122 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 15, 1878. 
best. In such cases one kind of plant should be allowed to 
predominate in one place, or the weaker-growing or less hardy 
kinds would be speedily overrun. It is not, however, semi- 
wild gardening, enticing as the subject is, that I wish to speak 
of at present, but herbaceous, or, more properly, perennial 
borders, and these when once established will always afford 
ample material for the semi-wild spots. 
Those who contemplate growing hardy perennials should be 
taking notes and making preparation at the present time. 
Such books and catalogues as I have had access to are of very 
little assistance in this matter, as so many plants are always 
enumerated which are only of secondary quality; nor are 
botanical gardens any great help, for although many valuable 
plants may be found there, there is such a mass of botanical 
and other curiosities to wade through, and when we do find a 
plant among them worth growing for its beauty the chances 
are that we cannot find the name in any nurseryman’s cata- 
logue at all, although the identical plant may be in several 
nurseries under another name. The best plan I have found 
for picking-up the necessary information, is by looking through 
nurseries with competent guides where such things are made 
a speciality and are planted out to show their natural habits, 
the said guides only giving us the correct nomenclature, and 
allowing us to take our own notes and form our own opinion. 
It is of no use to see plants in small pots, for although it is 
necessary to have most of them so grown to ensure safe re- 
moval, we cannot then judée of their habit. 
As a rule hardy perennials do not look well in beds. A 
border from 4 to 8 feet wide and backed with shrubs is the 
place for them. If the boundary lines are irregular so much 
the better, but it is quite possible to make them look well 
against straight lines, and even in close proximity to a formal 
garden, but not forming a part of it. The borders I have 
charge of are in such a position, and although the formal gar- 
den comes in for the first share of applause it is soon over. 
You can see it all in a minute, and then comes the turn for 
the mixed borders, and I can assure your readers that in the 
majority of cases the longer people examine collections of 
hardy plants lovingly cared for the better they like them. It 
is stipulated that I grow nothing which does not flower after 
June, so that probably the best half of the hardy plants are 
denied a home here; but that leaves ample material to form 
a very interesting collection, and it makes a much better 
display at the time it is required than could be made if plants 
were used which flower at all seasons. I should always advise 
planting this class of plants according to their season of 
flowering, dividing them at least into spring and autumn 
sections, the spring arrangement being placed where it need 
not be seen by ordinary visitors after its principal flowering 
season is over. Of course plant lovers, who invariably live a 
good deal on imagination, would enjoy it at any time, but we 
haye to please the many. 
A well-drained soil is of the greatest importance, and on the 
whole the staple ought to be light rather than heavy. Peat, 
where it can be had sufficiently cheap, is a great boon, as it 
does not harbour slugs, it does not readily become sour, and it 
lasts a lone time without decaying. The greater part of the 
plants will flourish in peat alone, and for those which will not 
it is an easy matter to place other soil round them at planting 
zime. Most of the plants, however. are very accommodating, 
and can be grown perfectly well without peat; but it is ab- 
solutely necessary to have the border rather light, and it is 
advisable to have it a little above the ordinary level, for many 
more plants die from damp and sour soil than are killed by 
frost. The best time for planting (a very few plants excepted) 
is October and the beginning of November, whether the plants 
are old established ones to be divided, or are bought from the 
nursery in pots, they then make a few roots before winter 
without growing visibly at the top. Many plants supposed to 
be rather tender will, if shifted at that time, bear the winter 
better than if left alone. The reason is they just receive a 
sufficient check to prevent them making late growth which 
they cannot mature. The strictly herbaceous plants—7.c., those 
which die back to the ground after flowering, if at all tender 
should not have their stems cut down till the spring ; the dead 
flowers should merely be cut off the tops. 
I am only a beginner with this class of plants. I think this 
is my fourth year, but I have already a beautiful selection ; 
two-thirds of them have still to flower, and some new arrivals 
are not sufficiently strong to flower at all this season ; never- 
theless, the appended list. every plant of which was actually 
flowering on the 3rd of August, is a very interesting one, and 
I challenge any person to find a single plant named therein 
which is not worth growing. 
I cannot finish these notes without recording how much I 
owe to my dear departed old friend George Wheeler, who made 
this class of plants a speciality for the greater part of his life, 
carefully saving many a good thing which would otherwise 
have been lost to Europe. Would that he had lived to see the 
great objects of his attention again become popular; but he 
has done his work well, he has saved them for us, and there is 
now no immediate danger of losing them. He, however, 
leayes a great yoid ; Warminster is not Warminster to gar- 
deners without him. We could a short time back cail in and 
chat, as it were, with a bygone age, and feel quite sure that 
everything he told us was as perfectly true as if we had seen 
it ourselves. Old age had not made him childish, and his 
memory was remarkable; he would name almost any old- 
fashioned plant at sight and tell some interesting tale about it 
into the bargain. Only a few months ago, too, he told me how 
he walked home from Bowood to Warminster for his Christmas 
dinner in 1813, remarking that it had been mild weather to 
that time, but that he had to go back through a deep snow, 
and that very severe weather followed. 
Hardy perennials in flower August 3rd :— 
Lilium tigrinum 
Linum flayum 
Lithospermum prostratum 
Lobelia syphilitica 
L. cardinalis 
Lychnis yespertina alba plena 
Malva lateracea 
Mimulus moschatus Harrisoni 
Achillea ageratoides 
A. aurea 
A. Ptarmica plena 
A. Millefolinm rosea 
Aconitum versicolor 
Actinomeris helianthoides 
Alstrémeria psittacina 
Anchusa capensis 
A. italica 
Anemone Honorine Jobers 
A. japonica hybrida 
Armeria alpina grandiflora 
Asclepias incarnata 
Aster rosmarinifolius 
Bocconia cordata 
Campanula alliarifolia 
C. carpatica 
C. celtidifolia 
C. lactiflora 
C. Portenschlageana 
C. pulla 
C. pumila 
Centranthus angustifolius 
C, roseus 
Centrocarpha grandiflora 
Chelone Lyoni 
Clematis integrifolia 
Coreopsis preecox 
C. lanceolata 
Crucianella stylosa 
Cyananthus lobata 
Erodium manescavia 
Eryngium alpinum 
Monarda didyma 
M. mollis . 
M. fistulosa 
M. purpurea 
Nepeta ceerulea 
WN. macrantha 
(Enothera Fraseri 
. riparia 
CE. speciosa 
G:. taraxacifolia 
. Youngi 
Gthionema saxatile 
Papaver nudicaule 
Parnassia palustris 
Patrinia scabiosefolia 
Pentstemon heterophylla 
P. various 
Phlox in variety 
Phygelius capensis 
Platycodon grandiflora 
P. grandiflora alba 
Polygonum Brunoni 
P. viviparum 
Potentilla Hopwoodiana 
Pyrethrum in variety 
Sangnisorba media 
Scutellaria macrantha 
Scrophularia nodosa variegata 
Solidago refiexa 
Spirea filipendula plena 
S. venusta 
Statice latifolia 
S.spathulata _ 
Stevia mexicana 
Sylphium trifoliatum 
Tradescantia virginica 
Tritoma Uvaria glaucescens 
Verbascum phceniceum roseum 
Verbena yenosa 
Veronica virginica 
Viola in variety 
E. Bourgati 
E. falcatum 
E. tricuspidatum 
Funkia ovata 
Gaillardia Amblyodon 
G. grandifiora 
Geranium striatum 
Geum coccineum 
G. coccineum plenum 
Helianthus multifiorus 
Hieracium aurantiacum 
Hypericum Androsemum 
Hypoxis villosa 
Liatris spicata 
Lilium auratum 
L. chaleedonicum 
L. superbum 
—WILLIAM TAYLOR. 
THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH GRAPE. 
I Am sorry that I was unable to be at the last Committee 
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society at South Kensing- 
ton, for then I should have had the great pleasure of seeing 
the above noble Grape well done by. It is years since I first 
saw and tasted it at the Kelso Show, and I have never ceased 
to think wellof it. I have four young Vines now planted ; one 
has two small bunches which are ripening now, though the cane 
was only put in this year. My own opinion is that it will make 
a good outdoor wall Grape in the south, and I have given a 
friend of mine a plant.to try it under these conditions. I find 
it does not like artificial heat. It was very well shown at 
both Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge Flower Shows by Mr. 
Johnston of the Gardens at Bayham, the beautiful seat of the 
Marquis of Camden, where I had the pleasure of seeing the 
Vine in excellent growth. It has been planted three years; 
the rod is about 14 to 16 feet long, and there has been a crop of 
