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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ May 6, 1875. 



owner or gardener to feel that the best they have to offer is a 

 poor copy of the same idea which is perfected in half a dozen 

 gardens which the visitor has seen in as many days' travel. 

 Far more enjoyable is the feeling which arises from the fact 

 that a system has been followed, and which circumstances have 

 permitted to be carried out fully and well. 



Such a garden does not tell one on the face of it that we have 

 aimed at something beyond our power and have failed, but 

 it at once impresses a feeling that correct judgment and good 

 taste have been exercised, and that the fare which is offered is 

 the best of its kind. A garden of such a nature is sure to be 

 enjoyed, let the style of its decoration be of what pattern it may. 

 A garden of hardy flowers, interspersed with plants of sweet 

 odour, and brightened by halt-hardy annuals, is, providing all 

 are grown well, certain to command admiration, and is alto- 

 gether more creditable to the owner and more decidedly en- 

 joyed by his visitors than is an elaborate endeavour to ape a 

 style which has ended in a grand example of patches, and a 

 patent conglomeration of futile attempts. 



It is unquestionable that what is known as stylishness has, 

 of late, driven the beautiful and sweet plants of tender annuals 

 out of many gardens. These plants are nevertheless still 

 worthy of the room they occupy, and will add a feature of 

 interest and a measure of enjoyment wherever they are culti- 

 vated. They are also a class of plants easy to fall back upon 

 to that large body of persons who lack a full supply of other 

 bedding plants with which to fill their beds and borders. They 

 are, in fact, the best of aU substitutes for what we call bedding 

 plants, and are easily raised in any required quantity. But is 

 it not late to recommend the raising of them now ? The 

 reason why that is a natural question is, that now-a-days it is 

 BO much the custom to raise plants in pots and grow them on 

 under glass for planting-out, that a plant is hardly considered 

 to be worthy of the flower garden unless it has undergone the 

 regular period of nursing. 



The plants iu my boyhood days had no such tender treat- 

 ment given them. They had not then to undergo a term of 

 coddhng probation, and yet we had such beds of Stocks, 

 Asters, Zinnias, Dianthuses, Marigolds, Amarantbuses, &e., as 

 are seldom met with now. The fact is that seed sown during 

 the first week of May will produce splendid sturdy plants, 

 which by steady unchecked growth will fully equal, if not sur- 

 pass, those which had been raised two months earlier and had 

 been nursed on tenderly under glass. I quite agree with 

 Mr. Allis (p. 331), that if a glorious row of Ten-week Stocks is 

 coveted, few, if any, modes can surpass that of sowing the seed 

 thinly in a drill, and there letting the plants remain to bloom. 

 Thus sowed at the time stated in rich deep soil, and the single 

 flowers drawn-out as soon as seen, will leave a massive row 

 of double Stocks that cannot be surpassed by sowing under 

 glass and subsequently transplanting the seedlings. All the 

 tender annuals may be sown with confidence in a natural 

 manner at this season of the year, with the certainty that they 

 will give a splendid return in the autumn of healthy plants 

 and enjoyable flowers. 



It is easy to make up for what may be thought late sowing 

 by rich soil and generous culture. The seed bed especially 

 requires to be good. A sheltered site in the open air fully 

 6 inches deep of rich light soil will raise such plants as those 

 above-named as it is impossible to equal by sowing in pans 

 under glass in March. Everything depends on the seed bed. 

 It should therefore be composed of prepared soil either with or 

 without a gently heating base of manure. Such soil should be 

 composed of quite half of old mouldy manure or leaf mould, 

 and the rest sandy loam. Sow in a bed of that kind Asters, 

 for instance, early in May, and by no other means known 

 can finer Asters be produced in the late summer and autumn 

 months. 



The Aster is an autumn flower ynr excellencv, and injustice 

 is done it by sowing early and compelling it to bloom prema- 

 turely in the sultry days of summer. Asters, like Celery, 

 must have heavy autumn dews to bring them to perfection. 

 In every garden in the land ought Asters to be sown at the 

 time and in the way stated, and then, other points of culture 

 being correct, splendid blooms will follow as a matter of 

 course — such as will raise the fiower in the repute it is worthy 

 to enjoy. Asters as autumn flowers are sadly neglected. All 

 the varieties are good, and some are really splendid both as to 

 colour and perfect symmetry of bloom, but they are spoiled by 

 the fashion of sowing them too early, and subjecting them to 

 the tender mercies of checks by drought, and crowding, and 

 insect feastings. 



By this natural mode of raising the plants we have had no 

 lack of splendid Asters, glowing Marigolds, brilliant Zinnias, 

 and pendent blooms 3 feet long of Amaranthus caudatus for 

 harvest festivals when a first-fashion garden could contribute 

 nothing for that joyous time. These are the flowers to grow 

 for cutting when flowers in autumn are so often required in 

 quantity. Let them have a place ; carpet, and cushion, and 

 enamel, and panel, it need be. Not a word is said against it, 

 but only against the slight that is being given to cheerful- 

 flowering plants of the garden by all-devouring " style " and 

 picture-growing " effect." 



Helichrysums and other Everlasting Flowers are all amen- 

 able to this easy natural mode of culture, and by it autumn 

 flowers may be had in prodigal profusion. Permit them at 

 least to have a share of attention, and let as do away for ever 

 with the complaint of a noble lady who had fifty thousand 

 plants "put out" in her garden, and who had no flowers to 

 cut to enliven a festal scene. — A Surrey Gardeneb. 



PEACH FORCING.— No. i. 

 Resting Period. — No amount of frost so far as I kuow will 

 injure the well-ripened wood and buds of Peach trees. The 

 lights, therefore, I advise to be removed, from the house being 

 put in order to forcing commencing; but some object to this, 

 as the house is wanted for other things. " Other things " very 

 often mean plants which cannot endure cold, wbich is what 

 Peaches require for perfect rest, they not being subjects of the 

 tropics where dryness corresponds to the cold of the temperate 

 zone, and the warmth thus given also means dryness, whereas 

 the Peach at rest requires cold and a moist soil, and even 

 should the latter be given the warmth causes them to start 

 prematurely, the buds to swell, and blossoms to expand 

 irregularly and weakly. I know many, and I may say most 

 gardeners are obliged to have plants in fruit houses which 

 they know be inimical to the successful culture of the fruit 

 trees, and to keep the trees cold or remove the lights would be 

 to deprive their employers of a number of plants or their 

 flowers ; hence the laudable endeavour to please is often only a 

 cause of disaster to the Peach crop, which is put on the back 

 of the cultivator, and not in anywise attributable to the wish 

 on his part to meet his employer's behests, contrary as they 

 may be to success in the object to which the structure is 

 devoted. 



Peaches are grown in houses that are cold, so far as it relates to 

 frost being only excluded, or a minimum of 35°, which is all very 

 well if it could be done without fear of the 35° being not oftener 

 40° or more, a temperature more frequent when 35' is aimed 

 at, for who can tell to a few degrees what heat will be required 

 to keep a house at so low a minimum on a cold morning with- 

 out allowing a margin for emergencies ? I could never act up 

 to such niceties ; better say keep as cold as possible and exclude 

 frost. Better far admit it for two reasons — the rest is more com- 

 plete, and the trees do not require so high a temperature to 

 excite them when forcing is begun ; and a third is the enhanced 

 healthfulness of trees rested cold, as compared with those 

 rested in a temperature sufficient to excite into growth those 

 which have been kept cold. 



Further remarks must be made as to the period of rest. In 

 no case ought the period from the fall of the leaves to forcing 

 commencing be less than six weeks ; if twelve weeks elapse 

 all the better. For early forcing the latter time can hardly be 

 allowed, tor the earliest forced trees will not lose their leaves 

 until the early part of September (and to remove them before 

 they part readily from the tree by a light brushing in an in- 

 verse way to growth is not sound practice), so that with forcing 

 commenced early in December the trees can hardly have more 

 than ten weeks' rest, as the house will be closed ten days to a 

 fortnight before fire heat is applied, and from closing the 

 house dates the forcing, for if no fire heat be applied natural 

 heat is retained, or cold warded off by artificial means. Trees 

 which have been regularly early forced will have the wood ripe 

 at an earlier time than is named, and if the soil is kept moist 

 they have a tendency to secondary growth, and will even 

 blossom to some extent and set the fruit. Dryness even in a 

 case of this kind I do not advise, and yet it must be resorted 

 to, but not to the extent of what is known as dryness compared 

 with Vines, for the soil tor Peaches should never be so dry as 

 to cause the leaves to become limp. Care, therefore, will need 

 to be taken so as to have due moisture iu the soil without 

 being suflieieut to promote growth. We must also keep the 

 house as cool as possible, and the foliage healthful. 



