4 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
January 3, 1895. 
flowered in the Royal Gardens, Kew, in the beginning of July. As Mr. 
Nicholson gives October as the month of flowering, this period probably 
covers a considerable part of the later half of the year. 
WHAT TO FORCE. 
Ik many gardens, where a continual supply of flowers has to be 
kept up through the winter months, the above question is one of 
daily growing interest. Chrysanthemums with all their beauty 
and increasing popularity will soon become things of the past, and 
attention must necessarily turn to other floral species to take their 
place, in order that the demand for flowers may be met. In most 
cases the supply of forcing bulbs, such as Hyacinths, Tulips, Lily 
of the Valley, and Freesias, are quite inadequate in themselves, so 
that flowering shrubs that will stand the strain of forcing have to 
be cultivated for this express purpose, and if care and economy be 
studied a varied and ample supply may easily be maintained. 
Deutzia gracilis has long been a great favourite, and still claims 
first honours on the list of flowering plants. It can be readily forced, 
and blooms with the utmost freedom, its long sprays profusely 
covered with pure white flowers always attracting admiration. 
Where a large number of plants is available it is best to force them 
in small batches, in order that a constant supply may be insured 
during the winter. Many a failure in Deutzia cultivation is 
owing to the fact that the plants do not receive the care and 
attention due to them after the flowering period is over, a time 
when most forced plants have rather a hard lot. 
If the Deutzia requires potting it should be done immediately 
after the flowers fade ; this will encourage fresh growth. The 
major part of the next season’s bloom depends on inducing the 
plants to throw up long shoots from the base ; but in addition to 
this, all breaks from the main stems become thickly covered with 
bloom. The plants should, if possible, be kept in a warm house 
until growth is completed, and when weather permits be placed 
out of doors in the full glare of the sun in order that the wood 
may get thoroughly ripened, without which the next season’s 
flowering will prove a failure. 
Spiraea japonica is another useful old favourite, closely com¬ 
peting with the Deutzia in popularity. It is easily forced and 
grown for cut flowers or as a decorative plant, for which purpose 
it has few equals, the bright green foliage adding so much to its 
decorative qualities. The plants should be placed in a cold frame 
after forcing and protected from frost, and if the stock is limited 
and required to be increased the clump should be cut in two, and 
planted about a foot apart in a piece of spare ground and left for 
at least one winter, when they may again be taken up for forcing. 
Staphylea colchica is one of the later additions to the forcing 
stock, but is so well known that comments are almost needless. 
The peculiar fragrance of its creamy white flowers is in itself 
sufficient to place it in the front rank of forcing plants. Its 
treatment after flowering should be similar to that of the Deutzia, 
though some gardeners advocate planting it out during the summer 
months. It throws up long sprays of growth after flowering, 
which should be slightly shortened back in order that the limited 
number of buds will develop better, and so throw out more 
substantial trusses of flower the following season. 
Azalea mollis in a forced state throws up a profusion of bloom 
that is doubtless very useful, but the extreme delicacy of the flowers 
in a cut state and their short-lived beauty are great drawbacks to 
its cultivation, and where the plants are available the bright yellow 
Azalea pontica is much more useful. This forces freely, though 
not so rapidly as A. mollis, and is the sweetest of all Azaleas. As 
a cut flower it is a great favourite, for in addition to its fragrance 
it is very substantial and stands well in water. Careful attention 
should bo given after flowering to encourage the young growths, 
and when weather permits the plants being placed out of doors 
they should be planted in a nursery bed consisting of peat, leaf 
mould, and sand, where, if judiciously managed, a supply for 
forcing may be continually maintained. 
Rhododendrons form a very useful addition, especially where 
large supplies of cut flowers are necessary. The best variety for 
early forcing is R. caucasicum roseum, a bright rose colour, and 
for a later succession are caucasicum pictum, with fine trusses of 
rosy pink flowers ; pd Cunningham’s White, a free flowering 
variety with pure white blooms. If the plants are protected until 
frosts are over, they may again be planted, and will suffer little or 
nothing from being forced. 
There are many other plants in addition to those mentioned 
all suitable and useful for forcing, but space will not permit further 
reference of them at present. The keynote of success in forcing 
plants is careful and judicious treatment during the period imme¬ 
diately following their flowering.— Geo. Hollingworth, Alton 
Toioers. 
HARDY FLOWER NOTES. 
As we wander into the garden in these short days we are 
greeted with no blaze of colour. In this respect the greenhouse 
has certainly the advantage, as under its shelter and with its 
genial warmth many plants may be in flower. But although 
tempted for a time to admire the brightness of the denizens of the 
greenhouse, the heart of the one who is wedded to hardy flowers 
cannot stray long from the plants he cherishes, and to them he 
gladly turns again as they grow with the free air of heaven above 
and around. It is true that this air is too often chill, and that 
ere we may venture to leave our firesides to sally into the garden 
we must assume additional garments. But though the air may 
be unkindly, and give us only a chilly greeting, these pets of ours 
in the borders, and more especially on the rockeries, seem to give 
us a warm welcome. Mayhap it is that we know them so well that 
each change in their appearance is noted ; that here one seems 
swelling into bud, and that there another is showing a faint colour 
through the chink which shows that the calyx begins to open. 
These things we love to see and to study, thinking all the while 
that it may be that these flowers, which, as the poet says, “ enjoy 
the air they breathe,” feel pleasure in knowing that their modest 
charms are recognised and minister to our enjoyment of life. 
Well, it may be so, for are there not “ more things in heaven and 
earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy ?” Enough, however, 
of these thoughts, and let us see what have called them forth and 
compelled their utterance. Few are the blossoms which this 
season yields, and of the few a large proportion have either 
lingered too long, or have unsuspiciously essayed to bloom before 
their due season. The former look unhappy, as if they missed the 
longer days with which they are accustomed, while the latter we 
view with admiration, tempered by the fear that their reign of 
beauty shall be but short. 
Of the flowers which dally upon the stage one may mention 
briefly a few. Flowering through some perpendicular rockwork 
behind a small sunken nook devoted to Trilliums and a few other 
moisture lovers is a plant of one of the varieties of Campanula 
muralis, whose neat leaves and pretty blue flowers give us a sense 
of pleasure as we pass them by or stop to look at their beauty. 
This is a good wall plant, and useful in many positions. On the 
upper terrace of a rockery is a plant of Achillea argentea, which 
has a few heads of its white flowers still expanded, although not so * 
fine as in brighter weather. Very neat is its silvery foliage also. 
On another rockery a number of the pretty white flowers of 
Potentilla alchemilloides are very pretty, although the leaves are 
getting past their best. On a level border a few seedlings of 
Crocus speciosus are in flower, their more mature companions being 
no longer in bloom. 
In another place one or two blooms of the neat little Colchicum 
umbrosum still linger, their light purple flowers being welcome as 
ever. A few plants of Godetia still show flowers and look wonder¬ 
fully well, and near them and on another border the perennial 
Anthemis tinctoria and A. tinctoria pallida produce their yellow 
Marguerite-like blooms. Here and there, too, a few other 
annuals, such as Cornflowers, Marigolds, and Chrysanthemums 
emulate the Godetias, while perennial Chrysanthemums remain in 
flower. Other stray loiterers there are, which seem unwilling to 
depart and give a few spikes or single blossoms. Among these may 
be mentioned Veronica Lyalli, Lychnis diurna fl.-pl., and a little 
Veronica which goes under the name of corymbiflora, but its true 
specific name I have not yet ascertained, the name generally applied 
being only a garden one. A late-produced spike of CEnothera 
Lamarckiana has been in bud for a time, and makes one wonder if 
a short period of brighter weather might not induce it to expand 
its yellow flowers. The probabilities are not in favour of this, for 
a period of severe weather may arrive at any time, and this would 
soon shatter our visionary hopes. Like the flowers themselves we 
are apt to delay as we think about them, and a short notice of 
some which have come before their due time is perhaps more 
worthily due than is any praise to the laggards. 
There is a pathos in the look of these precocious flowers which 
we cannot but feel, a wistful look which seems to express 
silently, yet impressively, the thought that they have come to 
cheer us in dark days, knowing all the time that some biting 
frost will bring them to premature decay. These flowers are 
mostly of the Primrose family, and very beautiful are they, 
whether Polyanthuses, Cowslips, Oxlips, or true Primroses. There 
are yellows of two or three shades ; whites, some almost pure, 
and others of a creamy tint. Some, too, there are which are 
almost crimson in their brightness, and Lilacs and Pinks are not 
absent, their colours being much enhanced by the yellow centres. 
One which at a distance looks as if coloured to imitate a velvet 
of deep brown is pleasing on a rockery, and two or three Jacks- 
in-the-Green with their green ruffs remind one hopefully of the 
