ie Gardening World, April :o, 1909. 
An Amateur s Letter to Amateurs. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ Every flower and every tree breathed out 
their first-born fragrancy.”— Jones. 
CONTENTS. 
Abutilons, Propagating (illus.) . 235 
Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An 233 
Amateur's Greenhouse, The . 241 
Apples, Storing in Cold Places . 247 
Baskets, Rustic Hanging . 247 
Carnations at Westminster . 23S 
Carnation. American (illus.) . 239 
Carrots, How to Grow Good Roots 24S 
Competition Awards . 234 
Competition Prize Letter . 236 
Daffodil, Border Carnation . 237 
Enquire Within . 243 
Flower Garden, The (illus.) . 241 
Garden, Reserve, for Trees and 
Shrubs . 2 46 
Gloxinias, Starting Old Tubers . 248 
Kitchen Garden, The (illus.) . 241 
Lilies for the Greenhouse . 246 
Looking Ahead, Hints for the 
Amateur . 234 
Paeony, The Tree (illus.) . 237 
Peas, Garden, and their Culture ... 234 
Rose, White Maman Cochet (illus.) 239 
Schizanthus or Butterfly Flower 
(illus.) . 240 
Work of the Week . 241 
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s 
pleasant King; 
Then blooms each thing, then maids 
dance in a ring, 
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do 
sing, 
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo ! 
The Palm and May make country houses 
gay, 
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe 
all day, 
And we hear aye birds tune this merry 
lay, 
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo ! 
The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss 
our feet, 
Loung lovers meet, old wives a-sunning 
sit, 
In every street these tunes our ears do 
greet, 
Cuckoo, jug-jug. pu-we, to-witta-woo ! 
Spring, the sweet spring! 
T. Nash. 
cxc. 
The Evening Primroses. 
Somehow to me a garden is never quite 
what it might be if it lacks altogether this 
beautiful family. I think I rank highest 
of all the most familiar variety—a good 
strain of Oenothera lamarckiana. It is 
one of the finest biennials we can possibly 
grow, and I remember what a beautiful 
feature these plants were in the moist 
well-cultivated soil of a large old- 
fashioned suburban garden. After the 
first establishment of them, the plants 
were self-sown, and, somehow, they 
seemed to spring up just, where they were 
most acceptable. A good strain produces 
flowers of very large size, and it is well 
worth comparing these with an inferior 
strain simply to realise the difference 
there can be. 
There are annual forms that may 
well find a place for border work:—Oe. 
albicaulis, Oe. bistorta veitchiana, Oe. 
odorata, Oe. salicifolia, Oe. sinuata 
maxima, all bearing yellow flowers and 
varving in height from one to three feet. 
Besides these, there are perennial forms, 
which flower the first season, which must 
be numbered, namely, Oe. Drummondii 
nana (yellow), and Oe. taraxacifolia 
(white), this latter being of trailing habit. 
Some of the perennials are in flower over 
a considerable period, especially in a 
damp position. Some of the best of these 
are under two feet in height, such as Oe. 
Fraseri, Oe. fruticosa major, and Oe. 
Youngii, and are really showy and desir¬ 
able, besides remaining in flower through 
the daylight—a great point in their 
favour. The astonishing thinness of the 
petals of some varieties, noticeably Oe. 
lamarckiana, and the wonderful clear, 
clean tone of the yellow, are very attrac¬ 
tive characteristics of many of these Even¬ 
ing Primroses, I think, and many of them 
succeed well in the less choice positions 
in the garden, provided they are not sun 
dried parched ones. 
Sowing Annuals Out of Doors. 
Mid-April is a capital period for this 
so far as half hardy annuals are con¬ 
cerned, though I never advocate this form 
of cultivation for choice subjects like 
Phlox Drummondi, Ageratum, Petunias, 
etc., because it means flowering only when 
the season is well advanced, so that often 
the plants are destroyed by frost before 
they have anything like completed their 
flowering. No. If I had no means of 
raising these half hardy annuals before it 
was safe to sow them outside then I should 
prefer to buy young seedling plants just 
before bedding-out time, for these will 
have been raised early in the season (or 
they should have been), and will flower 
in good time. But, of course, where we 
want late beds or late patches sowing out 
of doors answers quite well. It always 
strikes me that hardv annuals take less 
time to reach their flowering stage than 
many of the half hardy, so that these we 
may well sow early and late; and we 
have to remember that the Petunia, for 
instance, is really perennial, and that, of 
course, explains the need for as long a 
growth as possible before flowering. We 
may well make a point of sowing a late 
patch of Mignonette, as this sweet-smell¬ 
ing plant is an excellent stayer during 
the rains and dews of autumn. 
Sowing Perennials. 
The time, too, is at its height when we 
must consider what flowering perennials 
we mean to grow from seed for use in the 
beds and borders next autumn. Good 
seed is essential and we have a wide field 
open before us and scope to achieve beau¬ 
tiful gardens in this way. When we rear 
perennials from seed we are able to plant 
in splendid bold masses, and this is always 
advisable. Carnations may be sown now, 
and will make stronger and better plants 
than if the sowing is put off until May. 
Delphiniums, Campanulas in grand 
variety, Everlasting Peas, Rudbeckias of 
perennial habit, Helianthemums (the 
Rock Roses), Galega, Erigeron are a few 
of the good things that may be sown at 
the present time. Besides these there are 
many plants—Aubrietias, Iberis, Saxi¬ 
frages, Saponarias (perennial) — that may 
be reared in the same way for the rock 
garden. 
Cuttings and Offshoots. 
I look upon the month of April as one 
of the best in the whole year for working 
up a stock of plants by means of cuttings 
or offshoots. An old gardener once as¬ 
sured me, “Anything almost will strike 
a root in April,” and every year I put-his 
assertion to the test and generally find it 
true. Thus have we a plant or two of 
such a fine Campanula as C. persicifolia 
Backhouseii, and we feel inclined to make 
it a more important feature in the garden, 
let us remove as many- as we may require 
of the small growths that now will be fast 
growing, and let us make a little nursery- 
bed of these in some spare spot not too 
sun-smitten, and plant them here for the 
summer. By- the autumn we shall have 
fine, sturdy young plants for bed or bor¬ 
der. And what we do with Campanulas 
we may- do with many- other plants. 
Rock Roses. 
I have mentioned the Rock Roses, and 
I should like to say- that these plants with 
their wide range of colouring are excel¬ 
lent for hot sunny positions, and they 
often succeed well on a slope where fen- 
other plants do anything but languish. 
But I do not recommend the plants for 
cold heavy soils unless indeed they are 
planted in the rock garden, or other 
raised position, when they have a better 
chance of success. 
F. Norfolk. 
♦ ♦♦ 
Continental Flowers for England. 
Two French railway- companies and our 
South-Eastern share a seasonal revenue 
from the Continental flower trade exceed- 
ing ^90,000. The consignments exceed 
500,000 packages a year. 
