A YEAR'S GARDENING 



ticularly on the sea-coast — it will survive the winter in the open and 

 grow into a fine bush abounding in masses of beautiful flowers. Too 

 often the Fuchsia is restricted to the greenhouse, but with a httle 

 management it may be made a most useful plant for the garden. 

 The essential point is that the plants should be kept back as much as 

 possible while under glass and not permitted to break into leaf until 

 they are put out of doors, which should be as early in May as the 

 weather will allow. In fact their best place for the winter is in some 

 dry cellar or shed, so that aU their growth may be made in the open. 

 There are niany hardy kinds quite suitable for such treatment, 

 among which may be mentioned F. coccinea, a graceful and free- 

 growing plant with beautifully-veined leaves and a profusion of 

 crimson flowers; F. gracilis, a distinctly graceful plant bearing its 

 flowers on long slender stalks; and F. globosa, with particularly 

 globe-like flowers. It is quite easy to raise Fuchsias from seed, 

 which, if sown in January or February, wiU produce plants ready to 

 bloom in July or August. Of course such early sowing must be 

 made in heat, and for the soil in which the seedlings are potted ofi 

 a mixture of cow-dung is advised. 



FUNKIA. A plant of the LUy order, many of the species pro- 

 ducing fine spikes of flowers, though chiefly valued for their beautiful 

 foliage. F. Sieboldi is, perhaps, the best in this respect, growing 

 sometimes as much as 3 feet high and having large heart-shaped 

 leaves with flowers of lilac hue rising above. F. lancifolia is a 

 smaller species with lance-shaped leaves and has some interesting 

 varieties in albo-marginata and undulaia-variegata. AH thrive best 

 in well-drained soil and may be increased by division in autumn. 



(^AILLARDIA. Although among the varieties of this plant 

 we find hardy perennials, half-hardy perennials, hardy annuals and 

 half-hardy annuals, there is little doubt that the most convenient 

 way, as weU as the most successful, is to treat them as half-hardy 

 annuals, sowing in a mild hot-bed early in March and planting out 

 in May. The wonderful combination of shades of colour produced 

 in the flowers Of the Gaillardia — ^varying between gold and maroon, 

 yellow and scarlet, crimson and gold, etc. — ^render it a general favourite 

 and most valuable for growing in bold groups, while as a cut flower 

 it is highly decorative and lasts long. Among the many kinds which 

 are good may be mentioned G. aristata and its varieties G. aniblyodon 

 and G. pulchella ; while in the various hybrids there are G. grandi- 

 flora and grandiflora compacta, with others very similar, 



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