Book II. 



CULTURE OF THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 



821 



clay, or lime. In the shrubbery, a similar renewal of soil, and attention to the soils required by parti- 

 cular shrub-plants, is also required, at least in front, where the more delicate shrubs naturally rank, and 

 where the herbaceous plants are chiefly arranged. 



6189. With respect to the times of planting, or souring, and manner of cropping the flower-garden and 

 shrubbery, the greater part of the surface being covered with shrubs or plants of perennial duration, 

 very little cropping is required, and as a substitute for a rotation, recourse must be had to the renewal of 

 the soil as recommended above. Annuals are sown at various periods from February to June ; but for 

 the principal show, generally in March ; the half-hardy sorts are raised in hot-beds in the reserve-depart- 

 ment, and transplanted when they are to flower in April and May, and later sowings and transplantings 

 are made to procure a protracted display. Biennials and perennials of the fibrous or ramose rooted kinds 

 are transplanted from the reserve-department in September or in March ; and such bulbous roots as are 

 annually taken up, are generally replanted in November or February. When bulbs and other florists' 

 flowers are cultivated in beds, a rotation may be adopted as far as respects them : thus the hyacinth, tulip, 

 &c., maybe succeeded by annuals, and those by the dianthus tribe, or dahlias, &c. ; but in borders and com- 

 partments planted in the mingled manner, as well as in shrubberies, a rotation is out of the question. 

 Particular care is requisite to remove weak, ill-conditioned, or ill-flowering plants, and to replace them 

 by others of the same height and color. This may be done at all seasons of the year by the use of the 

 transplanter ; but the better mode is to have always an ample stock in the reserve-garden, of all the colors 

 and heights, both of herbaceous plants and low shrubs, (of all the sorts is unnecessary,) in pots, and 

 whenever, when any plant is in flower, a defect appears, it can be remedied at once by turning the plant 

 out of the pot into its situation in the border. Independently of disease or accident, fine showy species, 

 answering in general color and height, may thus at pleasure be substituted for such as are less showy, or 

 less to the taste of the master. 



6190. Ornamental plants, whether shrubby or herbaceous, require to be pruned, trained, thinned, and 

 dressed, according to the sort of beauty or effect expected from them. If they are grown chiefly on ac- 

 count of their blossoms, then they must be pruned on the same general principles as fruit-trees ; but 

 little more than thinning out weak and crowded shoots will be required where they are grown chiefly 

 on account of the beauty of their foliage ; and still less where the tree or bush is planted for the sake of 

 its natural shape. It is customary in some places to apply the hedge-shears to shrubs ; but this is a bar- 

 barous practice, destructive of all these beauties, which ought to be exploded, unless in cases where, 

 in imitation of the antient style, trees are to be trained in artificial shapes. Herbaceous plants require 

 little pruning, but nevertheless something in this way may be occasionally required on the same general 

 principles applied to trees. Where very large flowers are wanted, it is obviously advantageous to prevent 

 the plant from expending its vigor in too great a number of them, or in mere shoots and leaves. Top- 

 heavy plants, as some thistles, solidagos, &c. may require to be lightened, and almost all are benefited 

 by thinning out a part of their shoots. In some annuals, thinning is effected both by eradication and 

 pruning, and in the more delicate sorts by pinching off the young shoot, when an inch or two high. 

 Creepers, climbers, and shrubs planted against walls or trellises, either on account of their rarity, deli- 

 cacy, or to conceal the object against which they are placed, require different degrees of training ; those 

 which attach themselves naturally, as the ivy, merely require to be occasionally guided so as to induce a 

 regular distribution of their shoots ; the others must be treated like fruit-trees, training thinly, if blossoms 

 are the object ; and rather thicker, if a mass of foliage be what is chiefly wanting. Hedges and edgings 

 require to be cut and otherwise kept in order by the obvious means. " Edgings of all sorts," Marshall 

 observes, " should be kept in good order, as having a singularly neat effect in the appearance of a garden. 

 The dead edgings will sometimes, and the live edgings often, want putting to rights ; either cutting, 

 clipping, or making up complete. Where there are no edgings, or but weak ones, let the earth border- 

 ing on the walks be kept firm, and now and then worked up by line in moist weather, beating it smooth 

 with a spade." {Introd. 57.) 



6191. Grass-plots require to be regularly mown at least once a-fortnight, and where extraneous plants, 

 of broad-leaved kinds, make their appearance, as plantagos, crowfoots, &c. they must be carefully re- 

 moved. Worms should be gathered by hand before sunrise, or their casts swept off with the wire 

 besom (1321.), and then the ground watered with lime-water. Rolling and watering must be applied ac- 

 cording to circumstances, and nothing neglected to ensure that deep-green color and velvet texture which 

 is, or ought to be, the characteristic of the British lawn, and which is indeed the pride of our island. 



6192. Various tender sorts of plants and shrubs require protection by one or other of the different uten- 

 sils, structures, or contrivances (2206. to 2218.) destined for that purpose. Alpine plants require protec- 

 tion from cold, by covering with snow, or by hand-glasses, or frames during winter ; and from heat, by 

 screens to produce shade during summer. The roots of many sorts require to be protected by ashes, rot- 

 ten tan, or litter, from frost, and the tops of others both shrubs and plants, to be guarded by fronds of 

 fern fir-branches, mats, or portable glass cases, from rain, hail, and cutting winds. Great care must 

 be taken to protect pots of plants from frost ; by always keeping them plunged in earth or some non- 

 conductor • for no state in which a plant can be placed is so obnoxious to the baneful influence of con- 

 gelation as' that of being grown in a pot. Climbing plants require to be supported by poles or rods, as 

 some sorts of honeysuckle, bignonia, aristolochia, &c\ ; by props, as pyramidal bell-flower, lobelia ful- 

 gens &c. or by branches or spray, as the nasturtium and pea tribe. Much of the beauty of the flower- 

 garden depends on the manner in which these operations are performed. The prevalent error consists in 

 overdoing the thing, in employing too stout and too long rods or props, and too many thick tufty 

 branches instead of such as are free-grown and open. Watering must be liberally applied to almost 

 every part of the flower-garden during summer, and in the evening ; it increases the progress, and en- 

 larges the parts of all vegetables ; gives a fresh appearance to the soil as well as the plants, disperses their 

 odors in the surrounding atmosphere, and tends to subdue various kinds of insects. , 



6193. Water, whether as an orna- 

 mental feature, or as an aquarium, ^^» ij 

 should be kept clear both of weeds 

 and insects. Of aquatic weeds the 

 most troublesome in small aquariums 

 are the conferva? and byssi, which 

 can only be removed by hand, or by 

 entangling them with a rake or 

 broom. The larva? of numerous land- 

 insects are deposited in water or in 

 the muddy sides of ponds and ditches, 

 as the elephant-hawk-moth {Sphinx 

 Elpenor, L.) {fig. 582.), the dragon- 

 fly {Libcllula, L.), and many others. 

 Of the aquatic kinds are the well 

 known tipula?, of which some species 

 {T. oleracca) {fig. 583.) glide over the 

 water, and are by many considered 

 rather ornamental than otherwise, 

 and others live entirely under it, and 

 feed on the roots of plants. To de- 



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