4 6 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
January ig, 1907. 
you state, there is no means of urging them 
forward under those conditions as you are 
entirely dependent upon the nature of the 
weather. The lack of sunshine is greatly 
against you, as shelter with a fairly high 
temperature is necessary to urge on the 
plants. Some people imagine that they can 
give stimulants in the shape of manure, 
but that would not urge on the plants in 
the least as you require heat and light. 
The only way to have hastened the flower¬ 
ing of the plants would have been to pot 
them up as soon as you get them, grow 
them on in a cold frame or greenhouse in 
a sunny position and plant them out where 
you wanted them to bloom just when the 
first flowers were opening. Before planting 
out bulbs that have been grown in this 
way it is, of course, necessary to harden 
them off by gradually giving them more 
air and exposure for at least a week before 
placing them in the open. 
1434. What to Grow in Summer. 
I have a little piece of most unpromising 
ground at the back of this tall terrace 
house. There is a workshop at the bottom 
of the garden 19 ft. 6 in. high The west 
boundary is a 5 ft. brick wall with 2*4 ft. 
lattice on top. The east boundary is a 
3 ft. brick wall similarly crowned. In 
consequence the garden gets no sun till 
the end of March. Last month I had a 
good go at it and laid it out, as shown 
on the plan enclosed, with 4 ft. beds, a 
rockery in one comer and an old tree 
stump in the other. I have no glass of 
any kind. The soil was light, poor and 
sour, and at a depth of about 18 in. I 
came on a stratum of yellowish clay very 
stiff and greasy. I accordingly removed the 
top soil a yard at a time, forked up a spit 
deep of the clay, put on a layer of ashes, 
leaf mould and 1 road sweepings and replaced 
the soil mixed with some rotten manure. 
I have about 150 bulbs of sorts in the top 
bed and tree trunk, including 50 English 
Irises (white). I also planted a root of 
small leaved Ampelopsis Veitchi with some 
fresh manure round the roots in the centre 
of top bed. Having thus given you all 
particulars, may I trespass on your kind¬ 
ness to advise me what would be the best 
things to plant for the summer? Last year 
I believe the garden was full of Michael¬ 
mas Daisies and perennial Sunflowers. 
Their roots were everywhere. Please do 
not mention a bewildering variety of canine 
Latin names. The garden is a happy 
hunting ground for cats which seem to 
revel in the freshly turned earth and invite 
their friends to join them. Is there any 
effective means of keeping them out ? 
(Je plase que non, Middlesex.) 
Your garden is evidently what would 
be considered a late one, but you seem 
determined to improve the soil. When you 
next dig or trench it we think the ashes 
might even with advantage be mixed partly 
with the soil and partly with the clay 
beneath. If you have sufficient depth on 
the top, however, and if water passes away 
readily you could keep the top soil fertile by 
means of manure and road sweepings. 
That wall facing the west might be em¬ 
ployed in a variety of ways to advantage 
by covering it with fruit trees, Roses, 
flowering climbers or even with Tomatos. 
You could buy Tomato plants towards the 
end of May, or raise them yourself by 
making a hot bed 1 of manure early in 
March, covering it with a frame and sowing 
seeds in pots or pans. The border in front 
of it might be occupied with perennials, 
biennials and annuals, or either of these 
classes separately. The chief difficulty we 
have in advising you is the direction in 
which your taste tends in the matter of 
flowers. If you would prefer perennials 
you can let us know and we will give a 
list. Next spring you can sow such annuals 
as Malope tnfida grandiflora, Lavatera 
trimestris splendens. Convolvulus minor, 
Clarkia elegans, C. pulcbella, Godetia 
Lady Albemarle (crimson) and Duchess of 
Albany (white), Blue Cornflower, Scabious, 
dwarf and tall Nasturtiums. All of these 
may be sown in the open garden at the 
beginning of April. We are sorry we cannot 
oblige you with popular names for these 
flowers, but they really do not possess any, 
and the botanical ones are necessary to intro¬ 
duce handsome flowers to y r our notice. They 
need not occasion you much trouble, how¬ 
ever, as all that is necessary is to supply 
vour seedsman with the list of names here 
given, or such of them as you would like, 
and he will easily understand the names. 
In the way of biennials very easily grown 
things are Canterbury Bells, Sweet Williams 
and Forget-me-Nots, which might be sown 
in June or July in the open garden and 
transplanted to prevent crowding when 
they have made a few leaves. On the 
other hand thdre are many beautiful plants 
which are usually treated as half hardy 
annuals by sowing them in heat about the 
middle of March either in a greenhouse or 
on a hot bed, pricking them out into boxes 
when they have made a few leaves and 
growing them in a cold frame until the 
end of May. We mean such showy subjects 
as Indian Pinks, Antirrhinums, Stocks, 
Marigolds, China Asters, Zinnias and Ever¬ 
lastings. If you have a cold frame in 
which to keep the plants during winter 
you could grow Calceolarias, Pansies and 
Violas. The list is rather lengthy, but we 
simply desire to bring to your notice some 
of the number of subjects that we could 
grow under the conditions you mention 
with the aid of a frame or two where we 
have indicated it. 
LAWNS. 
1435. Uneven Lawn. 
We have an old lawn that is very uneven 
on the surface and holds pools of water 
during wet times. The hollows are also 
difficult or troublesome to keep tidy with 
the mowing machine. What would you 
advise me to do, and when is the best time 
to do it? (W.M., Beds.) 
Hollows are due to the unequal sinking 
of the ground and this is probably the 
result of holes in the ground made by the 
builder for the purpose of taking out sand 
and the material with which they were 
filled has now become consolidated and the 
surface become uneven. The fact that 
water lies in these hollows may be also 
due to the presence of clay forming part 
of the material filling them. Your best 
plan would be to level the surface and no 
better time could be selected than the 
present while the weather keeps open. 
You can either lift the whole of the turf, 
laying it on one side until the surface has 
been levelled and prepared for relaying it. 
An alternative method is to lift the turf in 
the hollows, add some fresh soil to make 
them level, treading it all down firmly and 
then relayring the turf. If the hollows are 
of any size the best plan would be to lift 
the whole of the turf because you can then 
get the soil from the high places to fill up 
the hollows. The surface should then be 
dug equally all over, levelled down and 
then trodden or rolled. Treading with the 
feet usually gives the most even results and 
the surface can also be made very compact 
by using the turf beater freely after the 
turf has been relaid in position. An occa¬ 
sional rolling afterwards during the next 
three months would also be serviceable in 
making the lawn firm. The grass can then 
be encouraged to grow by top dressings of 
various enriching materials. Concerning 
this see lawns under “Amateur’s Letter” 
P- 33 - 
1436. Bulbs on Lawn. 
In front of the house is a lawn which 
we keep very tidy in summer, and I would 
like to have some bulbs in the grass which 
can be seen from the windows in spring. 
Would it be possible to grow them without 
spoiling the grass? Can the -leaves of the 
bulbs be cut after they go-out of flower? 
(S.M., Sussex.) 
It is now very late for planting bulbs 
on the grass, though we have no doubt 
that the best of them would still bloom 
this year although late. October is a much 
better time for planting bulbs in the grass \ 
because the soil has then become softened 
by the autumn rains and the bulbs have 
time to make an early growth and therefore 
to ripen off early next summer. If y r ou 
desire to have bulbs you could plant them 
in clumps, including Snowdrops, Crocuses 
and early Daffodils which would flower 
early and ripen off accordingly. For the 
benefit of the bulbs you should not cut off 
the leaves until they begin to get yellow at 
least, but by planting them in regular 
clumps you can pass round them with the 
mowing machine, leaving the leaves intact 
until they are fairly well ripened. This 
will enable the bulbs to 1 bloom better next 
season than if the leaves had been cut 
while still quite fresh. 
ROSES. 
1437. Pruning Marechal Niel. 
Will you kindly advise me how to prune 
a climbing Marechal Niel Rose tree which 
was planted last March in a heated green¬ 
house. It has made plenty of strong new 
wood, but has not flowered yet. I should 
like to see some on it this summer. 
(Marechal Niel, Birmingham.) 
Select the strongest and 1 best shoots, 
that is, as many of them as you think 
convenient to tie in without crowding. All 
the weak ones may be cut away including 
the old ones if there are any. The shoots 
retained should be tied or fastened up 
nearly their full length, merely cutting 
away the thin or improperly ripened tips. 
Side .shoots will be given off along these 
stems and furnish Roses. It they have any 
side branches such may be cut back to a 
.good bud near the base, though no harm 
will result if you have room to lay in any 
of them. The great objecbto keep in view 
is to retain the young stems their full 
length and retain just sufficient of them 
to occupy the space at command without 
crowding. 
1438. Pruning Newly Planted Roses. 
I am a novice in gardening and much 
perplexed) in various cases. My advisers 
so often totally differ on the same subject 
and I should be glad if you would help 
me in the following matter. I bought some 
Roses, 4 standards and about 16 bush 
Teas, H.Ts., H.Ps., and after taking out 
holes about 2 ft. square and about 2 ft. 
deep, and refilling, with soil and horse 
manure well mixed, I planted them the 
last week in November. I am puzzled 
about the pruning. I did not prune at the 
time of planting. An adviser says he 
would not prune until April, 1908, his 
reason being that the shifting of the 
Roses and the pruning this April, would 
be too severe for them and might seriously 
harm them, especially the Teas. I may 
mention my garden is an allotment and 
of a very clayey nature. (Ernest Taylor, 
Middlesex.) 
Your advisers might have had different 
experiences, but some of them may have 
been following their own plans without 
