June 15, 1907- 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
4°5 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
1912. Treatment of Cobaea. 
I have some plants of Cobaea which are 
evidently climbers as 'they have tendrils 
upon them. What is the best way of grow¬ 
ing them? Uo they require heat, or can I 
grow them against a wall? (J. Hedger, 
Lancs.). 
Cobaea scandens is most properly con¬ 
sidered as a greenhouse climber, as it will 
live and thrive in houses from which the 
frost is merely excluded. Under these con¬ 
ditions it grows to a great height, covering 
the roofs of conservatories. During sum¬ 
mer it can be grown as a climber in the 
open air for the purpose of covering trel¬ 
lises, pillars or any other form of support. 
It will even flower from seeds during the 
first season, if a fair size by the month of 
May. You can therefore use it as a garden, 
climber, but if you wish to preserve it you 
will have to lift it some time in September 
before frost comes, and cut it partly back so 
as to reduce its bulk and enable it to take 
10 the fresh soil. 
1913. Propagating Double Arabis. 
I have a fine plant of the double Arabis 
which I should like to propagate for the 
purpose of making an edging. What is the 
best time to do this and the way ? Can it be 
done without heat ? (D. Tomlinson, Berks.).'. 
The double Arabis can be propagated by 
division in early summer, just after the 
flowers have passed. To get a large number 
of plants, however, you should take cuttings 
of all the flowerless shoots and either insert 
them in beds of sandy soil or in pots of 
sandy soil, covering them with hand-lights 
or putting them in a cold frame. This is 
to retain the moisture about them till the 
roots are formed. The operation can be com¬ 
menced whenever the cuttings are sufficiently 
firm to root them without damping. They 
should be in condition now, whereas if we 
get very hot and dry weather in July the 
stems would get so hard that they would 
root with difficulty. You could take all of 
the flowerless shoots just now, inserting them 
firmly as cuttings, and if you allow them to 
make shoots of some length after rooting, 
you can take off the tops and put them in 
again as cuttings under the same conditions, 
and they will root readily. You can at 
least get two sets of cuttings by this means 
from your plant during the summer. 
1914. Close Built Rockery. 
Last year I saw a very pretty rockery 
planted with Nasturtiums. It was built with 
stones in layers or rows one above the other 
to the height of 3 ft., and the stones were 
completely covered with foliage and flowers. 
Beneath the Nasturtiums I could see that 
the stones were close together without any 
soil at all. I can get a lot of broken bricks. 
Will these do as well, and can you tell me 
how it is done? Would any other kind of 
plants serve the same purpose? (R. Blas- 
senbv, Herts.) 
Although the stones appeared close, there 
had been seams of soil between them, and 
the body of the rockery must have consisted 
of soil into which the plants could root. 
There are many plants besides Nasturtiums 
which could be used in the same way, but 
particularly those with somewhat fleshy 
stems, which would thrive in dry weather, 
when it would be difficult to keep, such 
rockeries properly moist if in a sunny posi¬ 
tion. For instance, you could use zonal 
Pelargoniums and Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums, 
often named Geraniums, also any of the 
Stonecrop family, and many others which 
you could discover by making experiments. 
In building up the rockeries you should first 
make a heap of soil and then commence 
building from the bottom upwards, laying 
a thin layer of soil on the top of each layer 
of bricks and at suitable distances, putting 
in a plant as you go along. For instance, 
you could not plant Pelargoniums after a 
rockery of this class is built. While build¬ 
ing, the stones or bricks should be so set 
that their points would dip into the rockery, 
so that any water which may be given will 
run in between the bricks rather than away. 
To help this, alternate rows of bricks should 
be put opposite the joinings of those be¬ 
neath them. The top ones should also so be 
placed that you can get a fair quantity of 
water in from the top, and this will serve 
to keep the whole rockery moist during dry 
weather. In such weather as we have had 
lately, little or no artificial watering would 
be necessary. Bricks will answer the pur¬ 
pose, more especially if they are of a soft 
or porous nature rather than glazed, which 
brick burrs very often are by being spoilt in 
the kiln. 
1915. Laying: out a Garden. 
Will you please give me an extended reply 
to my question, No. 1892? I want nothing 
but flowers and, if possible, all the year 
round. (John 'Stafford, Essex.) 
Your plan is much plainer now, and it is 
carried out much on the same lines as we 
suggested last week, with the exception that 
the narrow end of the garden has been pro¬ 
posed as a Rose bed, and we think this would 
answer admirably. For a bed 37 ft. by 
31 ft. you would require 120 Roses at 3 ft. 
apart each way. For garden decoration, all 
the stronger growing ones would certainly 
require this space, if not pruned on exhibi¬ 
tion lines but as for garden decoration. If 
you intended to make the most of the space 
and to prune the Roses as for exhibition, 
you would require 270 at 2 ft. apart each 
way. We suggest a dozen each of H.P., 
H.T., and T. Roses. The H.P. varieties 
might include such generally useful varie¬ 
ties as Frau Karl Druschki, Mrs. John 
Laing, Ulrich Brunner, Suzanne Marie Ro- 
docanachi, Capt. Hayward, Charles Le- 
febvre. Her Majesty,. Margaret Dickson, 
Mrs.'R. G. Sharman Crawford, Marie Bau¬ 
mann, Dupuy Jamain and Fisher Holmes. 
H.T. Roses might include Liberty, Caroline 
Testout, K. A. Victoria, La France, Mrs. 
W. J. Grant, Marquise Litta, Mildred Grant, 
Bessie Brown, Florence Pemberton, Mme. 
Abel Chatenay, Mme. Ravary and Vis¬ 
countess Folkestone. Tea Roses might in¬ 
clude Catherine Mermet. Maman Cochet, 
White Maman Cochet, The Bride, Souvenir 
d’Elise Vardon, Souvenir de Pierre Notting, 
Mrs. Edward Mawley, Caroline Kuster, 
Hon. Edith Gifford, Innocente Pirola, Mme. 
Cusin and Marie van Houte. For a supply 
of flowers in the early part of the year it 
would be necessary to use bulbs largely. 
These could be planted on a portion of the 
border by themselves or put in clumps alter¬ 
nately with the herbaceous plants. This 
would do much to avoid blank spaces in the 
border during summer, but you could also 
sow annuals around the patches of bulbs, 
so that they could be growing and ultimately 
occupy the space of the bulbs when their 
leaves die down. Christmas Roses are in¬ 
valuable, and two of the best are Helleborus 
niger altifolius (also known as H.n. maxi- 
mus) and H.n. angustifolius. Bulbs should 
include Snowdrops, Crocuses, Winter Aco¬ 
nite, 'Chionodoxa Luciliae, C.L. sardensis, 
Daffodils in great variety, early and late, 
the Poet’s Narcissus, single and double, 
early flowering Tulips, Darwin Tulips and 
Cottager or May flowering Tulips. Annuals 
could be sown to replace the bulbs, or else 
grown on a part of the border by themselves. 
This would enable you to clear the ground 
once a year for the purpose of digging and 
manuring if for the succeeding crop. They 
should include Sweet Peas, Candytuft, Go- 
detia Marquis of Salisbury, G. Duchess of 
Albany, Ten-week Stocks, China Asters, 
Clarkia pulchella, Chrysanthemum carina- 
tum, C.c. burridgeanum, C. coronarium, 
single and double, Phlox Drummondii, La- 
vatera trimestris, double I-arkspurs, Shirley 
Poppies and such Everlastings as Ileli- 
chrysums, Rhodanthe Manglesii and Acro- 
clinium roseum. There is an endless set of 
herbaceous plants,' but for the purpose of 
giving a succession from April to November 
we select the following : — Doronicum plan- 
tagineum, Lathyrus vernus, Arabis albida 
fiore pleno, Aquilegias, Globe Flowers 
(Trollius), Lupinus polyphyllus, single and 
double Pyrethrums, Delphiniums, Chinese 
l’aeonies, Lysimachia clethroides, Helenium 
pumilum, Chrysanthemum King Edward 
VII., Pentstemon barbatus, Helianthus rigi- 
dus, H.r. Miss Mellish, Galega officinalis, 
G.o. alba, Erigeron speciosus, Rudbeckia spe- 
ciosa, Polygonum amplexicaule, Aster Amel- 
lus, A. Novi-Belgii in variety, A. Novae- 
Angliae pulchellus, A. ericoides, A. diffusus 
horizontalis, A. puniceus, Solidago canaden¬ 
sis, Chrysanthemum uliginosum and early 
flowering Chrysanthemums. These could be 
greatly amplified, but they will be sufficient 
for making a start. Much depends upon the 
manner and arrangement as to the effect pro¬ 
duced. The mixed border is a very good 
way of getting a supply of flowers over the 
longest period. It consists of planting fairly 
large clumps of a kind in masses of irregu¬ 
lar shape. Most of the tall ones should be 
planted next to the boundary hedge, though 
it is not necessary to be absolutely formal, 
though you should endeavour never to hide 
the dwarfer ones by having very tall ones 
in front of them. You should endeavour to 
have the best effect from the grass-plat you 
propose to make. In some instances, where 
the flowers bloom and die down early, you 
should arrange to have some reserve plants 
of various other things that flower later, and 
to fill up the blanks from time to time. For 
instance, early flowering Chrysanthemums in 
pots could be planted at any time to fill up 
such blanks. By having each kind in a 
fairly large clump you can ensure its being 
effective. There is no desire to have plants 
in regular lines when this plan is followed, 
and the border appears fuller at all times 
during the growing season than if they were 
planted in straight lines. 
ROSES. 
1916. Rose Leaves Brown, 
I have a few Rose bushes in the garden 
planted at the end of February, and I notice 
the leaves of some have a withered appear¬ 
ance, as the enclosed specimen. Please tell 
me the cause of this, and advise treatment. 
(Dialstone, Middlesex.) 
Your Roses have been browned by the cold 
winds which prevailed during May, frost 
being also experienced in some districts at 
least. There was no evidence of disease, 
but your plants will grow out of this as the 
weather improves. Rose leaves are alwavs 
tender in spring, and it may be that the 
damaged roots are not yet capable of sup¬ 
plying the necessary moisture during drying 
winds. 
1917. Roses not Flowering 1 . 
I send you the name of a Rose tree which 
I have got in my greenhouse. I cut it back 
in April, now it has grown to a height of 
4 ft., and I nipped the tips off, but the plant 
is still getting tall with no sign of a bud. 
Could you tell me the cause? (T. Lampard, 
Devonshire.) 
Prince Camille de Rohan is a very strong- 
growing Rose, even in the open ground, and 
being in a greenhouse, it would tend to 
grow still taller. We suspect that you are 
keeping the house rather close, which is 
unnecessary. Roses at this season of the 
