160 



THE GARDENERS* MAGAZINE. 



Februaey 24, 1912. 



SPRING TREATMENT OF 



LAWNS. 



With the advent of springlike weather 

 the grass on onr lawns will show signs of 

 returning life, and its encouragement will 

 demand attention and care. During the 

 autumn and winter months some lawns will 

 have been top-dressed with horse-droppings 

 and sand, to increase the fertility of the 

 soilj some surfaced with other materials, 

 and not a few left to the lowly worms to 

 enrich with the earthy matter they have 

 passed through their bodies. In all cases, 

 advantage shoidd be taken of a dry spell 

 to brush harrow the lawn, and by this 

 means spread the materials and work them 

 in amongst the grasses. The usual method 

 of brushing is to fasten a number of birch 

 brooms on a gate-like contrivance, and 

 draw this lengthways and crossways over 

 the ground. Small depressions will be 

 brought up to the level in the pro- 

 cess, and strawy matter left in rolls 

 ready to be raked off w hen the brushing is 

 finished. 



At this early stage of the grasses' growth 

 it is not advisable to roll the ground, unless 

 it is of a sandy nature. In this case 

 solidity is wanted, and rolling is beneficial 

 to that end. With soils of a tenacious na- 

 ture, rolling, especially when the surface 

 is at all moist, is most detrimental to the 

 well-being of the finer grasses^ as it seals 

 up the air pores in the soil, and prevents 

 either air or water passing through them. 

 In this condition soil quickly becomes 

 soured, the finer grasses die out, and coarse 

 herbage, moss, and weeds, are the result- 

 ing survivors, making the lawn unsightly 

 and unsuitable for games. I have fre- 

 quently found that the unsatisfat tory state 

 of a lawn was due more to extessive roll- 

 ing, or rolling when the soil was too soft, 

 than to exhaustion of plant food. It is 

 therefore advisable, when dealing with a 

 lawn on a heavy formation, to exercise 

 some judgment in rolling it. 



Lawns in good condition, and those that 

 have been surfaced with a rich organic 

 material, will benefit from a top-dressing of 

 4oz. of slaked lime to the square yard in 

 March. This should be passed through a fine 

 sieve before it is applied, to secure evenness 

 in its distribution. Where the herbage is 

 thin, or the finer grasses scar-c^, a decided 

 improvement can be effected by sowing 

 seeds between the middle and end of April. 

 For this purpose, the lawns that have been 

 surfaced in autumn or winter, with rich 

 manurial materials and brush-harrowed in 

 the spring, will be in a condition to receive 

 the seeds. The quantity of seeds to employ 

 should, to a certain extent, be determined 

 by the amount of herbage on the lawn, but, 

 in any case, not less than lib. to 50 square 

 yards (in sowing down a new lawn allow 

 lib. of seeds to 30 square yards). Where 

 seeds are to be used, the lime dressing 

 should not be applied until the seeds are 

 sown and rolled in. Lawns that have not 

 been top-dressed should be scratche<l with 

 a sharp-toothed rake to secure a bed for 

 the seed, then sown, rolled, and dressed 

 with lime. 



Lim.e is advantageous to the seed in two 

 ways, and sometimes three. It breaks up 

 the plant food constituents in the soil, and 

 akes them ready for the roots of the 



young see<llings; dt tends to neutralise any 

 acid formation in the soil, and is an excel- 

 lent protection against the depreciations of 

 birds. Besides converting soil constituents 

 into an available form of plant food, lime 

 is itself a very essential grass foo<l, and 

 should be supplie<l annually where the soil 

 formation is deficient in calrareous matter. 



Peoestrtax. 



CROAKERS. 



What has produced the pessimistic tone 

 pervading the horticultural world just now? 

 Goodness only knows. But^ read where you 

 may, there is always someone bewailing the 

 so-called fact, that things are not so well 

 grown or exhibited now as they were when the 

 writers themselves were in the arena ; and 

 deploring that there is nobody to take the 

 exalted positions they occupied in their day. 



Sometimes, Mr. Editor, I put it down to 

 pessimism ; at others, to failing eyesight and 

 the need of new spectacles; while at other 

 times I think thev must have a fit of the 

 " blues/' and not content with themselves, 

 and so sit down and write a tirade against 

 modern things in general, and some sub- 

 jects in particular. 



Take a few recent instances — "the decline 

 of the big chrysanthemum " will do for a 

 start. We have had this bogey hustling 

 around now for the past ten years, but the 

 only result I can see is that exhibition Japan- 

 ese blooms are grown and exhibited better 

 than ever they were. No doubt the varieties 

 have improved greatly during this period, 

 but the cultivation has improved, at least 

 I think so, and I have attended most of the 

 Metropolitan shows for the last thirty 

 years, besides a fair number farther afield. 

 I do not say we have so many " giants " cart- 

 ing their flowers about from show to show 

 as we used to have, but if we take each dis- 

 trict we shall find just as many exhibitors in 

 their respective places as formerly, but they 

 do not travel so much about doing the 

 National, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, 

 Southampton, and Belfast shows all in one 

 season, a tour one would describe as fashion- 

 able a decade or so ago. But because this 

 class of exhibitor is a little out of date, it 

 does not prove the decline in the big Japan- 

 ese chrysanthemum. 



Then take the dahlia world. Here we are 

 constantly being told by the "croakers ' that 

 the introduction of the garden cactu.^ varie- 

 ties, the paeony-flowered form, and the collar- 

 ette type, is going to ruin the prospects of 

 the dahlia shows; and that, if it is persisted 

 in we shall lose the exhibition cactus varie- 

 ties altogether. But there is not the 

 slightest prospect of this calamity in view, so 

 far a^ I can see, for the popularity of the 

 newcomer;^ will only tend to still further 

 efforts on the part of raisers and introducers 

 to raise the standard of their exhibition 

 forms. 



Now we come to the fruits. If we only 

 believed what we read, and not what we see, 

 one would come to the conclusion that the 

 art of grape growing was lost in the early 

 seventies, and has never been found since. 

 It is all very well to quote the huge bunches 

 of those days, but when we remember they 

 were mostly Gros Guillaume with their 23\h. 

 weight, or Trebbiano, somewhat approach- 

 ing 261b., we ought to be thankful that such 

 varieties are so rarely seen now. In spite of 

 the "croakers," however, we can see a pretty 

 good competition any season at Shrewsbury 

 Show, or at any other show, provided the 

 prize money offered is sufficiently tempting. 

 The fine grapes are growing in the kingdom 

 just as gloriously nowadays as they were 

 thirty years ago — perhaps better on the 

 average. 



Now the poor old Primula sinensis comes 

 under the ban. Why are primulas not grown 

 so well as they were twenty years ago? This 

 is becoming one of those hardy-annual ques- 

 tions we hear so much about. I maintain 

 they were never better grown than at the 

 present time; but times have altered, and 

 instead of the large plants we used to grow 

 in eight-inch pots, they are now mostly cul- 

 tivated in the five-inch size. True the plants 

 are not so large, but in these days of so 

 much house decoration the old specimens 

 would be too cumbersome to move about; 

 and the handy plants in forty-eights, well 

 grown, will give quite as good an effect. 

 One might just as well argue that we do 

 not grow ericas so well now as we did in the 

 giant specimen days. But I maintain that 

 those we cultivate to-day are far more diffi- 



cult to manage, and grow satisfactorily, than 

 were their gigantic forefathers, while they 

 are far more suited to present-day require- 

 ments than were the specimen plants. 



It is to be hoped, Mr. Editor, that with 

 the coming spring these croakers will see 

 matters more clearly and in a brighter 

 light. E. 



ROCK BORDERS. 



The making of rock holders as a garden 

 attraction is by no means to be de&pised, 

 especially in gardens where no main rock 

 garden exists. A iborder, set. with small 

 rocks, where one can grow many alpine 

 plants within easy reach of hand and eye, 

 and where one can utilise a backgroimd of 

 bolder subjects^ possesses many possibilities 

 to the gaa'den-maker. 



For small gardens, or for edgings to her-' 

 baceoois borders, there is nothing that gim 

 more interest than low rock work of this 

 description.^ and one .may grow a wide and 

 varied collection of plants, or specialise in 

 just a few pairticular species a.nd varieties. 

 I hare only to -ask readers to -recall the 

 beauty of violas, of arabis, of saxifrages, 

 cerastiums, rock pinks, thymes, and a hun- 

 dred and one other subjects, to assure them 

 that an effective display of beauty is readily 

 possible. Indeed, lit is often -a very simple 

 combination that produces the most pleas- 

 ing effects. For instance, a conibinatiou of 

 Iberis siiperba and I. corrsefolia, with Alys- 

 snm ►saxati'le is wonderfully pleasing in 

 drifts of White and gold. Or equally tharm- 

 ing wonld be masises of white mossy saxi- 

 frages, with the violet hue of Viola gracilis 

 as a contrast. 



The simple masses of floral beauty creep- 

 ing over the grey stones to ithe pathway 

 has much to commend it, and t>o those who 

 tire of tiled edgings and Ibox edgings 1 

 commend an edging of lo'W rocks, laid in- 

 formally on their natural bed, as being m 

 all ways a pleasing change. 



Another poiint, and this is ilhistrative ot 

 our own mode of working, is to utilise the 

 rock border as a testing or trial ground for 

 the TOck garden. We iradse so many planfe 

 to secure improved varieties that it has be- 

 come impo.s.sible to give them full trial m 

 the rock garden itself, so we have recourse 

 to the border to give the novelties a taiv 

 trial and to enalble us to make a selection 

 of the best fo^rms. A main feature thi^ 

 *>eason will be a trial of violas and aubri*^- 

 tias, of which the plantings are fairly larg^ : 

 a run of 150ft. will be covered, and t^f 

 effect should be distinctly pleasing. ^ 

 hope to secure a few novelties in aubrietta^ 

 which will be in advance of our last iseason ^ 

 varieties, and in violas we hope to secure 

 other imp^ovement^s wlticli shall be as P'^^* 

 ing and original as the yellow varieties o 

 Viola gracilis were last year. It 

 of interest to note that the -whole ot tJie 

 violas we are testing will be^ of the V. g^"^ 

 cilis type. P. S. Hayward. 



s 



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Jasminium primulinum "■^",f- 



Glass.—In most parts of the country t^^^ 

 comparatively new Chinese jasmine is ot mo 

 value for flowering in the greenhouse tnaii 

 for out of doors. Generally speaking, it i^^^ 

 not proved to be quite as hardy as it ^ j 

 thought likely to be, but at the same time 

 is very beautiful when the blcssoms devei 

 under glass. 



good sunny position during . 

 in autumn when frosts appear it should i> 

 moved under cover. In .a structure kept 

 50 to 60 degrees it will commence to blo('_' 

 by Christmas or thereahontcv, and con^!" 

 to be an object of attraction for some tin ■ 

 This jasmine can be readily struck from cu 

 tings, and the young plants so obtained so 

 reach flowering size. — W. T. 



When grown in pots it need. | 

 isition durinsr the summer, ai' 



