458 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



should be properly labelled, and put by till autumn. Where a nursery or 

 reserve garden exists for supplying the more common kinds of plants, the 

 propagation of various things can now be proceeded with. Keep the smaller 

 and seedling plants free from weeds, and lose no time in sowing perennial and 

 biennial flower-seeds for blooming next season. 



1368. Quick and privet hedges should be closely cut in with the shears : let 

 them bend off a little towards the top, which gives them a better appearance. 

 Hedges of large-leaved plants, such as laurel, Turkey and Lucombe oak, and 

 sweet bay, must have the young wood cut back by the knife, as the shears 

 would destroy the beauty of their leaves by cutting them. 



1369. Shrubs grown to embellish Italian and geometric flower-gardens, ter- 

 races, &c., should now likewise be cut into the figures they are to assume : in 

 many cases wires will be necessary to keep the branches in their proper 

 places at first ; afterwards the knife and shears will sufl&ce to keep them in 

 their proper form, Portugal laurels, cypresses, arbor-vitse, yews, bays, and 

 tree-box, are the plants best adapted for this purpose ; and when cut into 

 architectural figures, they form fine accompaniments of the above style of 

 gardening. They should, however, be clipped in two or three times during 

 the season, to preserve correctly the required outline. If any bedding-out 

 plants still remain in the nursery-beds, they should be taken up with as much 

 of the soil as possible, and planted in their allotted place, — in showery 

 weather, if possible ; if in dry weather, water copiously after transplanting. 



1370. Tender Annuals. — Cockscombs, balsams, and other curious annuals, 

 may now be brought out of the frames, cleaned, and top-dressed, and tied to 

 suitable sticks, and copiously watered all over, the leaves syringed, if needful, 

 and the plants placed where they are to stand and flower. 



1371. AnmMls for autumnal flowering may now be sown, and perennials 

 and biennials sown in March transplanted. Stock July flowers — sweet-wil- 

 liams, Canterbui'y bells, scarlet lychnis, and others of the class — may now be 

 transplanted into nursery -beds prepared for the several sorts ; or any of them 

 may be planted at once in beds or borders where they are to remain. 



1372. Bulbous plants which have flowered should now be removed, the off- 

 sets separated firom them and placed in dry earth to ripen ; and prepare for 

 planting again in October the small offsets planted in a nursery-bed, there to 

 remain for a year or two till they reach maturity. 



1373. Borders, Beds, and Shruloeries. — Order and neatness should now 

 reign in the beds and borders ; weeds should be rooted out as they appear, by 

 hoeing or hand-weeding ; each individual flower carefully adjusted, the beds 

 and borders, where not covered with plants, neatly raked, forming a clean 

 and even surface, gently sloping to the edges, the clumps and evergreens f lee- 

 from confusion, unless the eff"ect intended is a thicket of underwood. If the 

 shrubs stand apart, let the ground be hoed and neatly raked ; all flowering 

 shrubs and evergreens pruned of all straggling shoots, and put in order ; all 

 herbaceous plants staked and tied in a neat and regular manner, and all 

 decayed riower-stalks, flowers, and leaves, be cut down or removed. 



