August 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
277 
beds during wet weather become very luxuriant in 
foliage, and produce but few liowers, you will find 
them much benefited by lifting them up with a 
spade, carefully pruning in the coarse strong roots, 
and immediately replanting them: this will check 
their too free growth, and cause them to flower more 
abundantly. 
Pelargonium Unique. —This is a very desirable 
variety, now pretty generally known and appreciated 
as a bedding-out plant; the foliage is of a light glau¬ 
cous green, of a beautiful shape, something like a 
deeply-cut largo oak leaf, finely serrated at the edges; 
the flowers are in compact close heads, rising several 
inches above the foliage, and of a bright purple co 
lorn, thus being very conspicuous at a considerable 
distance: it answers admirably also as a plant to 
cover a low wall or paling; we have seen it used for 
this purpose, and can confidently recommend it; no 
flower garden, however small, ought to be without it. 
Our cottage friends should inquire for this charming 
plant, and procure either a plant or a cutting: it 
strikes quite as freely as the common scarlet. Cut¬ 
tings may be struck readily by being put in some 
sbady corner, or under a gooseberry bush, and taken 
up and potted as soon as rooted. The plants so 
treated may be kept either on a greenhouse shelf or 
put in a cool frame, and protected from frost. Gera¬ 
niums may be allowed to remain in the beds a consi¬ 
derable time longer if a few boops are stretched over 
them, and covered with mats at night on the least 
appearance of frost. The shelters for protecting the 
blooms of rhododendrons described and figured in 
our present volume, p. 6, would answer well for this 
purpose. If you can protect them from the early 
frosts, which sometimes occur towards the end of 
September, and do not happen again till November 
or December, they will continue to flower, and be 
very ornamental, up to the latter period, thus re¬ 
warding you by their beauty long-continued, for the 
little extra trouble. 
Grass Lawns. —During the later months of the 
year, the lawns, if well kept, are exceedingly beauti¬ 
ful. Mow, sweep, and roll them at least once a fort¬ 
night. Fresh turf may now be laid with advantage, 
as it will sooner take root, and form a compact even 
surface at this season of the year, than at any other. 
Make the ground solid in every part alike, or it will 
settle unevenly, and give you considerable trouble to 
level it afterwards : in treading it, wherever you find 
a place softer than the rest, ram that place down very 
hard with a beetle or pavier’s rammer, filling up with 
soil, and beating it down also very firmly, until the 
place is even with the rest. 
Flower Borders. —Let all your autumn blooming 
flowers be particularly well staked and tied, as the 
time for the equinoctial gales is fast approaching, and 
will, if your flowers are not well tied, break them 
down and destroy the flowers. 
Walks require constant attention to keep them in 
good order. The small annual grass (Poa annua) 
seeds almost as soon as the seedlings are up, and in 
wet weather grows rapidly. If your walks are much 
infested with this troublesome weed, choose a dry hot 
sunny morning, and witli a Dutch hoe cut them up 
by the roots, talcing care not to miss the least bit or 
blade of weed; rake it over immediately, collecting 
all the weeds the rake will draw off, and remove 
them, and let them lay loose exposed to the sun. 
Should the weather continue dry, repeat this raking 
operation until you are satisfied all the small seed¬ 
lings are killed; then roll the walks frequently until 
the gravel is firmly set again. 
Falling Leaves.—E vergreens will now bo shed¬ 
ding their older leaves: these ought to be collected 
as often as possible, and taken to the compost yard, 
to make, when rotted, vegetable mould, a kind of soil 
almost indispensable for potting purposes. 
Hedges. —To keep these in good order, they ought 
to be clipped now, and will then remain neat and 
tidy till spring; keep them quite clear of weeds, for 
if these are allowed to grow they will choke the lower 
branches of the hedge plants, and soon mako the 
lower part of the hedge naked, unseemly, and give 
ingress to poultry and game. 
Clippings of Hedges. —Collect these, and if you 
have a vacant space in your vegetable ground trench 
it, and bury them at the bottom of each trench; they 
will ferment, and greatly enrich the soil; or, if that 
is not convenient, lay them in a heap, and cover 
them with soil; they will make excellent manure to 
dig in at the time when your ground is ready for that 
operation. 
Hardy Climbers. —Nothing gives a garden a more 
untidy appearance than neglected hardy creepers. 
Let those on walls be kept constantly nailed; thin 
out superfluous shoots, leaving those of moderate 
growth just of sufficient number to hide the Avail, and 
no more. By this thinning, the wood is ripened, and 
is more likely to produce flowers the next season. 
Tie the creepers on trellises every week, or, at least, 
as often as they require it. Prune away all strag¬ 
gling or rampant-growing shoots. Such as have yet 
to flower may bo left unpruned till the bloom is over, 
but keep them firmly tied to the trellis. Climbing 
roses require constant attention to keep them trim 
and neat, especially on walls and trellises; cut away 
all decayed flowers, pruning their stalks down to the 
first strong bud. The beauty of pillar roses is greatly 
increased by a judicious care in tying and pruning. 
After the rose-trees have reached the top of eacli 
pillar the shoots may be alloived to hang doAvn in a 
graceful, easy Avay, thus giving that elegant attitude 
they assume if left to groiv as they will: cut off, how¬ 
ever, all the flower stems after they have bloomed, 
and also any over strong shoots that are likely to rob 
the rest of tlieir due support; these shoots generally 
come from the stem nearly close to the ground; they 
ought to be cut off in an early stage to prevent their 
sucking the life-blood from the blooming shoots. 
Sometimes a tree will be sickly in its older branches, 
and send up from the root, or very near it, one of 
those strong shoots: in such a case we advise, as 
soon as tins shoot has attained some length, and is 
furnished with foliage, to cut down the old stunted 
feeble shoots, and train the young vigorous one in 
their place, giving at the same time a good soaking 
of liquid manure Avater. 
Biennials. —If you have attended to our former 
directions your plants will uoav be busby and fit for 
planting out in the places where they are to floAver 
next year. Should they, in consequence of the late 
moist weather, be growing so strongly as to become 
croAvded in the nursery beds, and the situations you 
wish to grow them in are yet occupied with other 
plants, it Avill be advisable to transplant them again, 
so as to give a check to their too luxuriant growth. 
Unless they actually touch each other, it will not be 
necessary to plant them wider apart, for the mere 
lifting them will give them a sufficient check. At¬ 
tend to these suggestions, or your plants, should the 
winter be severe, Avhich Ave think very likely, will bo 
all, or nearly all, destroyed. In gardens Avhere this 
kind of floAvers are groAvn in the mixed floAver bor¬ 
ders, or in vacant places in the front of the shrub- 
