218 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ September 7, 1878. 



the most dejected spectacles that can possibly he imagined. 

 Here then is the locality that suits the tender system, and 

 where it should preponderate and be developed to as high a 

 pitch as it is possible. 



g£,We are not going to balance the tastes that come into play 

 in making a hobby of any system of gardening ; what we want 

 to show is the futility of trying to gain an end and gratify a 

 taste with all the elements of nature against you, and the 

 stupidity that has been practised in trying to get a kitty wren 

 to develope canary's feathers. Then, again, there is the season 

 of the year at which a floral display is required. This should 

 have something to do with the decision of those who love 

 flowers. Taking the great gardens of this country, as a rule 

 nine-tenths of their proprietors are absent from their country 

 seats when herbaoeous plants are in their glory, and arrive at 

 their seats to see only the fag (and that the least interesting) 

 end of them. On the other hand, there are numbers of pro- 

 prietors of our lesser villa gardens, who, as a rule, leave their 

 places for a month or two, just when the tender system is 

 coming into bloom, and come back to see it either washed out 

 with wet or cut down with frost. In the case of the latter, 

 their error lies in not going in for the hardy system, which they 

 could enjoy all spring and early part of summer. The adap- 

 tation of systems, in most cases, is what is called for, not their 

 extinction, and in many caseB the combination of the two 

 yields by far the greatest amount of pleasure. 



Besides, before we can substitute any one system for another, 

 an entire revolution must be wrought in the plans and dis- 

 position of our garden grounds. In many cases this, in our 

 opinion, would be desirable, apart from any floral effect what- 

 ever, for in many places the entire repose and natural beauties 

 of the grounds have been so tortured with square and compass 

 that there is not a line of beauty or a refuge for repose to the 

 eye left. This is one great abuse to which our geometrical flower 

 gardens, for colour displays alone, have led. Every piece of 

 greensward has been tortured with the most nonsensical 

 whirligiggams that an expert hand at the compass could 

 devise. It is not that such designs should not be in their best 

 forms, but the evil has been that they are wrongly placed. 

 They stare at you everywhere, and hard lines of Box and grass, 

 and glaring gravels and broken spars and stones, have taken 

 the place of " lines of beauty " and graceful vegetation. 



We are afraid that even yet comparatively few have suffi- 

 ciently examined and observed our hardy border flowers to 

 discover their extreme beauty. If a plant comes from " some 

 place far abroad," sells for ten or fifteen guineas, and requires 

 a temperature enough to stifle a human beiDg, it is a world's 

 wonder. Let the observer take it out to the herbaceous border 

 and compare it with that exquisitely formed, pencilled, and 

 shaded hardy Iris that will thrive by a ditch side or in cold uh- 

 genial soil, and we will answer for it the Iris does not lose by 

 comparison. Take that splendid spike of Calanthe, or any- 

 thing you please, and lay it side by side with that towering 

 spike of wondrously coloured and formed Delphinium, and see 

 which loses by the contrast. Go into the grandest modern 

 parterre garden in Europe, and make up the most graceful 

 bouquet that an acre under tender plants can supply, and then 

 go with the same Bkill and discrimination into your herbaceous 

 ground and make up a bunch or vase of flowers from it, and if 

 the latter does not make the former pale, both for exquisite 

 delicacy of colouring and beautiful graceful forms, it will be 

 surprising. Go again in search of interesting objects into the 

 one garden and then into the other, you will find food for ob- 

 servation and study, as far as variety of form, colour, and 

 character are concerned, that will be inexhaustible, and fresh 

 and new every day for long months in the year, in the one as 

 compared to the other. 



We can look out from where we are sitting on a mixed garden, 

 where there are Roses, Carnations, Phloxes, Delphiniums, 

 Paonies, and hundreds of varieties of hardy herbaceous plants, 

 annuals, &c, that, so far as we are concerned, we would not 

 exchange for any amount of tender parterre gardening; but, 

 for all that, we do not condemn it in its proper place. Let 

 them both live. The one is a splendid relief to the other. All 

 who want a never-failing source of interest and a richness of 

 cut flowers should grow selections of hardy herbaceous plants ; 

 and all who have gardens, large or small, in damp localities, 

 where late and early frosts prevail, should by all means let the 

 hardy style of gardening prevail. It yields by far the greatest 

 amount of beauty and satisfaction. In such a climate the 

 Phlox and the Delphinium and the whole varied train of hardy 

 beauties luxuriate the most ; and there are many, we fear, who 



have but little idea of the splendour of such plants when well 

 cultivated instead of being merely kept in existence. ThoBe 

 who think herbaceous plants do satisfactorily without high 

 cultivation labour under a. very great mistake. Indeed, in 

 soils that are naturally poor, and where the climate is dry, 

 their blooming is a mere flash in the pan, and they are mostly 

 withered and gone by midsummer, unless, under such circum- 

 stances, the very highest culture is brought to bear on them. 

 Deep trenching and heavy manuring, watering and mulching, 

 are the price that must be paid for satisfactory results in this 

 style of gardening, and the most shady (without being under 

 trees) situations Bhould be selected for the hardy garden, and 

 selections of plants to suit different soils and climates is also 

 desirable. — (The Qardener.) 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND WORK FOE 

 THE PBESENT WEEK. 



HARD? FRUIT GARDEN. 



It is a good plan to look carefully over the wall treeB early 

 this month, and to see that no shoots are hanging loose from 

 the walls. The whole garden looks untidy if the wall trees are 

 not kept in good order. Peaches and Nectarines are either ripe 

 or approaching to that stage, it is therefore desirable that no 

 water should be applied to the trees by the syringe or garden 

 engine. All insect pests ought to have been destroyed long 

 before this time. See that the leaves are not allowed to shade 

 the fruit from the sun : it is better to cut half of a leaf off, if that 

 will be sufficient to expose the fruit, than to wrench it off care- 

 lessly. Those who have paid attention to Peaches will have 

 noticed that if a leaf is allowed to overshadow any of the fruit 

 until it is ripe, the mark of the leaf will be noticed on the fruit. 

 Earwigs have been very destructive to Nectarines ; the woolly 

 coating of the Peach seems to be distasteful to them, but it is 

 possible that they might attack the Peach if no other fruit could 

 be had. The best way to capture and destroy them is to place 

 Bean stalkB cut into 6- inch lengths near where they feed, they 

 retire into them by day and may easily be blown out and de- 

 stroyed. 



Vines on walls out of doors ought not to be neglected at this 

 season; if there is not a large crop of fruit on them, much lateral 

 growth is made, which should be pinched back before it is neces- 

 sary to use the knife. It is not well to allow the Vines to make 

 considerable growth and then to cut it off in armfuls or barrow- 

 loads. The fruit of Royal Muscadine or Sweetwater may_ be 

 exposed to the sun, but Black Cluster or any other similar 

 variety colours better if the bunches are partially shaded by the 

 leaveB. When the fruit of black Grapes is too much exposed to the 

 sun it is more liable to scald than the white sorts. We have seen 

 many bunches of Black Hamburgh Grapes out of doors this year 

 quite destroyed in that way. White S weetwaters on the same 

 wall have not been injured. It is interesting to note the effects 

 that the sun has upon different varieties of Grapes. It seems 

 that white varieties do not suffer injury so much as black, and 

 none of the black varieties colour well if fully exposed to the 

 sun. The tendency of Lady Downe's to scald is well known, 

 but its white counterpart does not scald under the same treat- 

 ment. All the leading growths should be nailed to the wall, 

 and the main leaves should be well exposed to the sun. If 

 wasps and flies make a raid on the ripening fruit they will 

 utterly destroy it if they are not prevented; about the best plan 

 is to place the bunches in gauze bags. The fruit must be occasion- 

 ally examined, as it is more liable to decay in the bags than 

 when it is open to the weather. 



There is a fair crop in some districts of Pears and Plums on 

 the walls. The latter are also very frequently a prey to waspa 

 and bluebottle flies, especially such sorts as Green Gage, Jeffer- 

 son, and Coe's Golden Drop. The only effectual way to save the 

 fruit is to cover some of the finer specimens with gauze. Pears 

 should be gathered at different times to keep up a succession as 

 long as possible. Williams's Bon Chretien is a very fine Pear that 

 has become well established in popular favour, but it has a formid- 

 able rival in Souvenir du Congres, evidently a seedling from it. 

 The new variety seems to keep rather better, is larger in size, 

 and has not so much of the musky aroma that is found in 

 Williams's. It is also a very free-bearing variety. Another new 

 Pear, Madame Treyve, succeeds the above, and does equally, 

 well as a wall or orchard-house tree, and is a very free bearer. 

 Mr. Rivers recommended this variety as being very high- 

 coloured on the exposed side, but it has not been so with us, it 

 is not even so highly coloured as Louise Bonne of Jersey. It is 

 beat to gather a portion of all these early Pears before they are 

 ripe, and make another gathering in a week, and yet another 

 about a week later. If it is intended to plant any fruit trees 

 during the ensuing winter the ground ought to be prepared now. 

 It ought to be trenched up to a good depth, and if poor some 

 decayed manure ought to be added. 

 Our Strawberry plants have been planted long ago, and are 



