i it-, Gardening World, June i, 1907 
An Amateur s Letter to Amateurs. 
CONTENTS . 
Jpinis, Amongst The . 362 
mateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An ... 361 
vch at Gunnersbury, The (illus.) ... 363 
edding Combination, A Useful ... 365 
annas . 375 
halk, The Virtues of . 376 
livias . 37 6 
ollinsias . 363 
'ompetition Awards . 362 
Competition, Prize Letter . 364 
Composite, A Graceful (illus.) . 365 
Cottage Gardening . 368 
Crane’s-bill. The Meadow (illus.) 367 
vpripedium, A White Lipped (illus.) 365 
)aphne bdora . 367 
inquire Within . 37 1 
'lower Garden, The ....... 369 
ruit Garden, The . 369 
Tuit Growing for Amateurs . 374 
drapes, The Culture of . 374 
Leenhouse, The Amateur’s . 369 
foeing: Its Value . 368 
nsect Pests . 376 
ditchen Garden, The. 369 
Orchids for Amateurs . 370 
la lads and How to Grow Them . 362 
ihrubs, A Rare and Beautiful (illus.) 366 
dhrubs and Trees, Planting . 375 
Vork of the Week . 369 
-4-M-- 
ft Wish,! 
rhough shouting March first saw your 
eyes unclose, 
Wd dowered you with his swift, rebellious 
moods, 
Let in his deep heart secretly there broods 
rhe knowledge of the coming of the rose; 
^ n d that, too, is your heritage—to see 
iVithin grey-striclcen skies of lowering 
days 
Lhe promise of young April’s fair dis- 
plays, 
ynd summer’s golden pomp of treasury. 
Hay weaver Time, at his swift moving 
wheel, 
leading your name upon his mystic scroll, 
Vlthough it be decreed that he shall deal 
To each a chequered woof of joy and dole, 
ret so his many-coloured strands entwine 
that bright hues triumph through the 
whole design. 
F. O’Neill Gallagher. 
XCIII. 
Coronilla glauca. 
If anyone asked me the best all-round 
plant for all sorts of conditions, I believe 
I should give my vote to this old-fashioned 
favourite. Who can say it is not hardy ? 
I cannot; here in East Anglia it has lived 
out the past winter with no more protection 
than a Laurel branch or two placed in the 
. ground round it. True it suffered at the 
tips of the shoots, but at the moment, May 
13th, it is crowded with blossom. But my 
use of the Coronilla does not rest wholly 
with out-of-door culture. It is one of the 
most decorative and showy plants we can 
grow in a glass porch, or in a cold green¬ 
house, yes, and aho in the heated struc¬ 
ture. It is often in bud before Christmas, 
and—well, a plant that enjoys a long bud- 
hood is a wonderful pleasure to the real 
flower lover, isn’t it ? And it is one of the 
easiest of all plants to grow. Now I am 
coming to the reason I have for mention¬ 
ing this particular plant to-day. By the 
time this reaches the readers of Gardening 
World the plants will have finished, or 
almost finished, flowering, and therefore 
the time for cutting them hard back will 
have arrived. We shall have plenty of 
capital stuff to strike, and this will furnish 
a supply of young plants by the autumn. 
Now if we have some old plants to spare, I 
can tell of a good use for them. Plant them 
under windows that are only three or four 
feet from the ground, covering in this 
manner wall that is not easy to use for 
ordinary creepers—and plant now rather 
than in” the autumn, because on a sunny 
bit of wall the plants will get splendidly 
ripened during the summer, and'should 
be in fine condition to produce a wealth of 
blossom next season. 
It mav be taken as a general rule that 
all plants of a woody nature should have 
the wood thoroughly ripened every sum¬ 
mer, bv thorough exposure to sun and air. 
The Useful Viola. 
In our bedding-out schemes do let us 
give due attention to the ever useful Viola 
tricolor, remembering that it does not need 
the sunniest of positions. I think some of 
the modem self-coloured varieties are 
simply grandly decorative. I am myself 
going to make use of a pale bright mauve 
variety with great freedom this year. I 
happened to see it used with excellent 
effect in the north of England a season or 
two ago, and can thoroughly recommend 
it. Mauve is a wonderfully cool, restful 
colour to use in the summer garden, es¬ 
pecially in the less sunny positions. 
Colour in the Garden. 
Talking of mauve reminds me that ques¬ 
tions of colour—colour harmonies, colour 
contrasts—will considerably exercise our 
minds during the bedding-out period. I 
will tell how a correspondent of mine once 
wrote to tell me how he had solved the 
vexed question; he divided his garden, 
roughly speaking, into fo.ur portions, and 
in each one of these one colour took the 
dominant part. Thus, blue, red, yellow, 
white, struck the leading notes, of course 
not slavishly but with sufficient insistence. 
It struck me as an interesting experiment, 
and with the help of various annuals, and 
the many plants used for summer display, 
could well be tried in English gardens. 
A Beautiful Spring Flower. 
If we want Auriculas to produce blossom 
next spring no time must be lost in sowing 
the seed. Of course there is nothing so 
good as sowing freshly ripened seed, but 
to wait for this means waiting until it is too 
late to procure seedling plants sufficiently 
matured .to flower the following spring. 
I have never been so pleased with 
Auriculas as I have been this year. I hey 
are great additions to the garden because 
their beautiful velvety texture makes them 
fit to be placed in the category of choicest 
out-of-door plants. Good seed should be 
secured, and no artificial heat should be 
used in rearing it. The seed is slow to 
germinate, and I have found that in hot 
weather it is a good plan to put the pot 
containing the seed within one of a larger 
size, and to let them stand in a pan con¬ 
taining an inch or so of water for seven or 
eight hours everv day. The great thing is 
to prevent the surface soil “ souring, ’ and 
this method of watering from beneath 
seems helpful. One’s own judgment must 
be relied on not to keep the soil too moist. 
Let there be a happy medium. 
Annuals. 
It is about the right time to make our 
final sowings for the season. It is always 
well worth while to make a late sowing of 
Mignonette. It is a great thing to have 
plenty of this sweet scented annual far 
into the autumn, while a late sowing of 
bright crimson and white Candytuft is 
generally, particularly cheery and bright 
when the year is nearly at end so far as the 
garden is concerned. 
F. Norfolk. 
-- 
Gladiolus atroviolaceus. 
The flowers of this specfes are small, 
curved, and of a dark violet hue shaded 
with white on the two lower segments. It 
is a very unusual shade in a wild Gladio¬ 
lus. An award of merit Was accorded it 
by the R.H.S. on May 14th, when shown 
by Messrs. R. Wallace and Co., Colches¬ 
ter. 
