Aaguat 19, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



149 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



AUGUST 19—25, 1876. 



Reading, Glastonbnry, and Pontypool Sbowe. 



Ulverston Show. 



Shildon Show. 



13 Sunday after Trinity. 



[ the Alexandra Palace. 

 Autumn Show of the Metropolitan Floral Society at 

 Cardiff and Burton-on-Trent dhows. 



Averoue gnj, 



Temperature near Rigei. 

 London. 



Day. Nlcht. Mean.| m. h. 

 78.1 i 49.2 I 61.2 | 63 at 4 



72 8 

 72.6 

 71.6 

 71.8 



60.6 

 49.7 

 49.7 

 49.0 



71.6 I 47.9 

 74.1 I 49.7 



61.7 . 55 



61.2 i 57 



55.6 1 68 

 60.4 1 



68.7 I 1 

 61.9 3 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 RieeB. 



Moon 

 Seta. 



h. I m. h. 



m. 



10a(7 1 18at 8 i 80a( 7 



63 8 

 16 10 

 43 11 



after. 

 41 2 



4 



Moon's 

 Ako. 



Daya. 

 18 

 19 

 20 

 21 

 22 

 ( 

 24 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



ol 



Year. 



231 

 232 

 233 

 234 

 286 

 236 

 237 



49.4°. 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 72.5=; and its night temperature 



GEMS OF THE HERBACEOUS BOEDEE. 



AM not among those who would have one 

 style only of ornamental gardening. There 

 are spots where masses of colour are almost 

 indispensable, and when the colours are well 

 arranged everyone who is not hopelessly 

 prejudiced cannot help admiring the picture 

 before him. But " bedding plants " do not re- 

 quire constant attention like border flowers, 

 and consequently have not the power of 

 drawing out our affection towards them. 

 We do not recognise them individually ; we count them 

 by the dozen or hundred ; they merely represent so many 

 pounds and shillings, for we know if we lose them we 

 can buy plenty more exactly like them. Plants which 

 are reared by ourselves and fondly tended for years, ou 

 the other hand, are like our own children, which, of course, 

 we are quite certain are better than those of any other 

 person ; and if any are sickly or delicate, and require 

 extra attention, it only makes them more loveable. On 

 this account, as well as on the score of good taste, I am 

 sorry to see in many old-fashioned cottage gardens such 

 plants as Geraniums and Calceolarias usurping the place 

 of the good old border flowers which were common a few 

 years ago. Brompton Stocks, the sweet old Cloves, White 

 and Tiger Lilies, Tulips, Anemones, Sweet Williams, and 

 Gilliflowers are now the exception where they used to be 

 the rule. I do not miss them so much from our great 

 gardens, but from our rustic village cottages they are a 

 sad loss. Fashions, however bad, will run through all 

 the different grades of society, and while lords and dukes 

 continue only to cherish gaudy colours, their humbler 

 cottagers will surely imitate them, even though the imi- 

 tation is little better than a caricature. This year so far 

 has been a sorry one for the tender bedding plants, and 

 I am in hopes that some good will spring from it ; cer- 

 tainly, what I have seen presents anything but a respect- 

 able appearance, chiefly owing, I believe, to the want of 

 solar heat. On the other hand, the herbaceous borders 

 never looked better, and as the late-flowering plants are 

 making excellent growth, we may fairly expect them to 

 be interesting for another three months. 



Our family not being here till August, we exclude from 

 our borders all such plants as flower before that time, 

 and judging from our own practice, I think if I were to 

 grow a general collection of herbaceous plants for flower- 

 ing at all seasons I should take into consideration their 

 time of flowering, and arrange them accordingly. There 

 might be spring, summer, and autumn. flowering sets, 

 either separately planted where they need not be visited 

 out of season, which would be the least troublesome and 

 most satisfactory plan, or so arranged altogether that there 

 would never be any great blanks. 



Herbaceous plants require a great deal of attention, 

 and let no one take to them with the idea that because 

 they are hardy they require less attention than bedding 

 plants ; they will find that they need at least four times 

 as much, and the labour employed on them must be of 



No 761.— Vol. XXIX., Niw SiaiBs. 



a higher kind — skilled labour compared with that em- ■ 

 ployed for picking over or planting a bed of Geraniuins. 

 Anything which can be done by line and rule is easily 

 taught to the dullest of pupils, but work requiring taste 

 and thoughtfulness is extremely difficult to teach to 

 labourers and the rising generation of young gardeners. 



A badly. managed herbaceous border, where the plants 

 are either falling about or bundled together like faggots, 

 and where a struggle for existence is going on between 

 weedy giants and diminutive gems, is a detestable sight : 

 but a border where the plants are well arranged for height 

 and habit — colour is almost secondary — and receive care- 

 ful daily attention without showing too much the marks 

 of the workman, I have lately found by my own incom- 

 plete arrangements receive a greater share of attention 

 from people of cultivation than do all the rest of the 

 garden. And no wonder. .Look at it in the way of furnish- 

 ing cut flowers for the drawing-room. I would at the pre- 

 sent time challenge three or four ordinary stoves to pro- 

 duce such a display as I could gather frorn my herbaceous 

 borders, and you may cut and come again without any- 

 thing being missed. "Eubbieh!" did you say? Your 

 Allamanda will not compare with my Coreopsis lanceolata 

 or ffiuothera Fraseri. My Anemone Houorine Jobert is 

 no mean rival to your Eucharie, lovely as it is, and 

 will flower continually for six months without being 

 dieted tt la Banting. You have no match at all for my 

 Agapanthus umbellatus, which if not strictly hardy or 

 herbaceous, only requires liftiug in December and placing 

 in a shed till spring. My Monarda, if not so perfect in a 

 florist's narrow view, I greatly prefer to your bug-infested 

 Ixora, and by candle-light it looks decidedly better than 

 the Ixora. 



Other good flowers for cutting are Tritonia aurea (per- 

 fectly hardy), Schizostylis coccinea (ditto), Potentilla 

 Hopwoodiana, Achillea ptarmica plena, Pentstemons in 

 variety, and to these may be added Fuchsias and Sweet 

 Peas, for I do not exclude plants which are not hardy 

 and herbaceous if they happen to harmonise with the 

 general occupants of the border, and possess colours and 

 other qualities of which there may be a deficiency. 



Plants are sometimes required to temporarily fill blanks 

 which may occur, to give scent and sometimes to give 

 colour where there is too much sameness. For these 

 purposes I do not hesitate to use some of the better 

 annuals, such as Ten-week and Intermediate Stocks, 

 Asters, Zinnias, Linum grandiflorum coocineum, Convol- 

 vulus minor and Sweet Peas, and also Heliotrope, Salvia 

 patens. Dahlias and Gladiolus. Chrysanthemums, espe- 

 cially Pompons and other early varieties, are used largely, 

 and are propagated annually from cuttings. The old 

 roots all perished last winter. 



Among the permanent occupants are the following : — 

 Aster tenuifolia, Fortumea longifolius variegatus, and pa- 

 tens ; (Enothera riparia, macrocarpa, and Fraseri; Gen- 

 tiana gelida, acaulis, and asclepiadea; Anemones japocica, 

 vitifoha, and Honorine Jobert ; Mimulus in variety; Poly- 

 gonum Braunii and vacciniifolium ; Solidago multiflora, 

 also a dwarf variety of the same from I'i to 18 inches 

 No. 1403.— Vol. LIV., Old Seeus. 



