118 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
October 25, 1890. 
these dead memorials of a past summer’s glory can 
never to my mind be things of beauty, and are better 
removed to the rubbish heap and the whole garden 
tidied as soon as the leaves have fallen. Indeed, I 
believe it better for the plants if this be done. The 
decaying stalks of Lilies, e.g., form the most con¬ 
venient and toothsome highways for slugs, case- 
worms, the larvre of cockchafers, and such-like, to 
the dormant bulbs beneath ; and in other cases 
the old stems accumulate leaves over and round the 
rootstocks, and by thus harbouring and attracting the 
slugs and damp, do far more harm in my opinion, than 
the slight protection they afford from frost does good. 
So I always have a clean sweep made as soon as ever 
the sap has thoroughly gone down and the stalks are 
dead and the leaves fallen. But this leaves the borders 
absolutely, or almost absolutely bare, from the 
box or turf edgings to the background of shrubs or 
trees. The problem is how, at a small outlay of money, 
time, and labour—and this is a most important item— 
to make these borders as pretty and interesting in 
winter as they have been in summer. The answer to 
the problem can be stated in four words. 
Evergreen Pi,ants in Pots. 
It is easily spoken, but it takes a longish time to work 
out satisfactorily. Of course, with unlimited funds at 
your command, it is easy enough to order so many 
dozen shrubs, set three or four skilled men to pre¬ 
pare the best possible compost, and, hey presto ! the 
thing is done. But I am not intending to address 
people with ample funds, but that great mass of middle- 
class folk whose balance at the bankers’ is, like my 
own, constantly nearing the edge, and as to which a 
very little more expenditure upon the garden would 
soon bring a little note from Coutts’s, most courteously 
expressed, “drawing your kind attention to the 
fact”—the horrid fact of “overdrawn.” For such 
people, 1 say, it takes a longish time to get up a good 
stock of evergreens in pots. 
Someone will say, But why in pots at all ? Because 
the pot system is far more economical in the long run, 
and gives much better results. If evergreen shrubs 
are moved from the nursery to the garden, and from 
the garden to the nursery—two movings every year— 
you must expect every now and again to lose some of 
the plants—at least that is my own experience ; 
whereas with the pot system I have never known but 
one to die. Again, evergreen shrubs of any size, 
moved thus twice a year, in a very short time put on a 
poor, thin, draggle-tailed appearance and get leggy, 
and always remind me of those poor, thin, bent-kneed 
beggars you see slouching along the streets with torn 
trouser-ends and ragged coat-tails with bits of the 
lining hanging down, and their hats brushed three- 
quarters the wrong way, and out at elbows ; whereas 
with the pot system your plants are feathered down to 
the very ground, full, robust, and hearty, reminding 
you of chubby, rosy-faced country urchins, stiff and 
sturdy, amply fed and amply clothed, and merry from 
toes to nose. Therefore I say if you want really good 
plants, plants to be proud of, plants to love, and 
cannot afford to buy a fresh stock every three or four 
years, try the pot plan, which I will now endeavour to 
unfold. 
When to Begin. 
And the first question, of course, is, When to begin. 
Buy such plants as you must buy in March or in 
September. These, too, I find the best months for 
making cuttings of evergreens ; the March ones must 
be put in a dampish place, the September ones in a 
half-shady spot. Almost all Evergreens will grow from 
cuttings with a little care and persuasion ; but if not 
there is nothing more interesting than growing them 
from seed. In two to three years’ time they will be 
pretty little dots, just suited for front places in your 
borders, and you may grow them thus gradually on for, 
I fully believe, twenty or thirty years before they will 
have outgrown your powers of management. 
Next, what plants to get or raise. It would almost 
be easier to say what not to get, but I will give you a 
list of what I have found most suitable. But first let 
me say, do not begin with too big plants ; be content 
to wait for them to grow big. I have plants now in 
pots—Laurels 5 ft. high, and 5 ft. through, Aucubas 
4 ft. by 5 ft., Lawsonianas 6 ft. and 7 ft. high, and so 
on ; but they have all been gradually grown on. If you 
begin with two big plants, they almost invariably lose 
their lower branches and get leggy—I don’t know why 
they do so, but they do—whereas if you begin with 
little fellows, a foot or 18 ins. high, you can keep them 
for, I am confident, twenty, thirty, or, I shouldn’t 
wonder, for even fifty years in pots, and feathered 
down to the very ground. It wants just a little 
management and care, but I am sure it can be done. 
Well, the most useful plant I know of for the purpose 
is Lawson’s Cypress. It is a charming plant, so various 
that almost every seedling raised is unlike its brethren. 
Go into any good nursery in mid-August, and ask for the 
Lawsoniana quarter, and you will see rows upon rows of 
dainty little fellows, 8 ins. or'l ft. high, some close¬ 
growing, spreading, or tapering, some with a golden 
gleam upon the green, some a dull dead-coloured green, 
some with a shining brownish almost metallic lustre, 
and some—the loveliest of all—with a pale bluey white 
glaucous hue upon the foliage, and with bright red 
stems. Oh, how I revel in such quarters of plant 
children ! The only drawback is, I always want to 
carry off far more than my nursery—garden, I mean—- 
could possibly contain. Well, you may have your pick 
of all these little ones at about 5s. or so a dozen, 
according to their size and age. Do not pick out all 
the prettiest. No, you will want some of the duller 
ones as contrasts to the bright; some of the plain green 
to set off the glaucous and the golden ones. Indeed, 
in all your choosing always bear in mind that 
variety of foliage, form, and habit is what you really 
want, and not all of the most rare, or even all of the 
most beautiful. A boy who had nothing but plum¬ 
pudding for dinner all the Christmas holidays would 
loathe plum-pudding soon. It is the contrast with the 
ordinary staple of the dinner which makes plum¬ 
pudding so toothsome to the boyish palate ; and it is 
this same contrast with the more ordinary things of 
life and nature which charms our sense and apprecia¬ 
tion of the beautiful. I often think that gardens and 
greenhouses are too full of rarities, and that if a little 
less had been spent on the plants a far better effect 
would have been obtained. 
But I am wandering. Well, get two or three dozen 
of these varying baby Lawson Cypresses, and you will 
have made a thoroughly good beginning for making 
your borders beautiful in winter. Then you will want 
other common things (but all small to begin with), 
most of which you can raise yourself, common Laurel— 
the broad-leaved variety is the best for contrast- 
common Portugals, common Yews, a few—just one or 
two—common and variegated Box. Box is not by any 
means a favourite with me ; it smells, to my mind, 
abominable, and is very gloomy ; still, one or two will 
make variety. There is a very broad-leaved and short- 
jointed sort of Box I remember seeing years ago, 
which I have not yet been able to get hold of, but it 
would be a great acquisition, and I should be grateful 
to anyone who would tell me its proper name and 
where to find it. Perhaps the most generally useful 
plant, after Lawson’s Cypress, is the common female 
Aucuba, You can hardly have too much of it. It is 
good in all stages, from the baby with only her six or 
eight mottled leaves in the foreground, to the big 
spreading bush 4 ft. high by 5 ft. or 6 ft. through, to fill 
a big gap in the middle of your border. It adapts 
itself most perfectly to pot culture. Then there are all 
the Ivies, green, silver, and golden, and some kinds 
vrhich take on the exquisite crimson and yellow-brown 
tints more readily than others ; all of them are useful, 
and with care—but mark this well, Ivies do want care 
% 
and attention to train them into nice pot-plants—but, 
with careful training, they make charming specimens. 
The best, I fancy, is the great heart-shaped leaved one 
which I know under the name of “Algerian’’ Ivy, 
though I am doubtful whether it is that variety or 
dentata, or Rregner’s, but all three are good. 
Having thus made up a good stock of these and 
many other common things which will at once occur to 
you—Berberis aquifolium and Retinospora plumosa, for 
example—you must begin _to think about laying in 
your gems, the little beauties which are to attract the 
chief attention in your borders, like the diamonds and 
amethysts and rubies in a jewel. And first of all you 
must have one or two specimens of Retinospora obtusa 
nana, a shrub on which the light and shade glints more 
artistically than on any other plant I know. It is 
quite perfect, with its soft, flat, spreading branchlets. 
Then, amongst the other Eetinosporas there are plumosa 
aurea, obtusa aurea, obtusa gracilis aurea, and pisifera 
aurea, all with a charming golden hue upon them ; K. 
ericoides, with a claret-brown mossy appearance ; and 
R. leptoclada, a dark purply green, and one of the most 
quaint, old-fashioned-looking and slow-growing shrubs 
possible. Amongst the Cypresses there is also pyra- 
midalis alba, a very pretty feathery and slightly 
variegated shrub ; Lawsoniana aurea, by far out and 
away the best golden shrub I have yet met with ; L. 
nana, a perfect little ball of vivid green, and of very 
slow and stunted, but most healthy-looking, growth ; 
and L. argentea, with a most lovely weeping habit. 
These I fancy are the best. Thujopsis compacta is 
another charmingly soft-looking, feathery plant, much 
in the same way as the last-named Cypress. I pass on 
to the Hollies ; and amongst the common green many 
varieties will at once be seen in any nursery plantation 
raised from seed, varying in colour from bright green 
to almost black, and some with a bronzy hue upon 
them, varying also not inconsiderably in the breadth 
of the individual leaves. Here, again, as with the 
Lawson’s Cypress, make a good selection of all sorts. 
Amongst the variegated Hollies there stand out pre¬ 
eminently Golden Queen and Silver Queen, the leaves 
of which are perfect pictures in themselves, but 
Waterer’s Golden I find of better and more compact 
growth, though not quite so beautiful; you must have 
all three. Then there are Ilex myrtifolia and laurifolia, 
both with leaves of most vivid, shining green, and 
Hodgin’s and Shepherd’s Hollies, both with magnifi¬ 
cently broad and almost black-green leaves ; none must 
be missing. Osmanthus ilicifolius must by no means 
be omitted. It is of slow and compact growth, and 
some of its varieties have leaves of a most glorious 
bronzy purple colour, and shine with a perfectly 
metallic lustre, like brown steel. The Golden Yew 
makes a very fine pot plant, and so does the Irish 
—better, indeed, than the common Yew does. There 
is one plant which I like very much, but have left 
till the last, because I am told that it is not frost¬ 
proof, and this obviously is a sine qvd non 
in winter gardening ; but with me it has stood 
and flourished during five winters, which have sufficed 
to kill down to the root the common as well as the 
variegated Euonymus japonicus, so that I think you 
may rely upon its hardiness, south of the Thames at 
least. It is Elieagnus japonicus variegatus ; it has 
lovely olive-green leaves, edged and blotched with a 
rich cream colour, and the wood part of the shoots is 
thickly clothed with rich chocolate-brown hairs or 
scales ; altogether, I think it a delightful plant to have 
just one or two specimens of. There is no suggestion 
of disease in its variegation, a fault which, to my mind, 
utterly ruins so many variegated plants. Time would 
fail me to tell of Rhododendrons, Andromedas and 
Kalmias, Bays and Laurustinus, the Chinese Juniper, 
Thujopsis borealis, and many others, all of which do 
excellently for pot culture, and may be had at very 
little cost. 
Hitherto I have only incidentallyremarked that small 
specimens, especially baby Aucubas and small Berberis 
acquifolium in tiny pots, do well for the front row ; 
but there are a few excellent things that do perma¬ 
nently for front places. Amongst these the two best 
plants by far I know of (and both are propagated with 
the greatest ease, the first from layerings, the second 
from spores) are Erica herbacea carnea, with its soft 
mossy cushions smothered with bright pink flowers in 
February and March, and the Shield Fern (Poly- 
stichum aculeatum), with its long graceful leaves 
swaying with every wind ; of these you cannot have too 
many. One or two of the white variety of E. herbacea 
are very useful for variety, and the flowers are charming 
in mid-winter. Gaultheria Shallon makes a good pot 
plant for midway between the front and second rows ; 
so, too, do the varieties of Menziesia polifolia, or Irish 
Heath ; but the white one is the only one whose 
flowers I care for, and they are charming, but I am 
not sure that the plant is always frost-proof. The 
common Hart’s Tongue Fern (Seolopendrium vulgare) 
I use a great deal of for quite the front, but it is not 
altogether satisfactory, as an early wet frost is apt to 
take the colour in blotches out of its glorious broad 
green leaves. Arabis albida, Iberis corifolia, and such¬ 
like, serve for a pleasant change, and Christmas Roses 
in pots are ever welcome. I do not mention Snow¬ 
drops, Crocuses, Daffodils, &c., as they belong more to 
the subject of spring than of winter gardening. 
And now a word or two as to culture, &c. The 
plants having been procured, are potted into the small¬ 
est-sized pots they will conveniently go into, and in the 
end of October, when frost has reduced the Dahlia, 
&c., to pulp, they are plunged very carefully between 
Pseonies, perennial Sunflower, Irises, Phloxes, Spineas, 
Asters, and other herbaceous rootstocks. Great care is 
taken in plunging ; we rather leave a gap than injure 
in the smallest degree a stool of any good hardy plant ; 
but where the Dahlias, Paris Daisies, Calceolarias, 
Pelargoniums, and such-like come out, and where the 
annuals have been, there is always room. When the 
plunging is done, the borders are again very carefully 
forked over, about 2 ins. deep, and all is tidied up, “ere 
