July 18, 1903. 
The Gardening World 
general notices. 
(equatel^represented^in aS P ° S3ible 33 t0 date3 ° f “ eeti ^ sh0ws > etC ‘ We de » ire to do ia our P°™ to have these 
w will the P re C by U iot only'obhge SS^p^f ^TOrto«^ ,0n, ” advertisin e in this P^per, to mention that their advertisement was seen in The Gardening World, 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“The thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.”— Tennyson. 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of Thu Gardening World 
rill give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
HE BEST PARAGRAPH, or SHORT ARTICLE, Sent 
y readers during the week. The Editor’s 
ldgment must be considered final, and he will 
e at liberty to use any of the contributions 
ent in. The paragraph, or article, must not 
xceed one column in length, but the value, 
ather than the length, of the article will be 
oDsidered in making the award. Competitors 
lay send in item? of news or comments on 
ews; hints of practical interest to gar- 
eners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; 
accessful methods of propagating plants 
isually considered difficult; or contributions 
>N ANY SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE 
>f GARDENING proper. Letters should be 
addressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi- 
ion,” and posted not later than Friday night 
o ensure insertion in the issue of nest week. 
rhe following Coloured 
"Mates have appeared :— 
March 14. -NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
March28. —TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON.” 
April 4.— COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 18 —CESTRUM SMITHII. 
April 25 —JAPANESE PIGMY TREE. 
n I , a j3~ Coloured Plate of SAXIFRAGA 
RISEUACHH and A GROUP OF ALO 
Adi Ad. 
May 30.—Coloured Plate of DENDROBIUM 
toBIUUS ROTUNDIFLORUM a nd D.n. 
June 6.—Monochrome plate of CALADIUMS. 
i™E'7 Monochrome P]ate of ZENOBIA 
PECIOSA PULVERULENTA. 
SlvTi^? re n dP i ate of APHELANDRA 
URANTIACA ROEZLII. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
ublishers, price 2|d. post free. 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we present 
ITCHMPLANT? 0 * lhe AUSTRALIAN 
Is EXT WEEK we shall aive a Half- 
artburv t , he conservatory at 
IARTBURN LODGE, STOCKTON-ON- 
Views and Reviews. 
The Wild Garden.* 
The: fact that this book now appears in 
its fifth edition is. sufficient guarantee that 
it has. been found both useful and interest¬ 
ing to readers. When it first made its 
appearance it had only one illustration, giving 
a plain, unvarnished story in, the author’s 
own peculiar way. In succeeding editions, 
however, the illustrations have been greatly 
multiplied and interleaved with the text, here 
and there to illustrate the author’s meaning 
in certain phases of planting and the making 
of natural pictures. 
The plea for the origin of this book was 
that hardy herbaceous plants had been 
ousted from the garden, borders where they 
were at one time so. prominent. Cultivators 
could not see their way to fill the beds and 
borders with these beautiful old-fashioned 
flowers, because at that time they could not. 
quite get over the novelty attaching to the 
modern features of summer flower bedding. 
That phase of gardening was, carried to such 
an extent that cultivators and owners of 
gardens alike soon became satiated with the 
uniformity and sameness of pictures, that, 
produced a great glare in the garden for a 
few months, and that, at a great cost. The 
idea, of the wild garden was then, for the 
utilisation, of those handsome, old-fashioned, 
hardy flowers; that were more suited to our 
climate than the tender exotics. 
We have ourselves aided in uprooting the 
old-fashioned herbaceous, borders and shrub¬ 
beries in order to make panelled borders 1 , 
with all the enthusiasm that any gardener of 
the old school could have commanded. The 
borders ’were planted according to the new 
style, and looked like a gain to the garden 
for a. time, but the seasons, were not always; 
propitious to these tender exotics. Now and 
again would come a- rainy season with a, low 
temperature, and the tender exotics looked 
miserable. At. the same time, the old-fash¬ 
ioned border flowers, where they had still 
* “The Wild Garden,' or the Naturalisation and Natural 
Grouping of Hardy Evotic Plants, with a Chapter on the 
Garden of Rritish Wild Flowers. Bv W. Robinson, author 
of the Eneiish Flower Garden.’’ 5th Edition. Illustrated by 
Alfred Parsons. Condon : John Hurray, Albemarle Street 
1903. Prie 108. 6d. bet. 
been, allowed to remain, not only looked 
happy, but, revelled in the abundance of moist- 
ture. The beauty and aspect of these border 
flowers, kept ever changing with the progress 
of growth, and late flowering subjects came 
into bloom to take the place of those that 
had gone toi rest. The Pelargoniums and 
other tender inmates of the greenhouse were 
hardly ever in bloom, the rain and the cold 
weather keeping them in check, while the 
rain actually destroyed the blossom. 
Under such conditions the value of hardy 
plants suited to our climate was; apparent, 
and no; other plea was needed to urge the re¬ 
instatement, of these hardy flowers in some 
form or other. Since then many of these 
have been greatly improved, and though not. 
all suited to, be left alone in the wild garden, 
there are always parts of the fruit and 
kitchen garden, and even the pleasure 
grounds, that could be rendered gay by their 
use, and where the soil may be prepared to 
suit, their particular requirements. 
Turning now to the precepts which are 
urged in this hook of the wild garden, we 
find hints of what has been practised under 
our eyes for many years past. No one, we 
suppose, would now venture to, s,ay that bulbs 
on the grass were entirely out of place. In 
the case of the later-flowering subjects, the 
grass may have grown and require mowing 
before the leaves have matured. In such 
case® the grass can be left a, little longer, 
even in the better dressed parts of parks and 
pleasure grounds’, until the foliage of the 
bulbs has ripened, when, of course, the grass 
can be cut. The bulbs, of course, would be 
confined to particular areas, and not scat¬ 
tered entirely over the whole ground, so 
that only the patches containing bulbs need 
be left uncut for the time being. 
On most private estates in country dis¬ 
tricts there are undressed parts of the 
grounds where a wild garden could be formed 
according to the nature of the place, its 
capabilities and its scope. These are’ the 
places intended by the author to he utilised 
as a wild garden, where the grass may only 
be cut once or twice a year. 
The plan of the book in its various chap¬ 
ters is to give pictures which might be 
carried out, in a simple way with some or 
other hardy flower in association with some¬ 
thing else. For instancy one, chapter is en- 
