Gardening World, March 6 , 1909 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
>w ’tis the spring, and weeds are shallow- 
rooted ; 
; ffer them now, and they’ll o’ergrow the 
garden, 
d choke the herbs for want of husbandry. 
— Shakespeare. 
CONTENTS. 
.nateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An 145 
Igonias, Type of Ware's Single 
Ulus.) . iS 3 
] gonia (Tuberous) Millicent (illus.) 156 
light, American . 1 57 
•ictus and its Propagation, The ... 146 
auliflower, Carters Forerunner 
(illus.) . * I 5 2 * * * * 
old Frame in Early Spring, The 148 
• unpetition Awards . 146 
daily, The Namaqualand (illus.) ••• 149 
aphnes for Amateurs . 158 
aquire Within . 164 
ower Garden, The (illus.) . 160 
:uit Garden, The (illus.) . 160 
reenhouse, The Amateur’s . 162 
smines for the Greenhouse . 146 
itchen Garden, The (illus.) . 160 
rchids for Amateurs . 160 
flyanthuses, Munstead (illus.) ... 148 
atato Midlothian Early (illus.) ... 150 
atato, Webbs’ New Colonist (illus.) 152 
ase Marechal Niel, How to Grow 151 
veet Sultans, Improved (illus.) ... 158 
en-Week Stock, Veitch’s New 
White Perpetual-Flowering (illus.) 147 
'allflower, Toogood’s Vulcan 
(illus.) . 151 
'ork of the Week (illus.) .' 160 
hwick H.S. 
The schedule of prizes of the shows to 
1 held this year by the Hawick Horti- 
dtural Society has been received. The 
‘mmer show will be held on August 28th, 
:d there will be a Chrysanthemum, 
’■getable and Industrial Exhibition on 
pvember 26th and 27th. The secretary 
• the society is Mr. Wm. Oliver, 20, 
■‘•trig Crescent, Hawick. 
- glish Spring Roses. 
The present spring has been exceed- 
igly favourable to forcers of English 
|>ses, the chief supplies of which come 
bm Middlesex. The Rose-forcing in- 
' strv in the United Kingdom has of late 
tars made considerable progress ; during 
C past decade the flower salesmen about 
1 ; London markets have increased three- 
’ d. Although large quantities of Rose 
>oms are imported from France, the 
test and highest-priced samples are 
1 sed bv English forcers, says a corre- 
rndent of the - rimes.” 
CLXXXV. 
Colour. 
Blue may not be so decorative or strong 
a colour for distant effects as certain other 
colours, but there may be beds and bor¬ 
ders that do not admit of a distant view, 
and for close observation blue is one of 
those exquisite colourings that should be 
made the most of by being used boldly 
and with a free hand. Some years ago I 
remember reading the description of a 
blue border, and though the idea did not 
commend itself to me, still, the subject 
was an interesting one. In choosing our 
annual plants we do well to lay particular 
stress on their colourings, for by their 
means we may introduce a pleasant and 
quite different range of colour from the 
previous year. The next point is the 
placing of them—taking a practical lesson 
from the brilliant radiant colours used in 
fabrics for all sorts of purposes, from 
clothes and strappings of animals to street 
awnings as seen in the far East and in the 
tropics; as seen, also, in the gorgeous 
colours of the flowers themselves, the birds 
and butterflies. I hold that the more bril¬ 
liant the colour the warmer and sunnier 
position should we give it. It will be 
found, I think, that in the majority of the 
flowering plants that can be used out-of- 
doors in our English gardens, these gor¬ 
geous coloured plants are sun lovers. My 
idea to-day is to name some of the annual 
plants that stand out from the rest by rea¬ 
son of their rich and bright, clear and 
clean colouring. Plants, if I may say so, 
that act as focuses to draw the eye to 
them, and such we need, especially in a 
long border of mixed plants. 
The Cornflower, 
Among the best tflue annuals, then, must 
be named the Cornflower, and especially 
should be noted a semi-dwarf variety. I 
do not often myself recommend a 
dwarf variety of any annual plant because 
in many cases, it seems to me that we have 
gained dwarf, short growth at the expense 
of slender grace, or the beauty of fair 
proportions, but this semi-dwarf annual 
Cornflower retains much of its original 
character, and is not absurdly dwarfed. 
You can secure a dense mass of bloom 
if in the early stages the top of the stem is 
pinched out, "though this operation is most 
effective on plants that have stood the win¬ 
ter either sown or self sown. 
Larkspurs. 
The Larkspur in its annual form is de¬ 
servedly a favourite, but I would very em¬ 
phatically say,. Do not be satisfied with 
just any’ inferior strain of seed of any¬ 
thing, and especially of annual blue Lark¬ 
spurs. The difference between the good 
and the inferior would astonish a great 
many amateurs. For those who prefer the 
“rocket'’ form of growth, Delphinium 
Ajacis caelestinum is excellent; while, of 
the other form, D. consolida caeruleum 
mav well be the one selected. We do well 
to grow our Larkspurs really well, to thin 
them out rigorously, and to give them a 
good position and sunny aspect. The best 
annual Larkspurs I ever noted were grow¬ 
ing in small cottage gardens in Nor¬ 
mandy. The seed may be sown any time 
now, and, generally speaking, the early 
plant makes the strongest and finest plant. 
I would never myself buy a mixed 
packet of this annual, the extreme slender¬ 
ness and gracefulness of the growth and 
the lightness of the foliage seems to need 
the denseness, if so I may call it, of but 
one colour to be effective, and we have to 
remember that the so-called pink Lark¬ 
spur is often of a weak, washed-out shade. 
There is, however, in D. coccineum a 
variety described as rich, rosy scarlet, and 
I hear that it is distinctly good. 
Kaulf ussias. 
The Kaulfussia amelloides, sometimes 
called Chareis, is a prettv little daisy-like 
annual of a particularly rich blue. It is 
slender in growth and dwarf in habit. I 
grew 7 it once in pans, well thinned out, 
and it was charmingly effective. By the 
way, I find a few' pans of well grown an¬ 
nuals often come in very usefully in the 
summer garden, and serve to fill up a 
vacancy or to bring a bit of colour some¬ 
where, in w r hich it is lacking. This Kaul¬ 
fussia is generally listed as “purple blue. ’ 
but to my way of thinking it may be called 
full blue, being similar in colour to 
Larkspurs. 
Among the bright rose-coloured an¬ 
nuals nothing, I think, beats the Phlox 
Drummondii, and it is so w r ell known that 
it needs no further words. Here, again, 
I prefer but a small range of colour, and 
prefer separate packets of shades to a 
mixed packet. For a very sunny spot 
Mesembryanthemum tricolor is one of the 
daintiest and most brilliant little annuals 
I know. Oh, that it flowered long enough 
to rank as a “ bedding” annual! But it 
does not, and, therefore, either the rock 
garden or the border should claim it. It 
is far too dainty and pretty to be omitted 
altogether. I would put it high up in a 
list of our choicestpypes of annuals. For 
bright orange, especially for autumn dis¬ 
play, I look upon the Tagetes patula, or 
French Marigold, as quite indispensable. 
So well I remember seeing it once in the 
forefront of a long border in full flow'er! 
But the rest of the border had well nigh 
expended its beauty, the selection of 
plants for the most part being for 
earlier display. Colour would have 
been sadly lacking had it not been 
for the glowing gorgeous orange of 
the Tagetes: they w r ent far to save the 
situation, and were strong enough to give 
a furnished, flowery look to the border 
and to take the eye to it for their own 
colour value. 
F. Norfolk. 
-- 
Bv permission of the King, the annual 
show of the Sandringham Estate Cottage. 
Horticultural Society w ill be held on July 
eisi.’in Sandringham Park. 
