HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 27 



Flower Garden. — At every opportunity work connected with 

 this department should be forwarded. If the lawn be thin from 

 constant mowings, a thin dressing of rich compost may be sown 

 over it. Soot, whenever it can be obtained, is excellent for this 

 purpose. Guano, mixed in proportion about one-sixth with sandy 

 loam, is also very effectual. Whatever alterations and improve- 

 ments are to be made, should be at once decided on, and arrange- 

 ments made for starting everything at the very first opportunity. 

 Our seasons follow each other in such rapid succession that without 

 much care and forethought, we are apt to find them gone without 

 the accomplishment of our intentions. Get manure in readiness 

 wherever the beds or shrubberies are poor. I dislike the old prac- 

 tice of putting it on while frosty. There is little time saved by it. 

 It prevents the ground thawing or drying fit for operations, as soon 

 as it otherwise would. It is well to be in advance, but it is better, 

 sometimes, as the Frenchman said, " to wait awhile that we may 

 get done the sooner." It is a good plan to make a rough sketch of 

 the beds in a Flower garden, and where flowers are grown in 

 masses, mark on paper what liower is to fill any given bed. The 

 harmony of color can then be better seen at a glance, and any- 

 thing incongruous can be remedied in time. If there is not enough 

 of anything on hand, there will be time, in most cases, to propo- 

 gate a few more. This will tend much to expedite work at the 

 proper season. 



In the last number I gave a list of hardy plants. I need only 

 observe here that most of them can be had in the trade in Phila- 

 delphia, as the remark has been made to me that our nurserymen 

 do not keep these things. All pruning should be done as speedily 

 as possible ; the earlier it is done the stronger the plants will shoot, 

 and the contrary when it is deferred till the bursting of the buds. 



Green House. — Towards the end of the month, before the plants, 

 generally, are about to make a good growth, they should be locked 

 over, and those badly drained, and those which require repotting, 

 attended to. One of the main things to be attended to in all kinds 

 of plants is good drainage. Whatever proportions of soil be used 

 for each respective kind of plant, they should each be thoroughly 

 decomposed and mixed together. In potting, the plant should never 



