December 9, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
231 
as the small pots are full of roots. At no time 
should the young plants suffer from drought, and 
an occasional syringe overhead will help them. 
Look after the first attacks of aphis, and kill them 
by either syringing or fumigation. The tips of the 
first few shoots should be removed, but after a base 
is secured I do not recommend any more stopping. 
During July and August they may be removed to 
deep pits or frames, and gradually exposed to the 
open air. As autumn approaches place the lights 
over them at night. It is well at this time to give 
plenty of water, and also to sprinkle some about in 
the frame. A splendid compost for the final potting on 
is one-third loam, and the same of leaf soil and 
well-decayed matter from a spent hot-bed. A little 
coarse sand should be incorporated among the whole, 
and I do not dress the compost too fine. 
During the summer and autumn, they will push up 
some stout growths from the bottom, especially 
those plants propagated from root cuttings, a few of 
the eyes previously spoken of generally breaking 
into grand growth "at this period. Some grov/ers 
head these strong shoots, but I do not advise the 
practice. They always produce a few grand trusses 
at the top, and throw out flowering laterals almost 
their whole length. By September they may be 
taken into the greenhouse, and will remain in bloom 
for many months. Do not fear to cut from them, 
because if growing healthily, they will push into a 
succession of flowering wood. Weak liquid manure, 
and an occasional rise in the temperature, will assist 
them very much at this stage. 
The following season, go through this routine 
again ; but, as you will now have some old plants, I 
will devote a few closing words to them. We have 
already nolted how to treat them to a rest of some 
few weeks. When you have decided to repot them, 
shake away all of the old soil you can without using 
too rough measures, and repot them in the strongest 
compost I have described. Place them in a warm 
greenhouse temperature, syringe freely, and they 
will soon break into healthy growth. This batch 
may also go into a pit or frame at the same time as 
the younger plants, and will bloom a little in advance. 
The younger plants, if well grown, will produce the 
finest crop of late spring flowers, therefore I would 
always propagate a few annually. After the second 
year, throw them away, unless one or two of any 
particular kind are needed for propagation ; when 
you may utilize a few of the roots, and also place 
the same plant into heat to provide green cuttings. 
A thorough drainage at the bottom of the pots is one 
of the chief things in successful cultivation of the 
Bouvardia. The colours are various, white, pink, 
salmon, and red. There are also double and single 
varieties. 
Scarlets ; President Cleveland, Elegans, Dazzler, 
Hogarthii, and Vulcan. Double; Hogarthii flore 
pleno Two good pinks are Priory Beauty, and 
Mrs. R. Green. Whites ; Vreelandi, Candidissima, 
and Purity. Double; Alfred Neuner. President 
Garfield is an excellent double pink or salmon. 
There are many more kinds, both of doubles and 
singles, but I can confidently recommend the above. 
— Experience. 
SPRING GARDENING.* 
With the advent of Spring the spirit revives within 
us and the eye is gladdened with the re-appearance 
of our early-flowering plants. Whether it is the re¬ 
turn of more congenial weather along with the 
appearance of those early-blooming plants, after the 
dark, dreary days of winter, which makes us appre¬ 
ciate them more, it is not my intention to stop here 
and inquire; but, certainly, spring flowers have a 
fascination of their own, which draws attention to 
this lovely class which is every year becoming greater 
favourites of the general public. The wealth of 
beauty in spring-flowering plants is enormous— 
enough to meet the wants of each individual hobby 
—so that the material we have at our disposal is 
ample to make our hearts glad, the landscape bright 
and cheerful—in keeping with the weather we expect 
at this time of the year. 
Having the material to work upon, the fault will 
be our own if we do not obtain satisfactory results 
from our arrangements, and it is specially in 
reference to this subject that I wish to direct your 
attention this evening, and hope to provoke a 
healthy discussion on this important subject. In 
* A paper read by Mr. A. Wright at the meeting of the 
Ealing and District Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Asso¬ 
ciation, on the 5th inst. 
looking back on an experience bordering close on 
thirty years, it is an agreeable pleasure to be able 
to say that the rapid strides that have been made 
in this style of gardening shows that our profession 
is not lagging behind in this age of rapid progress, 
and although we may not yet have reached perfec-' 
tion—it would be a disastrous result if we had—ever 
give us the “glory of going on,” “ to be pursuing is 
pleasanter than to have, and happy is the man who 
has imaginations and faith that will provide him with 
objects and ideals too far reaching to allow him to 
shrivel into hopelessness and cynicism.’’ I would 
venture here to remark that the arrangement of our 
hardy spring plants will yet give greater pleasure in 
the near future than ever has been the case with the 
half hardy plants used in summer bedding arrange¬ 
ments. 
In my early gardening days I had no experience in 
spring gardening further than what the herbaceous 
border offered, and in looking back now on those 
days I oft-times wonder why our hardy spring¬ 
flowering plants should have been so neglected ; but 
hose were the days of the "great mania for masses 
of bright colouring arrangements, generally carried 
out in beds of elaborate design cut in the grass in 
the most conspicuous position adjoining the mansion, 
and the more elaborate and complicated the design, 
the more perfect was the bed considered. Gradually 
this style of gardening began to give way before a 
more rational and natural system of arrangements, 
and has no doubt been the means of showing 
what to avoid in O'ur arrangements of the 
future. One good feature of this style, however, 
and perhaps the only one it contained, was the grand 
effect to be obtained by massing quantities of one 
plant together. This feature has been kept in view 
throughout the different styles of gardening from 
then up to the present day, and is one of the great 
secrets of nature that the gardener should not loose 
sight of. All the best effects that I have ever seen 
in plants growing naturally, was where a quantity of 
one thing was grown together, whether flowering or 
foliage. 
By degrees we find as the years rolled by that the 
flower beds formerly devoted to the Pelargonium 
and Calceolaria, etc., and were effective for about 
four months of the year and then rough dug and 
laid up for the winter months—bare unsightly 
objects in view of the principal windows of the 
mansion—were gradually filled, after the summer 
occupants had been removed, with spring-flowering 
plants, and so treated were much more interesting 
and beautiful than the bare beds. This form 
of spring gardening rapidly spread over the 
country, and it has I think been the means of 
showing what admirable and beautiful results 
were to be obtained by the use of hardy 
plants alone. This successful grouping of hardy 
spring flowers led many to fill the beds with hardy 
plants for summer effects. This system has not 
found universal approval, not in my opinion that 
the plants were not suitable, but because the beds 
used for the usual half hardy plants were not in the 
right position to obtain the best effect the plants 
were capable of producing. We also find that with 
a demand for hardy plants, more good species and 
varieties suitable for this kind of work were intro¬ 
duced, and their use at the present time is rapidly 
reducing the use of half-hardy plants in our flower 
gardening arrangements. The collection of flower 
beds cut out in the grass was gradually found out 
not to be altogether a suitable place for producing 
effectual arrangement from this class of plants, and 
those beds are giving way before a more natural 
arrangement, and this cry of natural arrangement 
has spread from one end of the country to the other, 
and at last the use of hardy plants are beginning to 
take their proper place in the decoration and 
ornamentation of the pleasure grounds. This cry 
for natural arrangement has done more for tr’.ie 
gardening than all the architects’ designs that were 
ever laid down on grass, in boxwood or stone 
edgings. These I trust we have seen with joy 
in their day, but are glad they are gone. 
Many of you are no doubt wondering what I can 
recommend to take the place of the collection of 
beds formerly laid down in the grass, and where you 
are to get the effect from natural arrangement. In 
this paper I am treating of spring gardening, but 
the same system of natural arrangement would apply 
also to arrangement for effect during the summer 
and autumn months, but with different subjects to 
obtain the effect. In studying the natural arrange¬ 
ment of plants in all manner of positions, the con¬ 
clusion I have arrived at is, that to get the best 
effect we must not use herbaceous and Alpine 
plants by themselves, but in conjunction with 
shrubs—flowering and foliage. In place of 
the herbaceous border, which is a good enough 
thing in itself where plants are grown for a 
supply of cut flowers, but where effect is wanted the 
system of placing a plant here and a plant there and 
repeating the same at intervals is wrong, and we 
must fall back on the massing system to get 
effective display. It will no doubt have struck many 
of you present here this evening, as it has often 
done me, viz., that where herbaceous flowering 
plants were backed up with ornamental foliage 
plants and flowering shrubs as a background, 
a much better effect was obtained with the same 
number of plants employed. The more I study 
plants so arranged the more am I convinced that 
the system is one of the best to follow in the 
arrangement of our spring flowering plants. 
The shrubbery borders in private places or public 
gardens are not as a rule the objects of beauty one 
can admire, and I would suggest that this is a sub¬ 
ject well worth the consideration of the gardener. 
If he would study up this subject and give it his care¬ 
ful attention we should gradually loose sight of the 
crowded borders we often see at the present day, 
and in their place we should have room left for each 
individual to show its true form, and the space left 
between can be filled in with flowering herbaceous 
and Alpine plants (to follow the example of the 
R. H. S., in their schedules of prizes, I may add 
“ bulbs admissible’’), which would include many of 
the most showy spring flowering plants. 
(To be Continued.) 
THE LATE STORM. 
In case some of your readers may think my account 
of the late storm as given in your last issue 
exaggerated, I am able to give the aggregate 
number of trees blown down and the damages for 
the counties of Perth and Forfar, from the reports 
collected by the Dundee Advertiser. In Perthshire 
the number is 403,587, and in Forfarshire 1,044,344. 
The damage done is estimated as follows ;—Perth¬ 
shire, ;^6 o, 743 ; Forfarshire, £221,^20-, or a total 
sum of ^282,263. In a number of the reports no 
estimate has been given, it being impossible to make 
one. 
I have noted that it has been said that the fallen 
timber may lie on its side and grow and be cut at 
leisure. I am aware of this practice, also of the fact 
that on many estates it may be found impossible to 
do otherwise. But on the other hand it should be 
avoided if possible. Has not practical demonstra¬ 
tions of the terrible evils that accrue from this 
jungle system been given tt) us all. And a word of 
warning against it may do good. It is an established 
fact that this form of procedure is a mighty factor 
in forming propagating pits and hot-beds of those 
abominable pests that ravage our forests. Past 
experience should not be thrown to the wind, rather 
should we build on it the basis of our present 
procedure. The havoc committed by the storm 
has been sufficiently disastrous without anyone 
leaving germinating and breeding harbours for the 
enemies of the forest. 
The system has not a beneficial element to recom¬ 
mend it. It is the most far fetched primitiveness, 
without a single mark on it of the progress of 
civilization. It is most adverse to practical forestry, 
and we do not think that practical foresters will en¬ 
courage it. Estate owners, with the indispensable 
fixity of tenure—low rents, will grasp at it in some 
cases, and find it a very suitable temporary plat¬ 
form. We sympathise with them in their loss, but 
where this jungle system can be averted it is a duty, 
and we would strongly recommend the attacking of 
all blown down timber, the most valuable timber to 
be first taken in hand, and as it is useless to expect a 
fair price owing to the glut of the market, the best 
way is to place it in dry, airy sheds, and sell when 
the market returns to a fair price. Branches and 
the refuse burn on the ground. Where cover 
temporary is needed for game, some might be left 
for this purpose. It is useless to expect to get it 
sold for firewood in the majority of cases. 
Well seasoned home-grown timber is as good and 
valuable for estate work, farm building, &c.. as foreign 
