1 'hk Gardening World, February 16, 1907. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
Auspicious Hope! in Thy sweet garden grow 
Wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe.” 
— Campbell. 
AN AMATEUR’S LETTER 
TO AMATEURS. 
CONTENTS 
Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An... 103 
Apple Trees, Planting- . no 
Capsicum, Star (illus.) . 113 
tarnation Flamingo (illus.) . 118 
tarnations: Work for February . 118 
Sherry Culture (illus.) . 119 
Competition Awards . no 
Competition, Prize Letter . 112 
Dibber, A New (illus.) . 113 - 
inquire Within . 120 
Flower Garden, The . nb 
Fruit Garden, T-he . n6 
Fruit Growing for Amateurs (illus.)... 119 
greenhouse, The Amateur’s . n6 
death, The Portugal (illus.) . 115 
apanese Plants . 1 1 S 
Kitchen Garden, The . 116 
Laurustinus, The (illus.) . in 
Leadwort, The Cape (illus.) . 121 
Mildew and Damping . in 
\ T erines . 117 
Drchids for Amateurs . 117 
Raspberry Culture . no 
iVork of the Week. 116 
•-f+>- 
Last lingerer in the barren land and loud 
That winter rules, and first to greet the 
spring! 
Thou in whose cheek young flowers are 
blossoming 
Palely, and yet whose head is tempest- 
bowed ; 
Wan waverer ’twixt the sunshine and the 
cloud, 
Whose will, but now the Snowdrops 
summoning, 
To-morrow may instead the snowflakes 
bring 
To lay their whiteness in a whiter shroud, 
D woman-month, all whim and wild 
vagary, 
Aet with a store of sweets laid up for 
man, 
Com'st thou to-day to bless him or to 
ban ? 
shall he desire or fear thee,- February? 
Thine eyes let loose a reservoir of rain, 
And yet thou smilest, even as Peace on 
pain! 
5 . Gertrude Ford, in the Daily News. 
LXXVIII. 
A little available bottom heat at the 
present time will afford a wide field of 
operations for the enthusiastic novice. 
Once February has come, work, and as 
much as we care to undertake, comes with 
it. It is none too early to commence seed 
sowing : a great number of subjects bene¬ 
fit immensely by having a long period in 
which to mature before their flowering 
stage; besides this, it gives one the oppor¬ 
tunity, without unduly retarding their 
blossoming time, of pinching the young 
plants back, at any rate once, and this, 
in many cases, results in finer .specimens, 
in that they are denser, more bushy, and 
able to produce a far greater quantity- of 
flowers. 
Sow Early. 
The novice is too much inclined to put 
off seed sowing altogether until the middle 
of March, or even until April. I cannot 
help thinking this is a great mistake, as 
the seedlings are then hurried forward in 
very- considerable heat — far more heat 
than is necessary 7 . And, whatever the ex¬ 
perienced gardener may do, or may 7 not 
do with high temperatures, and strong bot¬ 
tom heat, the novice will be wise if he uses 
only extremely moderate heat. I write 
strongly 7 because I feel strongly on this 
point, and know that it is this one thing 
that often spells failure to the novice, and 
it is just as well to remind him of the 
fact early in the season. 
Annuals for Bedding Out. 
Now that most of us have received our 
budgets of catalogues, we may make our 
selections of seeds — not indiscriminately, 
however, but with due consideration for 
all the positions required to be filled, 
whether they 7 be sunny or shady, light soil 
or heavy. To a certain extent, too, it 
makes a difference whether it be beds or 
borders that we are catering for. There 
are certain annuals, more especially among 
the half-hardy- section, that have come to 
be recognised as bedding-out plants. 
These include Petunias (though this, 
strictly speaking, is hot an annual at all, 
but a’ half-hardy perennial that flowers 
the first season), "Ageratum, Phlox Drum- 
mondi, Zinnias, Verbena, Lobelia Erinus 
(both these belong to the same category 
as the Petunias), Margarite Carnations, 
and some others, and all these are far 
more satisfactory 7 if sown early under glass 
so that plants of considerable size may be 
ready when the time comes to put them 
out. " Too often do we see plants in early 
June that are so small and young that they 
cannot be e'xpected to flower for more 
than a month. 
In selecting seeds, the resulting plants 
of' which are destined for the mixed 
border, there are many that are beautiful 
and suitable for this position that we would 
not use with the same fitness and con- 
gruity in the more formal beds. It may¬ 
be that they are of rather coarser growth, 
or of less neat habit, but still suitable and 
beautiful for border work—the beautiful 
annual Lupines, for instance—the new 
annual ty-pes of Hollvhocks, the annual 
Poppies, Major and Minor Convolvulus, 
Layia elegans, Brachycome, and a host 
of others. 
Annuals for the Rock Garden. 
With the seed catalogue in hand, too, 
we mav well remember that a few patches 
olf dwarf annuals will probably be a valu¬ 
able addition to the rock garden, especi¬ 
ally 7 if we choose those that are due to 
flower rather late in the summer. The 
brightness and beauty of this portion of 
the garden, so far as the greater number 
of the alpine, and other rock-loving peren¬ 
nials are concerned, belong rather to the 
first half than the second half of the 
year, and though there are some valuable 
exceptions, in too many rock gardens the 
summer and autumn 'beauty 7 is not suffi- 
cientlv considered. An easy remedy lies 
at hand in the use of a few patches of good 
annuals, such as Sanvitalia procumbens, 
which produces bright yellow blossoms 
very freely, and remains in flower over a 
long period ; or, again, Ionopsidium acaule, 
a charming little plant, that, once estab¬ 
lished, will reproduce itself freeh¬ 
and is so dwarf that it makes a veritable 
carpet of blossom. If it has been sown 
early to flower soon enough iw the season, 
the "seeds ripen, and spring up, and in a 
mild season will sometimes be found to 
flower in mid winter. Thus, I think,- it 
should prove itself a great acquisition, as, 
nc-t onlv does it flower freely, but it has 
good staying powers. In my mind it has 
an extra charm in its resemblance to the 
spring flowering Aubrietia. Both be.ong 
to the Cruciferae family, and both are 
lilac in colouring. This Ionopsidium 
acaule, though overweighted with so pon¬ 
derous a name is a dainty little subject, 
and can be used in a variety of ways be¬ 
sides that I have suggested. It has been 
introduced many years now, but we do not 
come across it so often as we should. 
F. Norfolk. 
-- 
Rock Samphire. —Last summer speci¬ 
mens of this scarce plant were collected 
on the Island of Colonsay, but previous to 
that it had not been known further north 
in Scotland than the Mull of Galloway 7 . It 
seems that Epiqactis palustris, a rare 
Orchid, had not been previously found in 
Scotland since 1777. These plants wer' 
collected by Mr. Alexander Somerville, 
Glasgow. 
