70 MAY 



moist days at the end of May when the conditions 

 are admirable for the purpose, or it may be nearly 

 the middle of June before such a time appears. 

 But the planting should be regulated by the 

 weather, for nothing is more heartbreaking than 

 to see withering under a hot sun the tender things 

 which should have been introduced to their new 

 quarters in more favouring circumstances. There 

 are very few years in which the weather is not suit- 

 able at some time between May 24th and June 

 1 5th, and the wise gardener gets everything in 

 readiness for the welcome rainy days, be they 

 early or be they late, so that there shall be no 

 hindrance when once Jupiter Pluvius has his turn 

 at the weather-glass. 



The roses will be getting liquid manure now for 

 a few weeks, and this will not only help the buds at 

 present forming, but will give the bushes strength 

 to carry an autumn bloom. The worm in the bud 

 is beginning to show itself, and for some time to 

 come every plant will be hand-picked twice a week 

 to get rid of the pest. I have not yet found any 

 wash which will destroy them, but as regards the 

 aphis, which also is appearing, the case is different. 

 There are plenty of insecticides which will kill it, 

 but I make a point of using Abol, because I feel 

 myself under a debt of gratitude to the man who 

 invented the Abol syringe. Every gardener has 

 been betrayed many a time into expressions not 

 becoming by the behaviour of the common syringe. 

 It sprays everything except the object aimed at; 

 it indulges in a back drip destructive of garments ; 

 it exhausts itself of water in about three seconds, 



