THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



Sept. few days ; that a cricket team is taking ship for the 

 Antipodes, and that pleasure steamers are going into 

 winter quarters — all these things have no bearing on 

 garden operations. The great facts with us are that 

 Dahlias are at their best and early Chrysanthemums 

 beginning ; that Michaelmas Daisies are opening rapidly 

 and bulb catalogues arriving by every post. Then, too, 

 there is that bed of tuberous Begonias which languished 

 a little during the hot, dry days of July, but which 

 freshened up so marvellously under the August rains. 

 See it now, a glorious mass of blossom ; white, blush, 

 pink, rose, salmon, and scarlet. The salmon tints in the 

 double Begonias are indescribably lovely. 



The Begonia bed alone would be the making of the 

 garden, but the Sweet Peas, constantly picked through- 

 out the hot weather, are still full of bloom ; Dorothy 

 Perkins Rose is nearly as fresh as ever, and the Water 

 Lilies are only inferior to their former glory in that the 

 flowers are a little smaller — the colours are as bright and 

 clear as they were in July. 



We cannot help a few falling leaves. Foliage will 

 thin down as the summer wanes. And there is much 

 beauty in the leaves that remain. 



Do some readers confess to a slight feeling of depres- 

 sion when summer flowers have to be cleared away, and 

 the fact comes home that the rearguard has been called 

 up ? Do they carry the foresight that becomes a second 

 nature in gardening to the extent of realising that when 

 the Dahlias, Begonias, Chrysanthemums, and Michael- 

 mas Daisies are done, there will be nothing to take their 

 places ? Let me offer an unfailing specific — it is in- 

 stantly to project some scheme of improvement for next 

 year, and forthwith plunge enthusiastically into it, even 

 if no more can be done for the moment than to make a 

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