A YEAR'S GARDENING 



colour the Tufted Pansy is far superior and many of the best varieties 

 3deld blooms of delicate beauty well suited for table bouquets. Tlie 

 Tufted Pansy is quite easy of culture and may readily be raised from 

 seed or, if it is desired to perpetuate the particular variety, by cut- 

 tings taken early in April and kept under glass in a shady border 

 until well rooted,' when the lights may be removed. By September 

 they ought to be ready for transplanting and should be given plenty 

 of room for growth, so that they may bloom early in the following 

 year. But for ordinary purposes the plants may be raised from seed 

 by sowing in the open in a shady border in August, either pricking 

 out the seedlings into a prepared plot in the autumn or allowing them 

 to remain, after thinning, until the following March, when they should 

 be transplanted into the required situation. The plants will spread 

 rapidly, but are apt to deteriorate if permitted to remain in the same 

 place more than two or three years, unless they receive a liberal 

 dressing of manure, while to maintain their bloom throughout the 

 summer it is necessary to remove immediately all faded flowers and 

 thus prevent any seed maturing; moreover, the plants should be 

 kept trim by nipping off any coarse or overgrown shoots, thus pro- 

 moting new growth. There are so many beautiful varieties among 

 Tufted Pansies that it is impossible to give a complete list here, but 

 the following are fairly representative: Self-coloured (Rayless) — 

 White Beauty, pure white; Pembroke, light yellow; Rosea Pallida, 

 pale pink; O^Mia, pale purple; and Blue Tit, hlxdsh manve. Self- 

 coloured (Rayed) — Lizzie Paul, rich yellow; Councillor W. Waters, 

 crimson-purple; /. B. Riding, fine mauve; True Blue, deep blue; 

 and Maggie, rose-pink. Variegated colours — Goldfinch, yellow 

 and purple; Cottage Maid, violet and v/hite; Hawk, v/hite and blue; 

 Butterfly, white and pink; and Stobhill Gem, violet and white. 



PAPAVER {Poppy). Of the many beautiful annuals which 

 grace our gardens there is none more lovely than the Shirley Poppy 

 and none more easy to grow, fragile and delicate-looking though it 

 is; indeed the one objection to it is that it seeds itself too readily 

 and is apt to appear where not wanted. Although it has now spread 

 all over the world it was not in existence before 1880, in which year 

 the Rev. W. Wilks, the Vicar of Shirley, (as he himself has told us) 

 noticed among a patch of wild poppies m his garden one solitary 

 flower which had a narrow edge of white. From this one flower, 

 by means of selection and elimination, has sprung the whole race of 

 Shirley Poppies, in which the shades of colour are now almost end- 

 less. The essential characteristics of the Shirley Poppy are that it 



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