of amateurs, that, imperfect 

 in exact knowledge as such contributious generally are, I feel 

 bound to add what I can to the general stock. 



I have been trying a spring garden this year, according to 

 the fashion, and some memoranda, made for my own use, may 

 be of service to others. 



In the first place, is it worth the trouble? The effect is 

 slight compared with the gorgeous colours of summer, and the 

 beauty fleeting. On the other hand, there is a delicacy of their 

 own in the hues of spring ; and the little care and labour in- 

 volved in comparison with what is needed for a summer garden, 

 have made me determine never again to look for six months of 

 the year upon rough brown beds of earth, which serve in their 

 desolation to remind you more forcibly than anything else that 

 summer is gone. If these naked beds are clothed with colour 

 of any kind, so long as it be not that of coloured earths, a great 

 deal is gained. Then the trouble is slight. To protect winter 

 plants in the summer months does not require literally 

 one-tenth of the labour, nor one-twentieth of the expense, 

 necessary to keep summer plants through the winter. Some 

 corner of the kitchen garden, rather shaded from the sun, will 

 bold all the stock you require, and one touch or two at the 

 right season (in these four words lies all the difficultj), will 

 keep your laid-by winter dress in perfect order. The little 

 attendance required must, however, be given to each plant at its 

 proper season. The seed-sowing is not to be done all at once. 

 It is provoking to find in November, instead of a sturdy little 

 plant compact enough to bid defiance to the frost, a loose 

 expanding creature, just beginning with a too-confiding tender- 

 ness to open its blossoms to the first blasts of winter. Then 

 bulbs with withering leaves are uninteresting, and are apt to 

 miss the one watering they require, or to be left in the ground 

 a prey to mice and slugs. The patch of reserve garden, there- 

 fore, should not be altogether out of sight. 



The best plants are those that bloom the earliest. Many 

 annuals, such as CoUinsia, &c., are very beautiful ; but they 

 trench upon the summer season, and make the gardener im- 

 patient to be rid of them even at their prime. In this respect 

 Daisies and Pansies, both hardy, and both easily divided and 

 easily moved, carry off the palm. One of the prettiest beds 

 was a blue Pansy, obtained from Messrs. E. O. Henderson 

 and Son, with a ring of Golden-leaved Daisy round it, and an 

 outer ring of Crocus La Majesteuse ; the Daisies 10 inches 

 from the edge, that they may not be smothered by the Crocus 

 leaves, and the whole bed raised much higher than in summer 

 time to show-off the low-growing plants. The Pansies were in 

 blossom before Christmas, and came into bloom again with 

 the rapidity of an Alpine Gentian as soon as the snow melted, 

 and their bright blue, now, it must be confessed, fading into a 

 duller colour under hotter sunbeams, was a most pleasing con- 

 trast to the yellow leaves and crimson flowers of the Daisy. 

 Another striking Pansy is the Magpie, free blooming, but 



later than the other, and somewhat melancholy in effect ; a 

 French nurseryman would have named it Deuil d'un Prince. 

 It requires a crimson Daisy round it. The yellow Pansy blooms 

 nearly as early as the blue, and makes another good bed, with 

 a ring of Aubrietia. 



The Aubrietia likewise flowers early, and its mauve colours 

 are well contrasted with a ring of white Daisies. When re- 

 moved it shrivels up in the heat of summer, but revives with 

 the autumn rains. A still greater favourite is Phlox verna, which 

 forms a close carpet of deUcate lilac, with the same white edging 

 round it. Let mo confess that I made the mistake of setting a 

 crimson Daisy near it. How quickly one detects the mistake 

 when the first flower opens. Its only fault is that in winter 

 its foliage is brown and sare, and it is not so well fitted for a bed 

 close under the eye. These beds six weeks ago were gay with 

 Tulips, which went out of blossom before the Phlox opened. 

 I have tried the same plan with Hyacinths, blooming them in 

 beds of Silene, Forget-me-not, and Limnanthes, the leaves of 

 which afforded an excellent foil to their flowers, and which are 

 now hiding with their own bloom the leaves of the Hyacinths. 

 Bulbs flourish in a dry soil so well that single Hyacinths 

 bloom with us and increase year after year. The Silene, 

 however, grows so tall as almost to smother the leaves, and I 

 will not answer for their bloom next year. Not so the Forget- 

 me-not. With this last, seedling yellow Alyssum makes an 

 excellent contrast of exactly the same height, and exactly con- 

 temporaneous in bloom, only do not plant it where you look 

 to a brighter field of Buttercups beyond it. 



The three annuals above mentioned give little trouble, and 

 will seed themselves if a few plants be put in a shrubbery. The 

 green Fern- like leaves of the Limnanthes compensate for thelate- 

 ness of its flowers. No manure should be dug in with annuals 

 at the time of planting. Arabis variegata looks well in mid- 

 winter ; but all while flowers, even Hyacinths, are cold in spring* 



The Anemone has failed more or less for two years ; first, I 

 believe because the tubers were kept for some months out of 

 the ground ; afterwards, because they were put in too soon, 

 and the too vigorous plants were injured by the snow. Yellow 

 Wallflower, sown early, makes a good ribbon-border with Mag- 

 pie Pansy, which is rather tall, in front of it. 



Every bed should have Crocus round it, which need not be 

 removed in summer, as it will not be in the way of bedding 

 plants. There should be some system in the colours, the 

 yellow being kept in due subordination to the purples and the 

 lighter colours. La Majesteuse, Sir .John Franklin, Queen 

 Victoria, and Sir Walter Scott are all good, and distinct. 



By the means which I have described three successive periods 

 of colour are insured — 1st, the Crocus season ; 2nd, that of 

 Hyacinths and Tulips, with which Pansies and Daisies mingle ;. 

 3rd, the annuals. 



I need scarcely add that I have been indebted to Mr. Flem- 

 ing's little book 0)i spring gardening, in which full directions 

 for the management and propagation of spring plants may b& 

 found, for the pleasure I have received. — Wyeside. 



VIOLA CORNUTA. 



Some time ago there was an interesting controversy in the 

 pages of the Journal, as to the respective merits of what were 

 said to be two varieties of Viola cornuta. All parties, however, 

 seemed to agree that the plant was one that would rank high 

 in public estimation when it became sufliciently known and 

 cultivated. It is not my purpose to reopen that controversy, 

 which I imagine, afLer all, arose simply from the plants having 

 been grown in dnfiVrent soils or circumstances, the effect of 

 which, as we know, is often to give another tint to the colour 

 of the flowers, or to cause some alteration in the character of 

 plants. Be this as it may, I can bear testimony to the very 

 gay appearance which the plant has at the present time, and 

 if the continuance of its liloomin!; bo satisfactory, its merits as 

 a bedding plant will be fully established. 



Mr. Wills, through whose exertions this old-fashioned Viola 

 has been restored to favour, was kind enough to send me some 

 plants in the autumn of 18C5. I kept them in a cold frame 

 all the winter, and planted them out last spring, but unfor- 

 tunately I happened to place them in a spot to which rabbits 

 had access, and the result was, that the flowers were nipped off 

 as produced, the plants escaping untouched. They have now 

 acquired a breadth and compactness which could not well be 

 excelled. Having recently planted many young Pinuses and 

 other trees on the lawn in cultivated circular beds about feei 



