FLOWER GARDEN 



LORD BACON said that a garden affords 

 the " purest of human enjoyments." 

 Great men of every age have found 

 their chief recreation in their gardens. 

 Indeed, it may be said that the love of 

 flowers is inherent in human nature. 

 Wherever civilization has obtained a 

 footing, the love for flowers has developed 

 itself. Many of our most beautiful 

 flowering plants are the result of scientific culture ; while 

 others, equally beautiful are, as we find them in nature, 

 incapable of further improvement. Verbenas, dahlias, 

 geraniums, and a host of others, belong to the first class of 

 plants. Heaths, and a numerous list of bulbs, including 

 the magnificent Lilium Auratum (Japanese Lily), belong to 

 the latter. The most successful growers of all kinds of 

 plants, are those who know most of the natural habits of 

 the plants they cultivate. Gardening in New Zealand is a 

 comparatively easy matter when compared with the same 

 operations in Britain, owing to the general mildness of our 

 climate. Any tolerably good soil will grow flowers, provided 

 always that it is well sheltered. 



Soils Their Selection for Garden Purposes. If 



in the cultivation of plants one thing is more necessary than 

 another to be attended to, that thing is the proper prepara- 



