o 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
11 In the time of my childhood ’twas like a sweet dream, 
To sit in the Roses and hear the bird's song.”— Moore. 
vww NOTICES, vwv 
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to give from every plant they grow. And 
this brings me to the subject I want espe¬ 
cially to write of to-day. 
Hardy Annuals. 
There are very few gardens in England, 
comparatively speaking, where hardy annuals 
are grown to perfection. Nobody sees these 
plants under anything like their best condi¬ 
tion who only sows them in April and has 
them in flower, say, in July. But let hardy 
annuals be sown in August; let them have 
the bracing and hardening effect of a 
winter’s growth upon them ; let them have 
the growth of months before they shall be 
called upon to yield us blossom ; let them in 
many cases be “ stopped ” and pinched back 
perhaps two or three times ; let them have 
ample room to grow ; and grown thus the 
hardy annuals are grand, long-flowering 
plants, yielding masses of blossoms on great 
sturdy stems for months, and decking gardens 
through all the early summer, while yet the 
half-hardy and tender subjects are green and 
flowerless. 
plants at an early stage to several inches 
apart. 
The Pendulous Catchfly 
There is a little rose-coloured annual 
(Silene pendula compacta) that makes much 
of the June beauty of my rock garden. 
Every August a wealth of seedling plants 
appears; it has become a beautiful garden 
wilding, and is pulled up and thrown away if 
it appears where it is not wanted. But it 
often comes at the foot of the rock-work, 
just where it meets the pathway, and there 
the dense cushions of bright rose-pink flowers 
are wonderfully decorative and beautiful, 
and the rock garden would lose much of its 
charm if no bright Silene flowered with the 
Saxifrages and Aubrietias. It does not 
matter how sunny the spot, nor how poor the 
soil. I sometimes think that the drier it is, 
and the poorer it is, the better the Silene 
loves it, and the more floriferous does it 
appear. It should be allowed to grow in wide 
masses, for then is its true beauty evinced. 
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AN AMATEUR'S LETTER 
TO AMATEURS. 
By the author of “ The Garden Decorative ,” 
etc., etc. 
II. 
The Most Beautiful Gardens. 
Where should we, here in England, look to 
find the most beautiful gardens ? I think we 
may say, without hesitation, where they are 
in the hands of the enthusiastic amateurs 
who have made a real hobby and study of 
gardening ; for in such we find not merely a 
collection of plants that is likewise to be 
found in ninety-nine out of a hundred other 
gardens—rather shall these that achieve the 
name of “ beautiful gardens ” yield us wel¬ 
come and refreshing variety—we shall find 
plants established with due regard to their 
needs, never a sun-loving plant languishing 
m deep shade, and never those that love the 
shady places drooping in the fierce sun- 
heat. These, and points such as these, the 
enthusiastic gardener, if he will have success 
and see his plants in the perfect beauty of 
health, must consider Those who would 
have beautiful gardens must remember that 
they achieve them by getting the best it has 
Layia elegans. 
Does August seem early to sow ? It is not 
too early, for then the seedlings are large 
enough to get a firm hold of the soil, and it 
is often possible before the winter to give 
them their first “ stopping ” — such of them at 
least that are benefited by the process. Take 
the case of that pretty new annual, Layia 
elegans, for instance. It is not an annual 
we should select to use for “ bedding ” out, 
but as a border subject it is grand when well 
grown. Let me give the history of some that 
pleased me exceedingly. The seed was sown 
in August, the seedling plants were severely 
thinned in October, and were transplanted 
in early April ; and, moreover, they were 
pinched back once in the autumn and again 
in the spring. The result was plants 2ft. 
high, and nearly as much through, and when 
their season for blossom came there were 
more than three hundred of the white and 
yellow flowers on each plant, and this not 
enduring for a few brief weeks, but veritably 
for months. And in a garden close by some 
of the same plants from spring-sown seed 
were growing, but poor, weedy objects, bear¬ 
ing perhaps thirty blooms to a plant, and 
often not that. And what applies to this 
plant applies to many, to blue Cornflowers, 
Godetias, the annual Evening Primrose 
(Oenothera albicaulis), Salvia Horminum, 
and others. 
Shirley Poppies, 
I should think those who have once grown 
autumn-sown Shirley Poppies would never 
again be content with the produce of a spring 
sowing. The difference is almost incredible, 
and one of the great points of vantage 
lies in the fact that autumn-sown plants 
remain in flower somewhere about twdce the 
length of time the spring-sown plants do. 
These, of course, are seldom transplanted, 
although it is not the impossible task some 
think it. It is well to sow on a light, warm 
soil, and most essential to thin the seedling 
The Viper’s Bugloss. 
I may as well mention here another in¬ 
valuable biennial of taller growth for some 
cruelly-dry and sun-parched border. This is 
the Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare), a 
native plant, but a really good subject to 
colonise on such a spot where it is almost im¬ 
possible for summer-flowering plants to 
thrive. Here again the seed should be sown 
as early in the autumn as possible. 
In sowing our hardy annuals at this season 
it is well to choose as light and dry a spot as 
we can find, for as they will have to combat 
a winter’s wet and frost, their chance of sur¬ 
viving is much greater on a dry, light soil 
than in a heavy retentive one. As the 
autumn advances, wet and rotting vegetation 
should be removed from around them, for 
they need as much air as possible about 
them. 
The Madonna Lily. 
There is one bit of work the enthusiastic 
gardener should never fail to do this month. 
So universal a favourite is the old Madonna 
Lily (Lilium candidum) that all seek to grow 
it. Now, one of the main secrets of its suc¬ 
cessful cultivation is to get it planted or 
transplanted as soon as possible after it has 
gone to rest, and this means during August. 
It starts into growth again veiy rapidly, and 
few plants suffer more than this if the bulbs 
are long out of the ground. Nowadays the 
theory that these Lilies flourish better with¬ 
out the help of well-rotted stable manure has 
quite exploded. The remains of an old hot¬ 
bed, thoroughly decayed and put below 7 the 
bulbs, with an interlayer of soil, is what they 
require. A point to remember, however, is 
to press, that is to say, tread down the 
manure before adding the soil, for it may 
often spell failure to have this loose beneath 
them. I grow my Madonna Lilies in a 
terribly dry border, exposed to almost all the 
summer sunshine, but the Lilies seem to like 
it, and flower more plentifully than in cooler, 
moister positions. F. M. Wells. 
