434 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
June 27, 1908. 
ter plan, i want to raise a stock of things 
from seeds in readiness. Please give after 
each how soon the seed should germinate, for 
1 know most alpines are long dormant. I 
only want things one is glad to have a good 
stock of and not things that can be raised 
quicker by cuttings or rapidly-spreading 
plants like Aubretias. I prefer such things 
as some of the silvery Saxifraga, 'Cyclamen, 
Ramondia, etc. Also please mention r ny 
plant I ought to obtain now in order to take 
cuttings from. T shall be grateful for all 
the hints you can give me. (A. C. D., 
Kent.) 
We should agree with you in the making 
of a winding walk through the proposed 
rockery, and should make it commence at 
the lower right-hand corner and proceed to¬ 
wards (F)- From this it might curve to¬ 
wards (E) and then proceed to the upper 
left-hand corner which you marked with a 
star. By building up rock work on either 
side of this you should form receding bays 
and jutting angles producing shady, sheltered 
nooks for certain things' The walk will let 
you close up to the plants to examine them 
and that is one of the principal uses for it 
there. If wound about irregularly, so as to 
take away any formality and make it appear 
longer than it really is, it will be effective 
as well as useful. We could scarcely under¬ 
take to say how long some of the seeds will 
lie, as that is largely dependent upon the 
age of the seeds, the time of year the) 1 ' are 
sown, and the state of the weather or the 
conditions under which they are placed to 
germinate. Most of the Primulas take a 
long time to germinate, but if you can secure 
newly-ripened seeds and sow them imme¬ 
diately they should come up thickly in 
spring. We give a list of plants, all cf 
which are obtainable from some source or 
other in this country in the form of seeds. 
As many of them take a long time to reach 
the flowering stage from seed you should 
procure plants of a number of them,, par¬ 
ticularly the Androsaces, Anemones, Gen¬ 
tians, Iberis and iSaxifragas Most of the 
latter we have named belong to the ■ ilvery- 
leaved section. The plants of which ycu 
may get seeds are Cyclamen neapolitanurn 
(hederaefolium), Primula rosea, P. dentica- 
lata, P. sikkimensis, P. capitata, P. frond osa, 
P. involucrata, Alyssum saxatile, A. s. citri- 
num, Androsace carnea, A. Laggeri, Ane¬ 
mone apennina, Erinus alpinus, E. a. albus, 
Campanula caespitosa, C. fragilis, C. pu- 
silla, Erysimum rupestre, Dianthus zonatus, 
D. caesius, D. glacialis,'Cheiranthus alpinus, 
'Cerastium tomentosum (Snow in Summer), 
Ramondia pyrenaica, R. serbica, Gentiana 
acaulis, G. septemfida, Draba aizoides, 
Iberis sempervirens garrexiana, Geum Hel- 
dreichi and various Saxifragas. You will be 
able to obtain seeds of Saxifraga Rhei, a 
mossy species, and S. oppositifolia. Give 
the latter a cool, shady place. The others 
we mention like plenty of sun. They are 
Saxifraga longifolia, S. Aizoon, S. Cotyle¬ 
don, S. Hostii, ,S. burseriana, S. caesia, ;S. 
media, S. oppositifolia and S. squarrosa. 
It is extremely interesting to raise these lat¬ 
ter from seeds, but it will be some time 
before you are able to place them on your 
rockery with safety. We should, therefore, 
advise you to get some plants of them. For 
cuttings you could also get the Campanulas 
we name and possibly others as well as 
Dianthus and Iberis. 
2 96 6. Points of Violas. 
Please let me know through the medium 
of The Gardening World what points I 
should look for in Violas for exhibition pur¬ 
poses. (H. Staddon, Essex.) 
The flowers should be of good outline and 
the texture of the petals good. As to the 
outline, it may he either round like a Pansy 
or oblong, provided all parts are well pro¬ 
portioned and the petals fit one another 
neatly. The petals should be smooth, in¬ 
cluding the edges. Wavy or undulated pe¬ 
tals detract from the prim smoothness of 
what a Viola should be. The colour should 
be well defined in seifs, whatever the hue 
may be. Whether light or dark, the colour 
should be as uniform as possible, and dis¬ 
tinct. In parti-coloured flowers, as well as 
those in which there is a band or lacing of 
colour round the edge, the colours should 
harmonise without being mixed or confused. 
The attractiveness of the flowers should be 
the prevailing idea. The stems should be 
fairly long to hold the blooms well above 
the leaves, and stout. They should also 
look one way, but except in the case of pot 
plants this is a matter of arrangement/ and 
should be well borne in mind by the exhibi¬ 
tor. 
2967. How to Tie Up Delphiniums. 
I shall be greatly obliged if you will 
kindly tell me in your next issue how to tie 
up the enclosed herbaceous plants. I remem¬ 
ber reading about it in one of last year’s 
numbers, but it was too late, as all ours had 
been tied up then, and I have looked through 
many of the numbers, but cannot find the 
one. (Highcliffe, Yorks.) 
We do not remember the note about tying 
to which you refer. Probably it was only 
a short note in some of the articles relating 
to “ Work of the Week ” in the flower gar¬ 
den. There are several ways of staking 
which we might briefly refer to. In the case 
of large plants of Delphiniums, one plan 
would be to put two or three stakes round 
the outside of the clump, leaving it suffi¬ 
ciently open in the centre not to drag the 
stems into one thick mass. Another plan is 
to put in a single stake as near the centre 
of the clump as possible, and to use one or 
two ties, passing round all the stems with¬ 
out drawing them too tightly together. This 
is the common method of staking, but it is 
not always neatly done. A good plan would 
be to put one stake to each stem requiring 
support. This stem need not be so large 
as if it was intended to support the whole 
bush. Neither need it be so long. When 
driven into the ground it need not be higher 
than the base of the flowers, unless your 
garden is very windy. A stake reaching to 
the base of the flowers would certainly keep 
them upright, and the only other danger is 
that the flowering portion might get broken 
in wind-swept situations. Two ties with 
stout strips of raffia tape would make them 
secure for the season. 
2968. How to Tie Up Michaelmas 
Daisies and Other Herbaceous 
Plants. 
Would you be good enough to let me know 
how to tie up Michaelmas Daisies and other 
herbaceous plants? (.Highcliffe, Yorks.) 
In the case of plants with a few stout stems 
like Delphiniums, you can tie them up in the 
same way as described for those. Unless 
you wish to spend a great deal of time over it, 
we think there is no neater way.of tying her¬ 
baceous plants generally than driving a stout 
stake into the centre of the clump and put¬ 
ting one or two stout strings round them 
without drawing the bunch in any way tight. 
By putting two pieces of string round it 
holds all the stems together, and the stake 
in the centre prevents them falling over in 
any direction. While this would apply to 
Michaelmas Daisies generally, we might say 
that these are often allowed to grow into too 
large clumps. All the stronger growing of 
them should be lifted every second year, 
using only small pieces, and then in spring 
the grower .should go over them and thin 
them out to a few stems to each plant. This 
may be done at any time from April to the 
end of May or beginning of June. The 
stems left grow stronger, branch more freely 
and produce a much better effect than twenty 
to fifty stems all huddled together in one 
clump. We have seen Michaelmas Daisie 
treated in this way as clumps or bushes ii 
a border, and also as a hedge. A slende 
stake was put to each separate stem afte 
the thinning out was done and the stem tiec 
to the stake. It takes a good deal of tinn 
and stakes where the clumps are large, bu 
you will find it advantageous to reduce the 
number of stems as we have already de 
scribed. Then the neatest way would bi 
either to put one stake in the centre anc 
put two strings round the whole mass, c: 
to put a separate stake to each stem, whicl 
is the neatest way. 
ROSES. 
2969. Crimson Rambler Turning Yel 
low. 
I have a Crimson Rambler Rose tree, whicl 
I planted a year last November. The leave: 
are this year all turning yellow, as per en 
closed. I should be much obliged if voi 
tell me the reason and remedy. (J. E. Clay 
ton, Yorks.) 
We can only guess at what might be tin 
cause of the leaves turning yellow. Thos- 
you sent us were the early ones from th. 
lower part of this year’s shoots. It is > 
no consequence if they turn yellow, as tne’ 
usually do fall early; but if they are goin; 
like that all the way to the top of the shoots 
then clearly something is wrong. Possibb 
the shoots might be cankered low down, 0 
have been eaten by insects of some sort. I 
is possible there may’ be grubs at the tools 
such as those of the May bug, the gre:: 
Rose chafer, Otiorhynchus sulcatus, of sonn 
of their allies. In that case it would b 
well to examine the soil around the roots 
loosening it up with a fork so that you cai 
see whether any grubs are present and eat 
the roots. If you find grubs, the best plai 
would be to take off the top soil all roim- 
the stem of the plant for at least 18 in. out 
and give a good sprinkling with “ Vapor 
ite,” “ Alphol,” or “ Kilogrub.” Crimso; 
Rambler is also very liable to red spider 
but this does not usually show itself unti 
July or August. There was no evidence 0 
this pest on the specimens sent us. Yor 
could, however, examine the plants well t< 
see if red spider has got a footing on th 
under sides of the leaves. These are sug 
gestions we make so that you can look for th 
cause of the mischief on the spot. If only 
the lower leaves are dropping, then you neec 
not trouble, as that is of common occurrence 
Red spider is most troublesome on larg' 
plants grown against walls. The remedy 
against that enemy would be strong soapsud: 
or -Gishurst compound dissolved in water. 
TREES AND SHRUBS. 
2970. Name and Treatment of Shrub. 
Will you kindly give me the name of the 
enclosed, also a few directions as to culture 
and whether it delights in sunny or shad; 
situations, and oblige? (Annual Sib 
scriber, Hants.) 
The shrub, of which you sent a piece, wa 
Buddleia globosa. It is hardy in man; 
parts of Britain, and would be completely s< 
in ypur district. A good, deep, well drainer 
loam would be the best in which to plan 
it, but it is by no means particular, am 
would still give satisfaction in sandy an< 
gravelly soils. Heavy, clay soils would b 
the most detrimental to it. It should alway; 
have a sunny situation, as it would not ripei 
its wood well in a shady situation, ant 
could not, therefore, flower so freely. Afte 
selecting the soil, little further remains tej 
be done, but to keep the ground clean abort 
it so as to encourage growth, and if it shouk | 
get straggling or unshapely you can cu 
back the longest shoc.ts. It is well, however 
not to cut more of the top growths than car 
