156 



CULTIVATION OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS. 



round its stem, that every inch of ground may be- 

 come available. The tall, naked stem of the young 

 ash looks well festooned with roses and honeysuckles. 

 Wherever creeping flowering plants can live, let them 

 adorn every nook and corner, stem, wall and post; 

 they are elegant in appearance, and many of them, 

 particularly clematis, are delicious in fragrant scent. 



If flowers are planted in round or square plots, the 

 same rule applies in arranging them. The tallest 

 must be placed in the center, but I reccomniend a 

 lady to banish sunflowers and hollyhocks from her 

 plots, and consign them to broad borders against a 

 wall, or in clumps of three and three, as a screen 

 again.st any unsightly object. Their large roots draw 

 so much nourishment from the ground, tiat the lesser 

 plants suffer, and the soil becomes quickly exhausted. 

 Like gluttons, they sliould feed alone, or their com- 

 panions will lauguish in starvation, and become im- 

 poverished. The wren caimot feed with the vulture. 



Flowers are divided into three classes: — annuals, 

 biennials, and perennials. 



Annuals are those flowers which are raised from 

 seed alone, in the spring, and which die in the au- 

 tumn. They are again divided into three classes : — 

 the tender and more curious kinds, the less tender or 

 hardier kiuds, and the hardiest and common kinds. 



Biennials are those flowers which are produced by 

 seed, bloom the second year, and remain two years 

 .in perfection, after which they gradually dwindle and 

 die away. 



Some sorts, however, of the biennials, afford a con- 

 tinuation of plants by offsets, slips and cuttings of 

 the tops, and by layers and pipings, so. that, though 

 the parent flower dies, the species are perpetuated, 

 particuUuly to continue curious double-flowered kinds, 

 as for instance, double rockets, by root 'offsetts, and 

 cuttings of the youag flower stalks; double wallflow- 

 ers by slips of the small top shoots ; double sweet- 

 williams by layers and pipings, and carnations by 

 layers. 



Perennials are those flowers which continue many 

 years and are propagated by root offsets, suckers, 

 parting roots, etc., as will be more fully particularized 

 under the head of perennials. 



It has been a debated point among florists whether 

 plots or baskets should be devoted each to a partic- 

 ular variety of flower, or receive flowers of diffei-ent 

 kinds, flowering at separate seasons. Thus, many 

 ladies set apart one plot of grouad for anemones on- 

 ly — another plot receives only pansies, and so on. 

 There is much to be said on both sides of the ques- 

 tion. 



Every flower may be supplied with its favorite 

 soil with a little patience and observation. A light 

 soil suits all descriptions very well ; and I never yet 

 found disappointment in any description of earth 

 which was thoroughly well dug, and dressed yearly 

 from the mound of accumulated leaves and soap-suds, 

 before alluded to. I particularly recommend a por- 

 tion of sand mixed with the heap. All bulbs, car- 

 nations, pinks, auriculas, ranunculuses, &c., love a 

 mi.xture ot sand. I know no flowers of the hardy 

 class which reject it. Mix sand well into your bor- 

 ders and plots, and you will not fail to have hand- 

 some flowers. 



Ants are very great enemies to flowers; but I know 



no method of attacking them except in their own 

 strongholds, which I have always done with cruel in- 

 trejjidity and success. My only plan was to lay open 

 the little ant-hill, and pour boiling water upon the 

 busy insects, which destroyed at once the common- 

 wealth, and the eggs deposited within the mound. 

 In some places ants are extremely large and abun- 

 dant, and they quickly destroy the beauty of a flow- 

 er by attacking its root and heart. 



The term deciduous, applied to shrubs, signifies 

 that they shed their leaves every winter. 



Herbaceous plants, signify those plants whose roots 

 are not woody, such as stocks, wallflowers, &e., &c. 



jPiirous-rooted plants, are those whose roots shoot 

 out small fibres, such as polyanthuses, violets, &c. 



Tubereus-rooted plants, signify those roots which 

 form and grow into httle tubes, such as anemones, 

 ranunculuses, &c. 



Perennials are flowers of many years' duration ; 

 and they multiply themselves most abundantly by 

 suckers, ofl'sets, parting the roots, &c. They require 

 little trouble beyond taking care to renew the soil 

 every year or two by a somewhat plentiful supply 

 from the compost heap; and by separating the offsets 

 and parting the roots in autumn, to strengthen the 

 mother plant. When the flowers are past and the 

 stems have decayed, then the operation may take 

 place. Choose a showery day for transplanting the 

 roots, or give them a moderate watering to fix them 

 in their fresh places. When you transplant a flower 

 root, dig a hole with your trowel sufficiently large to 

 give the fibers room to lie freely and evenly in the 

 ground. 



I hare laid great stress upon possessing a heap of 

 compost, ready to apply to roots and shrubs every 

 spring and autumn. Wherever the soil is good, the 

 flowers will bloom handsomely; and no lady will be 

 disappointed of that pleasure, if a compost heap 

 forms one essential, in a hidden corner of the flower 

 garden. If you raise your perennials from seed, sow 

 it when the ground has become thoroughly warmed, 

 in a bed of light earth, in the open ground. Let the 

 bed be in a genial, warm situation, and divide it into 

 small compartments; a compartment for each sort of 

 seed. 



Sow the seed thin, and rake or break the earth 

 over them finely. Let the larger seed be sown half 

 an inch deep, and the smaller seed a quarter of an 

 inch. Water the beds in diy weather often, with a 

 watering-pot, not a jug. The rose of the watering- 

 pot distributes the water equally among the seed- 

 lings; whereas, water dashed upon them from a jug 

 falls in masses, and forms holes in the light earth, be- 

 .sides prostrating the delicate seedling. 



About the end of May, the seedlings will be fit to 

 remove into another nursery bed, to gain strength 

 till October; or be planted at once where they are 

 to remain. Put the plants six inches apart, and wa- 

 ter them moderately, to settle the earth about their 

 roots. 



But it is rarely required to sow seed for perennial 

 plants; they multiply so vigorously and quickly of 

 themselves, by offsets; and cuttings may be made of 

 the flower stalks in May and June in profusion. 



The double scarlet lychnis, and those plants which 

 rise with firm flower stems, make excellent cuttings, 



