THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 16, 1858. 
306 
tlic unreformcd Horticultural Society, altoiit gaiden 
seeds. That theory assumes that the coldness of our 
climate destroys the vitality of tender seeds, and that 
it is not safe to sow the seeds of delicate plants till 
very late in the spring, or early in the summery and, 
as a matter of consequence, that our old practice of 
sowing early in the spring has been altogether wrong. 
That theory is certainly based on a false idea. Mere 
1 cold lias no bad effects on any of the seeds we usually 
! sow in the spring. If the soil is tolerably dry, and 
in wood condition, all the usual seeds may sately be 
sown at the usual times ; some in February, and some 
in March and April, no matter how cold the spring 
may be. Ten degrees of frost are as much cold as we 
may expect after the middle ol February ; and that 
amount of cold does not affect any kind of seed which 
we usually sow r in the spring ; nor, indeed, any kind 
! of seed whatever, as far as I know; and I know 
! many kinds of the most tender plants we use m flower 
gardening, the seeds of which v ill stand, unhurt, the 
coldest of our winters, without the least harm. Say 
the Heliotrope, for instance. "What can be more 
tender than the Heliotrope, which the first degree of 
cold in the autumn destroys P Yet, no degree of frost, 
in our climate, has been known to kill a Heliotrope 
seed. Seedlings from self-sown seeds in the autumn, 
on the surface of the Heliotrope beds, come up next 
summer, as if we w r ere exempt from frost altogether. 
It w as only last summer that seedling Heliotropes 
were sent to me from a lady in Norfolk, from one of 
her beds, in which Heliotropes were growing three 
years before. These seeds must have been frosted the 
first winter, and buried too deep afterwards to be able 
to vegetate for the next two years. But the third 
time the soil in which the seeds were buried w as 
i brought to the surface, say this time last year, or, 
perhaps, a month or tw r o earlier, when they must have 
been frosted a second time; yet, that did not hinder 
them from vegetating. What difference w r ould it 
make if these Heliotrope seeds were sown out of a 
paper packet from the seed shop ? None whatever, 
j When I showed the Heliotrope seedlings from 
Norfolk to the gardener of the Experimental, I dis¬ 
covered that he, too, had a march of practice a-head 
of the Horticultural Society authorities, for he told 
me on the spot, that there was nothing strange in the 
fact; that he had often seen the like, and that “ our 
own ” beds might probably furnish an example. 
“Just go and see.” He did; and he brought us a 
handful of them, sure enough. Therefore, take no 
heed of the theory about the cold being hurtful to 
i seeds of any kind, till you prove it yourself; but sow 
all your garden seeds at the times set forth in our 
I calendars, and monthly summaries. No reform is 
i needed there, at any rate. The old maxim, when I 
was a boy, was—“ Sow your seeds whenever the land 
is dry, in the spring, rather than take your chance of 
a * w r et bed,’ at the proper day or week and to this 
day I never heard or read of a better or more sensible 
and practical advice. 
As a kind of guide, I may name the blue Nemo- 
j phila, which, if it be sown this week, or next week, it 
will be in bloom, or be just coming into bloom, be¬ 
tween the 20th and the 25th of May ; and if you sow 
the seeds of Prince’s Feather, and Love-lies -bleeding, 
to-morrow, in the open border, they will not vegetate 
before the 20th of April; or if you delay sowing them 
till the last day in March, they will be up just about 
that time. So that a month or six weeks make no dif¬ 
ference with them in their spring sowing; and it is 
no romance to say, that there are hundreds of kinds 
of seeds like them in that respect. 
Again, if you make the surface of a patch quite 
smooth, or place an inch of sifted mould over a border, 
you may sow Lobelia gracilis on it any day from the 
middle of February to the end of April, or some every 
week during the intervals ; and take care of them, they 
will all come into leaf about the same time—the end of 
May, or very early in June : and the w r ay to take care 
of them, is to put something over them to throw off the 
rain, as heavy rains might bury them too deep, and so 
prevent them growing. 
These are samples of very tender seeds, as those of 
Heliotrope, very delicate seeds as the said Lobelias, 
and miffy seeds, to get on in pots or boxes, as are the 
Feathers, and Love-lies-bleeding ; and ten degrees of 
frost will not hurt one of them, to my own personal 
knowledge. 
I had another string to my bow', besides refuting 
the “ baseless theory.” If you recollect, we were to 
have a new band at the back of the ribbon border this 
season, to be made of “ plant for plant” of the Love- 
lies-bleeding, and the Prince’s Feather, but the seeds 
must not be sown in that row ; and I speak of them 
thus early, that there may be no mistake about them. 
A threepenny or fourpenny packet of each would 
make a row of some hundred yards in length; there¬ 
fore, that is one of the cheapest rows or bands in a 
fancy-coloured ribbon. There must be no heat or 
pots to raise the plants—they are miffy, and would 
give too much trouble that way; but they may be sown 
in the open ground up to the 10th of April, and be in 
time enough. Sow them then, and you may prick 
them out early in May, like so many Cabbage plants, 
or plant them at once into the row to remain from 
four inches to six inches apart. If your land is very 
strong and loamy, give them just one foot, plant from 
plant; or if you manure the row w ith very rotten 
dung, in light soil, give them the same room; but you 
may chance them on ordinary land without dung, by 
giving them only nine or ten inches between the 
plants. We tried the experiments last summer, and 
had them in different ways ; and we came to the full 
conclusion, that there never w'as a better way of 
showing off a collection of choice bands, or stripes, 
ribbon-fashion, than with these common flowers, for a 
back row, or back ground. Some of the great French 
ladies, of w'hom I spoke as visitors at the Experi¬ 
mental, were, at first, loud in their disapproval of 
these plants in a flower garden at all. They called 
them their “ fox’s tail plants,” and ran them down so 
much, that I actually thought I smelt a fox in the 
garden one afternoon ; but in less than two months * 
w r e were all of one mind about them, for one purpose 
at least, and that was, as a hedge along the front of 
evergreens on the grass. 
O (7 , 
To make such a hedge follow the exact curves, it 
will be necessary to put in stakes, at intervals, behind 
the plants, and so as not to be seen; then a string of 
rope yarn, to run from stake to stake ; and the plants 
to be fastened to the string in the right positions. A 
trench nine inches wide, and a foot deep, would be 
necessary, in most situations, to be well dunged, as 
lor a row of Broccoli or Cabbage. It might be made* 
in the spring, and some kind of annual seed be sown 
first, to bloom from the end of May, till the Featluhs 
and Love-lies-bleeding began to show. We put in 
quantities of the little trailing QLnothera prostrata, 
which lasted all the season, and made a very nice 
border. This contrivance is more calculated for small 
and middling-sized gardens ; or, if it be attempted in 
large places, it ought to be in the vicinity of some of 
the flower-beds, to give it a dressed meaning ; but if j 
planted in groups of six or seven plants, equal num¬ 
bers of each kind, and mixed, it would be admissible 
anywhere with Foxgloves. And, in a ribbon, it must j 
be in the back row, with nothing taller than Tom 
Thumbs in front of it; because there is sufficient colour, 
