[■he Gardening World, August io, 1907 
CONTENTS. 
\lpine, A Handsome ^illus.) ...,. 529 
\mateur's Letter to Amateurs, An... 527 
tarnations at Westminster . 532 
tarnations, Malmaison . 528 
tompetition Awards . 528 
tompetition. Prize Letter . 530 
trawler Gardeners . 536 
Daffodils in Pots . 5 2 $ 
Dahlias for Exhibition . 531 
inquire Within . 538 
•lower Garden, The . 534 
’ruit Garden, The . 534 
Greenhouse, The Amateur's . 535 
derbaceous Borders . 534 
Citchen Garden, The . 535 
fily, The Japan (illus.) . 531 
dulching, Hints on (illus.) . 537 
trehids for Amateurs . 535 
’rimula, The Orange (illus.) . 533 
iaihvaymen as Exhibitors . 536 
lest-harrow, The Round Leaved 
(illus.) . 533 
doses at Dunfermline . 536 
•‘iolet, Bird's-Foot (illus.) . 530 
Vails. Decorated . 529 
Vork of the Week . 534 
-- 
Sta T^ue Rose. 
>ome Yankee nurseryman, 'tis said, 
Claims to have scored a floral coup, 
or he successfully has “bred" 
A Rose indubitably blue ! 
Vhich, like the short-lived “green Car¬ 
nation,’ - ' 
Yill cause, he hopes, a wide sensation ! 
But we, for our part, cannot be 
Approvers of the skill he's shown; 
tonfound that nurseryman! say we, 
Why can't he leave the Rose alone ? 
Blue Rose, forsooth! Why not black 
Lily, 
Dr something even still more silly? 
■or in the end this meddling crank, 
Resolved his cleverness to show, 
Vlav outrage Nature by a prank 
Past which e’en he can’t hope to go— 
^es, he may stagger us, the varlet! 
Yith Violets of a vivid scarlet! 
CIII. 
China Roses and Lavender. 
Hapnv combinations of flowering sub¬ 
jects may well be made note of at this 
season for future use. Plant in close 
proximity to the old-fashioned pink China 
Roses the likewise old-fashioned Lavender 
bushes; the colour scheme thus achieved 
is delightful, so that the most fastidious 
must be satisfied. I find these old- 
fashioned China Roses a little difficult to 
“place.” In the Rose garden proper they . 
lose something of their beauty by being 
planted alongside other varieties that un¬ 
questionably are of choicer type ; and, yet, 
I do not want to banish the humble 
Chinas altogether from the garden. It 
seems to me, weighing the congruity and 
suitability of things, that these good old 
China Roses, if they are to be planted in 
the Rose garden, must be only at the out¬ 
skirts. A better way, I think, is to use 
them in the borders, and at odd corners, 
and it is thus used that this combination 
with Lavender can so charmingly be 
achieved. But if the China Roses are 
thus distributed in the garden they need 
not on that account be given poor, 
wretched soil. If they are grown they are 
worth growing well, and grandly do they 
repav generous treatment. I look upon 
them as ordinary plants for the mixed bor¬ 
der that yield grand masses of pink 
flowers from early summer, and then 
again at intervals until late autumn. 
I 
do not know anything until the Holly¬ 
hocks blossom that gives so good a mass 
of pink (I say pink because this is my fa¬ 
vourite tint, and I grow no other), and on 
that score I look upon them as invalu¬ 
able. And for another reason too, and 
one well worth due consideration—during 
the winter season, as they maintain their 
full growth they are of real service in 
taking away the bare dwarfness that too 
often characterises these borders from au¬ 
tumn to spring. For this reason alone I 
look upon them as capital subjects for the 
mixed borders, but they must not be 
smothered with rampant perennials of tall 
and encroaching growth at too close quar¬ 
ters. I have said, “or plant it in odd cor¬ 
ners,” that I look upon that as regarding 
it as an ordinary flowering shrub ; and, as 
such, it is quite "necessary to grow it to the 
utmost of its capacity: in other words, 
again, it must have generous treatment if 
it is to do its best. A really capital and 
telling position for these Roses is at the 
back of a kitchen garden border. Here 
they are charming, and in beautiful con¬ 
gruity amid the old-fashioned flowers. 
Diervillas. 
• Nowadays, we are no longer supposed 
to talk of "Weigel as; we ought, so- 
powers that be tell us, to know them as- 
Diervilla florida. Among the darker and 
most brilliant coloured varieties none 
quite compares with the beautiful Eva 
Rathke. I mention this shrub to-day be¬ 
cause cuttings put in at the present time 
in soil that is sufficiently sandy, and re¬ 
ceiving careful attention root more 
quickly than if left until later. The 
Weigela, or Diervilla, if I must, hails 
from China, and was introduced into this 
country between 1840 and 1850. It 
flowers so profusely, and has such real 
beauty to commend it, that it must prove 
an addition to every garden, especially as 
it can be used in front of, and partially 
overhung by taller trees. There are not 
a great number of flowering shrubs bear¬ 
ing bright crimson blossom, so that this 
D. Eva Rathke has an especial value. 
.There are other shades of colour, of course, 
ranging through pink and crimson to 
pure white. 
The Yellow Fumitory. 
There is a small unimportant flower 
that is extremely useful in every garden. 
I mean Corydalis lutea, sometimes known 
as Fumitory, and among village folk as 
■Pigs’ Feet.” It is an all-round good 
thing; its foliage is not so many degrees 
coarser than a .Maidenhair Fern; its yel¬ 
low flowers are borne with great pro¬ 
fusion, and have a dainty beauty all their 
own, and, lastly, the plant will grow any¬ 
where—-on old walls, between stones, in 
gravel round about the house walls, in 
positions in the rock garden where no 
other plant can survive, and even on the 
rubbish heap, if it gets a chance of root¬ 
ing. That a plant so plentifully endued 
with roots can flourish even on a brick 
wall is a never-ending wonder to me, but 
so it will, and it would seem that wher¬ 
ever a seed can establish itself there a 
plant can survive, and as to flowering, it 
seems to produce blossom without inter¬ 
mission for months. I do not much care 
for the spring flowering varieties bearing 
purple blossoms, C. bulbosa and C. 
Scoulerii; they are not clear coloured 
enough to please me, but the white C. 
angustifolia is charming in the spring¬ 
time, while the large-flowered yellow C. 
nobilis and the newer C. thalictrifolia are 
really useful as well as beautiful, and I 
have seen C. nobilis grown as a pot plant 
that proved very successful in a cold 
house. 
F. Norfolk. 
-- 
The winning bouquet of wild flowers in 
a competition recently held at Wigton, 
comprised 218 distinct varieties, all 
gathered within a week. 
