A METHOD OF WINTER GARDENING. 



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course, with unlimited funds at your command, it is easy enough 

 to order so many dozen shrubs, set three or four skilled men to 

 prepare the best possible compost, and, hey presto ! the thing is 

 done. But I am not intending to address people with ample funds , 

 but that great mass of middle-class folk whose balance at the 

 bankers' is, like my ow r n, constantly nearing the edge, and as to 

 which a very little more expenditure upon the garden would soon 

 bring a little note from Coutts's, most courteously expressed, 

 " drawing your kind attention to the fact " — the horrid fact of 

 " overdrawn." For such people, I say, it takes a longish time 

 to get up a good stock of evergreens in pots. 



Someone will say, But why in pots at all ? Because the pot 

 system is far more economical in the long run and gives much 

 better results. If evergreen shrubs are moved from the nursery 

 to the garden, and from the garden to the nursery — two movings 

 every year — you must expect every now and again to lose some of 

 the plants— at least that is my own experience ; whereas with the 

 pot system I have never known but one to die. Again, evergreen 

 shrubs of any size, moved thus twice a year, in a very short 

 time put on a poor, thin, draggletailed appearance and get leggy, 

 and always remind me of those poor, thin, bent-kneed beggars 

 you see slouching along the streets with torn trouser-ends and 

 ragged coat-tails with bits of the lining hanging down, and their 

 hats brushed three-quarters the wrong way, and out at elbows ; 

 whereas with the pot system your plants are feathered down to 

 the very ground, full, robust, and hearty, reminding you of 

 chubby, rosy-faced country urchins, stiff and sturdy, amply fed 

 and amply clothed, and merry from toes to nose. Therefore I, 

 say if you want really good plants, plants to be proud of, plants 

 to love, and cannot afford to buy a fresh stock every three or 

 four years, try the pot plan, which I w T ill now endeavour to 

 unfold. 



And the first question, of course, is, When to begin. Buy 

 such plants as you must buy in March or in September. These, 

 too, I find the best months for making cuttings of evergreens ; 

 the March ones must be put in a dampish place, the September 

 ones in a half-shady spot. Almost all evergreens will grow from 

 euttings with a little care and persuasion ; but if not, there is 

 nothing more interesting than growing them from seed. In two 

 to three years' time they will be pretty little dots, just suited for 



