November 16, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
735 
Address : The Editor, The Gardening 
World, 37 and 38, Shoe Lane, London, E.C. 
The Editor invites enquiries, which may 
cover any branch of gardening. Questions 
should be as brief as -possible and written on 
one side of the paper only; a separate sheet 
of paper should be used for each question. 
Replies cannot be sent by post. 
Garden Plans .—Gardeners who would make 
the best use of this column are invited to 
prepare and forward to us a rough outline 
drawing or plan of their gardens, indicating 
the position of beds and lawns, the charac- 
STOVE AND GREENHOUSE. 
2360. Heliotrope and Coleus. 
How should Heliotrope be treated in an 
unheated greenhouse during winter? Mine 
is losing its leaves; and also Coleus grown 
in the same house all the summer. (S. 
Johnston, Yorks.) 
Both of these plants are unsuited to an 
unheated greenhouse in the case of a severe 
winter. Heliotrope would live out the win¬ 
ter if frost is merely kept out, and though 
the plant would likely lose a great pro¬ 
portion of its leaves before spring, it would 
then start afresh, provided it does- not get 
frosted at any time during the winter. The 
varieties of Coleus would scarcely live, how¬ 
ever, as 'they require a temperature of 50 
degs. to 55 degs. to enable them to 
pull through the winter with any de¬ 
gree of satisfaction. Could a friend 
with a heated house keep them for 
you during the winter? A better plan would 
be to ascertain what would succeed in an 
unheated house, and to grow those things 
only, if possible. Of course, various things 
can be grown during the summer time with 
a fair amount of satisfaction, but they would 
have to be renewed again by fresh plants in 
spring. Plants that may be grown with 
safety are varieties of Fuchsia, Cytisus fra- 
grans, Hydrangeas, Aspidistra lurida, A.l. 
variegata, etc. A plan for the utilisation of 
unheated houses would be to employ a fair 
amount of hardy plants, such as Hyacinths, 
Daffodils, Tulips, Wallflowers and East 
Lothian Stocks. A cold greenhouse could be 
made very gay with these in late winter and 
spring. 
5i61. Hydrangea Too Large. 
L have a Hydrangea that has grown too 
large for my greenhouse. Please say if it 
can be pruned to reduce it and still flower 
next year. (Reader, Kent.) 
Large Hydrangeas may he reduced in size 
by cutting away the longer shoots to the 
base ox any part, according to circum¬ 
stances. Your endeavour should be to leave 
a number of shoots uncut, as only the ter¬ 
minal bud is likely to give rise to flowers 
next year. None of those which are in any 
way pruned back will bloom until they have 
made growth and ripen flower buds next 
summer. Your aim should be, therefore, to 
retain those branches which are short, so as 
to furnish you, with a number of flowers. 
The shoots that are cut back will produce 
leafy shoots, and therefore furnish the plant 
better for next year if it becomes somewhat 
ter and height of the fence or wall; posi¬ 
tion of vegetable garden, orchard, etc. The 
north side of the garden and any over¬ 
shadowing buildings should be denoted. It 
should also be stated whether the garden is 
flat or on a declivity, and all large trees 
should be marked. Particulars of the na¬ 
ture of the soil will also help us to give 
satisfactory replies. When such plans are 
received they will be carefully filed, with 
the name and address of the sender, and 
will be consulted by the Editor whenever an 
enquiry is sent. 
ragged owing to the pruning. You may 
find it convenient to tie in some of the shoots 
so as to reduce the bulk. Possibly by care¬ 
fully tying in all the long shoots you could 
get the whole of the plant, or nearly, into 
.suitable proportions for your greenhouse. 
COLD FRAMES. 
2362. Bulbs for a Cold Frame. 
Would you please inform me if bulbs can 
be grown in a frame on a well sheltered 
border ? If so, what kinds and what treat¬ 
ment do they require? If not bulbs, what 
else could I put in the frame now ? It stands 
in a very warm place in the garden. 
(X. B. G., Stebbing.) 
A very large proportion of the hardy 
bulbs could be grown in a cold frame in 
pots. A sheltered border may bring them 
on earlier, and the mere fact of the frame 
being covered with glass will cause the 
flowers to ibloom earlier than they would 
out of doors. For instance, you could pot 
up at once such things as Snowdrops, Glory 
of the Snow, Crocuses, Hyacinths, Tulips 
and Daffodils. Amongst the latter, very use¬ 
ful are such varieties as Obvallaris', Henry 
Irving, Golden 'Spur, Empress, Emperor, 
Grandis, Barrii conspicuus, Leedsii Mrs. 
Langtry, Odorus rugulosus (Campe.-nelle), 
Jonquilla (Jonquil), and many others. In 
the cold frame you could also grow such 
things as Ixias, Sparaxis and Freesias, 
which would not be so early as those grown 
in heated houses, but nevertheless worthy of 
attention.- They would be a little more 
difficult than the previous list of bulbs. \ou 
should make up’a compost of two parts loam, 
one part leaf soil, and half part of sand. 
If you manage it carefully, you could also 
use a little well decayed manure in the soil, 
as that would strengthen the plants and give 
you larger flowers. Pot them fairly firm, 
with the" bulbs just peering through the soil 
on the top of the pots. Plunge the pots m 
ashes or coooanut fibre, placing about 2in. 
over 'the top of the pots to keep the s<"d 
level when the.roots commence growing. In 
the course of six weeks or less, you should 
ascertain if the plants have commenced 
growing, and when that is the case the cover¬ 
ing of ashes should be taken off to expose the 
foliage and flower stems fully to the light. 
The potting is half the business, and the 
other half is to ventilate the frame on all 
favourable occasions, so as to induce short, 
sturdy leaves and stout flower stems. 
2363. New Arrangement of Garden. 
I should be obUged if you would advise 
me in laying out my garden. No. 1 plan is 
as it is now. No. 2 is how I propose to 
change it. Will you kindly suggest any im¬ 
provements as to position of greenhouse or 
borders, etc. My wish is for flowers only, a 
good show all the year round. (Thomas G. 
Rhodes, Worcs.) 
We think you have considerably improved 
the arrangement of your garden by the addi¬ 
tion of a rockery and the greenhouse. The 
latter might have had a walk round the east 
side as well, as the west, so as to enable you to 
get at the roof to shade it when necessary. The 
tall wooden fences might well be employed 
for the cultivation of climbing Roses, seeing 
that you do not require fruit. For instance, 
the 3ft. border extending from the rockery 
to the far end of the garden might well be 
employed for Roses entirely. The fence it¬ 
self could be covered, with such climbing 
varieties as Reve d’Or, Longworth Rambler, 
Mme. Alfred Carriere, Lamarque, Franpois 
Crousse, Bouquet d’Or, William Allen 
Richardson, and Gloire de Dijon. One line 
of Roses would be sufficient to plant in the 
border, leaving some distance between them 
and those on the wall, and a margin next 
the grass in which you could grow a line 
of some dwarf growing plant which you may 
fancy. The Roses we propose for the border 
'are Mrs. J. Laing and General Jacque¬ 
minot, both H.P.’s; La France, Liberty, 
Mme. Ravery, Mrs. W. J. Grant, Mme. 
Pernet-Ducher, Caroline Testout, Mme. Abel 
Chatenay, K&iserin A. Victoria, all Hybrid 
Teas ; and the two Tea Roses G. Nabonnand 
and Lady Roberts. As far as the plan shows 
us, no part of the garden is shaded except 
that small patch of grass close up to the 
house, and as it already exists you can tell 
whether the space is sufficiently open for the 
grass to give satisfaction. The small bed 1' 
the west end of 'the greenhouse might, be 
utilised by placing a cold frame there. 
With this you can propagate plants occasion¬ 
ally during summer, or even bedding plants 
in September. Judging from the space occu¬ 
pied by the greenhouse, you could not get a 
very large frame there, but possibly you 
could have another on the right-hand side of 
the entrance to the greenhouse. Of course 
these are merely suggestions, as we do not 
know your needs in the matter of bedding 
plants. You have a considerable amount of 
space on that north aspect border, and also 
the border at the far end of the garden, but 
these you may fill with hardy herbaceous 
perennials. It is entirely a matter of taste. 
Some would fill those borders with such 
things as Pelargoniums, Calceolarias and 
Pentstemons, but it would be necessary to 
have plenty of frame space to keep those 
plants in winter. Ycu might let us know 
what class of plants you favour if ycu de¬ 
sire us to make a selection for those two 
borders. The rock garden should be occu¬ 
pied almost entirely with dwarf perennials 
to be appropriate. If you have not got any¬ 
thing special for those arches which you 
propose, you might plant such Roses as 
Dorothy Perkins, Ladv Gay, Queen Alex¬ 
andra, and Crimson Rambler. The two 
former would make a pair and the two latter 
another for the two sides of the arches. 
2364. Duplicate Plants. 
A friend of mine sent an order to a nur¬ 
seryman for some herbaceous plants, and one 
of them named Geranium pratense turned 
out to be the same as a wild plant growing 
by the side of a ditch not far from here. Is 
this right? Another one named Iris xipbi- 
oides was the same as one he had already 
growing in his garden. What do you think 
of this? (Perplexed, Staffs.) 
Your friend can only be beginning the 
