March 28, 1908. 
22 1 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
If your plants require re-potting, it should 
; dons before the fronds are too far ad- 
rnced, otherwise you are liable to injure 
any of the young fronds. Maidenhair 
erns usually succeed best in fibrous loam, 
ith sufficient sand to make it porous. If, 
ivvever, you employ about one-third of peat, 
will make the soil hold the water some- 
bat longer. We do not think, however, 
at either soil of watering prevents, or has 
ythirg to do with, the fronds not expand- 
g as they ought to. It is owing to the 
y atmosphere of the house, and many 
ople have a similar difficulty. Those who 
.ve the advantage of a cold frame put 
eir plants into that until the fronds have 
tained full size and all the pinnae have 
read out. Then more ventilation is given 
r a time to properly harden the foliage, 
ter which the Ferns may be stood in your 
ndow and remain healthy for a much 
nger period of time. The leaves are really 
thin, however, that it is impossible in 
e warm, dry atmosphere of a living room 
keep them beyond a certain length of time, 
oner or later, according to the dryness of 
e atmosphere, the fronds will turn brown 
d become unsightly. To completely over- 
me this difficulty it would be necessary to 
.ve a bell-glass to place over the pot, so as 
confine the moisture about the fronds. By 
is means you would be able to retain the 
liage in an evergreen condition all the 
■ar round. If you grow the plant under 
bell-glass, or have a case in which you 
uld grow a number of Ferns, it will in- 
ce such a change in the atmosphere about 
J plants that much less watering would be 
cessarv than under the present conditions, 
you continue to grow it in the house as 
:herto without aray protection, you should 
careful to examine the plants every day, 
see whether the soil is getting dry, and 
ve it properly moistened. Even if we were 
advocate watering so many times a week, 
>bably that would not meet the case, as it 
:ies so according to the state of the 
ather, the amount of draught in a room, 
1 the temperature. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
18. Dwarf Border Plants. 
..an you please name a few low-growing 
:u:ts to fill up spaces between taller ones 
the herbaceous border? They should not 
wer in August. I have Thrift, Dovedale 
'>ss, Mimulus luteus and Carpathian Cam- 
:iula. (Gamma, Cambridge.) 
have selected a number of dwarf-grow- 
l i which we presume will meet 
Mr requirements, but there is a word in 
1 lr communication which we cannot read. 
Is plants we have selected are : Adonis 
■' nalis, Alvssum saxatile, Anemone blanda, 
■pfraga Wallacei, S. muscoides Rhei 
-ildford Seedling, Tiarella cordifolia, 
) 'onica Teucrium dubia (most often named 
: rupestns in gardens), Aubretia deltoidea 
[ chtlinii, Heuchera sanguinea, Myosotis 
1 sstris Victoria, Phlox subulata Nelsoni 
¥ Polygorum vaccinifolium. Of the 
*jve number all of them will flower during 
s ing or summer except the last-named’’, 
wxh flowers in. autumn. With that excep- 
n, therefore, all of them will bloom pre- 
M as to August. We have selected them 
10 because they are easy of cultivation. 
2 19. Raising; Perennials from Seed. 
should be pleased if yoil would tell me 
to rear Aquilegias, Delphiniums, Alys- 
s 1 saxatile, Campanula pyramidalis, Po'lv- 
hus and Marvel of Peru from seed. (W. 
Rton, Lanark.) 
he Aquilegias, Delphiniums and Alys- 
'> being hardy perennials, may be sown 
pots or boxes at the present time much 
the same way as you would deal with 
f-hardy annuals in spring. Prick them 
oft into boxes after they liave made a rough 
leaf or two and grow them on in cold frames 
till towards the end of May, when they 
should be of some size. You could then 
harden them well off and plant them ir.i their 
permanent positions. The Pol}-anthus could 
be reared in the same way, but while still 
quite small plants they could be transferred 
10 a bed in some half-shady situation or on 
a north aspect of a wall, where they could 
make their growtii in the summer time with¬ 
out being aifected by the heat of the sun. 
Then, in the autumn, these plants should 
be nice tufted specimens fit to be transferred 
to beds, borders or other situations to bloom 
in the following spring. The larger the 
plants are before they are planted out in 
October tlhe better a display you will have 
in the following spring. Bearing this ; n 
mind, you should give the seedlings plenty 
of room in the bed to which they are trans¬ 
ferred out of the boxes. They should be 
kept perfectly clean and occasionally given 
a good watering, if the weather should prove 
dry. The Campanula pyramidalis mav be 
treated much in the same way as Aquilegias, 
to encourage the plants to make good growth. 
They could either be potted up singly when 
taken out of the boxes, or they could be 
transferred to the open air to make plants 
sufficiently large to flower. Then they could 
be potted up and transferred to a greenhouse 
or to cold frames, according to the object in 
view. Marvel of Peru is a perennial with 
tuberous roots, and not hardy in this 
country. You can treat it precisely the 
same as the Aquilegias and Delphin'ams, 
but you may expect -t to flower during the 
forthcoming autumn. At the end of May, 
therefore, it should have a situation where 
it may form bushes about 2 ft. in height, 
and as -far through. The plants will not 
attain their largest size during the first 
year, but if you treat them well before 
planting them out they should make bushes 
of fair size and bloom ?n the autumn. When 
the stems get blackened they should be cut 
down and the roots kept in a box of cocoa- 
nut fibre in a greenhouse, where the frost 
will be kept out, but where drip from 
flower-pots may fall upon them during the 
winter. 
27 20. Treatment of Dwarf Plants. 
I should be so much obliged if you would 
kindly tell me if Aubretias, Cerastium, and 
the two enclosed specimens should be cut 
bacx now to induce new growth, and would 
you please tell me the names of the two 
specimens? No. 1 has a pink flower and 
No. 2 is blue, I am told. (M. W., Warwick¬ 
shire.) 
We should net cut down Aubretias, nor the 
two plants which you send us. No. -1 is 
Phlox subulata, and No. 2 is Veronica Teu¬ 
crium dubia. All these three are really 
evergreen plants, and should not be cut back, 
otherwise you will be cutting away the 
material which should produce the flowers. 
They will all make growth in due time, 
when the weather becomes sufficiently warm. 
The Aubretias and the Phlox should com¬ 
mence flowering about the end of May or 
the beginning of June, but fhe Aubretias 
perhaps before. The Veronica blooms in 
July, hut this largely depends upon the 
situation in which it is planted. The Ceras¬ 
tium is also truly evergreen, but whether you 
out it down or not depends largely upon 
what you are growing it for. It is very 
frequently used as an edging plant to beds 
in the flower garden, and in that case it 
is a good plan to cut away the old stems, 
so that all the young foliage will give the 
edging a fresh appearance. If, however, 
you want the plant to flower, it would be 
a mistake to cut away the stems ar jd pre¬ 
serve the old plants. They would probably 
produce a Tew flowers, hut not so many as 
the old stems. On the other hand, if you 
cut oti the tops of the Cerastium and put 
tnem in as cuttings, these would flower in 
due time, and also answer the purpose of 
an edging. If you have the plant on a 
rockery or in a border, it is quite unneces¬ 
sary to cut down the leafy stems. 
27 21. The Best Ornamental Gourd. 
Please give me the name of the best and 
hardiest nou-rd for ornamental growth on 
a pergola. Should it be started in heat? 
Wnat preparation of soil should it be plan¬ 
ted out in? (W. W., Lines.) 
It would be difficult to say which is the 
best Gourd, as that would largely depend 
on taste. There is a very pretty- one named 
the Pear-shaped Gourd, which is green on 
the top and yellow downwards, or it may be 
dark-green and striped with yellow. There 
are varieties of it, nevertheless. A large 
number of Gourds are grown for ornamental 
purposes out of doors, and if you have much 
space to cover on that pergola, your best 
plan would be to get a packet of ornamental 
Gourds, rear them and plant them out one or 
two to each pillar of the pergola. You must 
remember that they are very partial to heat, 
so that if we have a cold summer like what 
it was last year the fruits may not come to 
much. In a dry-, warm season, however, a 
Large number of the Gourds may be brought 
to perfection out of dcors. In selecting 
situations for them, therefore, remember 
that sunshine is necessary to produce the 
best results. The Custard Gourd is a very 
peculiar one, and might be secured for con¬ 
trast to the Pear-shaped. There are also 
the Egg Gourd and Orange Gourd. The 
fruits of all these are very moderate in 
size, and if y-ou wanted the very- heavy orps 
they would be catalogued under Pumpkins 
or Squashes. They would not be so suit¬ 
able lor training on poles on account of the 
weight of the fruit. When you get the seeds, 
sow them in sandy loam in pots, and when 
they have made the first rough leaf you 
can turri the mass of soil out so as to avoid 
■breaking the roots. Pot up the Gourds 
singly in small pots and return them to the 
same house for a time at least. They should 
at least have a temperature of 60 degs. by 
night to germinate them freely. The plants 
should at least have a greenhouse tempera¬ 
ture till towards the end of May, because 
if the weather is fairly settled by that time 
they could be harderod off in cold frames 
and planted out in June. In order to en¬ 
courage good growth, it would Be necessary 
to take out the soil to the depth of 2 ft. at 
least, and to mix a considerable quantity 
of well-decayed cow manure with it before 
again fliiling up the holes and planting the 
Gourds. They are not delicate feeders, and 
should have treatment somewhat similar to 
that given Vegetable Marrows. Heavy clay- 
soil would not suit them cut of doors. That 
is the reason why we always advocate the 
naturai soil being taken out, so that it can 
Be improved by the addition of something 
or entirely replaced by good soil. If your 
soil is heavy, therefore, you willl have to 
mix it with some more friable material, add¬ 
ing plenty of manure and seeing that the 
superfluous water can get away if the holes 
are id heavy clay. 
HEDGES . 
27 2 2. Pruning a Young- Privet Hedge. 
I have a young Privet hedge about 2 ft. 
high, but it is not very close at the bottom. 
Does it require anv pruning, arid when is 
the time to do it? The foliage is green, but 
I would like a variegated one. Would you 
please give me the name of it and say if it 
is more difficult to manage than the green 
one? (R. Stevens, Lines.) 
Possibly the plants were not placed close 
enough together when originally planted. 
