SPRING FLOWER GARDENING. 



273 



Norman at the Vegetable Conference) are far less widely known 

 in this country than they are on the Continent, and I think it 

 is worth while to draw the attention of British gardeners and 

 amateurs to plants which, as winter saladings, are in my opinion 

 quite deserving of careful and extensive cultivation. 



SPRING FLOWER GARDENING. 

 By Mr. W. Ingram, F.R.H.S. 

 [Bead April 8, 1890.] 



Although it is said with some confidence that our spring 

 seasons are colder, and that our climate, if not deteriorating, is 

 not improving, as in theory, from the drainage of large areas and 

 extended cultivation, it ought to he, those sensitive little 

 thermometers of the floral world, spring flowers, seem to furnish 

 an argument to prove that but little real change has taken place. 

 The habits of growth and blooming implanted in remote times 

 still cling to them, and thus tell us that the ancient springs 

 were like our own. The gentle Primrose thus chronicles 

 seasons of a time long past, and reveals their unchanged aspect 

 to us. 



My confidence in the observance of the season of bloom in 

 spring flowers is unabated ; in my long experience they have 

 continued to appear and to brave the winds of March and 

 untoward frosts of April, rejoicing in increased beauty in even 

 partial gleams of invigorating sunshine, and if I have to com- 

 plain of them it is that they exhibit too much trustfulness in 

 our fickle seasons by appearing some weeks in advance of 

 their ordinary time of flowering, as some of them have done 

 this year. 



I gather confidence in my advocacy of spring gardening 

 when I recall the great results in decorative planting that may 

 be obtained without the aid of artificial heat or glass, or forcing 

 of any kind. The half-hardy plants of summer have their 

 brilliance marred by heavy rains. This is far from being the 

 case with spring flowers. I have often seen them covered with 

 snow, and half obscured with hoar-frost, and yet rise uninjured 

 from such bitter trials. Rain is as nothing to them. 



