The Gardening World, February 9, 1907. 
Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An ... 93 
Biennial, A beautiful (illus.).. 97 
Cherry Culture (illus.) . 102 
Chrysanthemum-: Work for Feb¬ 
ruary . 99 
Competition Aw-.-Gs . 94 
Competition, Our Grand . -- 
Competition, Prize Letter ... ••• 99 \ 
Editorial . ••• 99 
Enquire Within . I0 3 
Flower Garden, The. 100 
Fruit Garden, The . 100 
Fruit Growing for Amateurs (illus.) 102 
Fruit "Trees for Amateurs ... . 94 
Greenhouse, The Amateur’s . 101 
Kitchen Garden, The. 101 
Lilium speciosum Melpomene (illus). 95 
Onions for Exhibition . 94 
Orchids for Amateurs ... :.. 101 
Path, A Pretty Garden (illus.) ... 99 
Rodgersia with Pink Flowers (illus.) 96 
Work of the Week . 100 
-- 
UM ttwalfc of Sjstofc* 
Green crocus tips above the snow 
Begin to peer; 
White, pied, and purple, all a-row, 
They’ll soon be here: 
Pale Winter’s pulse is beating slow, 
His end is near 
When crocus tips above the snow 
Begin to peer. 
Soon earth will put on fair attire, 
And thrushes sing; 
Soon youth and maid for dear desire 
Will clasp and cling; 
For Love shall set all hearts on fire, 
And joy-bells ring 
When earth puts on her gay attire, 
And small birds sing. 
Andrew Wells. 
-- 
Mr. Lvthf.r Burbank, it is an¬ 
nounced, is about to publish the result of 
his labours amongst fruits and flowers in 
ten volumes. It should then be possible 
to form an opinion of them. 
LXXYII. 
It has been said, and repeated again 
and again by sound authorities on garden¬ 
ing, that in this country sufficient atten¬ 
tion is not paid to the planting of such 
subjects that, when well established, 
afford protection to tender subjects. 
Now, it is much more interesting to have 
quick and live shelter than paling or 
other dead stuff. In this old garden 
ample protection is afforded from the 
tyranny of the bitter north by a long es¬ 
tablished Beech hedge. The Beech is 
wonderfully beautiful at its leafing time, 
and in winter it still retains its leaves. 
They may be dead and sapless things, 
but they remain. To me the old hedge 
has a grand decorative effect in winter, 
when the sun, low poised, catches those 
glorious copper tints. And I recall an 
old nursery garden that I once saw. It 
was intersected by several of these Beech 
hedges, making strong supporting lines, 
and affording warm and sheltered nooks. 
To my mind, in this last case it was 
overdone, as Beech hedges such as these 
were some five to six feet in height must 
have taken a great deal of nourishment 
from, the surrounding soil. In trimming 
a Holly, a Whitethorn, or other hedge, 
it is well to remember that if the bottom 
is to be encouraged it is beneficial to give 
it rather freer growth than the top ; thus 
the bottom will be wider, and the hedge 
will slope up gradually to its summit. 
The best Holly hedge I ever saw was 
always trimmed in this fashion. 
A Necessary Attention. 
In wild wintry weather the frost has 
a powerful effect upon the soil, so that 
when a thaw comes, any plants that are 
not altogether fairly established, should 
have the soil well trodden or otherwise 
pressed home round them. The want 
of this attention, which leaves Rose 
cuttings, for instance, badly loosened, is 
a frequent cause of failure. The same 
attention should certainly be extended to 
anv rosette habited plants that were only 
put in during the late autumn, like the 
Oenotheras, etc., as these are particularly 
liable to suffer from this cause. And a 
few days ago I found it necessary to 
press back into the soil a batch of 
Gentian seedlings of a year's growth 
and more. I have noticed that at this 
stage these plants have a curious habit of 
getting their roots Above the soil, and, as 
it is a matter of some three seasons 
between the sowing of the seed and the 
appearance of the flowers, it is worth 
while to see that minor mishaps such as 
these are remedied. 
Gentians for Edgings. 
Now that I am writing of this plant, 
I should like to call to mind what a 
grand evergreen edging it makes. 
Curiously flat and even m growth, it is 
of all things tidy when out of blossom. 
And when the flowers come with their 
■deep, rich, blue depths, their exquisite 
form, and character-giving size, then, I 
say, what other edging plant will compare 
with it ? It is quite easy to grow from 
seed if you only studv its requirements. 
It is good to sow the seed as soon as it 
has ripened, say August. But if this 
was not done, the present is as good as 
any time. Few of the alpines will stand 
heat and coddling, and the Gentian is as 
impatient as any. If heat at all, then the 
gentlest heat must be used. I have 
known seed sown in the autumn remain 
dormant all winter, and then respond to 
slight bottom neat given in January. 
The Gentian, like many other alpines, 
the Auriculas, and many of the hardy 
beautiful Primulas (the Auriculas, of 
course, are among these Primulas), ger¬ 
minate slowly, and I have found from ex¬ 
perience that such subjects are less tire¬ 
some if sown either in the autumn or 
quite early in the New Year. And for 
this reason the soil keeps in a moister 
condition over a far longer period, so 
that frequent watering is unnecessary, 
which means that the soil remains 
sweeter, and the mossy growth that covers 
the surface of the soil does not appear. 
Out-of-door Chrysanthemums. 
The mild open autumn and early win¬ 
ter induced a splendid growth of young 
shoots to spring up from the old plants. 
Of course no method of cultivation can 
equal the annual renewal of the old 
stools (as they call them hereabouts) by 
freshly-struck cuttings. And these cut¬ 
tings should be taken now—the sooner the 
better. They strike quicker if subjected 
to a slight bottom heat, but, if this is not 
forthcoming, they may have the shelter 
of a frame or cold house. In selecting 
the cuttings, those that have come up 
- farthest from the centre ■ of the plant 
should be chosen, and- are greatly to be 
preferred to those that have sprung from, 
and are upon, the old shoots. The cut¬ 
tings should be dibbled round the edges 
of pots, or, should each one have its 
own small pot. where a few only are to be 
struck, this latter method is preferable, 
as the rooted cuttings will not be planted 
out, at any rate, until the middle of 
April. 
F. Norfolk. 
Competitors in the “All-Prizes" Com¬ 
petition must mark their envelopes 
“Name Competition” in left-hand cor¬ 
ner. Plea=e write plainly. 
