he Gardening World, August 24, 1907. 
CONTENTS . 
.pines, Among the ..’. 556 
.nateur’s Letter to Amateurs, An 555 
_ens, The Mountain (illus.) .. 557 
] mboo, The Japan (illus.) . 561 
'elding, Hardy Edgings for Summer 556 
( nterbury Bells . 565 
(mpetition Awards . 556 
(mpetition, Prize Letter . 558 
liquire Within . 566 
lower Garden, The . 562 
1 uit Garden, The . 5 ^ 2 
Ichsias, Hardy . 565 
(eenfly, About (illus.) . 560 
(eenhouse. The Amateur’s . 563 
Lchen Garden, The . 563 
(chids for Amateurs . 563 
1 ndolph's Leap on the Divie (illus.) 561 
Ises, Among the . 5^5 
fapdragon, The Clammy (illus.) ... 559 
fuill, The Vernal (illus.) . 557 
1 eet Peas in August . 564 
Hrk of the Week . 5 ^ 2 
-- 
Soul’s 
1 1, when within, engrossed with daily 
care, 
A gracious breeze from out my gar¬ 
den blows. 
il sweet with scent of mignonette and 
rose, 
And entering at my casement unaware, 
‘ dden it fans my cheek and stirs my 
hair, ' 
Soft fragrance on my tired brow be¬ 
stows, 
-id whispers that, when evening brings 
repose, 
I shall go forth once more to rest me 
there. 
art thou, Dear, the garden of my soul. 
And thoughts' of thee are gentle airs 
that thrill . 
prough all my heart-strings, with re¬ 
minder sweet 
That, though hard Life demand her 
heavy toll 
bitter task which I must aye fulfil, 
Thou wait’st me—beauty, fragrance, 
rest complete. 
M. E. D. 
— In the Daily Chronicle. 
C V. 
Working up Stock. 
Often it will happen that either in the 
spring or the autumn we buy a single 
specimen of various plants, hardy peren¬ 
nials especially, that we may desire to 
introduce into our gardens. And we do 
well to bear in mind that with very little 
trouble we can, in a great many cases, 
propagate from these single specimens 
and so work up a stock in a small way, 
for, of course, the best decorative effect, 
which means the most beautiful effect, 
will be achieved from—never the single 
plant—but the fine bold group, the mas¬ 
sive patch, the well blocked row, or what¬ 
ever arrangement we may choose. With 
some subjects we await the autumn for 
division of the root, but with scores of 
others we need not, and in many cases 
from the habits of growth, we cannot 
break up the plants, but we can, and we 
may strike cuttings, and that with the 
least possible delay. 
\Ve want a small nursery bed in some 
out-of-the-way spot, and then go round 
our plants, and from such subjects as An- 
themis, Cytisus, Hemerocalis, perennial 
Iberis, and, as I have said, scores of 
others, secure our cuttings, and plant 
them forthwith. They will grow. Put 
in now they will have made a considerable 
supply of roots before winter, and can be 
transferred to their flowering quarters 
next spring, or even during this coming 
autumn if really well looted. 
Linum perenne. 
That lovely blue flowered Linum 
perenne is a great favourite of mine. It 
produces its delicate blossom the sum¬ 
mer through, on tall slender stems, a 
sheaf of stems crowned with innumerable 
blue blossoms. Now, last year, and in¬ 
deed a good deal later than this, I cut 
the old plant back, and had a handful of 
sturdy growths. I dibbled a goodly num¬ 
ber into a ledge on the rock garden, from 
which some annuals had been cleared. 
We all know the kind of winter it was 
last season, but the Linums lived, and 
rooted, and now are in full flower, and 
these made much more successful plants 
than did others that were put into a 
couple of pots and given greenhouse pro¬ 
tection. Work such as this any novice 
may undertake, and it is, as it were, the 
very essence of gardening. 
Weeding out Poor Strains. 
This is the season of all others, too, 
when we must look round our plants with 
keenly critical eyes. Are our par¬ 
ticular specimens, poorly coloured, or 
in other ways, of inferior strains P 
If so, now is the time to mark 
them — to doom them. These plants 
are not worth keeping, and certainly not 
worth increasing. It makes more differ¬ 
ence to the success of the years display 
than the unobservant would imagine pos¬ 
sible. It should be the aim of all who 
garden, the novice quite as much as the 
experienced gardener, to grow good 
strains of every subject the garden con¬ 
tains. Mind, I do not say the largest and 
coarsest strain is the best of necessity. I 
have seen Hollyhocks and -Delphiniums 
the last year or two that I should be very 
sorry to grow; they have been “ im¬ 
proved ”! until their very fineness and 
largeness has become coarseness rather 
than beauty, and a couple of years ago 
I threw away a number of splendid Holly¬ 
hocks that had just flowered for this very 
reason. But there is a happy medium— 
strains producing fine blossom, and clean 
coloured, which yet retain something of 
that indescribable charm, beauty, and re¬ 
finement, of the type from which they 
sprung. I feel strongly on this subject, 
and therefore would emphasise it as much 
as possible. 
Bulb Planting. 
Alas, it is time again to think of bulb 
planting, time to get in the first batches 
of Roman Hyacinths, and the deliciously 
fragrant Freezias. The compost for each 
may be much the same, fine silky loam, 
with a proportion of leaf mould and sand, 
all well mixed together. As soon as the 
bulbs are planted the Roman Hyacinths 
should be covered with ashes, or other- 
wise placed in the dark, for five weeks or 
so, while roots are being made; this is 
an essential point. But this treatment is 
not needed, nor, indeed, desirable for the 
Freezias. Instead of darkness and cool¬ 
ness, these should have a hot dry position, 
and be watered as often as necessary. 
They can stand out-of-doors or on the top 
shelf of the greenhouse, where the lights 
are down. I like this latter position for 
them, as the warmth seems to agree with 
them and it is light and airy, but they 
must not be forgotten, for in such a place 
they will need frequent attention. 
Autumn Sown Annuals. 
Do not let us forget the valuable results 
that are attained by August and Septem¬ 
ber sown annuals. These always flower 
nearly half as long again as spring sown 
specimens, and almost all the hardy an¬ 
nuals are frost-proof. They should, how¬ 
ever, be sown in light open positions. 
F. Norfolk. 
-<►+>- 
Cornish Bananas. 
A tree planted some time ago at Tre- 
widden, near Penzance, has borne a crop 
of Bananas. 
