Violas Rugosas, Daffodils may relieve the bareness of the ground in 
among spring. If many bulbs are planted in the autumn, the winter 
Roses dressing of manure must be restricted, and the bed may be covered 
instead with burnt rubbish. Through the summer, soot and 
guano may be sprinkled alternately on the soil for the rain to 
wash in. 
If the beds be filled with Violas, a yet more continuous stream 
of flowers will be gained. If there is room, it is an excellent 
plan to have both old and new plants of Violas; the old will be 
solid cushions of bloom through April, May, June, and, if the 
weather is not too hot, a part of July, when they should be cut 
back, well watered and mulched, to give them vigour for their 
fresh shoots. The cuttings, taken the previous autumn, should 
be planted out as early as possible, but will have all their growth 
to make before they can be really effective, and seem to be at 
their best about July. The strongest plants are made from 
cuttings planted out in the open ground and left with no pro- 
tection through the winter, for in a frame they are apt to get 
diseased or to rot off. It is best to limit oneself to four or five 
good kinds, or to plant one sort only in a bed, so that the pale 
mauves may be set off by the deep purple, and the white or 
cream be seen against the mauve. The varieties vary a good 
deal in their strength and power of flowering. Here on a 
hot, dry, unsuitable soil the following kinds have done best: 
Snow Queen and Skylark, white with mauve edge, the strongest 
growing of all; Maggie Moore’ and Queenie, a light and a darker 
shade of mauve, and Purple King; but it is as well for every 
gardener to learn by experiment the kinds that are most luxuriant 
on his own soil. 
The smaller the garden, the firmer should be the determina- 
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