Jnne 4, 1874. J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTDRB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



439 



STOCKS POK SPRING AND EAELY SUMMEE. 



In^I^ OW lasting are first impressions ! I believe 

 it was a bed of Stocks which first kindled 

 the horticultural spark, and impelled me 

 ■with a restless longing and irresistible 

 desire to follow in the craft of Adam, and 

 become a tiller of the ground, a worker — I 

 did not care how humble — in a garden 

 of flowers. I need not tell of my little 

 struggling and scheming to attain this end ; 

 suifice it to say that, like many another, I 

 have had enough, and sometimes too much of it, yet 

 verily believe that in any other calhng with better emolu- 

 ment (and in truth such has been rejected) I should not 

 have been so content as in the work of my first love 

 implanted by the Stock. Long years Lave passed since 

 then, and many a fine sight and thing forgotten, but the 

 Stocks remain as clearly photographed on the mind as 

 ever, as vividly and distinctly as the first smile of one 

 who for years, as another first love, has been dearer to 

 me than the flowers. Both these first loves will be dear 

 to the end ; but I will not dwell further, except on the 

 Stocks. 



The Stocks were a bed of old Bromptons in an old 

 baronial garden. They were grown as we never see 

 them grow now. A large quarter of the kitchen garden 

 ■was set apart for them, and they were planted — or rather 

 the doubles left to stand — ^just 'i feet apart all ways. They 

 were hke floriferous trees rather than mere plants, a sea 

 of bloom of the richest, and redolent of almost overpower- 

 ing perfume. Where are these fine Stocks now which 

 were once so common that huge paper bags of seed hung 

 in almost every garden house of squire and cleric, and 

 even those of less note ? That was in the garden period 

 of perfume, when sweet and simple flowers had a greater 

 charm than a gigantic conglomeration of gaudy colours. 

 The colour period, however, grew apace, and swept all 

 before it. Old things were relegated to the limbo of 

 oblivion. But that period has now passed the zenith of 

 its power, and is succeeded by a taste in massing more 

 elegant, educated, and refined. Without saying one word 

 against it, and free from any mental wish for its discon- 

 tinuance, one cannot but obseri'e that many are now 

 giving a welcome back to plants which made the gardens 

 of former generations, if not brilliant, yet abodes of quiet 

 colour and homely sweetness. These spring and early 

 summer Stocks are again playing an important part in 

 many gardens, and seed-growers are vieing with each 

 other in raising and offering the best strains. A demand 

 for these things is evidently budding, and although it is 

 not to be expected that they will ever again be so exten- 

 sively used as they were thirty years ago, yet there are 

 undoubted signs — speaking in fashion parlance — of their 

 " coming in." Let them come, and whenever justice is 

 done them they may be trusted to dehght what they are 

 sure to have — admirers. 



The old Brompton is one of the finest of all Stocks ; its 

 towering spikes, massive blooms, and high colour being 



No. 688.-VOL. XXVL, New Series. 



especially striking. It is emphatically an amateur's plant, 

 and one of the most telling, when well grown, of any 

 that can be used either in a mixed garden or for a great 

 glorious mass in a large bed. " All very well," some may 

 say, " but what of the bed when the Stocks are gone ? " 

 My answer is, Plant it with Asters. Try this another 

 year. Anyone can do it, it is so simple, and almost cost- 

 less. Get a packet of the Stock ; it may cost a shilling. 

 Sow it in the garden in a drill very thinly, just as if it 

 were Onion seed. Sow in .June, and if dry soak the drills 

 thoroughly before putting in the seed. It is simply labour 

 in vain watering the surface of a seed bed in hot weather 

 after the seed is sown ; the watering must be done before, 

 and then if the weather is very bright shade the surface 

 until the germinating seed cracks the ground, and no 

 longer. When the Stocks are about 2 inches high and 

 stout, as they should be if thinly sown, transplant in a 

 very open airy place in soil firm rather than light, and 

 poor rather than rich. Eemember a woody, not a sappy, 

 growth is the point to aim at. Sow about the same time 

 and in the same way some Golden Feather, and treat it 

 the same ; it may cost sixpence. In October the plants 

 should be hard stocky stuff. If the Stocks are plentiful, 

 plant in the blooming bed at once ; plant pretty closely 

 together, so that if half are singles they can be drawn out, 

 and still leave sufiicient for the beds. Surround at the 

 same time with the Pyrethrum. 



If, however, the Stock supply is limited, winter them 

 under a south wall or fence where they will have some 

 shelter from the frost, or, what is as pernicious, excessive 

 wet. Sometimes the plants will pass the winter in the 

 open bed, and the blooms will be finer ; but in case of 

 accident it is well to have a store to draw from to replace 

 or fill up blanks, therefore in November have the bed fuU, 

 and as many more planted on a south or dry sheltered 

 aspect as wiU fill it if wanted in February or March, 

 according to the weather. In winter the bed will be 

 neat, in spring interesting, and in early summer — May 

 and June — rich, sweet, and, I was going to say, magnetic, 

 as it is sure to attract. 



But the " afterwards." Well, sow Victoria Aster in 

 light rich soil the first week in May quite in the open — 

 that is, without any glass shelter. Sow thinly. As 

 soon as the young plants can be fingered comfortably 

 fancy them Celery, and treat accordingly — that is, spread 

 a layer of manure 3 inches thick, and over it an inch or 

 two of SOU, and on this prick-out 5 or G inches apart, and 

 always keep ■n-atered. In .Tuly the plants will be in fine 

 condition for moving, almost showing the blooms, yet 

 with care they will not lose a leaf. Now pull out the 

 Stocks, and put in the Asters, first digging-in manure, and 

 also giving a thorough soaking— a regular deluging — of 

 liquid manure, and then with fair attention and good 

 luck one of the finest beds of Asters will follow one of the 

 best beds of Stocks ever seen. It will be a bed fine fi'om 

 frost to frost, gay before the Geraniums are open, and 

 gay after they are over. This little example is given 

 to get over the much-feared and ever-paraded bugbear of 

 a bare bed in autumn. Empty in spring would seem to 



No. 1S40.— Vol. LI, Old Series. 



