December 1, 1907 
I.) 1. wes ¢ 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
SS 
PURE 
LOLLIES, 
Send your Order to 
JOHN WALTON, 
Wholesale Manutacturer of every Kind of Choice Sweets, 
WY EY SE, Adelaide, 
7 
WicTORIA 
DYE WORKS 
(E, L. RAY) 
172 Rundle Street 
(Opposite York Hotel) and 
Stephen’s Place, 
(Side of Marshall’s) 
Gentlemen’s Clothes Cleaned or Dyed 
equal to new. 
Feathers Dyed and Curled 
Gloves Cleaned on Shortest Notice. 
Hyacinrus, narcissi, and tulips are 
better planted as soon as received ; no 
matter whether a great number will be 
required for early flowering or not, it 
will be comparatively easy to control 
these when covered and making roots, 
while it is an impossibility to get them 
to flower satisyactorily if they are planted 
so late that their forcing is attempted 
before they have made suflicieht roots. 
When these bulbs are to be planted: in 
boxes the bulbs may be placed about 
three-quarters of an inch apart, and if 
the soil is put into such condition that 
the bulbs when pressed down will be well 
covered they will be all right in that 
respect. Fairly good soil, clear of green 
manure, will suit these bulbs, but if the 
soil available is stiff and heavy a sprink- 
ling of sand will be beneficial. The soil 
in the boxes should be 33 or 4 inches 
deep. A good watering will be necessary 
when the work of planting for the time 
being is completed, : 
SmaLt FERNS are always in good de- 
mand and although the prices at which 
they are sold leave but a small margin of 
profit, usually they are such a sure crop 
when any reasonable care is taken of them 
that they are on the whole worth iooking 
well after. Small ferns in 2-inch pots 
should be encouraged in every possible 
way to make stocky well-formed plants 
before they are shifted into 83-inch pots, 
Tt will not pay to give these plants much 
more room on benches than the pots 
require, but it will pay to go over them 
once in a while and move them about a 
little ; this will help them to attain per- 
fect’ form. With small ferns it is very 
important that they be produced in suc- 
cessive batches so that there may be at 
all times a suflicient number in condition 
to fill orders as they come in. 
EVERGREENS when near or under trees 
have a hard time getting food, the large 
trees taking from them what they should 
have. _ For this reason spreading surface 
manure about them, as far around as the 
branches extend, is a signal help to them. 
Many fail in transplanting the trailing 
arbutus, Epigsea repens, because of neg- 
lecting to prune it. It is an evergreen, 
and one that makes few roots, If the 
teps were cut back one-half, or if a good 
ball of soil were taken with the roots, the 
arbutus is not difficult to transplant. 
Hardy Shrubs: How to Plant 
and Treat Them. 
By Samust C. Moon, in “ The Florists’ 
Exchange.” 
J acknowledge without much preamble 
the distinguished compliment of being 
invited to address this intelligent audience 
on a subject with which you are already 
familiar. 
I will assume that we all understand by 
the term “hardy shrubs” the class of per- 
ennial. bushy plants, deciduous and ever- 
green, though largely deciduous,which are 
used for ornamenting lawns and gardens. 
Though most are of moderate size when 
planted, some of them eventually attain 
the proportions of small trees. The term 
“hardy” will vary with the location of the 
planting, but will not materially affect 
the suggestions here presented. How to 
plant them will be considered in a twofold 
light; first, the distribution and arrange 
ment of the plants on the lawn, second, 
the method of setting the roots in the 
ground, 
Puantine 1x Masses Most Errecrive. 
As a, general rule the most effective way 
to plant shrubbery is in masses, with not 
too much variety in one group. Professor 
Bailey says; ‘The shubbery masses should 
be placed on the boundaries, for it isa 
fundamental concept of landscape garden- 
ing that the centre of a place should be 
open. In most places the mass or border 
planting should be the rule, and the iso- 
lated specimens the exception, but, unfor- 
tunately the rule is usually reversed.” It 
is easy to see conspicuous evidences of the 
truth of these statements in almost any 
suburban neighborhood in examples of 
both good and poor arrangements. 
Many planters seem to think it desirable 
to have a well developed plant of as many 
varioties as can find accommodation on 
the lawnin order that they may enjoy 
each plant individually as it passes through 
its varying changes of foliage, flowering, 
fruitage and leaflessness throughout the 
year. Such an arrangement may be ap- 
propriate for an arboretum or trial ground, 
and there are special charms in such a 
collection of shrubs as each successively 
comes into bloom. But as the blooming 
period of most shrubs is only from two 
to four weeks, the beauty of foliage hues 
both in the greenness of summer and 
autumn colorings, is an important con- 
sideration in arrangment of shrubbery 
roups, The introductioniof bright colored 
oliage, such as golden elder or philadel- 
phus, variegated weigelia, purple-leaved 
plum and barberry, etc., is occasionlly 
done very effectively, but more frequently 
the result is a conspicuous blotch amid 
the verdure. The handling of bright colors 
always requires a high degree of artistic 
skill, or the result will be displeasing to 
the most refined tastes, affording valuable 
object lessons to the student and gardener, 
but it is not the way to produce the most 
effective results in lawn adornment. 
To quote again from Professor Bailey’s 
essay on shrubbery: “ Plants scattered 
over a lawn destroy all appearance of 
unity and purpose in the place. Evory 
part of the place is equally accented. The 
area has no meaning or individuality. 
The plants are in the way. They spoil the 
lawn. The place is random.” 
In large grounds tre shubbery border 
shoutd be composed of successive masses 
of several plants of one species together, 
followed by another harmonious group of 
another sort, the border of the two groups 
interlacing with each other. Let the tran- 
sition irom one variety to another be 
gradual—not too sudden—and the groups 
not too large or too excluseve. An odd 
plant, taller or different from the others, 
may occasionlly stand out or above its 
companions very effectivly ; of course, tall 
growers at the back flanked with smaller 
and low branching species in the fore- 
ground. 
It isnot advisable to mix evergreen 
and diciduous shrubs in the same group. 
A few shrubsseem to beadmirably adapted 
for filling in plants. Tamarix is one of 
these which may often be used to relieve 
formality or to add variety in foliage effect, 
it being a tall, neat, inoffensive plant which 
will harmonize with almost any other one. 
For low-drooping shrubs to be used for 
carrying foliage from the grass lawn up 
to taller plants, few are more effective 
than Spirzca Thunbergi, Stephanandra, 
Rhodotypus and Berberis Thunbergi. 
Know.epas oF PLant Hasirs Esszenriau, 
The outlines of shrubberies should not 
be too straight or formal, but irregular 
and natural. A skilled florist or gardener 
should almost conceive these ideas with- 
