October 31, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
STD. 
rjCjan 
; re 
Address : The Editor, The Gardening 
orld, 37 and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which may 
ver any branch of gardening. Questions 
\ould be as brief as -possible and written on 
te side of the paper only; a separate sheet 
'■ paper should be used for each question. 
Replies cannot be sent by post. 
Garden Plans .—Gardeners who would make 
t best use of this column are invited to 
■epare and forward to us a rough outline 
-awing or plan of their gardens, indicating 
■ t position of beds and lawns, the charac- 
3TOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
327. Lime-Washing a Wall. 
Allow me to thank you for the useful in- 
nmation re manures you gave me through 
diu paper. My greenhouse is a lean-to and 
le wall is very damp and moss grows in 
ifferent parts. I have a good number of 
lants in it, one sort and another. Would 
barm them if I lime-washed the wall? 
here are snails and grubs of different sorts. 
,'ill this help to get rid of them? (Urm- 
roN, Lancs.} 
It will do the plants in your greenhouse 
0 harm if you lime-wash the wall of the 
ouse. The first thing you should do is to 
et an old knife, or even piece of iron, and 
:rape off all green stuff that may be there; 
len washing it down would get rid of the 
reen stuff. This will prevent slugs and 
rails from harbouring there, but you should 
'zt that there are no open seams in which 
rey can hide, and, if so, have them ce- 
lented. This work could be dene a day or 
•vo previous to white-washing, so that it 
ould get dry, when it will take the lime- 
'ash better. Your statement about the wall 
'eing damp reminds us that you could make 
pretty feature of this wall at very little 
xpense or trouble. The plan is to fix some 
'ires across the wall about 3 in. from it 
nd then get some 2 in. mesh galvanised 
ire netting and fix to the wires. You would 
ien have a little space between the wire 
etting and the wall for soil in which you 
luld plant Ferns and various other orna- 
lental plants. A syringing once a day dur¬ 
ing the summer would usually supply all 
loisture necessary to keep these Ferns and 
lants growing. You would then have a 
irge variety of plants hiding the wall in 
ddition to those already in the house, but 
equiring less attention. See under “ Fruit ” 
or your other question. 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
328. Snowdrops, etc., for Shady Gar¬ 
den. 
In one of your papers there was a para- 
raph saying that Snowdrops did well in a 
ery damp place. Would you please tell me 
f it needs to be a sunny damp spot ? I have 
piece of garden 4 ft. by 2^ ft. in a wet 
lace between my outhouse and the next 
welling-house, so that very little sun can 
et there. Would it do planted with Snow- 
rops? If not, is there any inexpensive 
ter and height of the fence or wall; posi¬ 
tion of vegetable garden, orchard, etc. The 
north side of the garden and any over¬ 
shadowing buildings should be denoted. It 
should also be stated whether the garden is 
-flat or on a declivity, and all large trees 
should be marked. Particulars of the na¬ 
ture of Ike soil will also help us to give 
satisfactory replies. When such plans are 
received they will be carefully filed, with 
the name and address of the sender, and 
will be consulted by the Editor whenever an 
enquiry is sent. 
flowers that would do there ? (Belmont, 
Dorset.) 
Snowdrops and Daffodils should succeed 
there, although shaded, provided the ground 
is shallowly tilled or forked up now and 
again to aerate the surface. Both of these 
bulbs will grow in shaded positions pro¬ 
vided they are not trodden down and pro¬ 
vided there is no water thrown upon the 
soil from time to time, as that keeps it baked 
and in a sour condition. If naturally damp 
that will not hurt either of these bulbs. 
The whole of the ground may be covered 
with something. Some people have an idea 
that bulbs will come up through other plants, 
but we like alternate planting, so that you 
could have lines or clumps of those bulbs 
and between them some other flowering plant 
such as Doronicum plantagineum excelsum, 
double White Rocket, Primroses and Cow¬ 
slips. As an edging you could plant London 
Pride (Saxifraga umbrosa). 
3329. When to Sow Coreopsis. 
While away a friend gave me some Coreop¬ 
sis seed. Will you please tell me when they 
should be planted? I have also seeds of a 
flower called Love-in-a-Mist (that is the only 
name I ever heard it called by), and no 
reference is made to it in Sutton’s book. 
Probably it is mentioned by some other name. 
1 hope 1 ha\e tiot asked too many questions, 
but am so ignorant that if I do not ask 
them I shall make very little headway. 
Will 3’ou kindly answer them in your “En¬ 
quire Within ” column? (Ignoramus, Car¬ 
narvon.) 
You did not tell us the other name for 
Coreopsis, as there are different kinds. We 
presume, however, that it is Coreopsis tinc- 
toria, C. Drummondi, or some of their varie¬ 
ties. These two are annuals and may he 
sown in the open garden any time during 
the first fortnight of April. Y 7 ou can sow 
Love-in-a-Mist at the same time. Very likely 
it'is Nigel la damasoerua or some variety of it, 
that being the species most commonly grown. 
(See under “ Miscellaneous ” for your other 
question). 
3330. Plants for a Herbaceous Border. 
Along one side of my garden is a long 
border which is generally sown with annuals. 
Some white Lily bulbs did so well there that 
I have taken a fancy for perennials and 
think this would make a good display as 
a herbaceous border. It gets sun nearly 
all day. If you would give me the names 
of twenty sorts that would keep up a show 
689 
most of the summer or longer I would be 
thankful. (F. May, Durham.) 
We should advise you to have your border 
trenched before planting, as the herbaceous 
plants succeed much better in a deep-root 
run than when the soil a little way down is 
hard. We have made a selection of twenty 
plants for you and name them very nearly 
in the order of their flowering. They are 
Doronicum plantagineum excelsum, Trollius 
europaeus, Aquilegia chrysantha, Lupinus 
polyphyllus, Iris florentina, I. pallida dal- 
matica, Dicentra spectabilis, Lilium cro- 
ceum, Erigeron speciosus, Galega officinalis, 
G. o. alba, Chrj'santhemum maximum King 
Edward VII., Echinops Ritro, Echinacea 
purpurea, Rudbeckia speciosa, Anemone ja- 
ponica alba, Chrysanthemum uliginosum, 
Aster Amellus, A. Novi-Belgii William Mar¬ 
shall and A. Novae-Angliae Mrs. J. F. 
Rayner. 
3331. Montbretias Not Flowering Well. 
I have a bed of Montbretias which flowered 
well last year, but this year they did not do 
so well. They made plenty of leaves that 
were shorter than usual, but I would like 
them to flower, as they are so useful for 
cutting. Do they require manuring? 
(G. M., Hants.) 
We suspect that your Montbretias have 
produced so many offsets since you planted 
them that they have got overcrowded. Your 
best plan, therefore, would be to lift and 
replant them. Get a fresh piece of ground 
that is fairly rich and light, and have it 
deeply dug. If you have any well-decayed 
cow manure or horse manure that is not too 
wet you could scatter that over the ground 
before you commence digging it. In the 
absence of this a good dressing of leaf 
mould would be very beneficial • to Mont¬ 
bretias, as it helps to retain the moisture in 
summer. Then sort out all the larger bulbs 
and plant them in lines about 3 in. to 6 in. 
from bulb to bulb in the line. If you make 
a point of lifting them ever}' two years they 
might be planted at 3 in. from bulb to bulb 
in the line with 12 in. from line to line. 
In places wffiere these bulbs succeed they 
soon make themselves very crowded on ac¬ 
count of the large number of offsets which 
they produce. Transplanting and giving 
them more room is the remedy. 
3332. Tree Mallow Dying. 
I have some plants of the Tree Mallow 
and two of them grew to large size and 
flowered, but they now seem to be dying. As 
I would not like to lose them, what would 
you consider the best thing to do? (G. M., 
Hants.) 
The Tree Mallow (Lavatera arborea) is 
only a biennial when planted in good soil, 
so that it can grow to flowering size during 
the first season. In the following year it 
flowers, ripens seeds and then dies. Your 
plan, therefore, is to gather some good seeds 
and make a fresh sowing in spring. 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
3333. Points of Anemone Chrysanthe¬ 
mum. 
Would you be good enough to discuss the 
points of an Anemone Chrysanthemum for 
exhibition purposes? (H. Staddon, Essex.) 
There are three forms or types of Anemone 
Chrysanthemums and 3-ou should clearly dis¬ 
tinguish between the three. Two of the 
types have large flowers and the Pompon 
Anemone has small flowers. Let us take the 
large form with spreading, smooth or flat 
rays. That is known as the Chinese Ane¬ 
mone Chrysanthemum Turning now to the 
points of such a Chrj'santhemum, the disc 
or central mass of florets must be deep, that 
is, well raised above the level of the rays. 
The disc must be regular in outline, that is, 
circular. The second strong point is that 
the rays must be equal in length, broad, 
