286 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thrive well inside a belt of any of the above, forming a splendid screen 

 or break against winds for much tenderer plants. Other useful seaside 

 plants are broom, gorse, sweet briar, Bosa rugosa, cotoneaster in variety, 

 sea-buckthorn, tamarisk, elder (golden and others), escallonias and 

 poplars, elms and mountain ash ; but with all of these it is essential 

 they should have a good start by being provided with suitable soil about 

 their roots, so that they may-become established quickly, and it is scarcely 

 necessary to add that all should be securely staked immediately they are 

 planted. 



Planting Hollies. 



There seems a great deal of doubt as to the best time to plant 

 hollies, and many persons would be only too glad to make hedges or 

 screens of holly if they were not afraid of losing their plants, or that 

 their growth would be very slow. We have planted hollies in practically 

 every month of the year and found from the beginning of May to 

 the middle of June, and from the middle of September to the middle 

 of October, the best time to plant. If the weather be dry at the time of 

 moving, the plants should be thoroughly soaked with water immediately 

 after planting, and a good sprinkling overhead in the evening is very 

 beneficial. It is important that the roots should not be exposed and 

 become dry from the time they are lifted until replanted. Again, 

 sometimes planting must be done during the winter ; in that case they 

 should not be moved in frosty weather, as few plants resent it so much 

 as the holly. In purchasing plants from the nurseryman it is always 

 advisable to make sure they were moved the year previous. They will 

 then bear shifting without scarcely noticing the change. When making 

 alterations in the grounds, and it is necessary to move large hollies 

 to another place, they ought to have a wide trench dug round them 

 the year before moving ; otherwise they will be almost sure to die, as 

 they will not have a good ball of roots. As to the holly being of slow 

 growth, much depends on the preparation of the site. If the drainage 

 is good and the soil enriched with well- decayed manure, and deeply dug, 

 they will make astonishing progress, and an annual mulch of the same 

 will keep them growing rapidly. To keep the plants bushy, and form a 

 thick hedge from the ground upwards, a certain amount of clipping or 

 stopping of the leading shoots will be advisable every year. 



Bamboos Floaveeing. 



During the past two years bamboos have been flowering over most 

 parts of the kingdom, and very often we hear the remark, " I wish I 

 had never planted any bamboos," because they leave an objectionable 

 gap when they die, as they invariably do after blooming. It would be 

 a lamentable loss to our gardens over the whole country if bamboos 

 lost favour through their flowering, as nothing we know can replace 

 their beautiful habit and charming colouring all the year round, and 

 the question naturally arises as to what can be done to prevent their 

 flowering. In our opinion the first and chief cause is starvation, as 

 the bamboo does not send its roots to any great distance away, and the 



