The Gardening World, December 28, 1907. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ Happy the man whose trees in summer yield him shade, in winter lire.” — Southey. 
An Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs. 
CONTENTS. 
CXXIII. 
Some Spring: Flowering; Perennials. 
jnateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An... 807 
.sparagus, Forcing (illus.) . 812 
.utumn Tints . 808 
order Plant, A Little Known (illus.) 810 
ompetition Awards . 808 
nquire Within . 814 
lower Garden, The . 813 
ruit Garden, The . 813 
ruit Trees, Planting . 808 
lermander, The Wild (illus.) . 811 
rreenhouse, The Amateur's . 813 
Litchen Garden, The . 813 
■ilies of the Valley, Growing . 808 
irchids for Amateurs . 814 
weet Peas: Work in December . 811 
urtle Head, The (illus.) . 809 
/ork of the Week . 813 
-- 
Roses. 
or kind hearts grow, in wearing out, 
Not faded, but more mellow; 
md wear some spring-tints with the leaf 
That’s sere and yellow. 
because hearts are gardens too, 
Rich in fair blooming posies, 
tnd even in worst time they show 
Sweet Christmas Roses. 
’hese natures will, in wise old age, 
I Some germ of youth embosom, 
md keep, amid December’s snows, 
j Some summer blossom. 
-♦+*- 
’he day is dull and sober-hued, 
! As though its spirit had withdrawn 
nto some cloistered solitude, 
In penance for a glorious dawn. 
The gladness of its youth forespent, 
Its pulsing joy repressed or dead, 
The year is lying penitent 
With dust and ashes on its head. 
The soul of rapture and of dream 
Has fall’n upon a cheerless way; 
r or every hour of lucent gleam 
There is a measured price to pay. 
Vnd should we coldly have forsworn 
The brightness if we knew the cost ? 
Nay, for the glories of the morn 
Once manifest are never lost. 
Deep in the heart its treasure stays, 
The grain that dusky gamers hold. 
1 choose among departed days 
And strew the present with its gold. 
Arthur L. Salmon. 
I have been asked a good many times to 
suggest perennial plants, other than bul¬ 
bous varieties, that flower during the early 
year. It is a delightful subject to ap¬ 
proach, because at no time, I think, do 
we appreciate a gay garden more than in 
the spring time. I am just going to jot 
down to-day a few of the plants that give 
the most enjoyment. There is, for in¬ 
stance, Orobus vernus, that we always 
welcome; it flowers during March and 
April; but it is not least of its charms 
that it throws up the freshest, greenest, 
and most buoyant-looking foliage. It can 
be reared easily from seed, and please 
bear that in mind, reader, when the spring 
time comes. It grows about a foot, to a 
foot and a half, high, and the flowers-— 
it belongs to the Pea and Vetch family— 
are blue, shading to violet. It is always 
a fresh, happy-looking object in the rock 
garden at Kew at the season I have men¬ 
tioned. 
Again, there is the hardy and dwarf¬ 
growing Erica carnea, together with other 
Mediterranean varieties. For many 
weeks, even before the winter is over, the 
plants carry their buds; in March they 
are a mass of blossom, either white or rose 
colour. In a dry, light soil, and especi¬ 
ally if planted on a slope, the plants 
flourish splendidly, and even where the 
soil is heavy, additional soil may be 
brought, the site raised, and some bits of 
sandstone embedded in it. What I mean 
to imply is, that it is worth making a great 
effort to grow this plant well. I do not 
know what others feel about it, but to me 
there is a springy light-heartedness about 
the Heaths that makes me regard them as 
indispensable. It is good to have a wide 
patch in some open, sunny spot, but there 
must be no lime nor chalk in the soil. 
I daresay I have called attention to 
Doronicum austriacum already, but it is 
a great favourite of mine, and I do not 
think a few words will be but of place. 
I find it does not need a rich soil, and that 
it flowers best in a warm, sunny position. 
It is quite hardy on colder soils, but does 
not flower so freely. It is a grand sub¬ 
ject for cutting for house decoration, and 
it remains in flower a long time. To my 
mind this is far and away the choicest 
variety, and it would be difficult to over¬ 
praise it. Its flowers are borne on deli¬ 
cate slender stems, and the foliage is more 
refined and delicate-looking than is the 
case of other varieties. 
The Auriculas and Polyanthuses and 
double Primroses are hosts in themselves, 
but I often think they are not made the 
most of in our English gardens. They 
are good plants for the amateur to take 
in hand and make of them hobby flowers. 
And by that, I mean to grow them from 
seeds, or, if preferred, from named varie¬ 
ties (so far as Auriculas are concerned) 
rhan to raise a batch of seedlings from 
these, perhaps, as the result of hybridis¬ 
ing, but without this operation there is 
still great interest in awmiting results. 
Gradually, by destroying all but the best 
plants, a grand strain will be worked up 
that will give the patient watcher eveiy 
satisfaction. This is what I call the very 
essence of gardening. I know of one 
ardent amateur who has worked away with 
Antirrhinums for sixteen or seventeen 
years and is justly proud of his work. 
With the Polyanthuses, I like to mark 
out any particularly fine specimen and 
raise seedlings from it. A year or two 
ago in a batch of seedlings I had one 
plant that stood out with wonderful dis¬ 
tinctness from the rest, with a singularly 
bright crimson outer rim, it had a centre 
of intense orange. And this is what I 
would have all amateurs do—watch, con¬ 
trast, mark, and from the best -plant , and 
only from the best, mind you, increase 
your stock, flower them, and if they are 
better than all those from which no seed 
was gathered, give, or throw away, the 
whole of these inferior plants. I am quite 
sure that the amateur who has a fancy to 
grow his own seed is far too prone to 
gather it indiscriminately from all the 
plants he possesses.. I am not, as a 
matter of fact, at all in favour of the or¬ 
dinary amateur saving his own seed, and 
certainly not year after year from the 
same stock, but where it is the question 
of working up a strain and great care is 
taken in the selection, it is of course a 
different matter. 
On this subject of seed saving, I remem¬ 
ber a keen amateur, the owner of a cold 
enclosed suburban garden, rejoicing in 
various little packets of seed. I had the 
temerity to observe, “You would do much 
better to cut off all your faded flowers, 
and never let the seeds ripen, and buy 
your seed fresh every year!” I was only 
snubbed for my pains, but there happened 
to be present one who knew something of 
what is necessary in the way of sun and 
drying air properly to ripen seeds, and 
he upheld what I said. I am a great be¬ 
liever in getting really ripe sound seeds, 
and in many cases of overhung and en¬ 
closed gardens it is policy to make no 
attempt whatever at saving seed. And we 
must remember that to prevent seeds from 
forming is greatly to prolong the season 
of flowering; this is especially noticeable, 
perhaps, in the case of annual plants, 
such as Sweet Peas, and others. 
