The Gardening World, July 18, 1908. 
An Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ Gather the rosebuds while ye may, Old 
Time is still a-llying, And this same flower 
that smiles to-day. To-morrow will be dying.” 
—H errick. 
^O/vrtA/75. 
Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs . 467 
Aspidistras and their Culture . 468 
Carnations: Work for July .. 47 2 
Competition Awards . 4^8 
Competition, Prize Letter . vii 
Cuttings, On Making . 47 6 
Enquire Within . 47 8 
Flower Garden, The (illus.) . 475 
Fruit Garden, The (illus.) . 475 
Greenhouse, The Amateurs . 475 
Kitchen Garden, The (illus.) . 475 
Lettuces, Notes on ... 477 
Lilies for the Border . 468 
Orchids for Amateurs . 47 ^ 
Rose Marquise de Sinety (illus.) 469 
Rose Mrs. Miles Kennedy (illus.) ... 71 
Rose Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt 
(illus.) . 469 
Rose Oberhofgartner Terks (illus.) 473 
Rose William Shean (illus.) . 477 
Roses at Regent’s Park . 47 ° 
Show of the R.H.S., The Summer'... 473 
Sweet Pea Helen Lewis . 481 
Sweet Peas, Quick Growing . 482 
Tools, Garden . 482 
Work of the Week . 475 
-4~M- 
Summer Rain. 
To-day it seemed the summer rain 
Was comforting the world’s old pain ; 
So soft it fell between the trees, 
So gently did it cease. 
It touched the dusty way with green, 
It cheered me who had lonely been; 
So fair the world, I could not be 
Uncomforted of thee. 
Christian Gauss, in the July “Scribner.” 
-- 
The Rose had been wash’d, just washed 
with a shower, 
And it seemed to a fanciful view 
To weep for the buds it had left with 
regret 
On the flourishing bush where it grew. 
-- 
Wolverhampton Floral Fete. 
Messrs. Webb and Sons, Wordsley, 
Stourbridge, were awarded the highest 
honour, namely, a Silver Cup, for their 
exhibit of Melons, Tomatos, Cucumbers, 
Peas, Dwarf Beans, Gloxinias, Sweet 
Peas, Celosias, etc., occupying 400 super¬ 
ficial feet at the above, at the horticul¬ 
tural show in connection with the above 
event. 
CLII. 
I always think that at this time of the 
year it is the plants that do not bloom 
until the end of the summer or the be¬ 
ginning of autumn that should receive 
especial attention in the way of keeping 
them well watered. Lack of nourishment 
now must tell later on, and if they are 
crowded by earlier flowering plants, it 
will be well to cut away these, as it be¬ 
comes possible to admit plenty of air. It 
may still be necessary to thin out annual 
plants that have been sown where they 
are to flower, and, lastly, among the 
small detail matters, it should be remem¬ 
bered that if the beautiful Pyrethrum 
roseum be cut down as the flowers fade, a 
second flowering will often be induced for 
a somewhat later period. When the 
plants are cut down, a thorough watering 
should be given, and, if possible, a top 
dressing either of leaf mould or well- 
rotted manure spread round about them. 
We want to encourage them with condi¬ 
tions as near as possible to those they en¬ 
joyed while coming to their first flowering 
in the growing days of the spring. Del¬ 
phiniums also may be treated in exactly 
the same fashion, and a like result, i.e., a 
second flowering should reward us. I 
have heard it objected that this second 
flowering would have the tendency unduly 
to weaken the plants. Personally, how¬ 
ever, I can scarcely agree with this, for 
the second flower heads are produced with 
the strength that otherwise would be ex¬ 
pended in ripening the seeds were they 
retained. 
Foxgloves. 
Every month in our gardens should, I 
think, have one flower in stronger evi¬ 
dence than all beside, so that it becomes, 
as it were, the flower of the month. And 
June’s own flower, assuredly, is the box- 
glove. I have just seen a very beautiful 
garden with a wide stretch of it, forming 
a beautiful wild garden. It has many 
colour schemes; in the spring time, yel¬ 
low' with Aconites, yellow again with 
Primroses, while when the Anemones car¬ 
pet the 'ground, then blue with the wild 
blue Hyacinths. June comes, and June 
brings the taller, statelier growth of the 
purple Foxgloves. They fringe three- 
quarters of a mile of carriage drive with a 
wealth of wonderful purple, and these 
wild flowers—flowers that the humblest 
can grow — make a bit of English beauty 
that not the most expensive exotics could 
have given for the particular purpose. 
That’s the secret of achieving a beautiful 
garden — growing the particular flower or 
flowers appropriate to the particular situa¬ 
tion. If we want plants for next year s 
flowering, no delay must there be now in 
sowing the seed. ’ - There are not many 
flowers that will blossom in the middle 
and past the end of June in the shady 
places. But the Foxgloves are among the 
number, and splendid use may be made of . 
them in these positions, that is to say, 
grown in such plenty that they give us a 
sense of generous lavish nature in the 
wealth of their purple masses. 
Choisya ternata. 
Choisya ternata is one of our most de¬ 
corative flowering shrubs. For years it 
was written of as a subject not altogether 
hardy, but gradually it is being discovered 
that it is considerably hardier than at 
first was believed, and now it is becoming 
a general favourite for our English gar¬ 
dens. The glossy foliage is one of its 
real charms, and during May it is a mass 
of white blossom. I may add that it may 
easily be struck from cuttings. I often 
wonder why the amateur seems so shy of 
rearing shrubs and plants generally of 
many hardy varieties from cuttings, and 
by layering. These garden operations 
are exceedingly interesting, and so simple 
that except with a few subjects that may 
be difficult to strike, no one need fear 
failure. 
Budding: Roses. 
The time has again come round for the 
budding of our Roses, and where no 
stocks are at hand, I have come across 
enthusiastic rosarians who have sallied 
forth with their buds and inset them on 
briars in the hedges, afterwards removing 
them to garden quarters. Of course I am 
not recommending this method, but only 
telling what has been done and how diffi¬ 
culties are surmounted by the keen, zeal¬ 
ous gardener. Showery weather is prefer¬ 
able when possible to undertake budding, 
and success cannot be expected unless the 
knife used be really sharp and keen 
edged. Care should be taken to select 
the bud at the right stage of development. 
In these days of endless novelties in the 
Rose, and floral world generally, it is 
not always advisable to forsake old 
favourites for new varieties. The other 
day I heard the praises sung of that good 
old Rose Magna Charta by an enthusias¬ 
tic Rose lover. It was spoken of as an un¬ 
usually strong, mildew-resisting variety, 
and one that was an excellent doer in con¬ 
fined spaces—qualities that should recom¬ 
mend it to all owners of town gardens. 
Much newer, but a Rose well worth 
noting for massing, is Richmond; its in¬ 
tense colouring makes it wonderfully de¬ 
corative. F. Norfolk. 
-- 
How to Trap a Mole. 
These busy, destructive little under¬ 
ground workers are most tiresome to the 
ardent, enthusiastic gardener. Useful as 
they are for eating worms, grubs, etc., 
they are quite out of place in the culti¬ 
vated ground. Mole traps can be ob¬ 
tained from either seedsmen or ironmon¬ 
gers. A pair of gloves should always be 
used in handling the trap, as the mole 
quickly detects the scent of the hand. 
The tongue of the trap should be well 
rubbed with boiled linseed oil, as this at¬ 
tracts them. Dig with a spade into the 
fair run and insert the trap so that it is 
level with the working of the run. Cover 
up with the soil, but before doing so, a 
little grass should be lightly laid above 
the tongue of the trap. 
Miss D. Sparkes. 
