132 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ At gust 18, 1887. 
only one-tenth of the total fall is caught and saved, that 
is 2262 gallons for each house. Whether that is correct 
or not, there is much of interest in the pamphlet and use¬ 
ful information as to the number of gallons tanks of 
specified sizes will hold. It is necessary to remember the 
date of the work (1879), or some of the observations on 
page 5 will not be understood. 
Gardeners will be impressed with the advantages of 
deep-digging and storing the land with fertility during a 
season like the present; of early and thick mulching; of 
sowing and planting in trenches ; of keeping a loose sur¬ 
face when mulching cannot be done; and of promptly 
seizing favourable opportunities for planting that seldom 
come and quickly depart. These are some of the lessons 
of the season that will force themselves on the attention 
of the thoughtful and observant, and it is hoped to their 
advantage. 
Now that the rain appears to be coming, let no one 
who has failed to establish winter crops think it is too 
late for planting. Insert whatever plants are obtainable 
of what is in the least likely to be useful, as the ground 
when moist will be like a hotbed, and even unpromising- 
looking plants may by rapid growth be of great service 
eventually. Let no chance be lost, and if there be nothing 
to plant, sow Swede and Turnip seed for affording breadths 
of “ tops ” for use in spring, also summer or winter 
Spinach ; indeed, do everything that can be done to make 
the best of this, to gardeners, most difficult and trying 
season. 
HARDY PLANTS AND THE DROUGHT. 
It is many years since hardy plants have had to endure such 
long-continued drought as during this summer, and which is not 
yet at an end. For eight or nine successive weeks the rain which 
has fallen has only been equivalent to the usual heavy autumnal 
dews. During the first six weeks no rain fell in this district, and 
since that time the slight showers that have fallen were in no 
way apparent after the sun had again shone for an hour or two. 
Our soil is dust dry for several inches deep, and to plant anything 
in this means only death. Watering seems quite out of the 
question, for unless water is exposed in large tanks or ponds it seems 
to do more harm than good, and even then it requires to be used 
with discretion. Though we have not felt the benefit of the 
copious rains reported from other places, we were fully aware 
of their existence by apparent atmospheric changes — e.g., the 
cooler and more agreeable air. For newly planted hardy herbaceous 
plants, trees of a deciduous character, evergreen shrubs, Comferce, 
or the like, the great heat of the present summer has proved very 
trying, and in many instances fatal. Even the ordinary bedding 
plants, such as Zonal Pelargoniums, Tuberous Begonias, and 
Calceolarias are very much dwarfed, for the Pelargoniums have 
made very little wood, and the Begonias, in some instances, 
have scarcely made any headway since they were placed out. 
Calceolarias, in several cases known to the writer, are shrivelled 
up, completely scorched, by the intense heat. Then if we look at 
hardy perennials, the sufferers include the Spineas, Phloxes, 
Michaelmas Daisies, Harpalium, Rudbeckias, Heleniums, Saxifraga 
Wallacei and S. peltata, Hellebores of all sections, Hepaticas, 
bedding Violas, though not so much as many, Lychnis Viscaria 
splendens ph, and many others. 
But while so many have suffered in a greater or less degree, 
there are some which, on the other hand, have appeared to 
luxuriate under the great heat, so that we may learn a lesson— 
even though it may be at the cost of many a good plant —from 
such a summer as this. The following are some of those which 
are looking well—Chelone barbata has never perhaps been better, 
and fine clumps have been, and still are, crowded with a profusion 
of its scarlet miniature Pentstemon-like blossoms. It reaches 
nearly 4 feet high, and the flower spike is well furnished from the 
ground to its summit. It is, and has been for weeks past, one of 
the best plants in the garden. It has glossy spreading tufts of 
leaves, and the growth they have made indicates in a marked 
degree how well they are suited. 
The Globe Thistle (Echinops ruthenicus) is also suited, and the 
same may be said of the Eryngiums, E. amethystinum and E. coeles- 
tinum being very attractive objects just now. The latter is an 
especially fine plant for a dry situation, hence it will make a 
very useful and fine rockwork plant for the higher positions. Its 
average growth is 21 feet, with a much-forked Thistle-like inflo¬ 
rescence, which at maturity assumes a blue tint, the same colour 
pervading the stems and bracts. The individual heads are rather 
small and numerous, which only adds to the unique beauty of the 
plant under notice. Aster Amellus and the bessarabian variety are 
apparently unaffected, beyond being somewhat earlier in showing 
flower buds than usual. 
Irises, particularly the germanica section, have done capitally, 
notwithstanding they are reputedly moisture-loving plants. Iris 
Ktempferi in loamy soil and cow manure is all that could be 
desired. With the herbaceous Phloxes we have to “ split the 
difference.” By this I mean that the old plants, which have stood 
for several years undisturbed, are in a pitiable plight, while those- 
rooted in the early summer of last year, and planted early in the 
autumn of the same year, are now bearing splendid trusses of. 
bloom, and carrying their foliage almost to the ground. Those 
who have the twofold result before them, as I have, will not linger 
long as to what is best to be done in their case. I have many times, 
urged that old stools should be discarded at three years old, and 
that a limited number be rooted and planted annually, so as to 
keep up a supply of young vigorous plants .and handsome panicles 
of bloom. There will be no thinning of the shoots necessary,, 
nor will the bases of the plants be bristling with small and useless- 
shoots. Apart from Phloxes of this section we have few plants, 
making such a quantity of surface roots, and which, in a marked- 
degree, impoverish the soil in the immediate vicinity of the plants, 
consequently there is all the more reason for increased nourishment 
and support, and if this is not forthcoming, a languishing state and 
inferior blooms must be the inevitable result. There are few plants 
so really attractive in the border as these are at this time, so that 
it is only right that they should receive the treatment their merits, 
deserve. 
Sunflowers are in good condition, though not so tall as usual. 
Gaura Lindheimeri is an excellent plant for a dry time like the 
present, and should be grovjn either in the border or rockery in 
well-drained soil, its lightness and general elegance making it quite, 
an acquisition among hardy plants. It is readily obtained from 
seeds. Zauchsneria californica is another fine rockwork plant, 
revelling in a dry hot situation, where it flowers profusely; and 
near by the Iceland Poppies,'Papaver nudicaule and varieties, make 
a very pleasing group in their variety of colour. Lychnis fulgens 
and Haageana are also good plants, and the vivid colouring of their 
flowers with the sun full upon them is dazzling in the extreme. 
They are good border plants, but too seldom seen, even in good 
collections. Slugs are very fond of them, and this may to some- 
extent account for their absence. 
Rudbeckia purpurea is the only member of its genus that is. 
doing any good with me. It is now coming into flower, though 
not so fine as usual. It is quite a distinct shade of colour in the 
garden, a sort of rose-magenta to my mind, and not that signified 
in its specific name. When in good form it is one of the most- 
telling plants in our collection, but unless rain, and plenty of it, 
comes speedily, it will not reach its usual standard this year, 
although in point of height it is quite up to the average. Such, 
then, are a few of the many examples to be found to-day. The 
soil is of a loamy nature, with plenty of fibre, and has a subsoil 
of gravel nearly 5 feet thick. In other localities other and 
greater differences may be noted.—J. H. E., Middlesex. 
STRAWBERRY RUNNERS FOR FORCING. 
This extraordinarily dry season has been a trying one for many 
gardeners who have to secure large numbers of Strawberry runners for 
early forcing, and other means than the ordinary layering into pots has 
been found necessary to overcome the difficulty of the case. “ A 
Northerner,” in this week’s Journal, has pointed out various ways of 
getting runners forwarded by timely forethought and prompt action. 
This year I had all my Strawberries for forcing potted by the last 
week of June, and have on several occasions been asked during the past 
month where I got my runners from. My answer was that they are last, 
year’s runners, at which some seemed rather surprised. Some years ago 
I obtained the hint in these pages, from whom 1 have not the slightest 
idea now, about saving late runners in October for forcing the following 
year, and I have practised it ever since. 
As soon as the fruit is cleared off the permanent quarters the whole of 
the runners are cut off, and the straw or litter with which they have 
been mulched cleared away, and the surface of the soil hoed up. A 
second lot of runners are soon thrown out, and by the middle of October 
they will be well rooted plants. These are lifted and laid in nursery 
rows a few inches apart, where they remain till they begin to start into 
growth the following spring. They are then potted in 3-inch pots, 
plunged in ashes, the flower stems picked out as soon as they appear, 
kept duly watered and potted when convenient during June or early 
July. This I think is a good way to secure strong plants for early forcing, 
