286 
THE 
GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Avavsr ЗІ, 1895, 
Plantit firmly in not over-large pieces, and unless 
in а moist spot, divide every two years, to maintain 
the stock of plants in full vigour. 
SPIRÆA VENUSTA, 
This is a beautiful plant for a moist soil, in which 
it alone will grow satisfactorily. If the soil of the 
garden is not naturally moist, hope Spiræa should be 
planted i In a 
boggy situation it grows from 4 to 5 feet higb, and 
produces very large cymes 5 bright - coloured flowers, 
but is of slower growth than most Spiræœas. а 
some bright forms шау e be obtained. 
should be planted, if possible, at 
stream or sarod where they — make 
quick ирме" апа at the same time nomise 
labour. vari 
In auch 
would be desirable plants. J. 
THE ROSARY, 
TWO TER OF MULCHING ROSES, 
T e who would object to apply the 
term ' anle ps poy any wet substance, such as sewage, 
the word usually 
well, But in a larger sense we may mulch with 
manure-water as well as litter. 
of the liquid manures or sewage may them- 
selves, or be made to acquire, most of the physical 
of m 
— · 
ш 
properties о 1еһев through allowing them 
accumulate e surface, or much be still, 
loosening up and mixing with the earth 
beneath through TET hoeing. In its modest 
a view of adding to or holding more fast the — 
and food in, and keeping the heat or drought out, is 
a mulch, the more porous the more potent the mulch, 
And the efficacy of the liquid mulehes is doubled by 
stirring the surface with the hoe or scarifier, as soon 
ав the surface is sufficiently dry to allow treading 
upon it, I have been so fortunate as to hav 
both these methods of mulching in active operation 
in this centre of the Rose i 
and such prompt-acting M ares гоне һееп 
n T de ant for Roses, There has been, I 
trust, not a little sound science, asscredly much 
useful лье as well аз success in thus con- 
verting and transferring such dangerous Cup eti 
on looking in 
h 
ас ш get their ma net of 
savouries he the season a few weeks si 
eapest and perhaps the best of all dry 
жыз is also іп fall swing at Colchester, gangs of 
55 to maintain it in full efficiency, 
Hosarians have no faith in the robber mulches of 
‘weeds, 90 po among distressed cultivators of 
va sorte, Such ъан "m for themselves 
— >, making poor sorts poorer, dry soils drier, re- 
reducing the diet which should go to feed useful 
oe end ener and the scarifier in active motion 
The strength, 
food in the soil sre husbanded, e noni 
fi d'rending, and fresh supplies of food 
and moisture orem up from lower depths through 
sustaining the potent force of capillary attraction. 
t Colchester and other places the oe — 
8 
look so vigorous and beautiful, as if they h 
the most ambitious Rose could desire. 
Strawberries in many districts where the produce 
is a record one this year teach the same lesson. 
Not a few of the very finest din have had no water. 
But as а penny saved is а penn more, во is 
every drop saved, conserved Miro: ugh suríace mulches, 
adrop ormore saved, Fortunately for the Strawberry 
crops and plants it is not at all hard to mulch to keep 
the fruit clean, and such mulches, whether of litter, 
chaff, tell later, and keep the 
paying the cultivator compound interest on the 
labour and money expended on mulches, D, T. Fish. 
ALEXANDRA PARK, 
MANCHESTER. 
Тн! ouk: is situated on the south side of Man- 
chester, and is much freer from smoke and the 
noxious vapours which the smoke causes, than any 
of the other parks surrounded by the city. It is 
much more extensive, too, covering an area of 
60 acres, which opens up scope for landscape gar- 
dening design. In this respect it seems to vie with 
vi 
he margin 
shrubs, which, when clothed with foliage, 
completely d out the rather handsome villa tene- 
be seen on two sides of the square, There 
xus rs addition. i hr of trees, pe alternate 
green Hollies & little the 
winter aspect; and dui the Cros owering 
shrubs, commingled i and confronting the 
deciduous trees, together with the patches of annuals 
that give forth their flowers in summer and autumn, 
make altogether a very pretty picture, 
A spacious entrance gate, with suitable lodges, 
has been erected, and to the right you face an avenue 
of Limes, something about 700 yards long, verging 
upon a spacious artificial Jake, and right in front of 
- is а raised terrace in which there is ample scope 
ce in no end of desigus of sammer and carpet 
2 The promenade between this is а spacious 
d 
tained, showing no stint of want of EM. and the 
eye lines, whether er or on the terrace pro- 
menade, or of sweeping curvature, as alongside the 
and dri rives, were e unexceptionally pleasing. 
Li 
8 vou will hardly see in a decent state 
: joo pd bns s Sycamore is 
ans make capital com- 
panion low-growi wing trees, лар are now 2 with 
multitudes of their scarlet berries—g а great tempta- 
pose to youngsters, as well as blackbirds Eu Mica de 
eantime they are | - and тг! a brilli 
desirable indeed to the mixed bord R most 
er capital EN to the ‘two 
“ма families is the Servi peor 
aves g 
oary unde ace. Young's Wee 
Silver Lime is in quantity, and а most ping 
it is for individualising in a ost beautiful tree 
twice the dimen nsions of those 
also white underneath, and look nicely in the distance 
under the influence of a breeze. Weeping Ash als 
do splendidly—indeed, all these ийй bm 
and shrubs help to cast & dash in а sombre landscape, 
Foremost ema trees of a suffruticose ch 
about towns, is the S 
P ibus J great 
rn fronds, stand out in relief, and how splendidly 
it vw here planted out among ash-gray rocks! jj 
shoo! ut in all анте coming up from the 
deese roots as they meander among the stones, Ti 
s much used, commercialiy-epeaking, i in the dyeing 
praec ; its leaves are collected when growing, ther 
dried and ground. The Sicilian Sumacht is the beat for 
It shoots far freer even than Berberis * ul : 
a most beautiful patch it makes allowed to take ity 
natural course from the main The Sue. | 
intendent deposits lots of plants, and vti them down 
Frangula, although i^ ager support, makes а good 
e yellowish-green of its leave 
Catalpa is doing in sheltered positions, and só is the 
Salisburia adiantifolia, with its deeply-cut, irregular- 
outlined leaves, Those purple-leaved trees, such ai 
Beech and the Plum, do not stand out orn 
mental throughout the year, and have in еш 
autumn a sombre, dying aspect. 
The shrubs that do best are the Rhododendron, 
Cunningham's 
bristling with buds, All the Ponticums, and many 
of the earlier pushing hybrids have suffered from the 
sharp frosts of mid June, The leaves are as if bronzed 
in the middle, green round the 1 is just 
as the season 
ripens growths up. 
planted in exposed positions, the wind and the frost 
together have played sad риа always barring Can- 
meda floribunda ‘is an 
such ornamental plants as Snapdragon 
Sweet Sultan, the Summer-flowering " Chrysante 
mum, the Shirley and jet Poppies, The latter 
are by far the most useful, as they are not #0 
cious as the Shirley, and a nd longer when m 
The Helianthus in usefal, 
wart plants, the aewer forms of r bursting 0% 
and flowering freely, although th flowers 
во large, The каз one is a capital fellow — 
their elegant habit, and large light-green learn 
of the most striking beds in a detac etached | 
the grassy Wat was one of seedling 
nums, Nothing was more captivating 
because of the great variety of colours, С ун 
the — in fact, and the wei d 
ss of the atrain. ste 
rela 
too, is very prolific of fi , and 
trasting 1 to өтү? it is det 
the green grass i n and love 
machine, The has bei n a sue 
season; the cen do well in the 
enclosure, 
do to abandon it altogether 
delight in a mass of jid colours, 
