May 30, 1908. THE GARDENING WORLD. 
iea, again, the flowers should be fully de- 
loped at the time of showing, but in tiheir 
irne of freshness. If too old, the petals 
>ald be losing colour and assuming a 
ded appearance. To guard against this 
L flowers should be out in the earl.y morn- 
a of the show, when still well filled with 
nsture, as this will serve to keep them 
es)h until they have been judged. 
WATER GARDEN . 
193. Hiding: Water Lily Tubs. 
I have some Water Lily tubs standing on 
concrete bottom .that I cannot let into 
s ground, and they look so much like 
ishmg tubs standing about that I should 
glad if you could suggest a means of 
diing them. (T. Clark, Middlesex.) 
No doubt there are various ways of hiding 
e sides of these Water Lily tubs, but in 
ch case you will have to go to some little 
rnble or expense, owing to the presence of 
concrete bottom. One plan would be to 
,t some boxes made in sections and curved, 
as to surround the tubs. These boxes 
uld be filled with any free-growing flower- 
,g plant, .such as, 'Pelargoniums, small 
rchsias, Petunias, or Marguerites, whioh- 
er you fancy. Another plan would be to 
did a double wall of bnicks round each 
b without using mortar. You could then 
it soil inside the double row of bricks, 
id if some of the latter are left loose you 
uld get plants to grow in the crevices be- 
een them Pelargoniums could be planted 
1 the top, and some such things as dwarf 
asturtiums could be planted round the 
;ges,‘ so as to fall over. Some of them 
■uild also be planted in the crevices be- 
reen the bricks and would make good 
-owth even in such situations, thus hid- 
g the bricks as well as the tubs. If space 
id convenience permitted, you could even 
ake small permanent rockeries of soil and 
ones, planting a variety of subjects which 
ould hide the tubs at all seasons of the 
ar. 
ROSES. 
394. Rose Shoots Withered. 
Last autumn I planted some Rose trees, 
id they started well this spring, but some 
the young shoots have withered up wiith- 
. the last week. Can you suggest wthat is 
e matter with them, as I am anxious, see- 
g they started so well and then went off? 
.ily some of them have gone like this, but 
ey are fine varieties. (P. Simpson, Sus- 
*•) 
Rose leaves are very tender m spring, and 
your plants made growth before the snow- 
orm and frosty nights in April it is more 
an probable that your plants have been 
tosted. This often occurs in the case of 
loses already established in the ground, 
jild weather in February and March causes 
em to make considerable growth, which 
ay be more or less completely destroyed 
ter on, either in March or April. The 
me flhoots may throw other buds lower 
>wn, and if so, the Roses will be merely 
•mewhat later than- if they had not been 
irt. 
895. Standard Roses with One Bud. 
Some of my standard Roses are forming 
,ie bud, and the leaves are only just burst- 
•■g. Should I remove this bud, and can you 
11 me why this is so, and oblige? (A 
onstant Reader, Middlesex.) 
There are two reasons why your standard 
oses are showing only one flower bud. One 
that the varieties may be weak growing 
| res or those that produce only one bud to 
shoot. The other possible reason is that 
rur standards, for some reason or other, 
'e weaker in growth than they should he. 
1 ou dc not mention the names, so that we 
mnot say whether it relates to any peculi- 
anity of the variety themselves. If you 
remove the buds it will leave the Roses a 
better ahance to make strong growth during 
tihe forthcoming season, but if they are 
Hybrid Perpetuals, the chances are that you 
may not get any more Roses till autumn. 
You would be able to get a better idea of 
what this is due to if you study the varie¬ 
ties so as to prune them accordingly. If 
the plants are weaker than they ought to be 
you should try and get them into vigorous 
growth during the summer by giving liquid 
manure. Sometimes standards flower in the 
way you mention as a last endeavour, and 
even after produaing Roses they may die 
during the season. They are peculiar things, 
and sometimes the stems when thick and 
hard produce an annually declining growth 
until at last they die. A great many stan¬ 
dard Roses are short-lived by comparison 
with bush Roses. These are suggestions we 
make so that you can think the matter out 
for yourself. 
2896. Grass Growing- Close up to 
Roses. 
Last year I planted some standard Roses 
on the lawn,, and now 'the grass has grown 
right up to the trees, leaving no 'bare earth 
round them. While the grass undoubtedly 
looks micer than the bare earth, I notice that 
most gardeners leave a clear ring of ground 
round each standard. Will you kindly tell 
me if it is really harmful to have the grass 
there, and for what reasons it would be 
advisable to keep the ground clear? (S. H. 
G., Surrey.) 
Keeping a bare space around the Rose 
trees enables the grower to keep the ground 
stirred, aerafeu, and also gives an oppor¬ 
tunity of feeding with manure in winter 
or liquid manure in summer. The reason 
wihy a bare space is left around the roots 
of standard trees is that it allows the growers 
to give their Roses treatment, so as to ensure 
stronger growth and produce larger Roses. 
It is simply a part of tfhe art of good culti¬ 
vation: You can, nevertheless,, grow Roses 
entirely in the grass, and they would no 
doubt look prettier, but as a rule they do 
not thrive -with vigour for any great length 
of time. It all depends, however, upon the 
varieties, as we* have seen some very old 
standards that had been in the same grqund 
for many years -with grass quite close up 
to the stems. If your lawn is cut with a 
mower, there is always a danger of the 
machine going against the base of the stem 
and bruising or breaking the bark. This is 
one strong reason that we have against grass 
being allowed to grow close up to young 
trees of any kind. On the other hand, if 
the ground is slightly hollow round these 
standards you can still! apply water libe¬ 
rally. and even manure water, both summer 
and winter. The grass would, of course, 
require more frequent mowing. 
TREES AND SHRUBS. 
2897. Shrubby Veronicas. 
Would you be good enough to naipe some 
of the prettiest and hardiest of tihe shrubby 
Veronicas which you think would succeed 
here, and say Whether they can be grown 
in shade, or do they require a sunny posi¬ 
tion? (T. Sinclair, Co-. Dublin.) 
Some of the prettiest of the shrubby or 
New Zealand Veronicas are V. Traversii, 
V. pingu-ifolia. V. salicifolia, V. buxifoida,, 
V. epacridea, V. diosmaefolia, V. decussata, 
V. Lyallii, V. pimelloides and V. Hectori. 
Another verv pretty one, which flowers with 
remarkable freedom, is V. hulkeana. which 
we think would succeed with you in the 
open. V. Bidwillii is somewhat liable to be 
cut down, but grows again, and somewhat 
resembles a herbaceous- plant. They can he 
grown in cool, shady positions, probablv 
with more success than when fully exposed 
to the sun from early morning onwards. 
This, of course, allows them to get more 
or less thawed before the sun strikes upon 
them. They would flower more freely, how¬ 
ever,, in a sunny position, because the wood 
would get better ripened. 
VEGETABLES. 
2898. Mint Diseased. 
Our Mint is very much ourled in the stems 
and looks- diseased. -Can you give me any 
idea of what 'is the matter with it, and what 
remedy I should take. The stems got much 
curled and twisted last year, and seem 
worse again this year. They are covered 
with small, reddish spots. (F. C. Ransom, 
Herts.) 
The disease is the uredo stage of Puccinia 
Meniihae, which is of lairly rrequent occur¬ 
rence on Peppermint (Mentha piperita). It 
is not a very rampant disease as a rule, al¬ 
though it is difficult to completely eradicate 
it. It is widely spread in this country, but 
although it seriously interferes wiith a close 
cropping of the ground where it is- grown 
in quantity,, the plants do not get entirely 
killed. By removing the stems that are 
covered with the red spots- and portions 
suffering in the same way 'beneath the soil, 
you can keep it largely in check. These 
p/ieoes that are removed should not, of 
course, be thrown down on. tihe soil, but 
burned, so as to prevent the spores from 
getting scattered and spreading to fresh 
plants. During the season, when you can 
get a sufficient quantity of healthy young 
shoots, you could take them off and 
strike them as cuttings with which to make 
a new plantation. This sfhou-ld be done suf¬ 
ficiently early in the season to enable the 
young plants to get fairly well established 
before the winter comes, as the Mint depends 
for its vitality chiefly upon -the fleshy 
underground stems which it makes. This 
new plantation should be made at some dis¬ 
tance from the old ones, or at least upon a 
piece ot ground that has not grown Mint for 
some years. 
2899. Transplanting- Leeks. 
What do you consider the best time for 
transplanting Leeks sown this spring? They 
have now about fou-r to six leaves, and are 
coming on well. Do they require any 
manure, and what is the -best way to apply 
it ? I have never grown them before. Any 
information would be thankfully received. 
(A. G. Bond, Horsham.) 
June is a good month for transplanting 
Leeks, and indeed you should not delay it 
beyond that time. The ground selected for 
Leeks should be in good heart. Indeed, it 
should either be trenohed or deeply dug and 
manured in the autumn, as is done for 
Onions. At the same time, you can give a 
special treatment to meet the wants of Leeks 
transplanted now. You oan dig it deeply 
and give plenty of well totted manure, put¬ 
ting it well down. If you prefer well 
blanched Leeks you can take out a trench 
about a foot in depth or more, and dig a 
good quantity of well rotted manure in the 
bottom of the trenoh. (Mix it with the soil 
in so doing. You can then put a little soil 
on the top and plant "the Leeks in that, 
giving them a foot between every two plants, 
if you require them of large size. As the 
Leeks grow until you have formed quite a 
covering them close up to the base of the 
leaves. This will cause the neck to grow 
longer carrying the leaves well above the 
soil. You can then work down some more 
soil until the trenoh is gradually filled up, 
after which the soil can be heaped up as the 
Leeks grow until you have formed quite a 
ridge. If the leaves are kept in good con¬ 
dition the Leeks may stand in these trenches 
until green vegetables of any sort are get¬ 
ting valuable in spring. 
