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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t October 24, 1S72. 



ficial. If, on the contrary, it be light and dry, the soil should 

 he strengthened by the admixture of good and rather heavy 

 loam. Deep trenching and a liberal manuring should be 

 resorted to before planting ; and a thorough dressing of good 

 sound manure should be f orked-in annually in November, when, 

 in ordinary cases, the summer growth may be cut back. 



" When the beds are left bare and bald throughout the winter, 

 the effect during the dull portion of the year is not altogether 

 sightly. In order to avoid this, we have employed, and we 

 Strongly recommend the introduction of, such hardy evergreens 

 as small bushy plants of both the green-leaved and variegated 

 varieties of Aucuba japonica ; of Berberis Aqmfolium ; of Holly, 

 both green and variegated; of Box, and dwarf Conifers ; aud of 

 close bushy plants of common Rhododendrons, &c. These 

 should be planted, or plunged in pots, between the permanent 

 plants. Then, some time in March, earlier or later according to 

 the season, this temporary winter evergreen furnishing should 

 be removed, so that it may not interfere with or prevent the 

 timely training of the early spring growth of the Clematises. 

 In this way the Clematis beds may be made to form part of a 

 design for a winter garden of evergreens ; or even an isolated 

 bed, if thus filled in the winter, becomes changed from an eye- 

 sore into an object of interest and attractiveness. 



'•' The young plants of Clematis, when planted out, should be 

 set at about 2 feet apart, so that they may cover the surface 

 quickly. When they become strong and well established, a 

 portion of them may be removed if desired, as from the more 

 vigorous growth of established plants they will branch more 

 freely and cover more quickly. The growing shoots should 

 he looked to at least once a-week, and pegged down or trained 

 "where most required to cover the surface. They cling to- 

 gether so firmly by their clasping leafstalks that this should 

 always be done before they get at all entangled, for the young 

 shoots would be certain to suffer injury in the process of 

 disentanglement. The plants should be raised by some means 

 so as to give a convex surface to the bed, and thus the better 

 to display their flowers. This may be done in a variety 

 of ways — either by raising the surface of the bed itself to the 

 desired shape; by pegging down a layer of twiggy branches, 

 such as pea sticks, for the plants to grow over ; by fixing a 

 common hooped trellis of rods, to which the shoots should at the 

 first be tied; or, what in many situations would be the best plan 

 of all, but which would be scarcely admissible in a dressed 

 parterre, by arranging root-masses of suitable bulk on the sur- 

 face of the beds for the plants to scramble over and amongst. 

 Whatever plan may be adopted, the plants must be trained as 

 already recommended till they have furnished the space to be 

 covered, when they may be allowed to grow more at random. 



" As the plants do not throw up flowers from the lower portion 

 of their stems, it is desirable in training them to cover the beds, 

 that the points of one series of plants should be so arranged that 

 they may overlap those portions of the adjoining ones which 

 remain bare. This point should be borne in mind from the first, 

 and until the whole surface is evenly covered with flowering 

 wood. 



"It has already been intimated that continuity of flowering is 

 dependant upon continuity of growth. Now this at once suggests 

 summer feeding. Thus, in dry weather manure water should be 

 given alternately with pure water, the water not being applied 

 over the leaves and flowers, but beneath them. It is to be 

 recommended, if the summer is at all a dry one, to have the 

 heds thoroughly saturated with pure water just as the buds are 

 "being developed and begin to acquire size ; if this is done 

 thoroughly it will increase the size of the flowers, and will carry 

 the plants on for a considerable period. One or two such 

 thorough waterings may be given subsequently if the season is 

 such as to re quire it, applying at least one dose of liquid manure 

 when the plants have been flowering for a considerable period. 

 No other attention is required till the frosts of November come, 

 after which the plants may be pruned hard back. 



" It has been recommended to water beneath rather than over 

 the flowers and leaves, but it is surprising, considering the size 

 of the flowers, how well they withstand heavy rains and storms. 

 Though necessarily affected to some extent, they show less 

 damage than most of the ordinary bedding plants. 



" We have hitherto mainly referred to the summer and 

 autumn-flowering varieties, but the bedding season of the Cle- 

 matis may be commenced at an earlier period by the employ- 

 ment of C. Standishii, which is exceptionally hardy, and pro- 

 bably also by the use of some of the newer sorts bred from it, 

 but which have not as yet, so far as we know, been tried. As 

 regards their general treatment, the foregoing remarks apply to 

 these also, but, being of a more slender habit, they should be 

 planted in rows at 18 inches apart. These spring-blooming sorts 

 commence and finish their flowering before the ordinary sum- 

 mer bedding begins, say the middle of May and June, but the 

 effect at that early part of the season is most pleasing. As they 

 flower from the old wood, it becomes necessary with them to 

 train the young shoots so that they may be exposed to light and 

 air and become thoroughly ripened ; but this would not interfere 



with the growth of other dwarf summer bedders, as the branches 

 of the Clematises, if neatly trained in lines, or as a border, at 

 about the level of the plant used with them, would not be un- 

 sightly ; or the Clematis shoots could be trained as a carpet over 

 the beds, and flowering plants in pots plunged at intervals 

 between them, but not so closely as to interfere with their 

 maturation. We can especially recommend C. Standishii for 

 this purpose. In certain cases, after becoming well established 

 in a bed, we have known C. Standishii to push with so much 

 vigour just before the flowering time as to make it advantageous 

 to cut off the young growth in order to show up the flowers. 

 When this has occurred, we have found that the later summer 

 shoots were quite sufficient to furnish the bed with flowering 

 wood for the following season. 



"Though, as we have just stated, the spring-blooming varie- 

 ties of Clematis may be advantageously made use of whenever 

 it is desired to have a flowering bed in May or June before the 

 ordinary bedding plants come in, yet we wish it to be under- 

 stood that, from many points of view, the summer and autumn- 

 flowering hybrids, of which C. Jackmanni is the type, are the 

 most suitable for bedding-out, especially by reason of their 

 habit of profuse and continuous flowering. 



" We have as yet only referred to the principal furnishing of 

 the beds, either for spring or summer flowering; but in practice 

 it is found that when Clematis beds are formed on grass, an 

 edging of some kind, which may intervene between the deep 

 rich hue of the Clematis and the green of the turf, is desirable. 

 Plants with white or yellowish, or at least light-coloured foliage, 

 seem to be most effective for this purpose. We have used the 

 hoary Stachys lanata, the flowering stems being cut off as soon 

 as they appear ; but the habit of this plant, otherwise appro- 

 priate enough, is rather too flat to be fully effective. A better 

 habit is that afforded by Lonicera aureo-reticulata when kept 

 closely pruned, and the colour of this plant also forms a pleas- 

 ing combination with its surroundings. The dwarf-growing 

 variegated-leaved Euonynras radicans, the golden retieulately- 

 marked Vinca elegantissima, and the neat Buxus argentea nova, 

 are all useful plants, well adapted for edging the beds of Cle- 

 matis, and very effective if kept closely pruned, and thus pre- 

 vented from acquiring too much height. Cineraria maritima, 

 a free-growing white-leaved plant, with finely-cut leaves, as 

 well as some of its modern varieties, would be very suitable if 

 kept constantly stopped back. The hoary Senecio argentea, 

 Achillea Clavenna?, Artemisia Stelleriana, and Santolina incana, 

 again, might be advantageously selected, or the Centaurea 

 ragusina, or C. gynmocarpa, if kept from flowering. In fact, 

 any hardy free-growing dwarfish subjects, of which the leaves 

 or sprigs stand erect and afford a pleasing contrast in colour, 

 would, provided they were kept within due bounds by the timely 

 use of the knife or praning-seissors, be found efficient as edging 

 plants. 



" Mr. Fleming has recommended the introduction, here and 

 there, in Clematis beds, of an upright or standard plant for the 

 sake of affording variety of outline, and he suggests planting 

 Clematis Flammula for this purpose. If kept sy m metrically 

 trained to a dome-like head, some i or 5 feet high, as it may be, 

 or if trained up in a pyramidal form, and then allowed to drop 

 down fountain-like, it would have a very good effect in large 

 beds of the purple varieties, as would the equally fragrant 

 C. effirulea odorata planted in a bed of any of the pale-coloured 

 kinds. 



" Where basket-like edgings are adopted for beds in the 

 flower garden, the Clematis might be usefully introduced as an 

 edging plant, either as a supplement to the edgings of Ivy now 

 sometimes used, or alone. When properly cared for, the sum- 

 mer-flowering hybrid varieties of Clematis make from 10 to 

 15 feet of growth in a season." 



The work is elaborately illustrated both with well-executed 

 wood engravings and lithographs, some of which are beauti- 

 fully coloured. 



The illustration which accompanies this article was obligingly 

 lent us by the authors, and it only remains for us to say that 

 we highly commend this well- written and exhaustive work to 

 the attention of all lovers of this char min g flower. 



Fibst Ice House in England. — " Oct. 22nd, 16G0. A snow 

 house and an ice house made in St. James's Park, as the mode 

 is in some parts in France and Italy and other hot countries, 

 for to cool wines and other drinks for the summer season." — 

 (Add. MSS. in Brit. Mm.) 



The Flat Peach or China is peculiar among the fruits of 

 this species. It is as if pressed-in from the top and the 

 bottom, so that the eye and the stalk come close together, the 

 whole-having the appearance of a ring of flesh with a stone in 

 the middle. The colour of the skin is pale yellow, mottled 

 with red on the side next the sun; the flesh of the same 



