98 



THE GAEDE^^ AND FIELD. 



August^ 1913 



the Celosia known as C. plumosa are 

 splendid summer plants. The seeds 

 are a fair size, shiny and black, so 

 that if sand is placed on the surface 

 of the sowing pan the seeds can be 

 sown as thinly as desired. 



Funkias, or "Plantain Lilies," have 

 handsome foliage, and where foliage 

 effects are wanted they are very desir- 

 able plants. The leaves, when the 

 plants are well grown, are large, and 

 they vary in colour from shades of 

 green to bluish, and in some varieties 

 are variegated with white or yellow. 

 The flowers are pure white or bluish- 

 lilac. The plants should remain in 

 one place for a long time, and they 

 like a deep, rich, moist soil. They are 

 propagated by division. 



The Rudbeckias, or "coneflowers," 

 are easilj'-grown plants, increased by 

 division, thriving in almost any soil, 

 provided it be kept fairly moist in the 

 summer. They flower very freely, 

 and the blooms are most useful for 

 cutting. Golden Glow attains a height 

 of five or six feet, and it flowers for 

 months in the autumn. 



. For early summer flowering shrubs 

 the following are good: — Choisya ter- 

 nata. Plumbago capensis, Spirea gran- 

 diflora, Deutzia crenata fl. pi., Phila- 

 delphus mexicanus, and Weigela 

 rosea. 



Johanna Sebus is a sweet and deli- 

 cately scented rose. The colouring is 

 a rich salmon pink with a yellowish 

 suffusion at the base of the petals. 

 The blooms are large, but a little in- 

 clined to droop. It is a very strong 

 grower. 



The bloom of the Crimson Flower- 

 ing Gum is of a brilliant scarlet, and 

 produced as they are in branching 



heads, make a striking display. They 

 are produced from a cup-like recep- 

 tacle, provided with a cap which falls 

 off as the flowers expand. When the 

 flowers are full}' open the green in- 

 terior of the receptacle is seen, adding 

 to the beauty of the flower. The 

 grey-green leaves with reddish midrib 

 are handsome. 



Though the Rose is universally ac- 

 knowledged to be the queen of flow- 

 ers, there is another aspirant to the 

 title. This is Lagerstroemia Flos- 

 Reginae, a showy and beautiful flow- 

 ering tree. It is a native of the West 

 Indies, and is locally known as the 

 Queen of Flowers. It is, we loelieve, 

 grown at the Botanic Gardens. 



— Novelties. — 



The true flower lover is never con- 

 tent with what he has— he is always 

 on the look out for beautiful or rare 

 plants he has not. And in these days 

 of cheap seeds, novelties can be tried 

 each season. We may not know them 

 by sight, or even name, until found in 

 some catalogue, but no matter, it is 

 always the unknown, the unfamiliar, 

 that lures us. Never mind if they are 

 over-praised and over-lauded, we a!re 

 going to find out for ourselves. It is 

 one of those pleasant paths of garden- 

 ing which even the most orthodox of 

 gardeners would find it difficult to 

 forego. 



— Sweet Peas. — ■ 



The sltig and also the snail will be 

 paying their attentions with consider- 

 able ardour to the young plants. If 

 soot, lime, ashes, or Pestend fail to 

 protect them, there is nothing for it 

 but regular evening visits with a lan- 

 tern and the lime bag. It is quite cer- 



tain that a very little lime will do for 

 a very fat slug, the trouble is to get 

 it on him. Sweet Peas are rarely 

 grown from cuttings here, but in 

 England it appears to be a fairly 

 general practice. Slips of springy, 

 woody cuttings, two or three inches 

 ^ong, root somewhat easily — it is said 

 — in a light sandy soil, even in the 

 open, but success is more certain in 

 a propagating case or close frame. 

 Cuttings of soft sappy growths are 

 difficult to strike. The plants from 

 which cuttings are taken qufckly re- 

 cover and send out fresh shoots. 

 Sweet Peas are certainly slow during 

 the first feV weeks of their lives, 

 when they appear to absolutely stand 

 still. One consolation is that what 

 they fail to do above ground, they 

 make up for beneath the surface. 

 One is tempted to -try and hurry them 

 on, both at this stage and when they 

 are making growth, by liquid manure. 

 If the ground has been well manured 

 before sowing there will, however, be 

 no need for this. In the first case it 

 may sicken them, and in the second 

 the result would probably be a soft 

 and sappy growth. A point on which 

 opinions differ is the pinching back 

 of growing plants when they have 

 made a foot or so of growth, to in- 

 duce bushiness of habit. When well 

 grown, however, most varieties natu- 

 rally develope sufficient fullness; on 

 the other hand, there are some which 

 no amount of pinching will keep from 

 a certain amount of lankiness. A 

 good deal also seems to depend on 

 the sticking. 



— Training the Sweet Pea. — 

 Sweet peas require some support 

 from the time they put out the first 

 tendrils. There is nothing better than 



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