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Gardening for Amateurs 



son centie ; Her Majesty, large white ; 

 Homer, rose-red, dark centre ; Mrs. Sinkins, 

 the most popular white ; Paddington, 

 deep rose, dark centre ; Sam Barlow, 

 white, claret centre; Modesty, white, red 

 centre. 



Show or Laced Pinks. Although the 

 following sorts are suitable for garden 

 decoration and cutting, they are well worth 

 growing in pots and giving the protec- 

 tion of a frame or cold greenhouse during 

 winter and when in bloom. It should, how- 

 ever, be remembered that the Pink is a per- 

 fectly hardy plant, so that the greenhouse 



or frame needs to be freely ventilated in all 

 favourable weather. When growing the 

 Show or Laced Pinks for exhibition blooms, 

 disbudding must be practised to throw all 

 the strength into the production of large 

 flowers, side growths also being removed. 

 The best flowers are obtained from plants 

 propagated annually. Good varieties are : 

 Amy, dark maroon ; Arabella, rose ; Emer- 

 ald, red ; Emily, dark ; ExceUent, dark 

 claret ; Godfrey, red ; John Ball, dark plum ; 

 Mrs. Pettifer, white, purple centre ; Old 

 Chelsea, rose, red lacing ; The Rector, white, 

 rosy-purple centre. 



Preservatives for Wood. For various 

 reasons it is advisable for the gardener to 

 cover his stakes with some preservative 

 coating or to steep them in liquids of decay- 

 resisting properties. Cheapest of all those 

 that may be employed is ordinary coal tar, 

 but as there are few more unsightly things 

 in a garden it should only be employed 

 where the material is not conspicuous, or 

 when the stake is to be partially buried in 

 the soil ; ordinary garden stakes should 

 have the lower part painted with the hot 

 tar, which is then aUowed to harden for a 

 day. Creosote is much better when the 

 wooden parts are exposed ; steep the props 

 which are to be treated for a few days in 

 the liquid, or else give them two or three 

 coatings as with paint. Paint is in itself 

 very useful, and distinctly advisable in many 

 cases, but various proprietary liquids are 

 now on the market for a similar purpose. 

 When any preservative is applied to fixtures, 

 loosen all plants or shrubs in the first place 

 and pull them aside ; they should be kept 

 back from the wood as long* as possible, and 

 for three or four weeks at least ; a dry day 

 in January is a good time to paint on the 

 preservative. On no occasion must pre- 

 servatives of any kind whatsoever, paints 

 excepted, be employed inside a greenhouse. 



A Dainty Lily. Lilium rubellum, a 

 Japanese Lily, is surely one of the daintiest 

 of the tubular-flowered section, but unfor- 

 tunately many people find it difficult to keep. 

 The reason for this appears to be that they 

 procure imported bulbs which fail to accli- 



matise themselves, for they blossom once or 

 twice, then gradually dwindle away. But 

 if people only raised their bulbs from seed 

 they would find that exceUent results were 

 obtained from the same bulbs for many years. 

 Seedlings which at three years old produce 

 one flower each bear five and six blossoms 

 each three years later, and the bulbs continue 

 to increase in size and firmness. The seeds 

 should be sown thinly in a bed of light loam 

 and peat, in which plenty of sand has been 

 mixed. The young plants should be left 

 undisturbed for two years, then be trans- 

 planted to new ground. Vigorous plants 

 grow 2 feet high and bear large flowers of 

 rich rose colour. A group of this charming 

 Lily is a welcome addition to any garden, 

 and creates an effect of which the owner may 

 be justly proud. It appears likely that 

 many of the Lilies of supposedly poor con- 

 stitution would enjoy a better reputation 

 were they grown from seeds. 



Fungi on Paint. Inside the green- 

 house, where the air is kept hot and moist, 

 it often happens that fungi are produced on 

 the painted woodwork, with the result that 

 painting has to be repeated at expensively 

 short intervals or the woodwork becomes 

 rotten in a comparatively short time. No 

 paint has proved immune from these fungi ; 

 even the poisonous white lead paints are 

 badly attacked, and at Kew the authorities 

 have had to spend large sums for repainting 

 and for experimental work. The preven- 

 tive is to mix carbolic acid with the paint, 

 1 oz. serving for 3 Ib. of the paint. 



