November 11, 1905. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
Every man should plant a tree.”—Buskin. 
vwv NOTICES. w\% 
To Readers and Correspondents. 
THE GARDENING WORLD" is published by MAOLAREN 
and SONS, 37 and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. Telegrams 
and Cables: “Buns,” London. Telephone Number: 997 
flolborn. 
“THE GARDENING WORLD” is published every Tues 
day and dated for the following Saturday. Price One Penny 
Annual Subscription (Prepaid), post free, 0s. 6d. United 
Kingdom ; 8s. 6d. Abroad. Cheques and remittances 
generally should be made payable to Maclaren and Sons, and 
crossed London City and Midland Bank. 
Advertisement Orders should be addressed to the Pub¬ 
lishers. The insertion of advertisements cannot be guaran¬ 
teed for the following issue unless received by Saturday 
before date of publication. 
EDITORIAL.—Letters for publication, specimens for 
naming, requests for information, manuscripts, and photo¬ 
graphs must be addressed to the Editor. Correspondents 
should write on one side of the paper only, and give name 
and address as well as nom-de-plume. 'The Editor will not 
be responsible for loss of unaccepted manuscripts, photo¬ 
graphs, etc., but if stamps be enclosed ordinary care will be 
exercised to ensure return. If payment for photographs or 
text is desired the price for reproduction must be distinctly 
stated, and it must be understood that only the actual 
photographer or owner of the copyright will be dealt with. 
All contributions of any kind in the Prize Competitions 
become the property of the Proprietors of “ The Gardening 
World. The Editor’s decision in Prize Competitions is final. 
SPECIMEN COPIES.—The Publishers will be pleased to 
send specimen copies of “ The Gardening World ” for distri¬ 
bution amongst friends and will appreciate the services 
rendered by readers in this connection. 
->—— 
AN AMATEUR'S LETTER 
TO AMATEURS. 
By the Author of “ The Garden Decorative 
etc., etc. 
XIV. 
How to Make the Garden Interesting. 
Beauty is a matter of vital importance so 
far as the garden is concerned, but interest is 
only second to it, though this fact is not 
nearly sufficiently realised. Now, how can we 
make our gardens interesting? By many 
T. a f. s > an( l chiefly, I think, by introducing 
distinctive features; and the present is the 
season when we may most easily consider what 
oim these shall take. On a former occasion 
1 E™* ,° f raised edgings as a charming 
method of introducing alpine and other rock- 
loving plants in small gardens where space 
was too limited to allow of a rock garden. 
When space allows of it, however, a rock 
garden should certainly find a place. There is 
a unique and especial interest in the cultiva- 
turn of these plants, and certainly few or no 
additions make for greater beauty or more 
beautiful decorative effect. So many of the 
typical alpine plants thiough the ages have 
had to contend with the hardest conditions of 
growth, the bitterest cold and winds that only 
plants in high altitudes have the power to 
withstand. It means that the plants have, 
through the countless centuries, modified and 
suited their habits to their hard conditions. 
Their habit of growth is often the wide- 
spreading, dwarf, cushion-like growth that 
spreads along the ground with many roots to 
grip hard into the soil, and these' plants of 
mountain heights and of the vast and silent 
Arctic regions we may grow in our hardy 
English gardens! They will be the flowers 
that shall make our gardens beautiful during 
the earliest days of springtime. 
Saxifraga oppositifolia. 
Take, for instance, such a plant as Saxifraga 
oppositifolia. Arctic explorers tell us that 
great stretches of it dye purple with its 
blossom the cold vast north—and this plant 
is with us a March-flowering subject, very 
beautiful and striking, a typical plant of the 
Arctic regions; and knowing whence it is, 
knowing the conditions that have made it 
v liat it is, and knowing it as one of the rare 
alpine plants of our Welsh Snowdon and the 
Scottish Highlands surely makes it a subject of 
especial interest, and so it is with other plants 
■ that may furnish our rock gardens; plants 
from the Himalayan heights like the Primula 
denticulata, plants from the High Alps and 
other high altitudes have a curious and par¬ 
ticular interest belonging to them, and help 
to make a wonderful and interesting feature 
in the garden. 
Unusual Conditions of Growth. 
Then, again, a garden may be singularly 
adapted to plants that require unusual condi¬ 
tions of growth. It may be that a garden is 
overhung, shady, and damp, and few of the 
ordinary and usual subjects will thrive. 
W here this is the case the owner is often in 
despair, or ceases altogether to take any 
interest in his garden. More than likely he 
has made many attempts to grow the ordinary 
perennials before giving up the attempt to 
make his garden beautiful. But instead of 
grumbling, instead of trying to make grow 
plants that cannot possibly succeed, let him 
seek out some beautiful and varied family of 
plants that will flourish under the conditions 
his garden affords, and make them his hobby 
flowers, his especial study. 
Primroses and Evening Primroses. 
I could tell of a garden that had a wonder¬ 
ful charm and interest; it had a northern 
aspect, and was also overhung; the soil was 
cold and heavy, and the whole was enclosed 
by palings. A hopeless place to make beau¬ 
tiful or interesting nine out of ten people 
would have said, but it came into the posses¬ 
sion of the happy tenth, and he made it both 
interesting and beautiful. In the spring 
season it might have been called “ a garden 
of Primulas ”; in the summer season and 
through the autumn it might have been known 
as “ a garden of Evening Primroses.” These 
two families — the hardy Primulas and the 
Oenotheras—are very beautiful; thev both 
flourish under the conditions this garden 
afforded—or could be made to afford”; and 
surely it was the true gardening spirit that 
prompted the owner of it to seek them out in 
all their beautiful variety and to study them, 
to grow them to perfection rather than to 
grow a selection of plants that could never 
have been brought to the same perfection. 
The Primulas by a judicious selection of varie¬ 
ties may be in flower for months. The selec¬ 
tion would, of course, include the dainty, 
delicate looking, and wonderfully interesting 
‘ mealy’ foliaged kinds like P. verticellata; 
such also as P. cashmiriana, with its curious 
yellow pigment on the under-sides of its leaves. 
P. marginata, P. denticulata, among the 
earliest of all to flower; the effective P. rosea, 
that looks too delicate for a hardy flower, yet 
is in blossom in March in the open. P. japonica 
carries the Primulas’ flowering season well into 
June, and is wonderfully handsome and effec¬ 
tive ; and the collection will hardly be con¬ 
templated without a generous selection from 
the Auriculas, the charming and old-world 
double Primroses in mauve and white, yellow 
and crimson colouring. The Polyanthuses and 
the Polyanthus-Primroses make a splendid 
show, and many others might be added. I 
have before me as a I write a list of nearly 
forty varieties that might well be grown in 
our hardy English gardens. There is only one 
of them listed at more than a shilling, and 
many of them at less than half, so that it is 
no costly thing to start a collection, which 
afterwards, even if only a single plant of each 
were purchased, might in a short time be 
greatly increased, for Primulas make many 
off-shoots and can be easily divided ; also, they 
are of fairly easy cultivation from seed so long 
as they are not subjected to heat. 
The ordinary amateur is far too seldom alive 
to the intense interest that belongs to a col¬ 
lection of some particular family" that is of 
especial interest; but it is a phase of garden 
ing that may well be brought to his notice. 
I had intended to go more closely into the 
many and beautiful varieties afforded by the 
great family of Oenotheras, but space will not 
allow of this to-day; neither can I for the 
same reason touch upon the other methods I 
have in mind of adding to the interests of our 
flower gardens. " F. M. Wells. 
Giant Surrey Tree. —The biggest tree in 
the South of England is said to be the King’s 
Oak at Tilford, which stands on the village 
green between two ancient bridges over the 
River Wey, and is some 30 ft. in circumfer¬ 
ence at a height of 6 ft. from the ground.- 
* * * 
British Fruit Ckoil— At present it is cal¬ 
culated that the receipts of British fruit 
farms are anywhere from £5.000.000 to 
£6.000.000 a year. The i British climate and 
soil are. perfectly adapted to the growth of 
Apples, Plums, Cherries, Pears. Currants, 
Raspberries, and Strawberries of the finest, 
quality. The British Apple is the finest 
which the world produces. The present out¬ 
put could easily be doubled if gardeners would 
only take up useless trees and replant with 
proper kinds. 
