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~ March 1, 1905. 
a flower or vegetable border, but is most 
giseful round stables, barns, manure pits, 
or other outbuildings, as a screen about 
the kitchen door and tradesmen’s entrance, 
at the junction of a path with a roadway, 
or adjoining turf, or to make private the 
back garden by standing at the side of the 
house parallel with the street. Plant in 
shade or sunshine, using two bushy plants 
in cach yard, or three smaller ones; add 
farmyard manure to the soil in the tap spit 
of the trench, and road grit if much elay is 
visible. Give a mulch of stable manure 
after planting. Prune closely, using a knife 
ar hand shears, so that only branches and 
twigs are cut, but the leaves are unmuti- 
lated. A Laurel hedge grows very fast, 
and so does one of the attractive evergreen 
Thuya Lobbii—indeed, it is claimed. for 
this that it exceeds all other subjects in 
the matter of speed. 
During summer its vivid green forms a 
delightful background to ow flowers, and 
the foliage becomes bronzed in autumn. 
The growth is always thick, yet sometimes 
shoots nearly one yard high are formed in 
onc season, the plants starting away mer- 
rily at once. All varieties of Arbor-Vitz 
like a good deep loamy soil, and hedges 
can be made of Thuyas gigantea, Occiden- 
talis, and Orientalis. T. Lobbii will make 
a very high hedge, of as great. breadth or 
narrowness as desired, but to form a really 
marrow one (an advantage in some posi- 
tions) early and frequent clipping will be 
needed. 
_ A Yew hedge; such as thos2in which our 
4crefathers used to delight, must never be 
made where cattle can reach it. Planting 
may be done in ground trenched three 
spits deep, putting 18-inch trees only 12 
inches apart, or those of 4 or 5 feet in 
height about 2 feet apart. While Yew 
hedges often attain to an enormous 
“breadth, as we all know, there is no reason 
why they should not’ be as narrow as 12 
apches; all depends upon early and con- 
stant attention to pruning. The gold and 
silver Yews make really handsome and un- 
common hedges, but it should always be 
berne in mind that the leaves, whether 
young or old, are poisonous. Taxus baceata 
fructu luteo is a yellow berried variety. 
“MM. Hawthorne. 
HARDY: PERENNIALS FROM SEED. 
In my wanderings among gardening ac- 
~quaintances it has often struck me how 
very few raise perennials from seed. They 
"may perhaps raise some Aquilegias, but go 
no farther. They will pay sixpence or a 
shilling for a plant, when from a packet of 
seeds one may in due time obtain twenty 
~ or thirty; and there always seems to me 
‘such an interest in raising ones plants from 
seeds and watching the unfolding: of the 
first flowers. I sow my seeds in boxes with 
2 or 3 inches of broken pot at the bottom, 
and above this a mixture of leaf mould, 
sand, and loam; on this when damp the 
sceds are scattered very thinly, andef large, 
covered with soil ; if small, with damp moss. 
The boxes are placed in a frame, shaded 
from the sun, and when the seeds have ger- 
minated they are kept close to the glass. 
After a few leaves have formed, the plants 
ars pricked out into boxes and stood out- 
side, shading from hot sun. They can then 
be planted in beds. In winter it is advis- 
able to cover with heht litter or put in a 
frame. The following year they will 
flower, and can then be left in their per- 
manent positions. In this way I have 
raised Polyanthus, Morina longifolia, In- 
earvillea Delavayi, Chelone barbata, Cen- 
taureas, and Erigeron roseus, and this year 
I hope to raise many more. Any who at- 
tempt to raise perennials from seed will 
be amply rewarded for their trouble. 
LOBELTAS FROM SEEDS. 
Many gardeners prefer to “propagate 
their stock of Lobelia plants from a, few 
old ones which have been wintered in. pots 
or boxes; others depend entirely upon 
seedlings and do not trouble to keep old 
plants. Very often the latter are lost 
through damp, then seedlings are accept- 
abie to those persons who do not, as a 
rule, use them. Es . ess 
I think that seedlings are being used 
more extensively every year, and I am 
quite sure that it is a step in the right 
path, because the .selection of strains ts 
-now very carefully done, and. I have 
proved this’ to be the case during the past 
ten or twelve seasons. I now almost en- 
tirely depend upon seedlings for my stock 
of plants, and find that very few—not 
more than 3 per cent.—grow stragely ; the 
compact habit and the intense blue. of the 
flowers of a good strain make spring-raised 
seedlings very desirable. 
Whether the number of plants required 
* be few or many. they are soon obtained 
when the seeds are sown and the resultant 
seedlings treated properly. “Sow the seeds 
in pans or large pots; they are more stit- 
able than boxes. There must be a constant 
moisture surrounding the sééd-pan, but the 
young plants should not be kept too damp 
or else many will quickly perish. 
Hollow shaped crocks placed over the 
holes in the pan and some small cinders 
covered with leaves make good drainage. 
Sandy soil which will remain. sweet for a 
long time is the best to use, and as the 
seeds are so small the surface of the soil 
should be slightly covered with fine clean 
sand. 
Small Lobelia seedlings, if grown too 
closely together while in the seed pan, will 
damp off wholesale mnless much care 1s 
observed in their-treatment, and sowing 
thickly is° a: very common \mistake made 
by gardeners. If the seeds are: scattered 
~on the soil about one-eightli! of am inch 
asunder the seedling: will have ample room 
to develop-until they are,advanced suffi- 
ciently to need transplanting. : 
Good seeds quickly. germinate ; ‘the soil 
should. be thoroughly moistened with 
water applied through a fine rosed water- 
ing-can, and allowed to dxain. for two hours 
before sowing the seeds; then lightly press 
them down with a piece of flat board, do 
‘not put any soil on them, and place the 
pan-in’ a warm frame which: can be dar- 
THK AUSTRALIAN GARDENER... 5: 
kened. In three days’ time hundreds of 
young plants will be visible, and beth air 
and light must be gradually admitted to 
them so as to ensure sturdy growth. In- 
stead of applying water on the surface 
when the soi] becomes dry, soak the pan 
in. a pail’ of water, and the moment the’ 
surface soil begins to moisten take out the 
pan and put it on the stage to drain. 
Transplant the seedlings when they are 
quarter inch high, using fine soil and more: 
pans or boxes. From plant to plant allow 
a space of 1 inch, and keep them growing 
in a frame or house in a steady tempera: 
ture of about 60 dee. One more trans- 
planting should take place, this time put- 
ting out the plants in a cool frame at 2 
inches apart. In due time nice bushy 
tufts will be ready for mass planting or for 
the edging of the beds in the flower Lar: 
den, where the brightness of the deep blue 
varieties especially makes a charming con- 
trast to other colours.—Solent. 
BANKS TRANSFORMED. 
Tn country gardens more particularly is 
the need seen for taking in hand \banks, 
often near to the house and on either side 
carriage drives, &c. If neglected they 
quickly get into a bad state.’ If covered 
with turf it either becomes dried up or 
patchy, or, as is often the case, is neglected 
from want of cutting, because one cannot 
conveniently run the machine over it. 
Under all the circumstances, banks should 
come under cultivation to make the most. 
of them, as ‘by ‘planting what is suitable 
they may be made very effective. No tinie 
is better than the autumn in which to com- 
mence, and one should see to it that the 
soil as as deep as possible, and not, as is 
often the case, have bavks made up of all 
kinds of rubbish. Wallflowers, Canterbury 
Bells, Antirrhinumis, Foxgloves, Primroses. 
Tvies. in variety, are some of the Subjects 
which occur to one as suitable for plant— 
ing now, whilst in the spring Poppies, Ne- 
mophila, Mignonette, &c., may be sown. On 
shady banks Ferns may be made much of, 
and Tyies should be planted for an ede- 
Ang.—LEAHURST, . + 
EXHIBITING CARNATIONS. 
In the first place the flowers must be- 
well grown, and possess all the points that 
constitute excellence in a flower, viz., sub- 
stance, “smoothness of petal, ‘purity of 
ground colour, and rich and defined mark- 
ings. A flower lacking any of these quali- 
ties cannot: have.them added by dressing, 
the advantage of which is that one can Pobice 
out ‘soiled, “mismarked, or ragged petals 
and spread the others out so as to show no 
open space.” Again, where there are seve- 
ral overlapping petals, one has the chance 
to arrange them in their proper places, As 
long asit states in the schedule that dres- 
sing is allowed, it is no fault of the men 
“who dress their blooms if they” beat the 
men who do not. What are our raisers 
todo, with the. habitual bursters? - They 
cannot afford to place them all on the rub- 
bish heap. 
There is} no.doubt that all flowers, no 
