130 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August IS, 1870. 



with early preparation, of bedding plants, and this year has 

 more than ever confirmed my views on this subject, for, with 

 hardly any exception, in every garden which has come under 

 my notice this year, those plants which were backward or pnt 

 out late have done no good, while those which were put out 

 early as good established plants have stood the dry weather 

 and done admirably. And in this view I am confirmed in a 

 letter from A. 0. Walker, Esq., of Chester, who says that he 

 has never seen bedding plants finer where they were planted 

 out early, and that those planted late have done no good what- 

 ever. 



_ This year I was living in Gloucestershire at bedding-out 

 time, and I had all the beda planted and the garden finished 

 by the 26th of May ; and though from that time through the 

 whole of June there was only one shower of rain, I never 

 allowed any of the Geranium beds to be, watered ; the only 

 beds which had any water were Verbenas and Calceolarias. 

 We left there late in Jane, and I have been twice there since, 

 and although the lawn was burnt np as brown as a high road, 

 and the leaves were falling from the Elm trees as if it had 

 been October, the last time I was there, about the 3rd of 

 August, the Geranium beds were still good, especially Waltham 

 Seedling and Indian Yellow ; the only useless one, which I have 

 long given up here, being Christine. Lord Palmerston was 

 splendid in the middle of July, but had over-flowered, and the 

 exceeding heat and drought, in Gloucestershire, of the last week 

 in July were beginning to tell upon it. 



Here, in Yorkshire, we began to bed out about the 16th of 

 May, and planted everything but Coleus and Indian Maize by 

 the end of the month ; these were put in the first week in 

 June. The Indian Maize, grown from a cob of English-ripened 

 seed sent me by Dr. Hogg, has done very well. 



It has been too hot and dry for the Coleus, which was planted 

 under the front wall of the house, but the plants are growing 

 well still, and I expect will get a good colour when the sun has 

 less power ; but as the thermometer laid on the grass in the 

 sun has frequently registered over 120° — this very day, August 

 12th, being over 120° for two or three hours consecutively — it 

 seems to burn the colour out of the leaves, and to give them a 

 rusty hue. It is almost impossible in a stove to give them too 

 much light, but there the moist atmosphere prevents the sun 

 blanching them. 



Beet has done well with me where the sparrows will leave it 

 alone ; but they have proved a great enemy to it this dry sum- 

 mer when they are short of insects, and they get under the 

 shade of the leaves and peck the juicy stems to pieces, hardly 

 ever touching the leaves themselves, but destroying the stems 

 completely. In a wet season the plants would have grown 

 away from them, but this dry season they have done the plants 

 in places a great deal of injury. 



Iresine Lindeni will, I think, be a valuable acquisition in a 

 less trying season. It has stood the dry weather pretty fairly ; 

 but as we have now had only 0.33, or the third of an inch of 

 rain, since the 30th of June, and the last few days have been 

 hotter and drier, if possible, than ever, ranging from 75° to 86° 

 in the shade, with a north-easterly wind, they are beginning to 

 succumb, and as I can only afford water for Verbena beds, I am 

 afraid if rain do not come very soon that they will hardly re- 

 cover. Even Indian Corn is beginning to flag now, and Perilla 

 is suffering worse than Iresine. 



My Verbenas, especially mixed Verbenas, have been splendid 

 this year, but I have watered them regularly — not mere surface 

 watering, but copiously, and the plants cover the surface of the 

 beds so entirely that there is comparatively very little evapora- 

 tion now. There were some very good sorts among the new 

 ones of last year, especially Monarch, Emma Perry, Sonny 

 Thoughts, Peacemaker, Out-and-Outer, Mrs. R. Hole, &e. I 

 do not, in fact, ever remember a much better lot of seedlings 

 being sent out by Mr. Perry. Of older sorts, James Birbeck 

 and Miss Wimsett have been remarkably good, and a chance 

 seedling, a cross between Crimson King and Foxhunter, which 

 I bedded on trial, has proved an effective bedder. 



Calceolarias have not done well with me ; I have used this 

 year more Tagetes signata pumila than Calceolaria, but intend 

 another year to go back to the Calceolaria again. Two beds of 

 Tagetes have been very good, but a row of Tagetes was too near 

 some Arabis variegata, which was a harbour for slugs, and 

 several plant3 were destroyed, and the blanks had to be filled up 

 from reserves, so that the rows were uneven. Tagetes also comes 

 in too late to please me, so that I shall plant more Calceolarias 

 another year, though I think the colour is rather too gaudy 

 and striking to use much of, especially in masses, as there is 



no relief to the eye in a large bed of yellow Calceolarias if in 

 full bloom. As a row in a ribbon border it is more appropriate, 

 and certainly there is no yellow to equal it in point of richness 

 of colour. All yellow-foliaged plantB are really only yellow 

 greens, but as such are very useful, notably Pyrethrum Golden 

 Feather, which is certainly one of our most valuable additions 

 to the garden, its only drawback being its tendency to flower, 

 which can, however, be kept under by judicious cutting, and 

 seedlings are much less troublesome than cuttings, especially 

 if the centre be well cut back at the first appearance of a flower 

 bud. 



Lobelia Little Gem has been beautiful with me this year. 

 ThoBe who do not possess it should certainly give it a trial. 

 The colour is much the same as that of Paxtoni, but it is much 

 more dwarf, and has the invaluable habit of making plenty of 

 leaf and growth before flowering, so that when turned out in 

 spring it forms, under proper treatment, masses of dense 

 foliage. I pricked out mine in the middle of March under 

 light frames, such as I have previously described in the pages 

 of your Journal, and transplanted them with balls, and I have 

 not seen a single failure in those planted early ; but some 

 which were planted out later to take the place of some seedling 

 Lobelia speciosa which had not done well, died after flowering. 

 Those which were planted early are Btill blooming profusely, 

 and likely to continue sometime longer, though they have been 

 in full bloom now for more than eight weeks, and most of the 

 plants were blooming when put out in May. 



Another plant for edgings which always does well with me, 

 and is not, I think, sufficiently used, is the large-leaved va- 

 riegated Periwinkle (Vinca). ItB leaves are always bright, and it 

 stands both wet and drought ; it has a straggling habit, but is 

 easily pegged down and kept in, and it can be pegged by means 

 of its own shoots. If one of the long trailing stems be buried 

 on one side, then drawn over the plant, and buried again on 

 the other, both of the ends will root, and the plant may thus 

 be made to keep itself trained. 



I will defer my remarks on Geraniums till another time, as it 

 would make these present notes too long. I will only add about 

 them at present, that with me the Nosegays have again been 

 much the best, William Underwood having been the only good 

 Zonal which can at all compare with such sorts as Violet Hill, 

 Bayard, Waltham Seedling, Indian Yellow, Duchess of Suther- 

 land, &e. Violet Hill seems still the very best I have seen, and 

 in this opinion I am confirmed by every gardener who has seen 

 it here this year. It is nearly as good now, when other Gera- 

 niums are suffering from the dry weather, as ever, and the beds 

 have never had a drop of water given to them since they were 

 planted ; and I am more and more convinced, that the best way 

 to treat Geraniums is to get sorts that will bear manure and 

 rich treatment without growing coarse ; then, if dry weather 

 come, they have the manure to support them, and if wet 

 weather, from their dwarfer growth and freer habit of blooming 

 they will not go to leaf, even under good treatment, so much 

 as the older sorts of strong-growing Zonals, as Clipper, Dr. 

 Lindley, Lord Derby, Herald of Spring, &c, and in dry seasons 

 they do not run to seed or shed their petals as the Zonals do. 

 I forgot to say that in Gloucestershire Iresine Herbstii has 

 stood the dry weather admirably, and grown vigorously, 

 though the colour is not so rich as in damp, warm weather. — 

 C. P. Peach, Agpleton-le-Street. 



After experiencing a wet and somewhat sunless spring and 

 fore-summer in this part of the country, we are now undergoing 

 a roasting process much more severe than that to which we 

 were subjected last season, and it may be interesting as well as 

 useful to note how different bedding plants are enduring it. 



To begin at the beginning, for they are undoubtedly the alpha 

 of the bedding alphabet, Pelargoniums are moBtly doing well. 

 The principal exceptions are Golden Fleece, Cloth of Gold, and 

 some of the new bronze sorts. The firBt two were beautiful so 

 long as the dripping weather lasted, but now many of their 

 leaves are turning up round the edges and crumbling away into 

 dry dust. Why they should do so when others of the white 

 sorts with just as little green in their leaves, such as Castlemilk 

 for example, stand uninjured, will most likely remain one of 

 the many unanswered whys which are continually meeting us. 

 Perhaps it may be that the leaves of the latter, being white, 

 reflect the sun's rays, while the yellow leaves, being able to do 

 so only in an inferior degree, are snnstruck and shrivel up ; or 

 perhaps it may be from a totally different cause ; but one thing 

 is certain, that those two of the golden names cannot be trusted 

 to behave themselves when planted where they are fully exposed 



