December Making Plans 



monest of all and greatest favourite is the Winter 

 Jessamine (Jasminum nudiflorum) ; its slender shoots 

 become wreathed in blossom in the depth of winter. This 

 climbing shrub is widely grown, and one would think 

 that every amateur knew how to prune it. Many people 

 still tidy up the Winter Jessamine in autumn, thus 

 cutting off, or shortening, the shoots that, if left alone, 

 would yield the chief flower display. The proper time 

 to prune is in early spring when the flowering season 

 is over ; the plant then has the whole season before it 

 in which to form and to mature fresh shoots for next 

 winter's bloom. A less familiar yellow, winter - flowering 

 Jessamine is called primulinum; the flowers are larger 

 than those of nudiflorum, but the plant unfortunately 

 is not very hardy. The Winter Sweet (Chimonanthus 

 f ragrans), if planted against a sunny wall, bears brownish- 

 yellow, scented blossoms in mid-winter, and, like yellow 

 Jessamine, is useful for indoor decoration. A few sprays 

 of Winter Sweet fill a room with fragrance. There is 

 a variety of Chimonanthus called grandiflorus ; it has 

 larger blooms of deeper yellow than the type, but it 

 really needs to be grown against a wall, while the other 

 may be cultivated as a bush. The fruits of the Winter 

 Sweet often mature when the shrub is grown on a wall. 

 The proper method of pruning is to cut back the side 

 growths to within an inch or so of their base as soon 

 as the flowering season is past; this shrub, like the 

 Jessamine, blooms on* the previous summer's shoots. 



Winter-flowering Honeysuckle. Two welcome win- 

 ter-flowering Honeysuckles are Lonicera fragrantissima 

 and Lonicera Standishi. The former bears white and 

 the latter cream-coloured flowers in January. They may 

 either be grown as bushes, or placed against a wall. 

 They need little, if any, pruning. Everyone knows, 

 though comparatively few seem to grow, the old Mezereon 

 (Daphne Mezereum), a stiff shrub, some 2 feet or more 

 high, which in early spring bears fragrant, reddish 



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