MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
Sweet nurslings of the vernal skies, 
iathed in soft airs and fed with dew.” 
— Keble. 
GQNTENT&. 
Aateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An ... 225 
Aural, A Beautiful Greenhouse ... 227 
B zing Star (illus.) . 22 7 
Gary Trenches, Preparing (illus.) 232 
C ..ipetition Awards . 226 
C npetition, Prize Letter . 228 
Ccus, A White Variety of the 
olden (illus.) . 22 9 
Cnbidium, A fine (illus.) . 2 3 * 
Ejuire Within . 2 35 
F wer Garden, The (illus.) . 233 
Fut Garden, The (illus.) . 233 
G dioli, Glorious . 228 
G enhouse, The Amateur's . 234 
Higing Baskets . 22 ^ 
Kthen Garden, "The (illus.) . 233 
FLcissus (Poet's) Growing Upside 
town (illus.) . 2 3 ° 
O hids for Amateurs .. 2 34 
R.es, Among the . 2 3 * 
S d Sowing . 22 ^ 
S:et Sultan . 2 4 ° 
Vlas. 22 9 
—<- 
Some, ftipul ?m«bs. 
foist April, clear June. 
,pril snow breeds grass. 
. cold April, the barn will fill. 
iod tempers the wind to the shorn 
; ib. 
April with his hack and his bill, 
Plants a flower on every hill. 
Plant your ’taturs when you will, 
They won't come up afore April. 
Fhen April blows his horn (is "windy) 
:’s good for hay and corn. 
* --- 
March borrows of April, 
Three days and they are ill ; 
April borrows of March again 
Three days of wind and rain. 
CXXXVII. 
There are two plants that hang over 
the pots and make charming fringe or* 
edging plants, so that they* are indispen¬ 
sable in the amateur's conservatory. I 
mean Ficus repens and Isolepis gracilis. 
The latter grows so quickly that it may be 
desirable at this season to turn it out of 
its pots and divide it, and thereby, of 
course, increase the number of plants 
considerably. Often it is more convenient 
to have this growing only in small pots, 
and in that case one large plant will be 
divisible into three or four. 
Climbers on House Walls. 
Are we sure that these have not become 
starved ? W e must remember that their 
roots are restricted on the one side by the 
wall and the foundations of the house and 
on the other very often is merely a gravel 
path, so that when the plants have ex¬ 
hausted all the goodness of the soil that 
was supplied when they w 7 ere established, 
it may be that they' become unsatisfactory 7 . 
A few years ago "a Wistaria was in this 
unenviable condition, and though it made 
little or no growth and flowered unsatis¬ 
factorily, the cause was not duly recog¬ 
nised. But it happened that a flower bed 
was made some few feet distant from it. 
The Wistaria made more growth in one 
year than it had in half-a-dozen pre¬ 
viously, and flowered well. In a short 
time the bed was found to be strongly 
invaded by its roots. The present is an 
excellent time to attend to the welfare of 
wall plants. If carefully done, a barrow¬ 
load of the soil surrounding them may be 
removed and replaced by fresh, and the 
roots need not be injured at all. 
Ferns. 
The present time — if the iveather is 
open and the soil in good working order 
—is suitable for the planting of many 
hardy Ferns. There is one thing more 
than another that Ferns dislike, and that 
is a draughty position, and though a 
shady, moist situation is agreeable to 
them, they do not flourish so well in a 
stagnant, saturated soil as in one that has - 
fair drainage. W hen we think of it, num¬ 
bers of the Ferns growing wild are found 
on banks, and we all know 7 that that im¬ 
plies pretty sharp drainage. It is worth 
while in the first instance to do for our 
Ferns what we can so far as giving them 
healthy conditions, for a fernery, even a 
small one, in which the Ferns are grow¬ 
ing luxuriantly 7 and in splendid health 
and beauty is a wonderfully decorative 
feature in" the garden. Cool, green 
beauty, perfection of growth, exquisite 
line and curve and variety of form are 
things to compel our admiration. We do 
not want to have a few 7 miserable Ferns 
planted simply because nothing else will 
grow in the particular spot. Supposing 
there is such a spot, and it is to become 
the fernery, with a little care and taste 
in arranging it the Ferns need not be¬ 
come languid and miserable-looking ob¬ 
jects. It is not absolutely necessary, but 
where the soil is thoroughly sour and 
saturated it will improve the state of 
things wonderfully to dig down three feet 
or so and throw in a layer four to six 
inches in depth of old mortar rubble and 
ashes, and then to bring fresh soil, if the 
old is in this unhealthy condition. This 
layer of drainage will keep the soil whole¬ 
some for years. Many 7 of our hardy Ferns 
are very beautiful, and besides these there 
are many hardy American and Japanese 
varieties every bit as hardy. I cannot 
vouch for the truth of it, but I have read 
of Hartstongue Ferns growdng to a height 
of five feet in Devonshire. We may 7 not 
compass that, but with careful cultiva¬ 
tion our stately evergreen Hartstongues 
may become noble and striking plants. 
Take, again, the common little Poly- 
podium ; under the most forsaken and un¬ 
toward conditions- it makes the hest of 
things, but give it a little attention and 
good cultivation, and how it responds! 
The Welsh Polypody (P. vulgare cambri- 
cum) is a very handsome form. Among 
the Lastreas w 7 e need not be content 
merely with the w 7 ell-know 7 n Male Fern, 
for there are' many 7 variations, and L. 
Felix-mas grandiceps is finely crested. A 
Fern catalogue will give many desirable 
forms among the Athyriums, the Poly 7 - 
stichums and other varieties. 
The most difficult fernery 7 to make pic¬ 
turesque is that under the lea of the 
palings of a small town or suburban gar¬ 
den. But with the help of some sandstone 
much may 7 be don'e. If it be possible to 
have the Ferns on both sides of a path¬ 
way, it adds much to the artistic appear¬ 
ance, and it may be possible to make the 
ordinary pathway deviate a little, and per¬ 
haps narrow it slightly 7 in order to make 
it run through the little, fernery, and not 
merely at its foot. In quite a small town 
garden that unfortunately faced the north 
I call to mind a beautiful border of 
Ferns fringing the miniature lawm, a 
small verge of grass beyond it, then the 
pathway 7 and then the verandah covered 
with Virginian Creeper—a very 7 charming 
little picture panel v 7 as obtained as the 
Creeper leaves turned to red with the tall 
waving fronds below 7 them. Ferns make 
so distinct and characteristic a feature in 
a garden that it behoves us surely 7 to use 
this feature. Bulbous plants associate 
charmingly with Ferns for a spring effect. 
Ivy should not be allowmd to become" too 
'rampant among the Ferns. 
F. Norfolk. 
-- 
The Petal Box. 
Little boxes filled with the petals of 
Poppies. Violets, Roses or Lavender, 
w 7 hich have been dried, spiced, and treated 
with the oil of the flow 7 er from w 7 hich they 
came are to oust the vinaigrette and the 
scent bottle with fashionable women. The 
petal boxes are supplied in gold, silver or 
tortoiseshell, and are cunningly 7 fitted into 
the handle of an umbrella, the stick of a 
fan, or even on a bracelet. 
