32'2 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ October 25, 1877. 



porting a bouquet of flowers, make a grand display in her- 

 baceous or shrubbery borders. All they require is a free soil 

 liberally manured and an open situation. No plants surpass 

 them for affording a quantity of effective beautiful flowers 

 with so little trouble and expense. The only trouble is to keep 

 "the clumps within bounds and manure in mulch form liberally. 

 A collection, or rather selection, should be in every garden, 

 alike for effect and cutting from. 



Pyrethrums were fine in June, but the late-summer or autumn 

 flowers have not made their appearance. There is no plant that 

 slugs are so fond of as this; to keep them under sprinklings of 

 soot should be given, and in winter some sharp ashes placed 

 around the crowns are a good application, as the peBts when 

 having their own way make quick work of the plants. Dusting 

 with quicklime destroys all the slugs it falls upon. 



Pinks did well, but Carnations, especially Cloves, were much 

 damaged by the wet, the flowers rotting ; those having the 

 fullest flowers — i «., most petals — were glued up, those rather 

 thin opening more freely. The end of September and early 

 October (the promise being yet good) being finer than any 

 previously. Their great beauty and fragrance are always 

 appreciated ; indeed no flower, excepting the Bose, is held in 

 higher esteem. 



Stocks had their central spikes good, when the wet com- 

 pletely converted them into a rotten mass ; the flowers being 

 individually large only helped the ruin. The plants struggled 

 on bravely, and are now finer than I have ever seen any in 

 October. The per-eentage of single to double-flowering plants 

 was greater than uBual. I consider fully two-thirds of the 

 plants had single flowers, a characteristic of Stocks in general 

 this season. 



Asters did not so much as show colour until the close of 

 September, it being remarkable what an influence sun exerts 

 upon plants, and surprising what a few days' bright weather 

 effects. The season has certainly been too cold for them. 



Marigolds have given very indifferent flowers — very coarse 

 and badly marked. An improvement has been induced by the 

 weather. September shows should this year have been held 

 in October. African Marigolds stood the weather much better 

 than the French. 



Dahlias, notwithstanding the wet, have flowered well and 

 grown strongly. The Dahlia is one of the very best of flowers 

 for a display in late summer, the dwarf varieties making grand 

 beds, and the bouquet Eorts are truly superb for decorative 

 purposes. 



Yerbenas have been wretched, the great trussed kinds being 

 the worst, and the pips of none can long withstand rain. 

 The erect growers, as Lord Baglan, have been the best ; thoBe ! 

 of prostrate habit have done nothing but grow. 



Scabious, than which there are not maDy sweeter useful 

 flowers for cutting, grew luxuriantly, and are now rewarding 

 with a profusion of perfect half balls in various shades of 

 •colour. I wonder prizes are not offered at late summer shows 

 for cut blooms. They are handsomer and in greater variety of 

 colour than Marigolds. 



Phlox Drummondi made strong growths. These are really 

 very useful and effective plants with a great diversity of colour 

 and marking. Prizes for a dozen heads of flowers — distinct 

 varieties — should form part of the schedule of all late summer 

 shows. The flowers withstood the wet well, and will continue 

 flowering until frost. 



Sweet Peas, which combine delicate sweetness with beauty of 

 flower, were practically useless until late September, when they 

 flowered profusely. I would even offer prizes for these as cut 

 flowers — any and every plant in fact that affords variety, 

 being of a useful decorative character — with a view to encourage 

 a taste for those plants within the reach of everyone. Double 

 Jacobosa, double Indian Pinks, and many others may be named 

 as very effective and of the easiest culture, that are well worth 

 the attention of the framers of schedules, whose chief aim 

 appears to be to honour what are chiefly luxuries of the 

 wealthy, instead of fostering a taste for hardy plants at the 

 command of everyone possessed of garden grounds. Great 

 sums as prizes for material that is more to be measured by the 

 means at command than upon the skill required in cultivation 

 lead but to one result — the bringing-out of "lions" paraded 

 from one show to another, the same plants doing the grower or 

 purchaser justice for years. It frustrates the aims of the pro- 

 moters — the advancement of horticulture, and its dissemination 

 among the masses. 



Hollyhocks may, as regards flowering, be put down a failure. 

 Not a flower expanded until October ; but as it is said to be 



" better late than never," so it may be with this stately flower. 

 Taken altogether there are more flowers this year in October 

 that at any earlier period. The weather appears to have 

 suited very few plants; notable exceptions are the Primula 

 family, Daisies, and the genus Viola. Pansies are blooming 

 as freely now as in early summer. I had some seed of the 

 French Imperatrice Eugenie, and such a mottled, dotted, 

 striped variety of flower I have not before seen, nor in so great 

 variety of colour. No one can but be interested by such great 

 diversity of flowers, some of them being really marvels of tint 

 and shades of colour, a few having really well-formed flowers. 

 They beat the Belgians hollow. 



There is a great promise of Violets (Victoria Begina and 

 Neapolitan), and we have been gathering them since the middle 

 of September. Hardy spring flowers are remarkably vigorous, 

 giving promise of a great bloom in due season. — A. 



NEW HVACINTH GLASS. 



Messes. Stevens & Williams 



Fig. 62. 



of Brierley Hill Glass 

 Works, Staffordshire, have 

 recently registered a new 

 Hyacinth glass with sup- 

 port, of which we append 

 an engraving. When not 

 required for Hyacinths the 

 glass can be used for cut 

 flowers. The rod does 

 not at all interfere with 

 the bulb, as it can be ap- 

 plied by means of a spring 

 outside the glass, thus ob- 

 viating the employment 

 of any hooks or screws. 

 The supports for the leaves 

 and flowers are made of 

 brass bands, the flat sides 

 of which alone touch the 

 plant. By this means ac- 

 cidental bruising or cut- 

 ting is prevented. TheEe 

 supports are also so ar- 

 ranged that they are able 

 to slide up and down. The 

 top support is capable of 

 admitting the spike of the 

 flower without any diffi- 

 culty, and it is at the same 

 time of sufficient strength 

 and firmnesB to uphold 

 the largest Hyacinth. 



IMPROVEMENT OP LIGHT SOILS. 



It is just possible that the statement of " Cirencester 

 Amateur " on page 290 in last week's number may deter some 

 readers of the Journal, whose garden soil is too light to pro- 

 duce good Strawberries, from trying the great improvement 

 they may effect at a slight cost by surface-dressing their soil 

 with a moderate quantity of clay in preference to burying it, 

 otherwise I would waste neither your space nor my time in 

 noticing his assertion that " it would be necessary to go at 

 least 5 feet deep," &c. Deep cultivation is all very well, but 

 has anyone ever prepared a bed for Strawberries 5 feet deep ? 

 We may next be called upon to prepare for Badishes yards 

 long, and Carrots running down to the greensand. But after 

 all, in such a matter no amount of argument is worth one 

 carefully conducted experiment. 



Let anyone make a bed on light soil according to " Ciken- 

 cestee Amateur's " instructions of any novelty he recom- 

 mends, and prepare a similar bed for British Queen by spread- 

 ing 3 or 4 inches of clay on the surface, leaving it exposed for 

 the winter, and then mixing it in with the top spit just before 

 planting, which should be done with runners from a nursery 

 bed early in the spring. The next season, immediately after 

 the fruit is gathered, the plants are to be dug up and replaced 

 with the earliest runners that can be obtained, or plants from 

 a reserve bed the same as the first season, and so on for a 

 season or two, till it is evident whether the permanent bed of 

 novelties, said to be suited to light soils, or the British Queens 

 are the best. 



