JANUARY. 
15 
year, and no place of any pretensions can now be said to be complete without 
its spring dower garden. The cultivation of hardy spring flowers is easy, for 
most gardens have a north border where a small strip of light soil can be made 
artificially next the wall, and there in the summer months Pansies can be 
struck, and Daisies, Aubrietias, Primroses, and other things can be increased 
by division. Seeds of Myosotis, Silene, Wallflower, Stocks, and other hardy 
annuals and perennials can likewise be sown in odd places in the kitchen 
garden, or in shady places between Asparagus-rows. Spring gardening, if 
carried out systematically, as at Cliveden and some other places, does not 
materially interfere with the summer bedding-out system, but rather heightens 
the pleasure of our employers by affording them such a long succession of floral 
gaieties to admire. 
The past season has not been one of the best for summer bedding plants, 
but some acquisitions have been planted out which will figure conspicuously 
in another year. Amongst the most interesting are the new strains of Nosegay 
Pelargoniums, first introduced by the late Donald Beaton. From their pleas¬ 
ing change of colours and profuse flowering they are unequalled for decorative 
purposes, and will help to tone down the many vulgar scarlet varieties which 
formerly used to set our parterres in a blaze. The Iresine has done better this 
wet autumn, and has, therefore, been brought prominently into notice again; 
but, after all, it wants good management, and can only be recommended for a 
late display in autumn. Where Coleus Verschaffelti, Gibsoni, and Amaranthus 
melancholicus do well, they will always beat it in the summer months. The 
new Alternantheras and Teleianthera ficoidea where bedded out this season 
have not flourished satisfactorily, and will, perhaps, require a further trial 
before they are condemned. The Alternantliera paronychioides seems to be 
the best of the lot, and may yet prove to be an acquisition. Viola cornuta 
is a really good thing, but it is highly amusing to read all that has been lately 
promulgated about its history. I believe it will be found that there is only one 
variety after all, and that the soil or cultivation has made the difference in its 
colour or habit, if there is any. I have likewise reason to think that it will 
cross, and vary in colour and habit when raised from seeds. 
The cultivation of that gorgeous flower, the Gladiolus, is extending, and I 
hope that it will continue to do so still more in future years. In August and 
September, 1865, the weather was most favourable for the seeding of this plant, 
giving us a chance to equal the French growers in raising new seedling- 
varieties. I had a long border this spring sown with seeds saved from the best 
sorts in 1865, and have lately lifted them, and they nearly fill a bushel with 
small bulbs as large as Peas. Some of the best seeds saved from the high- 
priced varieties were sown in boxes and grown in a Peach-house during the 
early part of spring, but the bulbs of those grown in the open air are quite as 
large and plump. A seedling of a new type, raised from Monsieur Blouet, 
flowered with me last summer ; it is of a light rose colour, with the petals so 
rounded and nearly of a size, that it is, in fact, quite a florist’s flower in shape. 
This variety I have crossed with some of the best-formed, high-coloured and 
light varieties, and hope to raise some seedlings with first-rate-shaped flowers 
and spikes. 
In many gardens, owing to the wet summer and autumn, the late Grapes 
planted in the outside border, and not protected at the roots, have shrivelled or 
shanked, and will not keep so long as usual. Some good growers have never 
been able to colour their late Muscats properly, and these are therefore devoid 
of flavour, and damp off rapidly. The latest vinery here is planted with West’s 
St. Peter’s and Lady Downe’s, which are planted inside the house. In August 
I had wooden shutters put on the outside border, and the Vines do not seem to 
