October 5, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
653 
the cuttings are very soft, but you should 
leave sufficient foliage on the base of the 
steins of the old plants to keep them alive 
and healthy. You can then lift the old 
plants and pot them in the smallest size 
pots that will conveniently hold them. Use 
very light, sandy soil, and place the plants 
in a cold frame, where they will get estab¬ 
lished before the cold weather sets in. They 
will gradually break into fresh growth, and 
in March you can place them in heat or over 
a hot-bed to encourage growth of plenty of 
shoots. Partly plunge the pots of cuttings 
in a hot-bed, and as soon as they are rooted 
pot them off singly in small pots, and after 
a few days place them in a cold frame, 
where they may grow slowly. You may get 
another set of cuttings from the same plants, 
which should in like manner be rooted. 
Possibly you may get some cuttings off the 
plants that are rooted in the autumn. An¬ 
tirrhinums cannot be relied upon to come 
true to colour until they have been selected 
for some years and the different colours 
flowered at some distance away from one 
another. 
2247. Cutting Stems of Lilium can- 
didum. 
I shall be much obliged if you will please 
tell me if the flowering stalks of the Ma¬ 
donna Lilies (Lilium candidum) may be cut 
off directly the flowers are fading, or is it 
better for the bulbs if they are allowed to 
remain on .until quite dry ? (A. C. Dixon, 
Kent.) 
Your plants of Lilium candidum must be 
flowering very late, otherwise the foliage at 
least should have been quite withered away 
by this time. It will not hurt the bulbs if 
the stems are cut down while they are still 
green, but we sfiould not cut them while 
they are still carrying green and healthy 
foliage, as the bulbs will be deriving benefit 
front them until they get quite withered. 
2248. Bed on Steep Slope. 
I have a steep slope of lawn opposite one 
of the windows, and want to turn it into a 
flower bed. Can you advise me with what to 
plant it so as to keep up a continual show 
of flowers, if possible? There is a big lawn 
behind the slope and then a flight of steps 
down to a path which is about 4 ft. wide. 
Then comes the house, so the border would 
bs shaded during the most part of the day 
by the house, which on that side faces north. 
The border faces south, only it would be 
shaded by the house. It would be 20 ft. 
long and 5 ft. in width, the depth at the 
back about 2 ft. and about 3 in. in front. 
Could I put Roses in ? I do not want any¬ 
thing very high, as it would obscure the 
view from the windows. (Mystery, Soms.) 
Seeing that the border is shaded, we 
should not reccmmend Roses, as they re¬ 
quire sunshine to make them flower well. 
If you are particularly anxious to get Roses 
there, you could try some of the Moss 
Roses, General Jacqueminot, Mrs. J. Laing, 
Captain Hayward, Dupuy Jamain, Caroline 
Testout, and La France. These are usually 
very free-growing Roses, so that they might 
give you some blooms. You do not tell us 
whether the bank is inclined to be dry or 
moist during the summer. We have selec¬ 
ted a number of things for shade and for 
a dry bank. For instance, you could grow 
Hypericum calycinum, H. moserianum, H. 
Androsaemum and H. patulum, all with 
vellow flowers. Good Stonecrops with yel¬ 
low flowers are Sedum acre, S. rupestre and 
S. reflexum. S. album has white flowers, 
and S. spurium splendens, S. Ewersii, S. 
Sieboldi, S.S. variegatum and S. spectabile 
have rose-coloured flowers. Other subjects 
that would grow under the shade of the 
house, if well-lighted otherwise, are Achil¬ 
lea tomentosa, A. umbellata, fine varieties of 
Antirrhinum, Evening Primroses, Polyan¬ 
thuses, Primroses, Arabis albida, and A.a. 
flore pleno. Either or all of the above, we 
think, would flower more satisfactorily than 
the Roses. You could grow them in clumps of 
irregular size, so as to fill the bed, and if 
you would like to try them you could scatter 
the Roses about on the bed by way of trial, 
to see how they will succeed, before getting 
more than those above recommended or some 
of them. 
2249. Sweet Peas on the Same 
Ground. 
It is with great pleasure I look up each 
week the notes on Sweet Peas. Would j'ou 
kindly let me know in the next issue whether 
it is possible to grow good Peas upon the 
same ground two years in succession? The 
position is north to south, close beside a 
path, which is useful for watering and also 
for gathering the blooms. I have not a 
large garden, but I am doing my best to get 
some fine blooms. Having some pigs, I use 
the manure trenched into the ground with 
other things in the autumn, and succeeded 
in getting some nice blooms, but nothing 
like I read about in your paper, of course. 
If you can give me any information as to 
what artificial manure will help me I should 
be very glad and obliged. (Anxious To 
Know. Kent.) 
It is possible to grow Sweet Peas on the 
same ground a number of years in succes¬ 
sion, but it would be necessary to trench the 
ground each year 2 ft. to 2^ ft. deep. This 
gives you practically, if not fresh ground, 
at least the nearest to it you can get. Pig 
manure would be very suitable for the 
ground, and should be put into it when 
being trenched. The size of the blooms de¬ 
pends largely upon the amount of space you 
give the Sweet Peas. You should sow early 
in March, and give them from 6 in. to 12 in. 
from plant to plant in the rows. This en¬ 
ables them to make strong growth and to 
give large flowers on the stem. The most 
suitable artificial manures which j'ou could 
give them during winter or spring would be 
superphosphate of lime and potash in the 
form of kainit. These could be worked into 
the soil just at planting time and in the 
top spit. A safer manure would be the liquid 
drainings from a stable or from the pigsty, 
and in kith cases they should be fairly well 
diluted. This could be applied about once 
a week, commencing in May if the weather 
is dry. Some of the all-round manures 
offered in our advertising pages for plant 
culture would be very useful, and could be 
applied alternately with the liquid manure. 
A little could, of course, be worked into 
the top spit at th® time of sowing. 
2250. Design for Flower Garden. 
What shape and size of flower beds would 
look best cut out on the lawn (rough plan 
enclosed), how many, and their positions? 
(Country Girl, Cumberland.) 
Owing to the vicinity of the dwelling 
house and the outline of the garden, it will 
be.necessary to be somewhat formal in the 
design that may be employed, and the 
simpler the design is the better, so as to 
avoid cutting up the grass too much. Of 
course, in making out a design for flower 
beds, it is well always to calculate how you 
are going to fill them from year to year, 
but more especially the class of plants, as 
it would take a considerable amount of space 
in a greenhouse to accommodate the rooted 
cuttings in winter. We should recommend 
five beds, as this would give you just suffi¬ 
cient number to take the outline of the gar¬ 
den. We have two forms of beds to recom¬ 
mend, namely, a sort of cross at each of 
the four corners, with a circular bed in the 
centre. These cross beds in the corners 
could be outlined in the form of a bed 12 ft. 
square. Then to give it a lighter and more 
fancy appearance a semi-circle or part of a 
circle could be cut out on each of the four 
sides of the bed, and this will produce a 
bed the form of a cross. The circular bed 
in the centre should be 12 ft. in diameter. 
But if beds of that size would take more 
to fill them than you can conveniently accom¬ 
modate and propagate every year, the beds 
might be made smaller. The other form of 
design which we should recommend would 
be four oblong beds, one for each corner, 
to be 12 ft. long and 4 ft. to 6 ft. wide. 
To give you some variation the centre in 
thiscasecould haveanoval bed 12 ft. to 16 ft. 
long and cut out upon the lawn with its 
longer axis parallel to the dwelling house. 
Whichever of the two designs you adopt, 
each of the corner beds should be cut out 
about 4 ft. from the edge of the grass. The 
two beds next to the house should occupy 
the central area between the end of the gar¬ 
den and the bay cut out of the grass in 
front of the house. The 4 ft. of border 
would give plenty of room for using a mow¬ 
ing machine, and by putting the beds in 
certain positions it will equalise and regu¬ 
late the areas of grass around and between 
the beds. You will not be able to utilise the 
lawn as a playground for tennis or croquet 
with beds cut out in it. The corner occupied 
by an Apple tree would have been a very 
suitable place for a summer house. 
2251. Hardy Bulbs for Hanging: Bas¬ 
kets. 
I have several hanging baskets, also wire 
baskets, for 5 in. pots hanging on rustic 
arches, and should like something to put 
in them to make a show in the spring. Are 
there any bulbs that could be used for that 
purpose? Any information would oblige. 
(Burgh Parva, Norfolk.) 
Many hardy bulbs could be employed for 
filling hanging baskets, but to succeed out 
of doors it would be "almost necessary to 
keep them out of doors all winter, 04 else in 
cold frames, where they could be freely 
ventilated and kept cool. For instance, it 
would not do to bring hardy bulbs into 
flower in a greenhouse and then hang them 
outside, unless the weather happened to be 
very mild and genial at the time, and this 
cannot always be depended upon. The best 
plan, we think, would be to fill the baskets 
with soil, and likewise the pots, putting in 
the bulbs and keeping them in a cold frame 
till April, or just as they come into bloom, 
or earlier. Any of the Daffodils might be 
employed, including Narcissus obvallaris, 
N. bicolor Empress, N. Emperor, N. odorus 
rugulosus, or Campernelle; also early 
flowering Tulips, Crocuses, Chionodoxa Lu- 
cilae, and C.L. sardensis and Scilla sibirica. 
The three latter would come into bloom much 
earlier than the Daffodils, and should, of 
course, be placed in the open by the time 
they come in bloom. Some of the Grape 
Hyacinths are pretty, and may be utilised 
for this purpose, such as Muscari botry- 
oides, M.b. album and M. conicum. All 
of these should be potted up at once or put 
into baskets, as the case may be. 
TREES AND SHRUBS . 
2252. Shrubs for Exposed Garden. 
Please give me the names of about a dozen 
shrubs that would be likely to succeed in 
this district, which is rather exposed to west 
and south-west winds in winter. I should 
like some evergreen ones, if possible, and 
not very tall. (R. T. Jones, Carnarvon.) 
As a rule the effect of the prevailing 
breezes in summer, while the plants are 
making their growth, is greater than in win¬ 
ter, so that we think the undermentioned 
would succeed with you. The tallest-grow- 
