August 6 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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COMING EVENTS 
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Tenth Sunday after Trinity. 
Royal Horticultural Society (Plants and Flowers). 
CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE BOEDER FLOWERS. 
T is not generally known that annual Candytuft 
in a small state will pass tlie winter safely under 
the shelter of a wall, or even in open borders if 
the weather does not prove too severe. Plants 
raised from seed sown now and again towards 
the end of August will prove most useful for 
cutting and general garden decoration early in 
the season and before border plants in flower 
are plentiful. Plants sown in early spring form 
a capital succession to those raised from seed sown at the 
time advised. Those that stand the winter often have their 
foliage browned, but as soon as the weather is favourable 
they start freely into growth and branch wonderfully, forming 
heads of bloom in many instances 2 feet across on stems 
varying from 6 to 9 inches high. The hybrid forms of Candy¬ 
tuft, which are generally sown in spring and looked upon as 
tender annuals, are among the most beautiful border plants 
that can be grown for flowering early in the season. This 
year our plants were coming into flower just as the late- 
flowering Narcissi were over and in full beauty with the 
Pyrethrums. Many who saw them were surprised, and could 
scarcely believe that it was the result of seed sown late in 
summer, but thought them some new hardy variety. 
The treatment is very simple. The seed should be sown 
outside in small beds in an open position, as well as a quan¬ 
tity scattered about in the borders, where the seedlings can 
be thinned out and left to take their chance. Those sown 
in beds as soon as large enough should be pricked out singly 
3 or 4 inches apart in a sheltered position, where they can 
remain for the winter. It is well to let them attain a 
good size before planting in their winter quarters, as the 
lifting checks them and assists in promoting firm woody 
growth. The soil in which they are transplanted should 
be made moderately firm, and in the spring remove with 
a trowel, preserving all the roots possible, to the position in 
which they are desired to flower. Those that pass the winter 
safely in the open borders will come first into flower. If the 
weather prove severe and kill them the cost of seed and 
labour is so trifling that it is scarcely worth naming, but if 
they live they abundantly repay for the trouble they have 
given. To insure their safety during the winter it is a good 
plan to place a board 8 or 10 inches deep round the 
portion of ground on which they are planted, with a few thin 
laths nailed across, so that mats can be thrown over them 
during sharp frosts. Young plants have passed the two last 
winters safely in open borders without the slightest protec¬ 
tion. 
Seed of the various colours of Intermediate, East Lothian, 
and Brompton Stocks should be sown in shallow drills on a 
border without delay, and plants will be raised that will 
render beds and borders sweet and attractive from the middle 
or end of May, according to the season, to the end of the 
present month; in fact, the East Lothian varieties will 
flower more or less the whole of the season. Some plants 
that were very small in spring made a most vigorous 
No. 267. —Yol. XI., Third Series. 
growth after they were transplanted, and are now a complete 
mass of bloom, and will continue flowering until the approach 
of frost. The treatment for winter is simple. As soon as 
the plants are large enough to be handled they are pricked out 
5 inches apart, where they will be sheltered from north winds 
and where snow will not fall on them off the roofs of houses or 
buildings. They are protected during very sharp weather 
with mats, boards being placed round them the same as ad¬ 
vised for Candytuft. Care is taken when first transplanting 
to place them where the ground will not be wanted for any 
other purpose in early spring. It should be made firm, but 
not rich, the object being to induce slow growth, so that the 
plants will be sturdy, in which condition they pass the winter 
much better than if rapid growth is encouraged in the autumn. 
Towards the end of March every alternate row is carefully 
lifted with a trowel during showery weather, and every other 
plant from the rows remaining, thus leaving those upon the 
ground exactly 10 inches apart, the others being planted in 
enriched soil. The plants left will come first into flower, 
and consist of Intermediate varieties, the whole of the other 
sorts being transplanted. Those left upon the unmanured 
border are liberally supplied with liquid manure during .the 
spring. All who have not grown Stocks for yielding a boun¬ 
tiful supply of fragrant flowers for cutting early in the season 
will not be disappointed by giving them a trial if the simple 
directions given are followed. 
If the seed of Antirrhinums is sown in spring, even 
in heat, and the seedlings pricked into pans or boxes and 
planted out as soon as large enough, they will not flower 
freely before the end of August, and often later. This is very 
well for an autumn supply, and is a system we generally 
practise. But to have plants flowering during the month of 
June they must either be raised from cuttings inserted at 
once or from seed sown either in a box or outside. If sown 
outside it may be scattered on the surface of fine soil and 
merely raked in, no other covering being necessary, well 
watered and shaded with a mat until germination takes 
place. When large enough, a number of the plants should 
be inserted in open beds and borders where they are intended 
to flower. The majority will probably survive the winter and 
commence rapid growth in early spring, forming good-sized 
bushes before plants raised in spring are ready for planting 
out. 
In case those fail in exposed positions a number should 
be planted at the foot of walls, where they will be slightly 
sheltered from severe frost and cutting winds, the latter 
generally doing more harm than frost. Since such good 
varieties can be raised from seed it is scarcely worth while 
troubling to raise plants by means of cuttings, except in the 
case of any good white or other distinct colour that may be 
required for a special purpose. Unfortunately, it generally 
happens that plants which flower freely, and especially 
moderately early in the season, do not produce good cuttings 
before the middle of September, and these are too late for 
early flowering. Cuttings taken at that season are subjected 
to cool frame treatment during winter, the same as Calceo¬ 
larias, Pentstemons, and other similar plants. Cuttings 
inserted now receive the same treatment as seedlings after 
they are once well rooted. 
Sweet Williams (Dianthus barbatus) are generally sown 
in spring, grown through the summer for flowering the fol¬ 
lowing season, and by this system strong plants can be pro¬ 
duced. The only objection to sowing in spring is the labour 
in pricking out the seedlings at a busy season of the year 
when various other things require immediate attention. 
It therefore not unfrequently happens that such plants are 
often left in the seed bed for a long time after they ought 
to have been transplanted, and when crippled by crowding 
they rarely develope satisfactorily afterwards. If seed is 
sown now the young plants can be pricked out about 4 inches 
apart as soon as they are large enough, and being perfectly 
hardy there is no fear of their not passing the winter safely. 
No. 1923. —Vol. LXXIII., Old Series. 
