March 16, 1907. THE GARDENING WORLD. 
Flowers for Amateurs. 
C .. 
We have a very wide range of annuals, 
biennials, and perennials to select from, 
but thanks to the “ G. W.,” no one ought 
to have a dull garden during the greater 
part of the year. We see improvements 
in the cottage strips and beds yearly, and 
why ? simply because many get hold of 
the above paper, by chance maybe, and 
read the contents, and the result is often¬ 
times a gay garden. Many there are 
who have not got even a frame, and I 
hope this short article may give some an 
idea of what seed to procure for the com¬ 
ing spring. 
First of all the ground should have a 
good preparation; it should be 
thoroughly dug two spits deep and given 
a good dressing of manure, failing 
manure road sidings that have been in a 
heap for some time will do and give good 
results. This should be done as soon as 
the ground is fit to work, and it should 
be left in a rough state for tlhe frost and 
drying winds to sweeten it. As soon as 
the soil gets dry enough and will crumble 
to pieces in March, a start should be 
made. Give it a raking over with a 
rather coarse rake, and make the beds or 
borders level. Shirley Poppies should 
be sown in clumps or lines, whichever is 
desired, but sow thinly, as the seed is 
small. Antirrhinums flower all the 
summer if sown now, and as they can be 
had in three different heights and in 
separate colours if required, I strongly 
recommend them, as they are so useful 
for cuttings. Bartonia aurea, a lovely 
silky yellow, should be sown where they 
are to flower. Candytuft, Mignonette, 
Clarkia, Godetia, Iceland Poppy, White 
Swan Poppy, and Eschscholtzia will 
flower all the summer, and stand the win¬ 
ter, and usually come up in scores 
where the old plants seed themselves. 
Ervsimum arkansanum is a beautiful 
• • • A • « • 
Beautiful Pest. 
The . . 
Water Hyacinth. 
A beautiful aquatic plant, the Water 
Hyacinth, is, according to Mr. George 
Massee in this month’s - “ Knowledge,” 
causing the greatest anxiety in New South 
Wales, owing to its rapid extension in the 
creeks, lagoons, and more sluggish rivers 
of that country, thus impeding naviga¬ 
tion. When growing in shallow streams 
or lagoons, it tends to suck up the water, 
and converts limpid streams into bogs. 
The plant is a native of tropical South 
America, and, being very showy, is much 
cultivated. Its spread in New South 
Wales is traced to a few plants having 
been thrown into Swan River by a local 
resident, who cultivated it as a decorative 
plant. The Water Hyacinth is an aquatic, 
and usually floats freely without being at¬ 
tached to the soil; when growing in shal¬ 
low water or swamps the roots grow into 
\ 
Useful and Easy to Grow. 
annual, and very useful for those making 
up bunches to exhibit, and a lovely 
yellow for cutting. Lavatera and Mai ope 
are two other useful annuals for cutting. 
Nemophila insignis grandiflora is a low- 
creeping plant. The first week in 
April a second sowing should be made, 
when Gaillardia picta or any of the 
annual kinds, also Larkspurs, Lupins, 
Malva moschata alba, Asters, and a good 
sowing of Ten Week Stock, and Coreopsis. 
Linum grandiflorum rubrum is a grand 
scarlet to be sown where it is to flower. 
The finest batch of Sweet Peas 1 ever 
grew I sowed last April, consisting of 
some fifty-three varieties. I always pre¬ 
pare trenches the same as for Celery, 
only three parts filling the trench after 
the manure has been placed on a well- 
dug bottom, as this way allows one to 
give them a good soaking of water in 
dry weather without any waste of water. 
All of the above seeds may be purchased 
from any' of the seedsmen advertising in 
the “G. W.” Those plants that will not 
pay for transplanting, such as Poppies, 
Bartonia, Linum, etc., should be well 
thinned out as soon as large enough, and 
not be allowed to smother one another. 
In May, sowings should be made of 
Wallflowers, Brompton Stocks, Cam¬ 
panula pyramidalis, Canterbury Bells, 
Myosotis, Aubrietia, coloured .Daisies, 
Polyanthus, and Alyssum saxatile, all of 
which will make good plants for the 
beds; also Pansies and Rocket for flower¬ 
ing in early spring. The Scabious is 
also a useful flower for cutting, which I 
have found to survive the past three win¬ 
ters. Of course the Scabious caucasica 
blue and the white are amongst the best 
of perennials. I think I have given a 
list long enough for most cottage gar¬ 
dens. No glass will be required to raise 
them. 
Chas. Bendall. 
the mud. If the mud becomes dry', the 
plant perishes. The leaves are roundish 
and arranged in a dense rosette one or 
two feet high; the lower portion of the 
leaf-stalks are much swollen and filled 
with air, and serve as buoy's insuring the 
stability of the plant, and preventing its 
being overturned by' wind or waves. The 
roots form a dense tuft one or two feet 
long. The flowers are produced in pro¬ 
fusion, of a lilac colour, and arranged in 
clusters like those of the Hyacinth, hence 
the popular name. The plant is repro¬ 
duced abundantly' by stolons or shoots 
from the parent stem; these stolons, when 
about 6 or 9 inches long, form a rosette 
of leaves at the tip, which soon forms a 
plant as large as the one from which it 
originated, and in turn produces stolons ; 
by' such means dense groups of plants of 
different generations remain organically 
united, and as the stolons are very strong, 
rowing boats and barges find it impos¬ 
sible to make headway, and steamers fare 
but little better, as the plants become en¬ 
tangled in the blades of the propeller. 
During floods large masses of the weed 
199 
are detached and carried down stream as 
floating or half-submerged islands, which 
prove dangerous to bridges, jetties, etc. 
No satisfactory means of destroying the 
plant have as yet been devised. Some 
years ago certain rivers in Florida were 
completely choked up with this plant, 
which had been accidentally introduced. 
Specimens of the plant are at present 
growing in the Lily House, Kew Gardens. 
In this country it requires a stove tem¬ 
perature for its successful growth, while 
in the open air it is very dwarf, and does 
not flower, and requires housing in winter. 
-- 
Salvia patens from Seed. 
Having three or four good clumps of 
this lovely blue flower in the border, and 
finding almost daily large numbers of ripe 
seed vessels, I thought 1 would sow some 
of the seed at once in pots, during late 
September and October. So soon did 
they germinate that the first batch are 
now pricked out and still growing sturdily; 
the ne!xt will soon be ready and later 
batches I see are all germinating. As 
this is so hardy I shall only keep the 
plants in a cold frame and cover in coldest 
weather with mats, but grow them on as 
sturdily as possible for bedding in masses 
next summer. The old plants bloomed 
from May until the middle of November 
without a break, constantly throwing up 
fresh spikes of the richest blue flowers of 
a curious shape. A sunny, well-drained 
bed is best. 
D. Erl am. 
Worthing. 
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