THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



avoiding the ill effects of too-abundant watering, the former of which 

 is to plant in soils which allow the water to run away freely ; the 

 second is to use boxes with sides that can be opened from time to 

 time to enable the roots to be seen. 



Summer Cultivation. — In May, and, if possible, during cloudy 

 weather, all plants in the orangery are transferred to sunny and 

 sheltered places outside. The pots, if small, will have to be plunged, 

 as this keeps the roots in good condition. In this, as in other cases, 

 where the plants are in pots or boxes, we shall have occasionally to 

 give some manure, and weak liquid-manure gives good results. This 

 is the Belgian method, and one of its effects is that it enables us to 

 postpone the repotting of the plants and permits of the employment 

 of smaller boxes and vases as compared with the size of the trees. 

 So in the nurseries of Ghent and France, too, we often see Sweet Bays 

 with heads more than a yard in width, whilst the tubs they are in 

 scarcely measure twenty inches in diameter, and under such conditions 

 the plants thrive for years without enlargement of the tubs or change 

 of soil, thanks to feeding with liquid-manure. 



The same things may be said of the plants in the cool house, 

 or any house in which we store almost half-hardy Palms, Cycads, 

 Tree-Ferns, or other plants which may with advantage pass a few 

 months in the open air in summer. All of these, in fact, may be 

 treated much as the Blue African Lily is treated, allowing always for 

 the differences between evergreen shrubs, like the Orange, Eugenia, 

 and Myrtle ; herbaceous plants, like the sweet-scented Plantain Lily, 

 grown in pots and in courtyards in France, and summer-leaving 

 shrubs like Fuchsia, Justicia, and Pomegranate. 



An Amateur on Plants in Tubs for the Flower Garden. 

 — The need of the orangery strictly so-called, is now lessened by 

 two causes; (i) our rich, hardy garden-flora with many things as 

 lovely as any that grow in the tropics ; (2) the nearly universal 

 adoption of the greenhouse, in which many plants find shelter in 

 winter that in old times would have been housed in the orangery. 

 But notwithstanding these changes there are still some plants worth 

 while to keep over the winter in any convenient way, and the following 

 extract from The Garden shows how a good amateur gardener 

 manages them as an aid to her flower-gardening. 



" A great deal of real gardening pleasure is to be had from growing 

 plants in pots and tubs or in vases and vessels of various kinds both in 

 small and big gardens. I use large Seakale pots, when they are no 

 longer wanted for the Seakale, by turning them over, putting two bits 

 of slate in the bottom of the pot, some drainage, and a few lumps of 

 turf, and then filling up with good garden mould. Another useful 

 pot is one called a Rhubarb pot. If you live near a pottery they 



