FLORA 



AND SYLVA. 



Vol. II. No. 15.] 



JUNE, 1 904. 



[Monthly. 



THREE THINGS TO WORK FOR 

 We have now the best collections of 

 open air plants and shrubs that we could 

 wish for, many more than the soil and 

 conditions of any one place will allow 

 us to grow; but our climate is in various 

 ways against the complete enjoyment 

 of many of them, even when they are 

 quite hardy. The false starts caused by 

 our open winters are fatal to many early- 

 blooming plants, and spring frosts that 

 will sometimes injure native trees are 

 a harsh trial for those of warmer coun- 

 tries. Many of the late-blooming plants 

 of countries with a long, severe winter 

 flower much earlier with us, though 

 from frequent wet or rough weather 

 their time of beauty is short. A good 

 way to deal with such plants is to grow 

 them so that they can be brought into 

 the house, not for forcing, but simply 

 placed in passages and cool windows to 

 flower. The charm of the plan is that it 

 makes forcing unnecessary, and it would 

 be wrong in this case. Many plants lend 

 themselves to this plan, from Christmas 

 Roses toLilacs. LastChristmas I noticed 

 some Primroses opening their buds in a 

 wood, and, lifting the plants with balls 

 of soil, I put them in large dishes with a 

 few flakes of moss from the same wood 



and gave them a gentle watering. It was 

 a late and severe spring, and this simple 

 act,which did not take half an hour, gave 

 charming bloom several months before 

 the unprotected plants came intobloom. 

 Thus plants that are quite hardy can be 

 removed from the danger of storms, 

 heavy rains and frost, and their bloom- 

 ing prolonged. Even the dwarfer Mag- 

 nolias and other flowering shrubs may 

 be bloomed in the same way. The prac- 

 tice entails no change in their cultiva- 

 tion ; it is simply placing a certain num- 

 ber of plants so that they may be taken 

 readily into the house for shelter ; the 

 best way of growing them being in bas- 

 kets or pots. 



An excellent way, and 

 one far too little used, is 

 the plan practised by the 

 Japanese with their flowering shrubs. 

 They cut them when in bud and adorn 

 their rooms with the flowering branches . 

 The Wintersweet [Chimonanthus fra- 

 grans) , which ought to be on every south 

 wall where there is a garden, if stricken by 

 frost during mid-winterwhen it flowers 

 so well,will often have all its flowers de- 

 stroyed in a night; but by taking strong 

 shoots of it laden with buds, and placing 

 them in a room in good time, we may 



Shoots of Flower- 

 ing Shrubs cut 

 without forcing. 



