The Gardening World, February 15 , 1908 . 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ That Pine of mountain grace, the Fir, the Scot’s Fir, never out of place.’ 
*1 
An Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs. 
CONTENTS. 
Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An .. 103 
Camellias as Pot'Plants... n 3 
Competition Awards ...••••• i °4 
Competition/Prize Letter .•■•••• 106 
Enquire Within . IX 4 
Flower Garden, The fillus.) .. 111 
Fruit Garden, The (illus.) .m 
Fuchsias, Propagating (illus.) ...... up 
Grafting as a Means of Variation . 107 
Greenhouse, The Amateurs . 112 
Heath, The’Many-Flowered (illus.)... 105 
Kitchen Garden, The (illus.) . m 
Lobelia Maid of Moray . 108 
Marvel of Peru (illus.) . 113 
Nitrifying Cultures . 105 
Orchids for Amateurs . 112 
Peaches, Growing . 104 
Rehmannia, A New (illus.) .. 107 
Roses, A New Book on .. 108 
Roses, In the Garden of . ioq 
Tuberose, The Culture of the . 104 
Viola, A Graceful (illus.) . 109 
Work of The Week . 111 
-- 
Though now no more the musing ear 
Delights to listen to the breeze : 
I love thee, Winter! well. 
For nature soon, in Spring’s best charms, 
Shall rise revived from Winter’s grave, 
Expand the bursting bud again, 
And bid the flower re-bloom. 
—Southev. 
- +++ - 
YTuiUs Subset 
White clouds, their alabaster vases break- 
1 ing, 
Pour the red sunset over purple 
heights— 
Altars of nature, shrines of natures mak¬ 
ing, 
Tuned to the chant of nature's ancho¬ 
rites. 
Tall, priestly pines receive the rich liba¬ 
tion, 
Plunging their arms beneath the crim¬ 
son tide, 
Sprinkling the darker clouds' with their 
oblation,— 
Clouds that, like scapegoats, slink away 
cxxx. 
The Use and Beauty of Delphiniums. 
The use — -well, I know few better 
background subjects for handsome groups 
in a broad border, when they have been 
established long enough to become large 
clumps. They can be used to advantage 
in conjunction with Hollyhocks, as they 
flower slightly in advance of these, and 
then leave the field open for the FTolly- 
hock display. This means a complete 
change of colouring in this backmost line 
that is very acceptable. Delphiniums are 
among the number of the perennials that 
are as often transplanted in the spring as 
in the autumn, so that there is time to 
get them in yet. To my mind, it is well 
worth while to be very particular and 
careful in the colouring; we can have 
splendid shades of blue represented, clear, 
clean, and~ intense; but, on the other 
hand, we may find shades dull almost to 
muddiness, shades that do not carry far, 
and are therefore of little value in the 
general colour scheme. The remedy is 
at hand. Say we have a batch of seed¬ 
ling plants flowering at their due sea¬ 
son, then every specimen that does not 
entirely satisfy us should be marked and 
uprooted. Seed is cheap enough, and, as 
a rule, a packet of it will supply an ample 
quantity of plants of good colouring, but 
I always think it is best to flower every 
specimen and then to choose the richest 
and choicest shades. Seed of D. grandi- 
florum azureum or D. formosum coeles- 
tinum are of beautiful colouring, and 
where a white eye is desirable, D. hybri- 
dum King of Delphiniums can be pro¬ 
cured in separate packets. This white 
eye gives a very bright cherry look to 
the flowers. But, while strongly recom¬ 
mending this touch of white, I do not at 
all like the addition of black, brown, or 
purple in the petals, as these colours do 
not carry to the distance of the self-col¬ 
oured blue, or blue and white. Of course 
this is mere' individual fancy, but I am 
writing from the decorative point of view 
of securing deep rich clumps of blue in 
the summer border, and I know from ex¬ 
perience that what I say is true from this 
standpoint. Some may like to establish 
named varieties, and Persimmon, Mrs. 
Thompson, and Sir Trevor Lawrence are 
all fine varieties. 
sort; and consequently the same height 
in the border, but to carry it as far as 
possible through the different heights 
down to the really dwarf things, so that 
to associate Delphiniums, Anchusa, and 
Veronica spicata carries the eye in grate¬ 
ful gradation from height to height, and, 
I ought to add, these plants flower simul¬ 
taneously. 
The Petunia. 
Among the half-hardy perennials that 
we have learned to treat as annuals, the 
Petunia should have a prominent place. 
The seed should be sown early, because 
even if the plants begin to flower in June, 
they can still maintain a fine display of 
blossom throughout the summer. The 
Petunia is excellent for a hot, sunny 
position, and among all our bedders there 
are few flowers handsomer or of choicer 
type than a really good strain of these 
plants. Where a hot-bed has been made 
up or there is a heated structure, seed 
may be sown immediately, and also, at 
any time now, of Heliotrope, Phlox 
Drummondi, Asters, Ageratum, Ver¬ 
benas, etc. 
Sunflowers. 
There is one hardy annual that always 
seems to me to be needed to give char¬ 
acter to a garden during the late sum¬ 
mer ; I mean the Sunflower. Nothing 
ever takes its place. The larger the gar¬ 
den the more necessary the Sunflowers; 
their size, their rich colouring, their soli¬ 
dity, even their formality are all valuable 
asisets. It is well to consider exactly 
where these qualities shall be most tel¬ 
ling, and I may say Sunflowers should 
be placed where they can be seen from 
the greatest distance. In fact, in decid¬ 
ing a plant for any position it is well to 
step back and judge, if only in the mind’s 
eye, what will be the effect of such a 
plant or plants from some point of vant¬ 
age. Take the garden gate as a point, 
take the front door as another, take a 
long pathway, or some position on the 
lawn as another, and try to feel exactly 
what is wanted and at what height the 
mass of colour is most necessary; and 
then, and not until then, decide what you 
will and what you will not include in 
your spring seed list. 
F. Norfolk. 
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and hide. 
), to be bather in that sublimer fountain, 
Crimson with healing from the heart 
Divine; 
-aved in the light of some Shekinah 
mountain,’ 
Where the sun never sinks below the 
shrine! 
—Arthur Waghorne. 
Anchusa italica. 
Another excellent blue flower, though 
of dwarfer habit than the preceding, is 
Anchusa italica, but it should be of the 
new and improved variety, known as 
Dropmore, this being far more effective 
and less coarse than the older kind. It 
always seems to me advisable to have a 
colour confined not only to plants of one 
Thf. Daisy opens at sunrise and closes 
at sunset, hence its name “ day’s-eye.” 
Rose-hep Broth. 
A queer German broth is based upon 
rioe Rose-heps, which are pounded and 
cooked in weak stock, while a few whole 
heps, cooked tender, are left to float 
upon the surface of each plateful. 
