220 Gardens of the Misses Gamier. 



garden here lies rather low, and the soil is a strong loam ; consequently the 

 grass continues to grow until near Christmas. I now collect a good heap of 

 leaves, and mix a considerable portion of fresh-slacked lime with them to 

 hasten their decay; and, by turning them over twice or thrice during the 

 ensuing summer, they make fine mould for the flower borders the following 

 winter. The productions of the flower-garden during this month are less 

 numerous than in any other during the year ; yet even now it is not without 

 some objects of beauty, or even a few flowers. The Christmas rose (HeWe- 

 borus niger) is now beginning to expand ; a few anemones are also still in 

 bloom ; and the .Daphne neapolitana, which continues in bloom the whole 

 year, is now in great beauty. In fragrance, this plant is not inferior to the 

 jasmine or the sweetest rose. Among the evergreens (on which the beauty of 

 the garden chiefly depends at this season), the gold, the silver, and the green- 

 edged varieties of Plex ^quifolium are objects of great beauty. 



Thus far have I attempted to give a correct account of my 

 method of managing the flower-garden during each month in 

 the year. There are many more plants than 1 have enumerated 

 which flower here during the summer months ; but those named 

 deserve a place in every good flower-garden. 



Wickham, near Fareham, Hants, James Moore. 



January 10. 1834. 



This communication must very much avail the young gardener, both in the 

 notice of the successive operations needful to the satisfactory management of 

 the flower-garden, and also, and not less, in the detailed naming of the genera 

 and species of plants which most contribute to its splendour. A few words 

 may be added on hardy bulbous plants, whose efficient service in the object of 

 decoration seems not much insisted on. No plants are more beautiful at any 

 time ; but as several genera of them (Galanthus, Crocus, iVarcissus, Fritillaria, 

 Trichonema, SciWa in some of its species, Tulipa, Erythronium, Gagea) dis- 

 play their very pretty flowers earlier than the time at which herbaceous plants 

 generally are coming into flower, no plants are then so beautiful. Happily, 

 no plants, also, are more free of culture and increase. Only two con- 

 ditions are, perhaps, imperative with them ; a soil not adhesive, and absolute 

 exemption from disturbance while they are in a state of growth. As to soil, 

 though freedom from adhesiveness be its essential requisite, it is capable of all 

 degrees of farther adaptation to the various species of bulbous plants cul- 

 tivated, by regulating its degree of dryness, and increasing its richness and 

 friableness by the admixture of manure, leaf-mould, sand, &c, and by appro- 

 priating to bulbous plants, in preference, those beds or borders which are at 

 once most sheltered, and have the sunniest aspect. That bulbous plants 

 should not be disturbed at all while in a growing state, every gardener well 

 knows ; and to every one beginning to be a gardener, bulbous plants will soon 

 teach the fact. The disturbing of them while growing may be rendered needless 

 by marking on a label the kind and colour wanted in any particular spot, 

 placing there that label ; and affixing to a clump of the required kind, that in- 

 cludes plants enough to spare some, a label stating its kind and partibleness. 

 In obedience to the same condition of not disturbing bulbous plants while 

 growing, invariably divide and transplant such of them as you wish to part, or 

 deem to need it (most bulbous plants will, perhaps, grow three years without 

 becoming choked by their own offsets), as soon as ever they have ceased 

 growing ; a state which they have reached when their leaves have become 

 of a brown colour. Then dig up, part, and replant them forthwith ; and of 

 course recollect to occupy the blanks observed and labelled in spring with the 

 kinds and colours noted as wanted in them. The bulbs are now, once for all, 



