IN MY LADY'S GARDEN 



for the garden in May. Though bedding-out is gone out 

 of fashion, geraniums are very useful to add brilliant colour 

 to the front of a dry border, and to fill up gaps in the mixed 

 border with their neat growth and rich colouring, as well as 

 for winter flowering in the conservatory. Those plants 

 specially prepared for this work should now be allowed to 

 form flower-buds, and may have their last shift, giving them 

 rich loam and making them very firm, after which they 

 should be moved into a warm, sunny greenhouse, and will 

 soon be covered with blossom. 



For winter flowering, the double varieties are the most 

 useful, and there is a great variety of tints to be found 

 amongst them : St. Cecilia, in salmon-pink, deeper in the 

 centre ; Nydia, a specially beautiful flower like a blush 

 rose, the central buds opening bright pink, fading to white 

 on the outer edge of the truss ; Beatrice Kelway, in shades 

 of salmon-pink ; Agrippa d'Aubigne, in deep crimson ; 

 Madame Carnot, pure white; and F. V. Raspail (improved), 

 in brilliant scarlet, are all excellent varieties of double zonal 

 pelargoniums, which, if well cultivated for winter flowering, 

 may be relied upon to brighten the conservatory at that 

 time-! 



The garden now requires constant attention to keep it in 

 good order. It reminds one at this time of a woman who 

 has passed her youth, and who should, therefore, take extra 

 pains to be fresh and tidy ; for the picturesque style, which 

 may condone a certain amount of untidiness in spring, is 

 apt to become unsuitable and depressing in autumn. Dahlias 

 will soon need to be dug up now and wintered in a place 

 free from frost (such as a cellar) ; but before doing so, a 

 label should be tied to the piece of stem left, for reference in 

 planting them in March, as it is most necessary to know not 

 only colours but also their heights at that time. We only 

 grow the cactus dahlias, both double and single ; the latter 

 are specially useful for cutting, and the most charming table 

 decorations can be arranged with these blossoms and the tiny 

 white daisies, in feathery masses, of Aster ericoides (one of 

 the Michaelmas daisies), until the frost cuts down the 



3H 



