April 1, 1904 
The Water Leaf family .contains the 
beautiful Californian phacelias, which have 
dense heads of small: blue or violet flowers. 
The best of the species are campanularia, 
congesta, }'arryi, tanacetifolia, and Whit- 
lavia. The Nemophilas are lovely Califor- 
nian plants, but I have had very poor suc- 
eess with them, although I know they are 
one of the easiest plants to grow in British 
gardens. 
SHRUBS. 
. Weigelas:—We must warn amateurs that 
so-called improved varieties are seldom as 
harcy and not always so manageable as the 
types from which they are derived. For 
general planting we know no Weigelas 
- superior to W. floribunda, W. roses, W. 
nivalis, W. grandiflora, and W. Hortensis 
Exochorda grandiflora is another very 
conspicuous flowering shrub. It attains a 
large sizo, but is not.in this country a very 
long-lived plant, and seldom sets any seed, 
so that it is still rather searce. We have 
planted two groups of Exochordas in pro- 
minent places where we needed a ‘high 
light” in the landscape. ach group con- 
sists of three plants forming an irregular 
triangle, the bushes about six feet apart. 
They grow tall and rather straggling, with 
slender, irregular branches, covered with an 
abundance of quite large paper-white blos- 
soms. The flowers are more delicate than 
the trumpet shaped bloom of Weigelas, and 
do not last so long. 
The Snowball is.a very familiar example 
of the conspicuous shrub, but should be 
used with care as.it does not harmonize 
with smaller flowers. Neither does it look 
at home in the wilder and more woody 
parts of the park or home grounds. Its 
place is near the house or in the old- 
fashioned garden, or on the well-kept lawn, 
where groups of snowballs, pruned into 
symmetrical shape, are very effective. 
All the Viburnums.are fine shrubs and 
should be planted more than they are V. 
prunifolium, the Black Haw, is very beau- 
tiful in bloom. It has re-curving, spreading 
‘branches, plum-like leaves and numerous 
clusters of white flowers in spring. All 
Viburnums, except the two ‘‘ Snowballs,’ 
are adapted to the wilder parts of the 
grounds,. though some of them, such as 
Viburnum molle and Viburnum pubescens 
make fine specimen plants for the lawn. 
Y. molle flowers at midsummer. 
Perhaps the most beautiful of the 
hundreds of shrubs planted at Rose Brake 
isa tall, stately specimen of Xanthoceras 
sorbifolia, which may almost be called a 
small.tree. It is now about ten feet in 
height, and i: clothed down to the ground 
with branches that put on.a fairy-like gar- 
ment of softest white bloom. The blossoms 
come before the leaves have fully expanded, 
and are large, bell-shaped, and upright in 
habit of growth. They are white, with 
- luminous greenish-yellow centres, and these 
_eentres have the singular faculty of deepen- 
ing day by day during the blooming, period, 
first to lemon yellow, and then gradually 
.changing to an unusual shade of deep 
saimon red. The flowers last in perfection 
a week or ten days,.and the little tree is the 
glory of the,garden until it fades. I hope 
to see this very beautiful shrub more gene- 
tally planted. It has fine foliage, of a clear, 
THK AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
light green, and is an exceedingly orna- 
mental plant even when out of bloom. 
All the .Hydrangeas .have large showy 
flowers. The best among the hardy kiads 
are the oak-leaved Hydrangea, a noble 
shrub, and the familiar H. paniculata 
grandiflora. 
Flowering Quinces or Cydonias sre beau- 
tiful objects in the spring, especially the 
bright scarlet and the pure white kinds. 
Cydonia Moerlosii has exquisite flowers of 
shaded carmine, aud there are varieties 
that have bloom of a conspicuous orange- 
red, such as Cydonia aurantiaca, which 
ought not to be planted near Lilacs or 
shrubs with rose-pink flowers, 
I believe I have mentioned the most 
ornamental of this class of plants, but 
there remains much to be said on the sub 
ject of conspicuous small trees and vines. 
This will have to be deferred to sume future 
day.—‘‘ Park and Cemetery.” 
IMPROVING THE HOME GROUNDS. 
“Who sows a field or trains a flower 
Or plants a tree is more than all, 
For he who blesses most is blessed ; 
And God and man may own his worth 
Who toils to leave, as his bequest, 
An added beauty to the earth.” 
WHITTIER. 
If that is so—and who can doubt it-— 
workers gain dignity from the thought and 
from the source of the idea, for surely 
Whittier was written down as one who 
“¢ loved his fellow men,” and it is sometimes 
intimated that their names head the list. 
Consequently, all should feel good grounds 
for encouragement and even for enthusiasm. 
Indeed, my feeling is that earnest workers 
ia this line are bound to develop enthusiasm 
—let me counsel that it be not allowed to 
dominate good judgment. 
Tt has been justly said by Prefessor L. H. 
Bailey, of the Cornell University Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, that ‘‘ the trouble 
with home grounds is not so much that 
there is too little planting of trees and 
shrubs, but that this planting is meaning- 
less ” 
The truth is that every dwelling with its 
surrounding grounds, no matter whether 
large or small, should be a complete picture 
in itself, and this picture should be of such 
character that its entire effect and purpose 
will be evident at the first glance. The 
general effect must be such that the observer 
notices it—the sum total—rather than any 
of its details. Therefore, the design is seen 
to be. the most important step in improving 
home grounds. 
The dwelling is the most important 
feature, therefore it must. dominate the 
picture and everything else must be subor- 
dinated to it. 
To this end ‘the yroposed planting must 
first be considered as masses of foliage, and 
these must be designed to form a back- 
ground and setting for the house and a 
frame for the grounds. 
It is quite possible to develop almost any 
desired special minor feature of planting 
within these masses without disturbing the 
effect of the picture as a whole. 
After fixing in mind the difference be- 
tween the ‘‘nursery” and the “ pictorial” 
type of planting it would be helpful to 
observe grounds and dooryards. Place each 
5 
- in its class, and.mentally (or on paper if you 
will) remodel them, deciding what can be 
done merely by a rearrangement of the ma. 
terial already in use, as well as by adding 
fresh plants as the necessities seem to your 
mind to demand, or by replacing some of 
the plants on hand with others that better 
meet existing requirements. This is good 
practice and will lead to a.clear under- 
standing of what your own grounds need as. 
well as prepare you to intelligently advise 
others. 
In making this picture of home comfort, 
there must be an open centre so that the 
dwelling—the central idea and chief feature 
of the picture—shall be visible. On a small 
place, therefore, trees that are intended to 
furnisk shade must be placed outside as 
street trees or at the back where they will 
make a bachground of foliage. Small trees 
and the largest shrubs must be placed at 
the back of the beds that are to form the 
boundaries of the yard and the frame for 
the picture, and those of lower growth on 
the inner, irregular edge of the beds next 
to the lawn; and along this inner edge 
flowering perennials may be introduced at 
intervals. The shrubbery belts must be not 
only irregular in width but also in height. 
CASTOR OIL PLANTS IN ENGLISH 
GARDENS. 
Few foliage plants can equal the various 
species and varieties of Ricinus when well 
cultivated for summer bedding, but with 
them, as with everything else, a proper 
mode of treatment is required to bring them. 
to perfection. The past three seasons have- 
been most favorable for the devolopment of 
fine growth, and here the striking beauty 
of both flowers and fruits of castor oil 
plants has been greatly admired. During 
the past two seasons we have ripened seed 
of several sorts, a somewhat unusual oecur-. 
rence, I think, for this part of the country. 
There are now very many castor oil 
plants in cultivation, and sume of these 
introduced during the past few years are- 
unquestionably improvements on many of 
the older kinds. We have grown them for 
some years here rather extensively, and, I 
think successfully. I propose, therefure, to 
give my mode of treatment for the benefit. 
of those who may not be acquainted with 
the requirements of these plants. Seeds 
should be sown about the middle of Feb- 
ruary, in a strong heat, and preference 
should be given, when conveniences will 
allow, to starting them singly in small 
60-sized pots, using a light porous mixture. 
Pot the seedlings into six-inch pots as soon 
as ready, and grow them near the glass in a 
stove temperature. The plants must be 
gradually but thorougly hardened previous. 
to planting out, which should take place the 
first week in June, The position should be 
a sheltered one, choosing a north or north- 
west border where they will obtain all the 
sunshine possible. 
Tt is quite useless to expect the plants to 
give the best results unless the ground has. 
been thoroughly trenched and heavily 
dressed with farmyard manure during the 
previous winter, as the Ricinus revel in a 
deep rich soil, and only in such a medium 
can they grow to perfection. Before plant- 
ing, the ground should be forked over. 
Either grown in separate beds or dotted. 
