THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
April 24. 
but latterly the Auriculas would not do so well on the 
soil, or under the system I was compelled to adopt, that 
of removing the plants every year as soon as they were 
out of bloom. You may believe me, therefore, when I 
say, that spring borders look perfectly insipid to me it 
they are not profusely furnished with these pretty 
Sowers; but I put the charge of their neglect against 
the “ Fancy,” because they, the Fancy, wanted and urged 
the rest of the v/orld to” believe there was nothing like 
“leather” in growing the tribe; but the rest of the 
world could not grow them that way, or fancy them 
much where they could, and the upshot of the thing was 
that a spirit of disappointment got “ over the borders,” 
which deprives the English “spring garden” ol two- 
thirds of the beauty, variety, and perlume of those 
beyond Balmoral. 
1 once ran “out of sorts” atShrubland Park—I could 
not gather a thousand spring flowers for the rooms ; 
what was to be done? Breeding-in-and-in deceived me 
in Primulacls, if there are such lads, fresh blood must 
be introduced from somewhere. I wrote to Mr. Carter, 
of Holborn, about this time of the season; told him 
what was “ up ” with me, and from his mixtures, I had 
5,000 plants in bloom the very next season, and the 
whole did not cost Sir W. Middleton five shillings, from 
first to last. Any one may get up a thousand of these, 
to come in next year, for one shilling, by doing just as I 
did to get myself out of a fix. There is room enough j 
in the smallest garden for a thousand of the prettiest of 
all the Auriculas, Polyanthuses, and Cowslips, but 
there are very few in England, even among gardeners, j 
who are aware of one-half of the beauty and variety 
which these three sections of one genus can furnish from 
seed, and that, too, at that very season when flowers are 
most wanted. Then, as to the fashionableness of such 
a tribe—for I would never fight against fashion—I could j 
mention seven Peeresses who, from my own personal 1 
experience, are so fond of these very flowers as to call ; 
them “ charming,” whenever they can get hold of them. 
I have heard some of them regretting that their own 
gardeners did not pay that attention to “ the flowers of 
our childhood,” which they often expended on mere j 
“ trumperies.” 
THE CORN-FLOWER. 
This, the Cyanus cizurea, is another flower of which 
most ladies are very fond in nosegays. There are many i 
kinds of them to be had from a threepenny packet of 
seeds, to be sown just about this time, in any out of the 
way place, or among shrubs, where there is an opening. 
[ have had as many as seven or eight kinds out of one 
small packet of mixed Gycinus. These, and the Scabious 
flowers, which are still more numerous in varieties, are 
among the best J. know for teaching one the value of 
shades for grouping flowers together. A plate of damp 
sand, flat on the surface, is the best for arranging those 
shades ; the cut flowers to be in rows across, or in circles; j 
each row or circle being of one kind of flower, then the 
next shade, and the next, till you get them all to please 
the eye. One who has not been accustomed to teach | 
the eye with this kind of practice, and all through the j 
season, can have little idea of the value of such exercise, j 
SNAPDRAGONS. 
Antirrhinums , or Snapdragons, which are sown be- j 
tween the 25th and 30th of April, will come into flower 
from the middle of July, and go on till the frost comes, i 
and of all the plants I know for “ making up” they are j 
the most useful—making up means to fill up, where j 
annuals or herbaceous plants are done with, or where ) 
anything failed or died off suddenly, and so forth. The 
way to make the best of them is to sow them rather 
thinly, in single lows, anywhere in the kitchen-garden, to i 
leave them as they come up till the first flower opens, 
which will not be very long “a coming;” then, if the 
flower does not please you, pull up the plant at once 
to make room for better ones. When a row is in bloom 
from end to end, after the bad ones are pulled, one can 
get all the light flowers removed together for a whole 
bed, or any place which needed repairs, or all the shades 
of purples, if they were most wanted, or a regular mix¬ 
ture of light and dark flowers ; and even where flowers 
were not so much wanted as a mass of green to fill up, 
these Snapdragons are most useful. No one likes to 
have a large blank anywhere about the garden while 
the weather is good, and as plants must die out, as it 
were, it is useful to know which are the most accom¬ 
modating for making up their places at the least cost. 
Every one likes to keep up “ appearances,” but I would 
not place much confidence in the taste of a man who 
would pay “ through the nose ” for a thing, merely 
to save appearance. 
WALLFLOWERS. 
About the end of April, or very early in May, is the 
best time to sow seeds of all kinds of Wallflowers for 
helping to fill beds next October, after the bedding 
plants are housed. I would ask for them also in mixed 
packets—sow them in a bed like lettuce seeds, and 
transplant them six or ten inches apart, in the kitchen- 
garden, to be ready by the time specified. I had a hatch 
of them from a sowing I made last June, but they were 
too small to help me much last October, but they came 
in for filling up the edges of beds where few plants would 
do; they stood the frost, and are now coming into bloom, 
looking quite ridiculous little things; still they were 
useful, and I shall repeat that June sowing—say about 
the 20th of the month. 
COREOPSIS AND YISCAR1A. 
The dwarf Coreopsis tinctoria, which I mentioned 
three weeks ago, comes up, 1 find, as thick as grass, in 
heat; but as it will hardly come into bloom before the 
middle of July, I would advise to have it transplanted 
first in the kitchen-garden, and to remove it just as it is 
coming into bloom; meantime, the place for it may be 
filled with something else. There is a very dwarf new 
variety of Viscaria oculata, with flowers nearly scarlet. 
I heard good accounts of it, but 1 have not seen it my¬ 
self—all of them, however, are of the “ bettermost” class 
of easy things to get from sowings in the open ground, 
at very little cost, compared with their usefulness for 
late autumn work from May sowings. 
PERSIC ARIA. 
The red Persicaria, as old as the hills, is another 
plant from seeds now which marks the gentle cottage- 
garden more than anything. I once saw three plants of 
it in the middle of a flower-bed, in Great Malvern, which 
were five feet high, and as full of bloom down to the 
ground as any plant could be. I often tried the plan 
myself, but never succeeded quite so well; but I know 
this from my trials, that very few gardeners are aware 
of the real capabilities of Persicaria, and I believe it 
would pay best if it were planted in a bed of rotten dung, 
and nothing else. 
MANY THINGS. 
All the Leptosiphons would dazzle one’s eyes if they 
were sown rather thick on a heap of old dung, with 
only an inch of soil on the top to begin with. Euchari- 
dium grandiflorum the same, yet all its relatives in God- 
etias, do best in deep, poor, sandy soil, which had no 
manure for the last four years, but they must have 
depth. Now, without saving a word about bedding 
