14 JOTTINGS OF A GENTLEMAN GARDENER 



your border of annuals a good watering from a fine rosed 

 can as soon as you have finished for the day. 



Now about the tying up. If small twiggy pea-sticks 

 are pushed into the clumps as the taller plants grow, they 

 will grow up in amongst the sticks and support themselves. 



Where only two or three tall plants go to a small clump, 

 each plant should have a small green-painted flower stick 

 to itself, and the sticks should be of appropriate height and 

 not too thick. For annuals 3 ft. high, buy flower sticks 

 3 ft. long. It is as absurd to put a pole 5 ft. long to annuals 

 3 ft. high, as it is to put a stick of 2^ ft. to support sun- 

 flowers. Some of my readers may say they would not make 

 any such mistakes, but I have seen it done. 



If, however, the plants are grown more or less en masse, 

 and the clumps are fairly thick with growth after generous 

 thinning, the " single stick " system cannot be applied. 

 In dealing with such clumps I find it is best to put in from 

 3-8 flower sticks round the outside of the clump, and then 

 connect them with raffia. If put in carefully, the sticks 

 soon get concealed by the growth of the plants, and the 

 clumps so treated look really well. Some people only put 

 a stick at each side of the clump, they say that two sticks 

 for one clump are ample. But I have found two seldom 

 if ever enough, the raffia connecting them produces a 

 " bunched " effect which is the opposite of what should 

 be desired. On the other hand, too many sticks should be 

 avoided, or the border will become a " forest of flower 

 sticks. 1 * The beginner should exercise his discretion, 

 use the minimum number of sticks, but avoid bunching 

 the plants. 



I make a strong point of tying up the plants early. 

 Amateur gardeners are apt to neglect doing this till the 

 plants are showing bud ; by that time they have so much 

 foliage to support that they begin to fall about. When 

 they have once seriously fallen over, all chance of obtain- 

 ing artistic and natural looking clumps is gone, for in 

 attempting to set them to rights it is almost impossible 

 to avoid " bunching." As soon as the plants are from 6-9 



