Round the Year in the Garden 



also need hard pruning each spring. Both Fuchsias and 

 Abutilons are long-lived when grown in this way, and 

 annually produce graceful, pendent, flower-laden shoots. 

 The exquisite blue-flowered Plumbago capensis is a favour- 

 ite climber that blossoms most profusely. It is necessary 

 to shorten the shoots in spring ; many amateurs fail to do 

 this, and their plants consequently become prematurely 

 weak. Clematis indivisa lobata is a splendid climbing 

 plant, though perhaps too vigorous for the small green- 

 house ; the slender shoots become wreathed with white, 

 starry flowers in spring. The Scarlet Trumpet Flower 

 (Tecoma capensis), Jasminum grandiflorum, yellow, the 

 blue and white Passion flowers (Passiflora caerulea and 

 variety Constance Elliot) are other good climbers, while 

 Heliotrope and Geranium, too, are suitable, more espe- 

 cially for training against the wall or on a pillar. 



The Oleander. If one may judge by the number 

 of questions asked with reference to its cultivation, the 

 Oleander (of which the correct name is Nerium Oleander) 

 is one of the most popular of half hardy flowers. A well- 

 grown and well-blossomed plant is very beautiful, show- 

 ing strong, smooth stems, attractive leaves and, above all, 

 the exquisite rose-pink blossoms that reward the skilled 

 grower. The Oleander, a member of the Periwinkle 

 family, is a native of Southern Europe and the Near East, 

 and there delights in sunshine and mud ; it grows wild in 

 swampy land by the side of rivers. These conditions 

 give us a clue to the treatment it needs in gardens. 

 During its season of growth it requires an abundance of 

 water, and subsequently full exposure to sunshine, so 

 that the shoots may be matured. It is wise to stand the 

 pot in water during the summer months ; throughout the 

 winter it needs the protection of a glasshouse, that it 

 may be safe from frosts. Although, no doubt, want of 

 sunshine is responsible for some of the disappointments 

 occasioned by lack of blossom, the blame cannot be 

 wholly laid there ; starvation treatment is largely 



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