GROUPS OF GARDEN FLOWERS u 



growth is just commencing, will flower the same year, while their use 

 for decorations is great ; graceful sprays put into vases are a pleasure 

 to look at. We dislike to see the Starworts bunched up like a sheaf of 

 corn. They are plants of exquisite grace, which must not be destroyed, 

 and for this reason a pretty way to use them is as flowers for breaking 

 up level masses of evergreen shrubs. When Asters are planted amongst 

 such things as Rhododendrons, they throw their sprays of flowers over 

 the shrubs when these are without bloom. When a walk runs through 

 a little wood, or some grassy path cuts into an old orchard, a rich colour 

 picture comes in autumn when Starworts are planted at the sides. But 

 they want careful " staking," not to show the stakes or to leave holes. 

 One must try to get a surface of bloom without a break, a succession of 

 colours so placed that each one helps the other. It is quite easy to make 

 a sad hash of an Aster border unless the colour association is carefully 

 considered. Asters, although so vigorous and hardy, should be given 

 good cultivation a rich, well-prepared soil, and give water freely in 

 dry weather. Asters get ragged and worn out unless divided every 

 other year and replanted in freshly made-up ground. The beginner in 

 gardening, who is really interested in the pastime, should raise some 

 seedlings. It is delightful to watch seedling plants flower; and how 

 pleasurable is it when some beautiful thing opens out, born into the 

 world through your efforts. Of course there are more blanks than 

 prizes ; that is the same in all walks of life. Sow the seed in pots when 

 it is ripe, which will be, of course, in the autumn. The seedlings will 

 then be large enough to plant out in the spring and flower during the 

 autumn. There is this advantage in raising seedling Asters, the plants 

 soon flower. One has not time to get weary with waiting. 



The list in the table (see p. 556) has been prepared by Mr. Beckett, 

 of Aldenham Park Gardens, Elstree, who grows Asters well and has 

 raised many beautiful varieties. It is a long list, but all are good. 



Auricula (Primula Auricula). Early History This is what is termed 

 by fanciers the " Show " Auricula, or, more properly, the Exhibition 

 Auricula, because it has been grown for many generations by a class 

 of amateurs whose great delight was to exhibit these plants in com- 

 petition on a certain date, which was fixed in the south of England 

 about the 2oth of April, and in the Midland Counties about the 27th 

 of that month. They seldom fixed the date in May, although the Auri- 

 cula in the north has sometimes been in its best form in that month ; 

 but there is an old saying that, " The Auricula in May has had its day." 



In the years following the publication of John Gerard's Herbal in 

 1598, we cannot tell how the Auricula was cultivated, nor in what 

 manner the improvement of this flower was carried out ; evidently it 

 was a slow process, the art of cross-fertilisation not being understood. 

 We know but little of the garden Auricula as a finely-developed flower 

 by the art of the gardener until the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

 The Lancashire weavers cultivated it as their favourite flower early in 

 the century, and it is owing to the care bestowed upon it by these worthy 

 old florists, and the rivalry excited by the annual competitions, that the 



