July 9, 1868. J 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIO0LTDRB AND OOTTAGE GARDENER. 



IS 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



JDLY 9-18, 1888. 



Alton Ilorticalttiral Show. 



Royal Ilorticnltaral Sooioty, Promenade. 

 5 Sunday afteb Trinity. 



Newport (Salop) Horticnltoral Show. 



Averasfe Temperature 

 near London. 



Day. 



74.0 

 74.7 

 76.1 

 76.9 

 K.O 

 74.3 

 76.6 



Nieht. 

 43.7 



60.4 

 51.6 

 60.4 

 51.3 

 60.5 

 60.5 



Mean. 

 61.8 

 62 5 

 62 8 

 63.1 

 63.7 

 62.4 

 63.5 



Rain in 



laat 

 tl years. 



Days. 



18 

 16 

 10 

 13 

 14 

 14 

 20 



8nn 



Rises. 



m. h. 

 57 at 3 



68 3 



69 8 



4 



1 4 



2 4 



3 4 



Son 



Sets. 



m. h. 

 12 at 8 

 12 8 



Uoon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



TO. h. ' m. h 

 82atlO i 80al8 

 64 10 1 35 9 

 16 11 I 37 10 



89 11 



mom. 



8 



31 



44 11 

 alter. 

 2 2 

 13 3 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Days. 

 19 

 20 

 21 

 22 

 ( 

 24 

 25 



nook 



before 



huo. 



Day 



of 



Year 



191 

 192 

 198 

 194 

 196 

 196 

 197 



From observations taken near 

 temperature 50.5". The greatest heat was 93 

 was 1.46 inch. 



London durina the last forty-one years, the average day temperatnre of the week 1b 75.2' ; snd its night 

 leat was 93y.» on the 14tn, 1817 ; and the lowest cold 33', on the 9th, 1863. The greatest JaU ol rain 



NOTES FOR AND AGAINST SPRING 

 GARDENING. 



'F the present movement in favour of spring 

 gardening be calctdated to lessen the amount 

 of summer bedding, as it is called, many 

 hard-working gardeners, whose glass struc- 

 tures of all kinds are overcrowded in the 

 spring months, will hail it with delight, as 

 relieving them and the legitimate occupants 

 of houses and pits from a pressure that has 

 been yearly increasing. It is, however, to be 

 feared that no diminution of the number nor important 

 change in the description of plants wanted in summer will 

 be made ; on the contrary, the cultivator's attention to the 

 plants intended for spring display will have to be added to 

 the amount of work which he has at present to perform, 

 but with this difference, that the plants intended for 

 summer display will remain longer on hand before they 

 can be finally planted in their flowering beds, and the 

 spring gardening, if well carried out, will be found to 

 entail, at a time generally the busiest of any during 

 the year, a much greater amount of labour than is often 

 expected. A heavy crop of spring flowering plants cannot 

 be removed from the bed which they have been occupying, 

 without that bed ha-ving to undergo some kind of renova- 

 tion in order to render it capable of supporting immediately 

 afterwards another crop in a healthy and vigorous con- 

 dition. Besides, many of the so-called spring-flowering 

 plants continue to be ornamental until the beginning, or 

 even the middle, of June. Possibly, too, the weather at 

 the time the bed is ready may not be the most suitable for 

 planting out subjects which have not each a separate pot, 

 and loss or delay must take place ; and even under favoura- 

 ble circumstances they cannot be so early as others planted 

 out at the proper time, unless they have been specially pre- 

 pared at the same trouble and cost that as many ordinary 

 greenhouse plants would involve. Hence those persons 

 who are taxed with as much work as they can possibly 

 do with advantage to the plants under their care, ought 

 to pause ere they commit themselves too hastily to an 

 extensive system of spring bedding, if an eaily summer 

 display be wanted also. 



The example of the past winter ought not to be too 

 hastily quoted as showing what can be done towards 

 producing a display in spring, for it has been one of the 

 best for the purpose that I ever remember. Some Prim- 

 roses made an excellent show early in February, and were 

 never injured by frost, but we can hardly expect this to 

 occur often ; beds, likewise, may endure one winter's crop 

 without showing that exhaustion which they would do if 

 winter planting were repeated year after year. That good 

 results will not follow every season I have myself wit- 

 nessed this spring. Nevertheless, I by no means wish to 

 disparage a system that has attracted attention at intervals 

 during the last thirty years, but has been abandoned by 

 all but those who have the means of carrying it out well. 



A short time ago I had an opportunity of witnessing a 

 good example of spring gardening, combined with summer 

 Ko. 680.— Vol. XV, New Sebieb. 



bedding-out. In this case the early-flowering plants had 

 been removed, the soil of the beds in a great measure 

 exchanged for fresh compost, and Pelargoniums, 'Verbenas, 

 and other plants, each growing in an 8-inch pot, were 

 employed to fiU the beds again, the plants being large 

 enough to place on the stage of a greenhouse. The effect 

 was complete at once, but few have the means of practising 

 such a system on a large scale, and every one must do the 

 best he can with the conveniences at his disposal. Some 

 modification of this system wiU be attempted by many 

 who cannot adopt it in its integrity, but those who have 

 not had much experience should not embark too extensively 

 in spring gardening unless they are in a position to carry 

 it out well; and I would especially guard them against 

 pursuing a plan practised in some places — that of mixing 

 the summer bedding plants in the same bed as the spring 

 ones, in the expectation that the former will out-grow the 

 latter. Such mixtures rarely answer well, and are often a. 

 source of much disappointment ; the bedding plants being 

 late and irregular, and the season in a great measure gone 

 before they cover the space allotted to them. 



The present year, as I have already remarked, must not 

 be taken as furnishing a fair example of the results which 

 will bo achieved in spring gardening in ordinary seasons, 

 for the weather was unusually mild from the middle of 

 January up to May, and annuals attained a robustness of 

 character which they would not have done had the frost 

 been more intense. The winter was so mild that here and 

 at other places in the neighbourhood several rows of the 

 single white Primrose commenced flowering by the end 

 of January, and the frost was never sharp enough to injure 

 the flowers, though it often is so as late as April. This 

 variety blooms earlier than the wild Primrose, and during 

 the past season it also flowered more profusely where 

 both were growing together. I regard it as one of the 

 best, if not the very best, of early spring-flowering plants ; 

 but I only mention it here to show that the mildness of 

 the season enabled it to continue for more than two 

 months one of the most ornamental plants we had ; btit 

 such would not have been the case had frosts of an ordi- 

 nary kind occurred while it was in flower. Forget-me-not, 

 Scenes, and other plants were equally favoured by the 

 mild weather. 



I advise those desirous of attempting spring gardening, 

 and who wish to have their beds at liberty by the middle 

 of May, to grow only the earliest of all spring- flowering 

 plants, and to avoid as far as possible all which do not 

 begin to flower by the beginning of April, or at latest by 

 the middle of that month. The number of such plants is. 

 of course, limited, but they afford a good variety of colour, 

 and it is better to reject the later-flowering ones than have 

 to perform the unpleasant duty of destroying them when, 

 perhaps, just at their best, in order to clear the ground for 

 the next crop. Of course I am now advocating the cause of 

 early spring-flowering plants only ; those which bloom 

 about Whitsuntide or later, beautiful and showy though 

 they are, may be more properly considered as belonging to 

 summer. Assuming, therefore, that only early flowers are 

 wanted, the following short list may form a nucleus for 



No. lOKi— Vol.. XL.,Ou) Sbbibs. 



