246 



Gardening for Amateurs 



Rose Gardenia (yellow fading to cream) as a trailer. 



are will be mentioned in due course, but I 

 doubt whether anything is absolutely effec- 

 tual in getting rid of this pest, which, I think, 

 does less harm to our lovely flowers than 

 most of the insect pests one meets with. 



Far worse pests, though less noticeable, 

 are the abominable little insects called 

 thrips. These look almost like small fine 

 hairs moving about in a flower, but they do 

 an infinity of harm and rapidly ruin the 

 colour and the appearance of the most lovely 

 and perfect blossom. Thrips mark and dis- 

 colour blossoms in the most distressing and 

 annoying way and to an extent quite in- 

 commensurate with their size. Under glass 

 they can easily be dealt with by fumigation, 

 but it is a difficult matter to deal with them 

 effectively in the open. 'I know of no other 

 pest that I personally dread and detest so 

 much or one that I have found so difficult 

 to repress or eradicate. There is, however, 

 one bright spot, and that is, that this pest 

 h not always with us. It only puts in an 

 appearance in certain seasons when con- 

 ditions are favourable to it, and this is 

 indeed a matter to be thankful for. 



All other pests and nuisances I will leave 

 to be dealt with in the Diseases and Insects 

 section later on. And now that we may be said 

 to have arrived at the hot dry days of late 



June and early July, the great Rose Show of 

 the year should commence. I do not refer 

 to the " National " Rose Show, striking and 

 interesting sight as that is, but to the in- 

 finitely larger, more wonderful, and more 

 beautiful sight, the Natural Rose Show or dis- 

 play which takes place annually at this date 

 in the open under the blue dome of heaven. 

 The show-place is the whole country from 

 end to end, where for three or four wonderful 

 weeks this riotous flush of colour, this orgy 

 of scent, this exhibition of the exquisite in 

 form continues. Then its grandeur gradually 

 fades and the more sober display of late 

 summer and of early autumn takes its place, 

 when Roses, if not so numerous as before, 

 are often individually more perfect in shape 

 and colour and diffuse a scent richer and 

 stronger, if not more delicate, than that of 

 the summer flowers. 



Summer Pruning. The glorious pageant 

 of summer passes along, but we must keep 

 pegging away at necessary work. Summer 

 pruning, for instance, must not be neglected. 

 Superfluous and useless wood should be cut 

 out. It is an old-fashioned fallacy to imagine 

 that all the pruning for the year must be done 

 at one and the same moment in spring, and 

 that afterwards the trees and bushes must 

 be left untrimmed until the next spring 



