74 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ May. 
had to buy a few bedding-plants, to propagate 
from, and bad to have recourse to seeds for 
most things, in order to get beds and borders 
filled within as little time as possible. Some old 
Hollyhocks in an out-of-the-way corner, which 
had run up high, and taken root low, were as far 
as they went invaluable ; but it was to the Holly¬ 
hock seed that I trusted, and even late as it 
was when they were sown, they flowered well 
the first year. What was thus done forty 
3 ^ears ago may be repeated—at least it should 
be tried, for the seed is cheap, the treatment 
is thoroughly understood, and any one may pro¬ 
phesy that if beds and borders are to be filled this 
year with flowering plants, there will be great 
need of calling to the rescue Biennials which 
flower the first year. The secret of success is 
to sow in a gentle bottom-heat, and to get the 
plants strong before they are finally trans¬ 
planted, just as is done with early Cauliflowers. 
The fault of Biennials flowering the first year 
is thus turned to account. On the other hand, 
many Annuals treated as Biennials, by being 
sown before winter, make nice, stiff, short- 
jointed plants, and flower early. For example, 
the pretty Saponaria, when only about a 
couple of inches high, forms a perfect mantle 
of flowers, but when run up in summer, drawn, 
lanky, and lean-looking, one would scarcely 
know it. 
People seem to forget the management of 
the Californian annuals, and their wonderful 
effect after mild winters or under a cold frame. 
In the Chiswick Garden, in the olden time, it 
was not so—in the days of Bindley, Munroe, 
and Thompson ; and manj' good gardeners car¬ 
ried away ideas from Chiswick, and repeated 
them elsewhere with credit. Many plants when 
grown gi’oss ai’e unsightly, and when stunted 
are handsome. Diehjlra spectabiUs, when first 
grown in small pieces which were rather 
costly, was elegant, but when fed to excess it 
was scarcely worth growing ; and one might 
point to many choice gems that adorn our 
gardens cri/mr/ hade. Even through the purest 
strains there runs some gross alloy—some rem¬ 
nant of the wild. That most useful yellow 
Feverfew, comes true from seed, against all rule 
and order, as taught in days gone by; but it 
asserts its claim now and then, and shows the 
vulgar green it wore before the change came 
over it. It, too, is an excellent example of 
what may be done by a seed-pan in heat, 
bringing spring and summer a month or six 
weeks sooner than their appointed time, for 
under glass at this season it is a perpetual 
spring, wdth not a stormy gust to break the 
charm. 
A single seed-pan a foot across will hold 
150 plants, about an inch apart, and that 
number of young hollyhock plants in spring 
will make no small display in autumn, if well 
treated. The bedding system has nearly driven 
out the seedlings, by introducing greenhouse 
plants struck from cuttings ready for immediate 
effect. I recall seeing a piece of rockwork in 
a garden in the Staffordshire Potteries. The 
pattern seemed taken from a mole-hill, and the 
rock was composed of broken crucibles ; but the 
whole was cropped wdth Sweet Williams, and 
there was nothing to be seen but that fine old 
favourite flower on all sides, and that was of 
all hues and in great abundance.— Alex. 
Forsyth, Salford. 
BAMBOO SHADING. 
« HE necessity for using some kind of 
shading for our glass-houses during 
the bright summer weather, in order 
to intercept the fiercer of the solar rays, is well 
known to cultivators, and various expedients are 
resorted to, various means and materials em¬ 
ployed to effect the desired object. The chief 
difficulty experienced arises from the fact that 
the lighter fabrics, which are the most suitable, 
are not very durable, and hence shading be¬ 
comes rather costly. 
The bamboo shading represented in the 
accompanying figure is a new candidate for 
popular favour, and from what we have seen 
of a similar mode of shading common on the 
Continent, where the material consists of strips 
of wood fastened together by ties, we have 
great hopes that the bamboo will answer, as it 
should be both light and durable. If, as now 
made, it should prove a little too dense, this 
may be rectified by using a thicker string as a 
binding material. 
This Bamboo shading consists of light bam¬ 
boo rods, a little stouter and stronger than 
reeds, varying from to |-in. in diameter, 
the smaller size alternating with the larger size, 
while stouter rods, ^-in. thick, are interspersed 
here and there to strengthen the whole, inter- 
