JUNE. 



652 



JUNE. 



in which the cuttings or rooted pipings 

 may be planted, covering them with small 

 handglasses, or they may be struck on a 

 shady border. 



Carnations, Fertilisation of, for Seed. 

 The delicate operation of fertilising should 

 be performed on such as it is desired to 

 keep for seed. This is the only true way 

 of getting first-class seedlings, and both 

 parent plants selected for experiment 

 should be the most perfect of their kind. 



Climbers and Creepers. Creepers against 

 walls or trellises should be gone over and 

 tied or nailed in. 



Cuttings for Spring Blooms. A shady 

 piece of ground in the reserve garden 

 should now be prepared for cuttings of 

 double wallflowers, rockets, sweetwilliams, 

 pansies, and other plants required for next 

 spring's bloom. Aubrietias and many 

 other spring-flowering plants may also be 

 divided and planted out this month. 



Dahlias. Dahlias already planted out 

 should be watered in the evenings with 

 soft water overhead, the soil being previ- 

 ously stirred, and others planted out for 

 later bloom, taking care, in hot weather, 

 to mulch round the roots, where it can be 

 done without being unsightly, with short, 

 well-decomposed dung. As the shoots 

 advance, train and tie them up carefully, 

 and search for earwigs and slugs in the 

 mornings. A ring, or circle of copper, 

 placed on the ground round the stem, it 

 appears, will prevent this latter pest from 

 approaching the leaves of plants. 



Herbaceous Plants. Carnations, pico- 

 tees, and herbaceous plants, with the taller 

 growing bedding plants, should be staked 

 and tied up, to prevent injury from high 

 winds. About the second week, hollyhocks, 

 phloxes, delphiniums, asters, &c., should 

 have the shoots thinned out before being 

 tied up, to prevent an appearance of over- 

 crowding, as well as to improve the size of 

 the flowers. 



Hollyhocks. Stake and water hollyhocks 

 freely. 



Hyacinths, &>c. By the end of the month 

 the last of the spring-flowering bulbs should 

 be ripe enough to take up ; and if the 

 plants intended to occupy their places have 

 not been already introduced between them, 

 they should at once be planted, altering or 

 improving the soil of the beds to suit the 

 habits of the fresh plants. 



Iberis Saxatilis, Cuttings of Iberis 

 saxatilis root readily under a handglass 

 at this season ; when placed in a shady 

 situation, they form a beautiful edging, 

 and may be cut like box for a week or two, 

 to encourage the plants to cover the ground. 



Pansies. Plants struck from cuttings in 

 April and May will produce fine blooms 

 if planted in shady situations, or potted 

 into 6-inch pots, and shaded in very bright 

 weather. Cuttings may still be taken 

 from promising plants. Mark all seedlings 

 having good or singular properties. Though 

 a flower may not be of good form, still, if 

 we have any novel traits of character, it 

 will be advisable to save seed fronr-it, in 

 order to perpetuate or improve both these 

 and its form. At the end of the month, 

 side slips may be taken and cut down. 

 Strong straggling plants will afford a good 

 supply of rooted cuttings for making 

 up autumnal beds. 



Peonies. For late spring or early sum- 

 mer flowering, few plants are more useful 

 than pseonies. Every flower garden should 

 have some of them. They are mostly very 

 hardy, and in colour vary from pure white, 

 blush, salmon, and rose, to the most intense 

 and brilliant scarlet. The Chinese tree 

 varieties (Pczonia Moutan) are also hardy 

 and early flowering. Bedded upon lawns 

 they have a beautiful effect. In a shrub- 

 like form they rise from 3 to 5 feet in height, 

 and branch out in a good rich soil to 10 or 

 1 8 feet in circumference. There are many 

 j varieties, and the colouring is extremely 



