The Gardening World, April 25, 1908 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ As for our love of gardens, it is the last 
refuge of art in the minds of many English¬ 
men .”—Sir Arthur Helps. 
CONTENTS. 
Alpine Plants, Top-dressing . 278 
Amateurs Letter to Amateurs, An ... 277 
Beans (Broad) and their Culture 
(iiius) .:..288 
Beet Blood Red (illus.) . 281 
Bellflower, A Hybrid (illus.) . 279 
Bouvardias for Garden and Green¬ 
house . 279 
Competition Awards . 278 
Competition, Prize Letter . 280 
Enquire Within . 289 
Flower Garden, The (illus.) . 285 
Fruit Garden, The (illus.) . 285 
Fruits, Some Colonial . 278 
Greenhouse, The Amateur’s . 286 
Kitchen Garden, The (illus.) . 285 
Libonias and their Culture . 278 
Orchids for Amateurs .. 286 
Plans, Flower Garden (illus.)’ 
281, 282 and 287 
Rockfoil, Stag's Horn (illus.) 282 and 283 
Rock Garden, In Praise of the . 284 
Sweet Peas : Work for April . 283 
Work of the W“eek . 285 
-f+4- 
a 
This is my garden—mine 
Green shade and golden light, 
That pyramidal Pine, 
Those Pear trees veiled in white. 
See where the blossoms' snow 
Falls flake by flake, and lies 
On the young grass below— 
Mine is this paradise. 
■ Lilac, Seringa, Thorn, 
Many and sweet to tell, 
Roses that shame the morn 
W ithin my garden dwell. 
Come, quiet spirits, ye 
Who love green grass and flowers, 
Rest here awhile with me, 
Nor grudge the idle hours. 
Drink peace and quiet here 
Onto your hearts’ content, 
To last you for a vear^ 
Dtfsty and diligent. 
E.T.K. in the “Westminster Gazette.” 
Rearing; Beautiful Perennials from 
A wonderful .impetus has been given to 
amateurs by the introduction of small 
packets of seed in penny packets. In a 
great number of these packets there are as 
many plants to be raised as any ordinary 
amateur will require of the different sub¬ 
jects ; and, where, in the case of rare and 
expensive seed being put up, it is, of 
course, easy enough to buy duplicate 
packets. The interest in growing the or¬ 
dinary perennials from seed has increased 
I should imagine a hundredfold. This 
will have a grand effect on the type and 
style of English gardens when gardeners 
of beautiful hardy flowers, reared in many 
cases through their every- stage, will be 
seen on all sides. 
This brings one to the especial subject 
I want to write of to-day—the rearing of 
some beautiful perennials from seed. 
The time has come for this interesting 
work, and during the next few 7 weeks we 
may give ourselves as much work as we 
choose in sowing and looking after the 
tiny seedlings that will result. 
The Aspect. 
Supposing we have a long border that 
we wish to stock entirely with plants 
reared at the present time from seed, it 
will be necessary-, first of all, to consider 
its aspect, the nature of its soil, and the 
number of varieties we shall find room 
for. The aspect is, perhaps, the most 
important point to consider at this stage, 
as one of the great secrets of achieving 
a beautiful border is to select sun-loving 
varieties of plants for an open, sun-ex- 
posed position, and those that still flower 
and flourish sufficiently well or even bet¬ 
ter in cool and sunless positions. 
Anchusa italica. 
For the purposes of this article we will 
suppose a western aspect and in no part 
overhung with trees. There is the com¬ 
paratively new Anchusa italica, known as 
Dropmore variety. Now this plant is 
capital for heavy clay soil, and in general 
effectiveness is a great improvement on 
the older form, for the flowers are con- 
■ siderably larger and the whole type of the 
plant, if I may- say so, seems improved. 
So far, seed is rather scarce and not al¬ 
ways quite true, but I note that one firm 
is offering, when the supply it has of 
seed runs short, to send four y-oung plants 
in the place of the shilling packet—a 
good idea it seems to me and worth tak¬ 
ing advantage of by- those who would like 
to have the plants in flower during the 
coming summer. 
Monarda didyma. 
In every garden should be found, I 
think, a few plants of the old-fashioned 
Bergamot (Monarda didyma). At its 
particular height—about two feet; in 
some soils rather more—thelre are few 
other perennial plants of a like intense 
red colour. It enjoys rather rich, moist 
soil, and is often, if used generously, 
mite a feature in a border, and it has the 
cnarm of being a really old-fashioned 
garden flower. The character of the 
plant is very distinct—the red flowers are 
produced in whorls, around stems very 
rigid and erect, and we must not forget 
that the foliage smells sweetly. If 
plants are bought it is well worth while 
buying the variety known as Cambridge 
scarlet, the colour is even more intense 
and the growth is finer than the older 
form. 
Pyrethrum roseum, 
Do not let us forget Pyrethrum roseum 
— if ever a perennial is worth rearing 
from seed it is surely this. Well do I 
remember reading that it was difficult to 
rear and difficult afterwards to transplant. 
All I can say-, I found it easier to deal 
with than almost any plant I can name. 
I look upon it as one of those invaluable 
plants that we may plant wherever we 
can find room for it; yes, even under 
partial shade. A grand plant for cut¬ 
ting, a grand plant in the garden for 
weeks. And what is more, though it is 
good at its first flow-ering, it improves 
year by y-ear for several y-ears as the 
clumps become larger. It is so valuable 
that all the strength of the plant should 
be husbanded, so that seed vessels should 
not be allow-ed to form, and a top dress¬ 
ing from an old hotbed may be given 
every spring during this month. What I 
mean is, it is so good that it is worth the 
effort to grow it as near to perfection as 
possible. I like to sow the seed in a 
pan, keeping it covered with glass in a 
cool greenhouse, then planting the seed¬ 
lings into some airy position out-of-doors 
for the summer, and in autumn moving 
lo their flowering quarters. Just to show 
how easy the seeds are to grow, I may 
say that I left some particularly fine 
heads to ripen meaning to gather and 
sow them, but forgot to do so. The 
heads of seed were overhanging so that 
the seeds must have fallen into the gravel 
—numbers of seedling plants appeared 
in the path. 
The Heuchera. 
The Heuchera would seem to be a 
favourite plant with everyone ; its grace¬ 
fulness and its bright crimson flowers 
have won it great favour. Of all the 
varieties, H. maxima is, perhaps, most 
worth growing, while the most interest¬ 
ing, because the most varied, would be a 
packet of H. sanguinea hybrida. AVe 
must remember that the Heuchera is of 
the Saxifrage family, and the knowledge 
may help us in our treatment of it. If 
there should be any difficulty in keeping 
it in health during a hot, dry time, a 
piece or two of sandstone laid beside it 
will help to keep its roots cool and moist. 
Other Perennials. 
Delphiniums, Erigerons, Wallflowers, 
Potentillas, Geums, and hundreds of 
