The Gardening World, June 27 , 1908 . 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ God made the flowers-to beautify the 
:arth and cheer man’s careful mood.”— 
Vordsworth. 
CONTENTS . 
Linateur's Letter to Amateurs, An ... 423 
Jedding, Summer (illus.) . 1 . 43 1 
arnations, Layering (illus.) —. 428 
inerarias for Amateurs . 424 
ompetition Awards . 4 2 4 
ompetition, Prize Letter. 432 
nquire Within . 433 
lower Garden, The (illus.) . 429 
ruit Garden, The (illus.). 429 
rreenhouse, The Amateur’s . 430 
'.itchen Garden, The (illus.) . 429 
ily, The Guernsey .!. 437 
obelia fulgens from Seed . 426 
Irchids for Amateurs .r.. 430 
elargonium (Ivy-leaved) on a Wall 
(illus.) . 438 
yrethrums from Langport . 427 
hododendrons at Regent’s Park 
(illus.) . 425 
ockery, Suggestions for Planting 
the . 424 
weet Peas: Work for June~. 431 
ools, Garden .437 
T indow Borders . vii. 
-- 
0 Arrange Short Stemmed Flowers. 
In order to arrange short stemmed 
iwers successfully take a shallow bowl 
id cover with a piece of netting or part 
an old lace curtain. Tie this beneath 
e dish with thread ; then put the stems 
to the holes of the netting when the 
>wl is half filled with water. This shal- 
w bowl can then be placed inside an- 
her one to hide die netting arrange- 
ent. 
-4~f4- 
toise’s Ovm 
is said the Rose is Love’s own flower, 
5 blush so bright, its thorns so many; 
id winter on its bloom has power, 
it has not on its sweetness any. 
ir though young Love’s ethereal Rose 
ill droop on Age’s wintry bosom, 
it still its faded leaves disclose 
ie fragrance of their earliest blossom. 
by did not Love the Amaranth choose, 
iat bears no thorns, and cannot perish? 
as! no sweets Lo\ 7 e’s life can cherish. 
I it be the Rose and Amaranth twined, 
id Love, their mingled powers assum¬ 
ing, 
ball round his brow a chaplet bind 
:,r ever sweet, for ever blooming. 
Thomas Love Peacock. 
The Linum Family. 
We are so used to regarding the Linum 
as merely a pretty half-hardy annual that 
we are apt to forget that beside the annual 
forms of L. grandiflorum and the familiar 
common Flax, L. usitatissimum, there 
are many desirable perennial forms use¬ 
ful for various positions in the garden, 
and more than merely useful—graceful, 
slender, and charmingly decorative. 
Take for instance L. perenne. It begins 
to flower in early June, and it will flower 
throughout until the frosts come. It has 
a daintiness even among many beautiful 
plants, and its sky blue single flowers are 
borne in great profusion. There is also 
a white variety, but to my thinking it is 
a little less pleasing than the blue. A 
fine variety is L. narbonense in warm, 
well-drained soils, but it is not absolutely 
hardy, but well worth experimenting with, 
for the colour of the flowers is a fine vivid 
blue. We must regard the perennial 
Linums as indispensable plants in the 
rock garden, seeing that they flower the 
summer through. We want a fine propor¬ 
tion of summer-flowering subjects here, 
more, in fact, than of spring-flowering 
plants, because the majority of the spring 
subjects make great masses, such as the 
Aubrietias and the Arabises, but where we 
use the term “mass” for these, to the 
summer-blooming plants, we often have 
to substitute the term clump, or patch. 
There are exceptions, of course, but we 
may make the rough and ready deduction 
that to get anything like a well furnished 
effect through the summer months we 
must have, a large proportion of our 
plants among those that bloom from 
June onwards. L. flavum is far too valu¬ 
able to be omitted. Here we have yellow 
flowers and an excellent habit of growth, 
with a really fine effect for summer dis¬ 
play when planted in groups of three. 
A New Zealand Linum. 
We have not a great number of plants 
hailing from New Zealand, but among 
them is the pretty little L. monogynum, 
with its large white flowers—an excellent 
companion plant for the blue and yellow 
varieties. I need not, however, make any¬ 
thing like a complete list of the different 
varieties suitable for our English gar¬ 
dens ; there are a goodly number, and 
many of them well worthy of cultivation. 
For the most part the plants enjoy a light, 
rich soil and a warm position. They are 
cultivated easily from seed, and from divi¬ 
sion of the roots, and I have often rooted 
cuttings of such varieties as L. perenne. 
Convolvulus mauritanicus. 
It is often well worth while to make the 
attempt to grow plants that are not ac¬ 
counted altogether hardy. Thus, I was 
assured that Convolvulus mauritanicus 
was not hardy enough to brave severe 
winters in East Anglia. It is four years 
ago, now, since I raised some from seed 
’ and planted them on the rock garden ; a 
plant or two may have died out, but there 
is still a good group—and one can alway., 
take a few cuttings to winter in a frame 
or cold house in case the worst befalls. In 
fact this particular plant makes a charm¬ 
ing pot subject of a rather uncommon 
shade of colour—a soft yet delightfully 
clear-looking Lavender blue. 
The Care of the Violets. 
We can never let the Violets go their 
own way for long without regretting it, 
and during the summer considerable at¬ 
tention should be given them where the 
best results are desired. Rooted runners 
that were struck, say, by the end of April, 
will need keeping to the original crown 
just as old plants do; the great secret of 
profuse flowering is to keep off runners, 
to give ample watering when necessary, 
and, in the case of those grown in frames, 
to get the frames filled in September. At 
the present time I know a keen gardener 
who can get no profusion of flowers at all, 
out of doors, from that beautiful variety 
Princess of Wales, but with the above 
treatment, even if they be grown alto¬ 
gether in the open, quite satisfactory re¬ 
sults should be achieved. I find that 
double varieties for the most part produce 
much better blooms when given frame 
culture, and for early and winter-flower¬ 
ing that good old variety Parme de Tou¬ 
louse is' quite as good, if no't better, than 
many newer varieties. Those who find 
the greater pleasure and interest in grow¬ 
ing later sorts skould secure among the 
doubles Mrs. J. J. Astor and Lady Hume 
Campbell, the colour of each being quite 
distinct. It is a great benefit to Violet 
plants to have the ground between the 
plants stirred frequently. 
F. Norfolk. 
-- 
Adonis davurica. 
The winter Aconite, Eranthis hyemalis, 
is the first yellow flower of spring, and its 
pretty blossoms will be already over by 
-the time this note is in print. 
Until recently the Eranthis had no 
competitor, but the species of Adonis, 
which is the subject of this note, now 
vies with it for the distinction. Most 
gardeners are acquainted with the species 
A. vernalis, which blooms about the end 
of March or beginning of April, and, al¬ 
though the authors of the Kew Index de¬ 
clare the Japanese A. davurica to be 
synonymous with the “Vernal Flower of 
Adonis,” there is, besides the striking dif¬ 
ference in period of flowering, a sufficient 
distinction between the two plants to war¬ 
rant the two names. The flowers of the 
last named species are quite single, and 
resemble giant Buttercups, while the for¬ 
mer has rather larger blooms, coir-’-r-sed 
of 12 to 16 narrow, golden-yellow 7 seg¬ 
ments—about half as many more than A. 
vernalis possesses. Also the finely 
divided fennel-like foliage is more loose 
and spreading than in the case of A. ver¬ 
nalis. Erica. 
