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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t April 29, 1875. 



a delicious substitute for them. At Christmas, when Apples 

 have become scarce and tasteless — when hothouse fruit is only 

 obtainable by a few — when Currant, Gooseberry, and Raspberry 

 bushes are bare — it is no sliRht blessing to be provided with 

 an easily cultivated vegetable which to a certain extent supplies 

 their places and is within the reach of almost all, How fresh 

 and tempting the bright crimson stalks of Rhubarb look ! and 

 how refreshing and grateful is its pleasant acid flavour ! At 

 that season of the year I confess I have a special weakness for 

 it, a weakness which appears to bo shared by all my family, 

 even by the children, for children as a rule do not like Rhu- 

 barb ; I suppose it is because few of them have it at the proper 

 time, or if they do it is not properly grown, and not used while 

 fresh and crisp. I remember when I was a boy at school the 

 intense disgust with which I used to herald the arrival of the 

 great heavy-crusted green Rhubarb pies in early summer — for 

 we rarely saw them before the late outdoor sorts had come in 

 — stringy, and tough, and sour as vinegar. This is not the 

 time nor the way to have Rhubarb : in this state it competes 

 very disadvautageously with green Gooseberry tarts and Clrerry 

 pies ; the one just over, the other looming large before. 

 Cherry pie ! How can a schoolboy reflect on such dainties, 

 and then be expected to recur with satisfaction to his mean 

 dish of Rhubarb ? No : the time to pasture on Rhubarb is 

 from Christmas to green Gooseberry time, and then only occa- 

 sionally afterwards by way of a change, or in the shape of jam 

 when other fruit is scarce in autumn. 



I read with interest the discussion about forcing Rhubarb 

 in the Journal a few weeks since. I must say I think the 

 simplest and most economical way is to take it up, and either 

 plant it in boxes to be placed in a warm dark comer, or out in 

 a bed over heating materials. The way we manage is this ; 

 In the shed which covers the fireplace of the forcing house we 

 have a bed of earth about 6 feet long, 3 wide, and 2 deep ; 

 this, having a fire constantly burning under it during the 

 winter, keeps quite warm. In this bed the roots are planted 

 out about every three weeks as we want them, and thus a con- 

 stant supply is kept up. But small roots or pieces will not do ; 

 you must have great strong stools weighing about a stone, and 

 put them in just as they are without dividing. Three or four 

 such roots at a time will be enough for a small family, for it 

 is wonderful what a quantity they will produce, and good too. 

 I should by no means call it seconds, but you must not water 

 too freely, or the flavour will not be so good. 



After the crop is pulled take up the stools, divide and plant 

 out. We keep up a succession in this way until the outdoor 

 crops are ready. These are grown under pots simply without 

 any covering of fermenting dung. It may be fancy, but I 

 always think that Rhubarb is never so sweet when it has been 

 grown covered down with manure. Somehow or other the 

 flavour of the stables seems to creep in, and when this is the 

 case it is spoiled. I fancy, too, the sun heat on the pots, 

 which in bright weather become very warm, improves the 

 quality. As to pots versus wooden boxes, give me pots. They 

 can be kept cleaner, for there are no crevices ; they want no 

 painting, do not crack with the sun or rot at the bottom with 

 the wet ; and as to lasting, well, if you do not break them (and 

 why should you ?) they will last as long as you do. 



" Rhubarb jam is very nice," one of my youngsters remarks, 

 and so it is. You may make it all sorts of colours and all 

 sorts of flavours according to how it has been grown ; and if 

 you like to add a few stalks to your Strawberry jam in July 

 you will find it an improvement. You will not taste the Rhu- 

 barb, but it will take away the mawkiness which Strawberry 

 jam has as a rule, and impart a slight acidity, besides improving 

 the consistency of the preserve. I know nothing of Rhubarb 

 wine, but have heard that it is good also. — R. W. Beacuey. 



THE DOUBLE YELLOW WALLFLOWER. 



This is a sweet and bright plant for conservatory decoration 

 during the early spring months. There is no better time than 

 the present to propagate plants for next year's blooming. Com- 

 monly slips are put in under handlights in June or July, but 

 that is too late to produce stout plants the same season. 

 Neither are old plants suitable for growing in pots, as, besides 

 being leggy and straggling in habit, the spikes and flowers are 

 smaller than those produced by youug plants. I have found 

 the following plan the best in preparing plants for forcing. It 

 is as simple as it is effective. Take off the tops of the young 

 shoots and strike in heat after the manner of Verbenas. 

 When struck pinch-out the tops and place the catting pots in 



a cold frame. Here let the plants break into fresh growth, and 

 then plant them out in a very exposed place. They do not 

 require rich soil, but they must be planted very thinly. They 

 may have one more stopping after being planted out. By 

 the autumn they will be fine bushy plants for potting, the 

 foliage curling over the pots, and the spikes they throw-up 

 will be stout and bold. In a very light house and gentle 

 forcing they give a fine effect in March and April. For out- 

 door flowering this and other double varieties can be raised in 

 the same way, and the plants are much finer than those raised 

 by shps in the middle of summer. — W. J. 



THE FLOWER GARDEN.— No. 2. 



The one great fault of beginners in the arrangement of 

 flowers is that of aiming too high in the first instance, instead 

 of feeling the way with one or two simple matters — making a 

 study of every combination, and then gradually extending our 

 measures with the confidence and security of success which 

 experience alone can impart. We too often launch out boldly, 

 spreading the brightest colours with a lavish hand, and with 

 very little regard to harmony of colour or congruity of position. 

 The beds look bright and gay, and we regard them with a 

 certain amount of complacency mingled, it must be owned, 

 with doubts as to what those who are competent to criticise 

 will think of our work. The feeling is natural, because it 

 arises from a conviction of ignorance of all fundamental rules 

 of taste ; or it may be caused by the fact of our having copied 

 some design which looked well enough in a large public garden 

 but is totally unsuited for our small one. 



While strongly advocating the importance of a knowledge of 

 the laws of colour I would not advise a slavish following of 

 set rules, or attempt to frame arbitrary laws for anyone; for 

 it must never be forgotten that tastes differ, and that colour 

 combinations of a quiet refined tone are not the most attractive 

 in the eyes of everyone. One sees gardens that are perfectly 

 dazzling in their brilliancy, and with which the owners are 

 evidently quite satisfied. Well, if they are content why should 

 we seek to mar their enjoyment of what they consider to be 

 beauty ? Certainly we will avoid doing so, but at the same 

 time we must not pander to a depraved taste, which a fondness 

 for glare and glitter really is. 



There is a very close analogy in harmony of colour and of 

 music. We take a certain colour and place it with others 

 which we know will impart and receive much additional beauty 

 from such a combination. The musical professor in associating 

 notes of different tone produces harmony to song. The greater 

 the master the more varied and delightf al is the music. Those 

 who are proficient in music can read a simple tune at sight, 

 but it requires high culture, refined taste, and a natural apti- 

 tude to take in the full significance of the great works of 

 Handel, Mendelssohn, or Rossini. Just so is it in colour. A 

 few simple combinations are seen, copied, and become popular ; 

 but the more difficult designs find few copyists because they 

 are seen to be intricate and therefore difficult, and few attempts 

 are made to study and master their details. The exquisite 

 delicacy and loveliness of the various tints when thus inter- 

 woven remain invisible to casual observers, and herein, I 

 think, is found one reason for occasional sweeping condemna- 

 tions of our bedding system. 



Turning to the practical part of the subject, I will take for 

 my first example a flower border of an ordinary type and sea 

 what can be done with it. Perhaps the most common form is 

 that of a parallelogram placed immediately in front of a belt 

 of shrubs with a sweep of lawn in front of it, and no better 

 position could be required for the display of an attractive floral 

 picture. If the roots of the shrubs must be prevented pene- 

 trating the flower border, this is easily done by making a deep 

 open trench between the border and the shrubs, so that the 

 roots cannot cross over. 



An easy method of arrangement is that of straight lines or 

 ribbons, and hence the famihar term of " ribbon borders." 

 The plan is so simple that it admits of an almost endless com- 

 bination of colour. The lines, however, should not bo taken 

 straight through and each finish at the end abruptly, but each 

 row should curve backwards, giving a rounded finish to the 

 ends of the border. By this simple and easily understood 

 arrangement the effect will be much more smooth and pleasing 

 than if such row of plants is carried straight through, as is 

 too often the case in planting a border. In the examples of 

 planting the lowest numerals represent the lowest-growing 

 plants, commencing, of course, at the front of each border 



