December 1. 1907 
ing and pruning. After planting apply 
a good mulch of manure to conserve mois- 
ture, furnish nourishment and to suppress 
weeds. An annual mulching of leaves 
with coarse manure to prevent their blow- 
‘ing away is beneficial to every class of 
plants, and mulched or fallowed ground 
is better than grass around tho stems, 
Most deciduous shrubs should be pruned 
severely when planted, Rhododendrons, 
azaleas, andromedas, etc, are usually trans- 
planted with balls of earth and do not need 
much pruning, but where it is needful it 
won’t hurt them. The annual pruning is 
a most important part of the care of shrub- 
bery, and the point most difficult to give 
instruction on by written directions. It is 
an art which must be learnea by practice 
and observation. The general rule to trim 
early bloomers as soon as they are throngh 
flowering, and midsummer or late 
bloomers in winter, contains a suggestion, 
but the indiscriminate cutting back of 
every shrub every year is a great mistake, 
When a shrub seems weak and needs 
strengthening, cut out declining shoots 
and apply manure around it. When one is 
vigorous and rampant, remove or horten 
superfluous shoots to reduce to symmetry 
with as little mutilation as possible. When 
one has become overgrown and dilapi- 
dated in appearence, cut back a part, or 
perhaps all of its unsightly ste:us severely 
—probably at the ground—and allow new 
shoots to restore the beauty and vigor of 
youth. : 
The only way to learn the art of trim- 
ming shrubbery is by observation and 
practice and the exercise of gumption, A 
safe general rule is that whenever you 
see a twig or branch which neods remoy- 
ing, cnt it off on sight, regardless of time 
of year or other conditions; and when 
you don’t see anything that needs re- 
moval don’t prune it, regardless of rule or 
custom; and for a negative 1ule never 
shear a shrub with a hedge shears. The 
shearing of lawn shrubs into bald pates, 
suggestive of convicts or sheared sheep, 
displays ignorance of plants and depravity 
of taste. To the last general rule I make 
exception for topiary gardening, but the 
creation and care of topiary gardens. and 
of formal specimens is a special art for 
which all of the above suggestions would 
have to be modified. 
If my feeble sentences may be sugges- 
tive of useful afterthoughts in your minds 
and in mine, they will have accomplished: 
all that © can hope for them. 
Locksmith, &s 
GEBHARDT (August J. Gebhardt) 
* Locksmith, Gunsmith and Machi- 
nist, Grenfell Street (Rear of No. 70, 
right opposite Bible House), Adelaide. 
Repairs to Garden Tools and Implements 
a speciality, Keys fitted to any lock or 
any given sample. 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
anOsese 
The Forcing of Roses. 
(Continued from last issue). 
While the different varieties will not 
always thrive with the same kind of soil, 
itis generally admitted that, at all events 
a soil for roses should contain decomposed 
pasture sods and cow manure. The sod 
should be obtained during the previous 
summer from some old pasture with a 
thick, fibrous sod, 1f possible, and should 
be piled up with alternate layers of cow 
manure, using one part of the manure to 
from four to six of the sods, according to 
the character of each. The sods should 
be cut just thick enough to remove the 
thick, fibrous portion, and if from an 
average loam soil, neither very heavy nor 
light, but with a good admixture of clay, 
the compost prepared as above will be of 
a suitable character for the rose benches, 
but if the sods come from a sanny loam 
soil the addition of one part of clay to 
five or six of the mixture will be desir- 
able. On the other hand, if the soil igs 
inclined to be heavy, an equal quantity 
of sand should certainly be added. While 
considerable clay is desirable in soil for 
roses, there is danger of its being too 
heavy, as even in shallow benches, if the 
soil at any time becomes too wet or during 
a cloudy period in winter, it will not only 
be longer in drying out than a lighter 
soil, but ‘ black spot’ and other diseases 
will be much more likely to follow. 
Early in the spring the compost pile 
should be worked over and the coarser 
sods broken up. After lying in the pile 
for two or three weeks more it will be 
ready to place on the benches. When the 
houses are long, it will ke convenient to 
have openings in the side walls, through 
which the soil can be thrown upon the 
