PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
Ranunculuses. — Those which have been 
planted in autumn must, be covered with litter, 
that, in the case of a frost, they may be pro- 
tected from the worst of it ; but no one plants 
valuable roots in autumn : they are generally 
the coarse kinds, or surplus stock, and planted 
for the sake of the flowers in the garden, not 
for exhibition, nor for best beds. The beds 
for the best collection are now empty, the soil 
being turned out on each side, where it ought 
to have been sweetening for some time, and 
been turned over several times ; the bed being 
emptied of its contents, may have two or three 
inches thickness of decayed cow-dung rotted 
into mould put at the bottom, and be filled up 
with the soil on the sides of the beds ; there it 
may be formed into a ridge along the bed, 
until about the 10th, when it may be levelled 
and drills drawn three inches deep, six inches 
apart, and the whole length of the bed. The 
arrangement of the varieties is purely a matter 
of taste ; some, when they are for exhibition, 
keep the sorts together, and let them grow in 
rows across the bed, and as far down the bed 
as they will go ; others contrive to grow a 
row of a sort, and the beds being for the most 
part four feet across, the rows are seven each 
to reach across, the outer rows being six 
inches from the sides. The mode of planting 
is to press the tubers down upon the bottom of 
the drill, so as to be solid underneath, and 
then to draw down the earth into the drills, 
(taking care to bruise the lumps.) and let it lay 
close about the tubers, covering them about 
two inches. Here they may remain without 
much care or attention until they begin to 
come up, but that will not be this month. If 
you have no bed made for Ranunculuses, and 
are to prepare one, have the mould taken out 
eighteen inches deep, and fill the bed with 
rich loam and cow-dung well mixed, and laid 
together for a year ; or, if you can get nothing 
else, fill up with the loam formed of rotted 
turfs from a pasture. If there have not been 
too much soil taken with the turfs, the vege- 
table mould from the decayed turfs may be 
equal to the first growth of the Ranunculus. 
However, if, when you have put in six inches 
of the eighteen, you can give a good two or 
three inches of decayed dung before you 
put on the other twelve, it will help a good 
deal. Ranunculuses should be grown in open 
situations, where, to shade them, you must 
use hoops and mats ; they require plenty of 
air and water, and from the time they begin 
to show colour they require shade, therefore 
have a care for these matters while fixing the 
place for your bed. 
Tulips, now growing rapidly, must be kept 
from frost by some means, and by none so 
easily as a transparent cloth, which may be 
kept close down while a frost lasts, however 
long it may be. Frost will not kill, and in 
some people's eyes it does not even damage 
Tulips ; in ours, it is fatal to show flowers. 
We attribute every notch to frost, every split 
petal, every blight, and even the discoloura- 
tions. "We think it of the highest importance 
to keep off the frost, even if it draw up the 
flowers weakly ; and we believe the old- 
fashioned mode of supporting the Tulips on a 
bed by silk lines along the rows, arose out of 
the necessity which they considered existed to 
keep off the frost, at the cost even of the 
strength, which modern growers think it so 
essential to preserve. Many there are who 
care not for any weather, they allow their best 
Tulips to brave it all ; and frequently it has 
not appeared to ordinary observers to mate- 
rially affect the bloom. It would, however, be 
difficult to find, in such a bed, many which 
had not some fatal blemish for a stand — some 
cracked, some notched, some blighted, some 
heavy in colour, not one of which blemishes 
has been attributed to the right cause ; and 
the most experienced fanciers and cultivators 
of the flower have wasted hours and days dis- 
cussing the causes, which we (founding our 
notions on those in whose opinions we had 
the highest confidence) fancy we trace to a 
single attack of frost on the bloom in an in- 
cipient state ; therefore we say, at all cost, 
keep off the frost ; stir up the earth between 
the bulbs as soon as they are all up, to give 
air to the roots. 
Auriculas require top dressing and set- 
ting to grow this month. Obtain rich loam 
and leaf-mould and decomposed cow-dung, 
that has lain together, and been well mixed: 
this is rich and harmless. Now, with a 
piece of wood, cut into the form of the 
blade of a knife, but not sharp anywhere, 
prejjare to remove the upper crust of the soil 
in the pot, until you come to the fibres, which 
must not be disturbed nor bruised. Throwing 
off this loose stuff, fill up with the rich soil or 
compost already mentioned, first removing the 
decayed and half-decayed leaves from the 
plant ; you fill the pot nearly full, for the 
water will settle it down a little after all, if it 
be quite filled. This top dressing being applied 
to all, they may be watered with a fine rose, 
and shut down close in their frames, well 
