520 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 3, 1907. 
give better flowers than a medley lot of 
interlacing growths. 
Push ahead with budding where stocks 
are workable. Never try to work a stock 
unless the bark moves easily. 
Feeding Carnations. 
Carnations greatly appreciate liquid cow 
manure, and Clay’s Fertiliser is very valu¬ 
able also. Peg down layers as soon as 
they have made sufficient growth, and take 
cuttings of any valuable sort if layers are 
not likely to be available. 
Treatment of Dahlias. 
Dahlias have been very precocious in 
flowering this season, and many have been 
glad to allow them to do so. But it is not 
a good plan to let plants a foot high bear 
big flowers in early July. I have seen tiny 
plants. carrying a big bloom.which only 
just cleared the ground. Such plants should 
have been disbudded and encouraged to 
make growth. 
Feeding with liquid manure will prove 
of great service now. Keep the number of 
shoots limited. Earwigs seem very preva¬ 
lent this season, and personally I never 
was so plagued. They swarm everywhere, 
and I cannot hang my coat anywhere with¬ 
out finding earwigs promenading upon it. 
This pest has a great fancy for young 
Dahlia shoots as well as the flowers, and 
there is no better trap than a hollow bean¬ 
stalk or flower pot with a bit of hay in it. 
It is useless to hang an empty pot upon a 
stake towering about 3 ft. above the plant, 
and I have seen such many times. 
Filling Blanks in Borders. 
Borders are beginning to look gappy now 
that some plants are over. If a stock of 
spare plants such as Asters, Marigolds, etc., 
is available they will prove useful for filling 
up such gaps. 
Gladioli with me are deplorable this sea¬ 
son, but where spikes are showing stakes 
should be given early. See that the stake 
is clear of the corm. - 
Beds and Seedlings. 
Flower beds need constant attention in 
the way of picking off dead flowers, hoeing, 
and the like. Water only when really neces¬ 
sary. 
Seedling biennials and perennials should 
no longer remain as sown. They must have 
room to grow. 
Cutting Lavender. 
Lavender is very full this season, and 
the spikes should be cut as soon as two or 
three flowers are open or they will not dry 
well. 
Dry them in full sunshine. 
Hedge clipping is generally a job one 
feels like leaving when other work is press¬ 
ing, but it should not be delayed longer 
than can be helped. 
The Fruit Garden. 
Summer Pruning Fruit Trees. 
As I have recently remarked, the various 
fruit trees have been so late in making 
growth that many are only just showing 
signs of getting near the end of their 
tether. It is not a good plan to pinch back 
Pears and Apples before growth has reached 
its limit, otherwise the dormant buds will 
start into growth. 
See that Currants and Gooseberries are 
protected from birds. 
New Strawberry Plantations. 
Strawberries not wanted for layering 
should have been kept free from runners. 
See that those pegged down are kept 
moist. Meanwhile get ground prepared for 
the reception of the young plants as soon 
as possible. Do not imagine that good 
Strawberries are got by stirring the ground 
with a hand fork or a toothpick. Have the 
soil deeply dug, and pile on manure freely. 
Cut away old fruiting canes of Raspberries 
as soon as possible. Remove also any thin 
weakly growths. 
Checking American Blight. 
American Blight is rather prevalent in 
places. Every endeavour must be made to 
check it by treating the affected parts with 
paraffin emulsion. 
Complete Planting. 
There is an end to all things, and it is 
about time the last of the winter igreens, 
Celery, etc., were set out. Two important 
crops to think about are Turnips and Cab¬ 
bages. A good sowing of both should be 
made. 
Autumn Sown Onions. 
Spring Onions for salad work are always 
appreciated, and a sowing should be made 
of some reliable autumn Onion such as the 
Giant Rocca. Sow in rows, and well water 
the drills if the ground is at all dry. 
Earthing Up Celery. 
Celery that is well established should be 
requiring a little earthing, but make sure 
there are no suckers pushing from the sides. 
Maggot is swarming in many places, but 
to my mind this is due to neglect. An 
ardent Celery grower never waits for the 
maggot. He dresses his plants as soon as 
■the fly is seen. 
Crops After Peas. 
Clear away Pea haulms as soon as pods are 
picked clean. The ground will be useful 
for planting out Lettuce, etc. If space is 
limited the Pea plot should come in for 
spring Cabbage. Dig the ground over, and 
manure it if at all poor. 
Potatos. 
Second Early Potatos are approaching 
ripeness. Have them cleared off as soon 
as possible. 
Keep the hoe going between the Bean 
rows. The poor things need encouraging 
in some places. Water and liquid manure 
will be of service. The hoe should also 
be at work among the winter greens. They 
cannot have too much of it. 
Horti. 
The Amateur’s Greenhouse. 
Pelargonium Cuttings. 
Geraniums are not now intended, but the 
useful section of Pelargoniums which we 
call decorative. Flowered-out plants stood 
out of doors in June or early July should 
now have ripened their stems sufficiently 
to provide cuttings. The part selected for 
cuttings is the top 3 in. or 4 in. of each 
shoot, and this differs not from an ordinary 
cutting excepting that it should be somewhat 
brown in the stem, and its lower leaves 
should be almost, if not quite, dried off. 
As long as there are some tiny leaves at 
the top of such a browned stem the shoot 
will make an excellent cutting. Thus early 
these cuttings will strike readily in the 
sandy soil of a sunny border, whence they 
can be potted up when rooted. Or they 
may be struck in pots in a close and sunny 
cold frame. The points to bear in mind are 
that full sunshine is essential and that too 
much water will spell disaster. The plants 
from which the cuttings are removed should 
be laid on their sides to ensure that no rain 
wets the soil. Their turn will come later. 
Potting Dracaenas and Crotons. 
Any potting that may be required by these 
extremely useful foliage plants should be 
carried out without delay. If done now the 
plants soon get over the shift, and become 
nicely established by the winter. Such 
plants will do a spell in vases in the living 
rooms without suffering in winter and 
spring, whereas late potted ones would pro¬ 
bably be ruined. Large shifts are not wan¬ 
ted now. From a 5 in. pot to a 6 in. one 
is ample. Arrange the drainage very care¬ 
fully, use a mixture of peat, loam, and sand 
in equal parts, 'and make the soil firm. 
After potting, keep the plants close and 
syringed for a week or so, but afterwards 
let them have^an abundance of air and sun¬ 
shine. 
Feeding Tomatos. 
A top-dressing of good loam mixed with 
an approved fertiliser will work wonders in 
the recuperation of worn-out Tomatos; or 
sheep droppings or quite fresh horse drop¬ 
pings may be used instead. One can never be 
sure about the weather, but unless it is very 
hot and sunny I do not like to use rotten 
stable manure so late in the season. It lies 
too close and keeps wet too long in all but 
sunny weather. If there is no room for a 
top-dressing, give superphosphate of lime 
twice a week, a heaped teaspoonful per 9 in. 
pot. Or the superphosphate may be made 
into a liquid manure, but it then requires 
plenty of stirring to dissolve it. If the 
lowest side shoots were pinched back to one 
leaf, as advised earlier, the lower old leaves 
may now be cut off; they- are useless and 
only crowd the younger ones in their axils. 
Lilies in Bud. 
Most amateurs grow a few plants of the 
lovely Lilium auratum, or the equally use¬ 
ful speciosum varieties, and those who do 
not most certainly should do so, for there 
is nothing to beat them for the greenhouse 
at this season. So far the summer has not 
been exactly suitable, and I found some of 
my plunged pot Lilies rotting away beneath 
the soil in late June. These were planted 
out in the borders. The others have done 
fairly well, and are now showing buds. At 
this stage I like to iget them into the green¬ 
house, as rains and smuts out of doors soon 
spoil the purity of the opening flowers. If, 
however, late flowers axe wanted for any 
particular purpose it is a good plan to re¬ 
serve a few plants and keep them under a 
wall facing the north. Those taken indoors 
must have plenty of water, and will benefit 
from liquid manure at alternate waterings. 
If several bulbs are grown in one pot, give 
each stem a neat bamboo stake, and incline 
these so that the flowers will have plenty of 
room in which to display themselves. 
Ferns for Rooms, 
During the hot, sunny days of August 
and September Ferns are especially accept¬ 
able for filling vases in the dwelling-house, 
or even standing' in the fireplace to make a 
cool and refreshing picture in the room. 
For this purpose they must not be taken 
straight from the close, humid atmosphere 
of the Fern house or stove, or the lovely 
fronds will curl and die. Give them first a 
week or fortnight in the greenhouse, allow¬ 
ing more and more sun and air gradually 
to reach them until they endure the new 
conditions without discomfort. Then they 
will acquit themselves well in a room. I 
treat this rather fully, as I have known 
many losses of valuable Ferns to take place 
in rooms—especially in fireplaces. 
Early Freesias. 
Freesias require a long season of growth 
if they are to bloom satisfactorily, and the 
present is none too soon to start the first 
batch. If using home-saved bulbs care- 
The Kitchen Garden. 
