girl on path looking at daffodilsDAFFODILS.
DAFFODILS.
Hyacinths should be planted nine inches deep and six inches apart. Five or six bulbs of the same colour make a pretty clump, and they should be from twelve to eighteen inches from the edge. You may leave them undisturbed year after year, and in good soil they will increase and flower. If you wish to take them up, you must wait till the leaves are dead, and then dry the bulbs carefully in the sun before you store them in sand till the autumn. The offsets, if cultivated in light, rich soil, will flower in three years; but Hyacinths raised in Holland are stronger than any you are likely to raise yourself. Until you are an experienced gardener, we advise you to leave your clumps undisturbed as long as they flower, and to buy new bulbs when you find that your old ones seem exhausted.
These are charming little blue or white flowers, growing about six inches high, and flowering in April. They are hardy and easy to grow, but you must be sure to put a good many in a group, so as to get the best effect with them. Plant them two inches deep and about two inches apart. The bulbs are easily increased by lifting them every two or three years when the leaves are dead, and removing the offsets. They like any soil except a very damp one, and they look well in front of your border or in your rockery, near some of the miniature Daffodils.
Tulips are easily grown in any good garden soil. Where the land is stiff and not well worked they die out. The proper time to plant is from October till the middle of November, and, if possible, you should give your Tulips shelter from wind, as their heavy heads, brittle stems, and broad leaves are easily damaged. They should be planted three inches deep. The ordinary garden Tulips may be roughly divided into two kinds—earlyand late flowering—and of these there are many varieties. The well-known scarlet and yellow Duc van Thol and all its family are early, and will flower in April. The late ones flower in May and June, and come fromTulipa Gesneriana. There are so many kinds and colours in Tulips that we will not give you names, but leave you to choose your own from any good catalogue. Perhaps you would like to try some of the Parrot Tulips, which have large flowers, most curiously coloured and flaked. Tulips, unlike most bulbs, may be lifted directly their leaves turn yellow, dried in the sun, and stored in a dry, airy place, where mice and rats cannot reach them. Most kinds are increased by offsets. You can, if you choose, leave your Tulips in the ground two or three years, but after that it is well to take them up and divide them. If you do not, the bulbs get crowded, and do not flower well.
There are two kinds of Gladioli that we think you can grow in your garden. One is the well-known Scarlet Brenchleyensis, that flowers inautumn, and the other is an early-flowering dwarf variety called Nanus.
The early-flowering ones are white, pink, salmon, and crimson, and in good garden soil they increase freely. They should be planted in November, and you must remember that they will need protection from frost during their first winter. Except in very hard weather, theestablishedbulbs need no covering. They like a light loamy soil and a sunny situation. When you have chosen a place for them, set the bulbs, three inches deep and seven inches apart, in clumps of about twelve, and have ready some dead leaves and ashes to keep each clump warm. These dwarf varieties may be left undisturbed two or three years, but as they increase quickly they will not flower well longer than that unless you take them up, when the foliage is dead, and divide them. The well-known white one, The Bride, belongs to this section.
The finest autumn-flowering variety is the splendid scarlet one—Brenchleyensis. It is taller than the summer kinds, and should be placed about the centre of your border. Each stem should be carefully tied to a stick when it isabout to flower, or a high wind may snap it in two. This Gladiolus should be planted in the spring, about four inches deep and twelve inches apart. When the leaves have died away in the autumn, the bulbs should be lifted, dried, and stored in sand for the winter. In the South and West of England the bulbs are often left in the ground, but even there they should be protected the first winter. Every two years they should be lifted and divided.
A beautiful little South African flower, like a small Gladiolus. If you live in a mild climate it will increase like a weed, and your trouble will be to keep it down. In a heavy soil or where there is much frost you must give protection. But the chief thing to remember about Montbretias is that they will not flower unless the clumps are frequently divided in autumn. Some growers recommend that it should be done every year.
The Spanish and English Irises want conditions that not everyone can give them. They likeshelter without shade, drought in autumn and winter, moisture in spring, sun in summer, and a light, friable soil. If you have a light soil and a south wall, you should certainly put some of these beautiful flowers in, and do not meddle with the bulbs as long as the plants are doing well. Plant at least three inches deep and five inches apart.
The Winter Aconite is welcome because it comes so early in the spring, and even pushes up its bright yellow flowers, surrounded by a whorl or ruffle of glossy leaves, through the snow. It will grow in almost any garden soil, and is a good plant to put under shrubs or amongst ferns, as it does not mind shade. It can be increased by dividing the tubers in September; but if your Aconites do well, you can leave them year after year and let them manage themselves.
These are beautiful orange-coloured Peruvian Lilies, and if you have a light, well-drained soil you will find them easy to grow. If your soil isheavy you must dig in leaf-mould, sand, and well-rotted cow-manure. A warm, sheltered, sunny position suits them best. While growing and blooming they should be watered sometimes, or the plants get too dry. As they go out of flower you should remove the seed-heads, as when they all set they exhaust the plant; but do not cut the stems or leaves, because they are wanted to strengthen the tubers for the following year. Their stems are so strong that they do not require stakes. They should be planted from six to nine inches deep and twelve inches apart, and once established, they should never be disturbed. When the young shoots of the Alstrœmeria appear in spring, slugs must be kept away.
Begonias used to be little grown in the outdoor garden, but of late years you see them everywhere. We advise you to buy the inexpensive unnamed tubers in April from any good nurseryman. When your Begonias arrive you will find that they look rather like flattened, badly-grown potatoes, and if you see no little pink shoots onthem, you must put them in a shallow box of sand or sandy soil or cocoanut-fibre, and set the box on a dry light shelf till growth begins. If you can put your box in a cool greenhouse, so much the better. The soil must be kept just moist, but not wet, and the tubers must not be put out till the spring frosts are over. In cold climates this will not be till the end of May. When the time comes, choose positions in front of your border, and as far as possible sheltered from high winds, which would play havoc with their succulent stalks and broad, fleshy leaves. The soil should be well dug, and if it is heavy you must add sand, and, when you can get it, leaf-mould. Take up your tubers very carefully with a trowel, so as not to injure their fine fibrous roots, and plant them, with the pink shoots upwards, about four inches below the surface. Then you must watch your Begonias carefully, and when they appear above ground protect them from slugs by putting a circle of soot round each plant. You will find Begonias useful as successors to the spring bulbs that are over, and can be taken up for division or thrown away. In the autumn they must come out of the groundbefore the frosts, and if the leaves and stalks are not quite dead, cut them off with a sharp knife; never pull at them, or you may injure the tuber. Some growers keep their tubers exposed in a light, airy greenhouse until the stalks and stems are so shrivelled that they will drop off with a touch. As long as they are not shrivelled, they constitute a danger to the tuber during its time of rest. Begonias must be stored in sand or cocoanut-fibre in shallow boxes, and kept in a frost-free place through the winter. They can be grown from seed or from cuttings under glass, but we think both operations are a little beyond the juvenile gardener.
It is difficult to find room for Dahlias in a very small garden, but even one will give you a great deal of pleasure if you manage it well, as the flowers go on for a long time, and are most useful for cutting. Whether you have one or more, you must remember that the Cactus Dahlias grow from four to six feet high, and that each plant makes a big bush. The pretty little Pom-poms are rather shorter, and can be placed in frontof their big brothers. We advise you to grow these kinds, and not what are called show varieties, which are stiff and, we think, ugly. Dahlias are greedy feeders, and wherever you mean to plant one you should get someone to dig in manure eighteen inches down. About the end of April or early in May, according to the season and your climate, you put out your Dahlias. If they are spring-rooted cuttings in a pot, all you have to do at first is to take them out of the pot, plant them, and look out for slugs. They will devour every one if they can. If you are given a tuberous root, you must put it five or six inches deep in the ground. It is of no use to grow Dahlias unless you can stake and tie them properly, as they become very heavy, and are ruined by a high wind if unsupported. Stout, square green stakes are made on purpose for Dahlias, and if you are far away from a town where they are to be had, you must get someone to cut and point you natural ones equally strong. For Cactus Dahlias they should be five or six feet long, and for Pom-poms four feet; and at least one foot of this length must be driven firmly into the ground. Do not tie with raffia, but with stout cord orcoir, as nothing else is strong enough. When the frosts come you can take up your Dahlias and store them in a dry cellar; but unless you have a gardener to help you, we do not think you could strike cuttings from them in heat, in spring. You will find in autumn that the little plant you put out of a pot in May has made a big tuber, with a number of fingers. These should be left as they are till spring comes again, and then they may be carefully separated with a sharp knife and put as they are into the ground. Each piece will make a fresh plant. In sheltered parts of Devonshire and Cornwall, Dahlias, after being cut down, are often given a little covering of straw and manure and left in the ground.
Biennialsare plants that do not flower till the second year after sowing. They are sown in spring and summer, pricked out when large enough, and transplanted, either in the autumn or the following spring, to their flowering places. If you can only have a small patch in a small garden, we advise you to buy, ready-grown, every spring, the few biennials you need. You can get all the well-known ones cheaply by the dozen, or just as they have been sown in a box. But if you are one of those lucky children who grow up in a big garden, we advise you to beg for a little extra bit for a ‘nursery,’ and then to try your hand at growing some of the easier biennials and perennials from seed. Some people will tell you that this operation is beyond the skill and patience of any child, but we think that if you will followour instructions carefully you might succeed. Do not dream of trying all we tell you about in one season. In every chapter we speak of more plants than any one child could crowd into one small garden. You must choose some of your great favourites to begin with, and each year add a few new ones to the plants you have learnt to manage well.
Skilled gardeners grow some biennials, as annuals, by raising the seed in frames and greenhouses early in the year; but this, we think, would be too difficult for children to do without help. So you must, as we have said, buy your biennials ready-made, or you must get someone to raise them in heat for you, or you can sow your own seed one year, understanding that the seedlings will not flower till the next. Of these three plans we think the purchase of ready-made seedlings the easiest, but in some ways the least satisfactory. At any rate, if you must adopt it, try to get them from good nurserymen. Those you buy in the London streets or from advertisement columns are often grievously disappointing, so that when your biennials flower you discover you have thrownyour money and your labour away. Your Snapdragons are either hideously splotchy or crudely magenta; your pink Canterbury Bells are blue and white; your Wallflowers are spindly and colourless. A few experiences of this kind will soon drive you to buy your own seed from one of the best firms, and for a few pence and some happy hours of gardening to get more plants of the best colour and quality than you can possibly use. Then you will have the pleasure the true gardener always finds in giving some of his plants away, or you can exchange your surplus stock for plants you do not possess yet.
This is a good biennial to start with, because every seed comes up and comes quickly. Sow thinly on a partly shaded patch of ground, and prick out when the seedlings have four good leaves. Do this on a showery day, if possible, and plant in rows ten inches apart each way. It is important to sow your seed early in the spring, because where the winter is severe the plants should be in their permanent quarters by May or June. If you transplant them late in the autumn,they suffer greatly from frost. In London market-gardens the seed is sown early in February; the plants are put out in May, and by Christmas are in flower. A seedling Wallflower has a tap-root as well as fibrous roots, and this is why the seedling should be pricked out once before it is transplanted to its permanent quarters. If you left it where it was sown it would send down a great root like a carrot, and then when you tried to move the plant you would kill it. Many gardeners pinch off the tap-root when they prick out, and then the Wallflower makes fibrous roots that can be safely transplanted. Mr. Robinson says that a well-grown Wallflower in a London market-garden could not be covered by a bushel basket, so now you know what size your plantsoughtto be, and how many you will have room for in your border. If you buy them ready-made late in the autumn, you will probably find that each plant has two bare, lanky stalks, with a miserable little bunch of leaves at the top; and when a frost comes they will look so dejected that you will pull them up and throw them away.
The Pansies, or Heart’s-ease, and Tufted Pansies (known to nurserymen as Violas) can be treated as annuals, biennials, or perennials, according to position, climate, and soil. In a Cornish garden from October to Christmas we had Pansies in flower from seed sown at the end of May, so they were annuals. But we had put them in their permanent places that autumn, because we wanted them to live through the winter and make the border gay the summer following, when they became biennials. At the end of the summer we kept the best of them to flower another year, and, if they liked, a year after that.
The seed should be sown in early summer in light, moist, leafy soil. It soon comes up, and when the seedlings have three pairs of leaves they should be pricked out. The Pansy, like the Carnation, has a tiresome trick of producing its best flowers on its poorest plants, so you must be patient and careful with the weak, backward ones, because they may give you the finestblooms. Pansies would rather be moved in autumn than in spring, and remember that they like a rather shady place in your border, and a good loamy soil. They either die or make poor little flowers in hard, dry ground. If you want your Pansies and Violas to go on flowering all the summer, you must be careful to pinch off the dead flowers. The roots you see in London shops and markets, wrapped in hard clay and showing two or three big flowers, will not do much good as a rule. If, however, you have some, and want to keep them alive, you should soak the cake of clay off the fibrous roots, plant in a puddle of water, and protect from the sun and wind for several days with a flower-pot. We have been told by a well-known gardener that she can make anything live by planting it in a pool of water, and out of our own experience we would say that we can make most things live by shading them for some days, except from showers, with a flower-pot. It is most interesting to see how a flagging plant will revive after a few hours of shade and shelter.
If you have a light, warm soil, you can easily strike cuttings from your best Violas and Pansies.One way is to cut them down in June. A month later a number of young shoots will appear, and these should have soil put amongst them into which they will root themselves. In two or three weeks you can take away these young plants and put them in a nursery bed. A cutting should be set one-third of its length into a little bed of sandy soil that you have previously made smooth and moist. You must always slice them across the stalk just below a joint, and cut off the lower leaves. They should be taken in moist, warm weather, and placed in partial shade. As they grow pinch off the tops, and then they make more roots, and are stronger. We have no great gardening authority for saying so, but from our own experience we should advise you never to cut down a favourite plant for increase, except in showery weather. We have lost many by meddling with them during a drought. If you only have a few Pansies you will not want to cut them down at all in June, but you can look out for young shoots, and try to take a few cuttings.
girl in what looks like garden glade with irises around treesIRISES
IRISES
Canterbury Bells are most useful and beautiful flowers, and easily grown. If you want the lovely pink ones be sure to get your seed from a first-rate firm, as the cheap seed and the cheap plants are likely to be blue or white. Canterbury Bells are beautiful in blue and white, as well as in pink, and we only mean that for some reason the pink ones seem a little more difficult to get hold of. Sow your seed in shallow boxes in March or April; prick out in showery weather when the seedlings have four leaves, and transplant to their permanent places in September. You will find that the strongest seedlings will flower the following year, but the small ones take two years to mature. Canterbury Bells sow themselves easily if you leave the seed to ripen, but they flower longer if you pick off each bell as it withers. They require stakes.
One celebrated lady who writes about gardens says that she does not like Sweet Williams, because they remind her of the plush chairs inGerman furniture shops. We think ourselves that the ordinary red ones are rather stiff and flaunting; but the new salmon-pink and deep rose-coloured ones are not a bit like red plush, and they make lovely patches of colour in our gardens; also, they are easy to raise and manage. If you grow them from seed, sow out of doors in April, prick out when the plants are large enough, and transfer to permanent quarters in September. Next year you can take cuttings from the best plants when they have done flowering. You are always told by skilful gardeners that a cutting should be sliced straight through the stalk just beneath a joint, and planted in sandy soil and slight shade to make roots; but now we will tell you how an unskilful gardener, who found cuttings difficult, increased her Sweet Williams with perfect ease. It may be the wrong way, but the Sweet Williams did not seem to think so. When they had quite done flowering, each plant had sent up a quantity of young green shoots that evidently did not mean to make flowers that summer; so the unskilful gardener took up her best clumps, tore each one into from twelve totwenty pieces, planted them in fine, rather moist soil in partial shade, and by late autumn saw that every one was doing well and making a good plant for next year.
A handsome, clear yellow flower, growing six feet high, and blooming for many weeks, but one of those that never know when and where they are not wanted. You know the true gardening rhyme, don’t you?—that ‘One year’s seeding makes seven years’ weeding.’ We believe that when once the Evening Primrose has had a chance in a garden, its seeds will come up there till the crack of doom. However, they have tap-roots, and are easily pulled up. If you have none and want them, you should sow in June where the plants are to stand, and thin out severely, leaving two feet between the plants. Remember that in this chapter we are talking of biennials, that will not flower until the following year. If you have one of those heart-breaking gardens made of rough, starved soil or builder’s rubbish, you might sow Evening Primroses as carefully as you can all along the backof the border. Then, in the following spring, when your Evening Primroses are spreading plants, you could sow Giant Poppies in front of them, and Dwarf Nasturtiums in front of the Poppies. One of the great secrets of gardening is to find out how to make the best of your conditions, even when they are unfavourable.
These are most beautiful and useful flowers. They will do well in poor soil, and even on the tops of walls, where there is not much soil for them—in fact, some of the finest specimens, grown from self-sown seed, are to be found in such situations. There are three kinds: tall, medium, and dwarf, and there are a great variety of colours. Some are self-coloured, and some are mottled, striped, or flaked. If you buy cheap seedlings you get ugly magentas or poor, washed-out mixtures; while if you raise your own from good seed, you get most lovely shades. Snapdragons may be treated as annuals or biennials, and each has its own difficulty. If you treat them as annuals, you must raise the seed under glass in February, so as to have flowers inJuly. We think you probably have no greenhouse or frame of your own, so we will tell you how to grow Snapdragons out of doors as biennials. The difficulty in this case is not to get your stock of plants, but to keep them through the winter, as Snapdragons are not quite hardy, especially in a close, damp soil. We have heard of nursery gardeners losing their whole stock in a frost. On a light soil and near a south wall you can, with a hammer and nails and a few laths, knock up a wooden framework that will hold a piece of sacking or an Archangel mat over your plants, and keep the worst of the frost from them. If you can’t use a hammer and nails, and live in a cold climate, we think you will have to buy your Snapdragons every spring.
The seed of Snapdragons is very small, so it is a good plan to mix it with sand or fine soil before you sow it. The sowing can be done any time between April and August, and either in boxes or pans, or in the open ground. If you have a struggle with weeds in your garden, we advise you to sow all seeds that will bear transplantation in boxes or pans, as you can dodge the weeds better in this way. We have heard ofpeople who poured a kettleful of boiling water over the soil they meant to use for seeds, so as to destroy the weeds in it first. If you do this, you must wait till the soil has passed through the soppy stage in which a flood of hot water leaves it before you put it in your seed-box. An old iron tray, no longer tidy enough for indoor use, is convenient for this and for many other garden operations. When your Snapdragons have four good leaves, prick them out in rows nine inches apart in the most sheltered corner you have, and protect them from frost till the spring, when they will make a show all through the summer in your border. You will find that some people get quite angry with you for growing tall ones or dwarf ones, according to the kind they themselves prefer, while other people will forbid you to look at a flaked or bizarre Snapdragon. You will have to bear this if you agree with us, and like both dwarf and tall ones, all the clear selfs, and even some of the bizarre. A ‘self’ in gardening jargon means one colour, as opposed to striped, flaked, or speckled.
There are several varieties of the Forget-me-not, but you will find this a good kind to grow, either for your border or your rockery. It makes a charming edging for bulbs, or a carpet through which Tulips and Daffodils send up their leaves in spring. The seed should be sown from April to June, and pricked out into a shady place. In the autumn your plants can be moved to their flowering quarters. They look very well near White Arabis, a plant you can buy anywhere, or near the Yellow Alyssum.
Foxgloves are so beautiful that you will want to grow them even if you have a sunny, sheltered, well-dug, and well-dressed garden where anything will succeed. But they are one of the few flowers that will never fail you who garden under difficulties. They do not mind shade, and can be grown amongst shrubs, and even under trees. They do not mind poor soil, though they make a finer growth when they are fed, and they will endure the air of cities. When once they areestablished in your garden, you have them for ever if you choose, as they seed themselves freely; but you cannot keep the pure white strain unless you either grow new ones from good seed or pull up every pink one before the buds open and let the bees into their flowers. The bees, as you no doubt know, are great gardeners, and fertilize your plants for you.
The seed of Foxgloves should be sown in June, either in boxes or in the open ground. You can prick them out to where they are to stand, or you can sow in their permanent quarters and thin to nine inches or a foot apart. Remember that they are tall plants, and must be at the back of your border. As you get three thousand seeds for a penny, you will have some over to sow in wild places.
These sweet-scented flowers make a display in your border all through the spring. They like a rich, well-dressed soil, and are generally poor and spindly on a starved one. The Brompton and Intermediate are good kinds to grow. Sow the seeds in summer in partial shade, and inmoist weather plant out, nine inches apart, where they are to bloom. Make the soil firm round the young plants. Mr. E. T. Cook, in his ‘Gardening for Beginners,’ says that amateurs often make a mistake in rejecting the dwarf seedlings and keeping only the tall ones. The dwarf ones have more fibrous roots, and make more double flowers. The colours of Stocks have been greatly improved of late years, and if you get your seed from a good firm you need not grow the magenta ones you often see in small gardens.
Bybedding plants we mean those plants that are raised in great quantities under glass, and are put out into our gardens in May. To be sure, you hear of ‘spring’ and ‘summer’ bedding, because in the autumn, when you take up your summer plants, you can fill your bed with bulbs and spring flowers, such as Stocks, Wallflowers, Primroses, and Forget-me-nots. The principal of ‘bedding’ is, you see, to plant your piece of ground, so as to have a good display twice a year. Every autumn you throw away your summer plants, and every summer you throw away your spring ones. This, at any rate, is what thousands of people with small town gardens do, and it is the form of gardening beloved of the jobbing gardener and the local florist. We recommend it to people who havemoney, but take no interest in their gardens, and to small children who will find it the easiest form of gardening, and even to children who live in or near great cities where some plants will lead a merry life, but where none will lead a long one. But it is not a high form of gardening, and cannot teach you much as long as you buy every six months and throw away. Of course, when you raise and increase your bedders, either spring or summer ones, you are gardening in the true sense of the word. But most of the flowers you see in town gardens from May till October are raised in heat from seeds and cuttings, and we think the appliances and the skill required would be beyond you.
However, even from the throw-away-twice-a-year plan you can learn the gardening virtues of order and method, and you can get great pleasure from the flowers. Besides, you may be able to adopt it partly, and have some plants that go on from year to year, some annuals, and some you cherish for a season and then cast out. We will assume that in October someone gave you enough bulbs to make a fine show all through March and April, but that now in May theirflowers are gone and their leaves looking shabby. If you are going to have bedders you must harden your heart, dig up all the bulbs, and throw them away. Then you must prepare the soil by turning it well over and raking it fine. If someone will fork in a little well-rotted stable manure, so much the better; if that is not possible, you can add a small quantity of Clay’s Fertilizer.
Before you buy your bedders you must consider the aspect of your garden and the state and nature of your soil. Geraniums and Marguerite Daisies will stand rather poor soil, but Calceolarias, Begonias, and Heliotrope want good treatment if they are to flourish. If you have a wall at the back of your garden that is only partly covered, you should put nails a foot apart on either side and stretch string or wire across. Wire is more lasting than string, but more difficult to manage. The next thing to decide will be what colour effects you want, and for how many plants you have room. Geraniums need about a foot square each, Marguerites eighteen inches, Dwarf Marigolds nine inches. If you possibly can, buy your Geraniums, Calceolarias, Heliotropes, and Marguerites in little pots, and notin boxes, or, worse still, in dried-up, rootless cuttings sent by post. It is an elementary piece of gardening knowledge that, provided you keep off slugs and give a little shade and water at first, you can put anything out of a pot at any time. But if you are going to have many bedders, you will save yourself a great deal of trouble by putting them out in showery weather towards the end of May.
Some of the best bedders for a small garden are:
All these can be bought in pots for 3s. a dozen. Dark red French Marigolds, Pansies, Violas, Petunias, Musk, and Lobelias can be bought in boxes holding from eighteen to twenty-four for 1s. or 1s. 6d.
Begonias, which may be had in all colours and look charming in front of a border, can be had for 2s. 6d. to 3s. a dozen.
In buying your plants always choose short, sturdy ones, with plenty of leaves, and not the tall, weak ones that have been drawn up under glass. If you have a wall, buy three or four ivy-leaved pink Geraniums and a penny packet of blue Convolvulus Major seed. The Geranium will climb four feet in a season and the Convolvulus from four to six feet, and they will look well together. Do not be tempted to put in your Convolvulus seed till the May frosts are over, as you only lose by being in a hurry with this delicate annual.
Never take a plant out of a pot by pulling at it right side up. Always turn the pot upside down, with your hand covering the earth, but not the plant; then tap the bottom of the pot sharply with your trowel, and usually the plant will come out. Sometimes it is necessary to give the edge of the pot (still holding it upside down) a sharp knock on the top of a wall, or some other hard surface. You must, of course, be most careful not to knock the plant as you do this. If even then it will not come out, you must break the pot. When you have to do this you usually find that the plant has been pot-bound,and is a mass of fibrous roots. Before you put the plant in your border remove the little pieces of broken pot at its roots, sink it slightly deeper than its own earth, and make the soil gently firm about it. If the weather is not showery, you must give your bedding plants a good soak when you have put them in. Soft water (rain-water is always soft) is much better for plants than hard water from a tap; but if you cannot get this try to keep some hard water in a tub, so that it is exposed to the sun and air before you use it. The general rule is never to water plants when the sun is on them, but if we saw a plant flagging badly in the sun we should not wait till evening, but give it water at its roots, and, if possible, shade it. We should be careful not to let any water touch its leaves. When once your plants are well established do not water at all, except in a long drought. Then, if you begin, you must go on every evening till the rain comes. Geraniums and Marguerites do not like much water. Musk is very thirsty, and so are Petunias and Tobacco plants.
two girls working in small garden with brick path outside of cottageA CORNISH COTTAGE.
A CORNISH COTTAGE.
Be careful not to mix your colours in the ugly way often seen in London and suburban gardens.You might have a row of white Tobacco plants at the back of your border, then one of yellow Marguerites, then Heliotrope, then Calceolarias and dark French Marigolds, then mauve Violas, and in front yellow Musk. Or if you want red and white, or red, white, and blue, you could try dark red Geraniums, then oak-leaved Geraniums, then white Marguerites, then dark red Begonias, and in front either blue Lobelias or the scarlet Alonsoa Warscewiczii, grown from seeds. Alonsoas are half-hardy, and should be sown in May. We think they might not do well in town gardens.
We must warn you that some people will be very angry with us for advising you to grow anything in lines. Lines are out of fashion, and they certainly have been made to give hideous effects by the ignorant gardener. But we make bold to think that a child who wants a blaze of colour all the summer in its small patch will get what he wants if he grows his garden as contrary Mary did, ‘all in a row.’ We will tell you now about a charming little garden belonging to two children in a London suburb. It is twelve feet square, and has a gravel path up the centre, with a tiled edge. At the back there is a seven-wall,with a yellow Jasmine on one side and a white one on the other. Both kinds do well in town air, and the Yellow Jasmine comes early in the spring, when flowers are scarce and most welcome. The garden is shared by a brother and sister, and the boy, who is eleven, has made a seat against the wall of a four-foot plank, supported by two logs, each eighteen inches high. All through the summer the winter Jasmine is covered by a perennial pink Bellbine, that dies in autumn and comes up each spring. A pink ivy-leaved Geranium and the blue Giant Convolvulus climb up the wall too, and mix with the summer (white) Jasmine, which flowers in masses. At the side of each plot farthest from the path the children grow white and pink Foxgloves from seed, and the dwarf Sunflower Stella. In front of these they have a pink monthly Rose, with a Lavender bush on either side, and a bush of Lad’s Love (Southernwood) on either side of the Lavender. In May they put in a row of white Marguerite Daisies; in front of these, clumps of dark red Carnations (flowers that thrive in town air), pink Geraniums, and pink Begonias, planted in clumps of three. In the foreground they havean edging of blue Lobelia. All through the spring this little garden is gay with Narcissi and Daffodils, on which the children spend about ten shillings. The bedding plants cost about eight shillings, and make the garden bright throughout the summer.
Evenin a small garden there should be one or two Roses, and as you may have to choose yours from a long bewildering catalogue, we will begin by telling you a little about the various kinds suitable for a child’s garden.
There are some splendid and celebrated Roses in this class, but they have a shorter blooming season than Roses that do not call themselves perpetual. If, however, you live in the North, you may find that you can grow the H.P.’s, as Rose-growers call them, better than the more delicate Tea Roses. Ulrich Brunner and Charles Lefebvre are good old crimson ones, both fragrant. Duke of Connaught and Duke of Edinburgh are two of the best reds. Frau Karl Druschki is asplendid white Rose, but it has no scent. General Jacqueminot is another large crimson, so are Charles Darwin and Alfred Colomb. Mrs. John Laing is a soft pink. You must understand that we are only giving you a few names in each class, in case you are left to struggle unassisted with a catalogue containing hundreds of names. If you grow those we tell you of, you will have some beautiful Roses; but so you will if anyone who understands Roses chooses a different list for you.
If you live in a mild climate and have a sheltered corner for your garden, you should certainly grow the Tea Roses and their Hybrids, as they last in flower longer than the H.P.’s. Their season is said to be from May till October, but in a West of England garden we have gathered perfect specimens on a south wall at Christmas. Perhaps the best-known Tea Rose is the Gloire de Dijon, an apricot yellow that can be grown either as a bush rose or as a climber. Corallina is a lovely bright pink; Madame Lambard is bright rose; Maréchal Niel is the well-known golden-yellow Rose grown so often under glass.We should say that he and Niphetos, a beautiful white Rose, are what some gardeners call ‘miffy doers.’ If you don’t give them just exactly what they like, they either die or look so ill and reproachful that you cast them away. But if you can please them, they are very beautiful. So are Georges Nabonnand, a rosy white, shaded with yellow, and Catherine Mermet, a light flesh-coloured Rose of a globular shape.
Hybrid Teas are a cross between Teas and Hybrid Perpetuals, and are considered stronger than pure Teas. The best known of all is La France, and we cannot think why any catalogue should describe it as lilac. It is a rich pink, a lovely globular shape, fragrant, and one of those friendly Roses that flower from early summer till the frosts come. Madame Abel Chatenay is another Rose we recommend strongly. It is carmine, with shades of salmon. La Tosca is pink. Viscountess Folkestone is pale salmon, globular, and fragrant. Boule de Neige is pure white. Caroline Testout must not be omitted even from such a small list as this. It is pinky-salmon, large, globular, and fragrant.
There are many varieties that will climb, and we can only give you a few names of the most vigorous and beautiful. The old-fashioned Aimée Vibert is a white cluster Rose, very hardy and free-flowering. It is a Noisette, a scented cluster Rose; so is the William Allen Richardson, a popular apricot-yellow Rose that we should not choose, because its buds lose colour as they open. Dorothy Perkins is a pink cluster Rose, a Wichuriana; Lady Gay is a cherry-pink rambler; and the Crimson Rambler itself is one of the best climbers there is. The Waltham Rambler is a delicate pink, a most lovely cluster Rose. Alberic Barbier and Elisa Robichon are both Wichurianas—little climbing Roses, with dark, small, glossy leaves.
We think that you will only have room for two or three Roses in your little garden, and that you had better have either those we have already told you of or some of the China Roses, also called Bengal or Monthly. Even in the North of England we have seen them in full flower at the end of November. One of the best isCramoisie Supérieure, and you can have it either as a bush Rose or as a climber. Another good one is the common Blush, a pink Rose that may be grown either as a dwarf or a climber. Little Pet is a white cluster Rose, and very dwarf. Mrs. Bosanquet is a pale flesh-coloured cluster Rose.
In 1840 Mrs. Loudon said that there were nearly 2,000 species and varieties of Roses. Even the well-known garden Roses are divided into so many groups that we cannot give you a complete list of them. Where people have plenty of room they grow the Penzance Briars, beautiful hybrids raised by Lord Penzance. Their foliage is as fragrant as Sweetbriar, and they have single or semi-double flowers. A wild Japanese Rose, Rosa Rugosa, makes a great bush that has glowing orange and red berries, but it is not suitable for a small garden. Then there are Moss Roses (very sweet-scented), Cabbage or Provence Roses (you find them in old-fashioned gardens), Scotch Briars (small flowers and such thorns! but very pretty), Austrian Briars, Banksia Roses, Damask Roses, Gallica or Provins Roses (from Provins, a small French town, and not to be confoundedwith Provence), Multiflora or Polyantha Roses (very small fairy Roses, that are having a vogue just now). These are a few you will often hear named, but you will find many more in any good Rose-grower’s catalogue.
If you live in or near London, you will see a great many Roses grown on standards. You must decide for yourself whether you like them. We prefer a Rose climbing, or as part of a hedge or as a bush; but standard Roses are very popular with some gardeners, and when they are healthy they certainly carry a great many flowers.
Roses like a good firm, rich soil, what gardeners call ‘unctuous loam.’ It feels almost greasy between the fingers, and many plants love it. If your soil is light and dry, you must dig in some farm manure and, if you can get it, some clay before you plant Roses. If it is a heavy, cold clay, you should add lime, sand, and leaf-mould. In October the places for your Roses should be well dug and dressed, as November is the best month to plant. If you live where there is danger of autumn frosts, you should plant in the middle of October, or asearly in November as possible. We are giving you the general rule about Roses, but some gardeners like to plant in March, when the frosts are over. If you buy Roses in pots, you can put them out at any time except during a frost. In hot summer weather you would naturally watch them at first, and give them shade if they seemed to flag. When you put a plant out of a pot, you must be careful not to disturb its roots and to give it plenty of water. If necessary, break the pot, as that would disturb the Rose less than shaking and shoving it. Go to a good firm for your Roses, and, if possible, one that will sell you Roses ontheir own roots. We are not going to tell you about various grafted Roses, because we think that while you are a child you will find them troublesome, as they often send up shoots from the wild briars on which the Rose you want has been grafted; but we warn you that you will not get Roses on their own roots unless you go to one of the great Rose-growers.
When your Roses arrive, do not leave their roots exposed to the air a moment. Cover them with a sack or matting, and take a pail of waterwith you in which to dip each Rose as you plant it. Then make a hole about a foot wide each way, and just deep enough to allow you to spread the fibrous roots out to left and right of the stem. Hold the Rose in its place, and work a quantity of fine earth amongst its roots; and put thecollar, the point at which the garden rose is budded on to the briar, from one to three inches below the surface. When you have put enough earth, tread it firmly down, and tie the Rose to a strong stake, so that the wind cannot shake it and worry its roots while they are trying to take hold of the soil. The best modern growers do not approve of manure as a mulch in winter. They say it does little or no good, and they prefer a loose soil surface. Soot dusted over the beds is beneficial, and so is a dressing of basic slag in the autumn.
It is no use to try to grow Roses in complete shade or where they will be choked by other plants. The Queen of Flowerswillhave light and air and some sun. She will let you set a few dwarf Alpines, Violas, or Forget-me-nots at her feet; but she will not be shouldered by high, coarse-growing herbaceous plants, or bygreedy shrubs. If your garden is not backed by a wall where you could have a climbing Rose, you might have an arch over your path. The ready-made wire ones sold by ironmongers will make all your fastidious friends shiver, and call you a Philistine; but you will forget that when summer comes, and it is hidden by flowers. Of course, if you are a country child, and can get the village carpenter to make you a wooden arch of small straight Larches or other young tree-trunks, you will prefer it to any wire construction. The uprights must be set at least two feet deep in the earth, and firmly bedded in with stones. The horizontal piece must be secured firmly to the uprights. You would have a lovely arch if on one side you put Dorothy Perkins, the pink cluster Rose, with the white Clematis, Montana; while on the other side you might set a vigorous white cluster Rose called Félicité Perpétué, or Maids of the Village, with the well-known purple Clematis, Jackmanni. The four would twine and mix with each other on the arch, and you would have flowers there from May till September.
When you wish to gather your Roses—or,indeed, any of your flowers—do it with scissors or a sharp knife. It is most distressing to see people violently tear off their flowers, and in doing so probably disturb the plant’s roots. A Rose should be cut so as to leave the flowering shoot you will find just below it; otherwise you cannot expect a succession of blooms. Always pick off dead and faded flowers, and be on the look-out for curled-up leaves that have a little web of fluff in the centre. Underneath the fluff there is or will be a caterpillar, who will live on the foliage of your Roses if you do not destroy him. You must also wage war on aphides, which suck all the life out of the young shoots, mildew, and red-rust.
You often find that there is some confusion between spraying and syringeing plants, but you ought to understand that the two processes are different. A syringe can be bought for two or three shillings, and if you cannot afford a proper spray, you must use a syringe with your insecticides. It distributes the water either through a rose in tiny streams or in a single jet, and is meant for washing plants. A good spraying machine, such as the Abol, costs from eightshillings upwards, and sends the liquid over the plants in a vapour that does not run off.
Aphides, or green fly, can be kept down if you spray them with tepid water in which you have mixed a little soft-soap; but when you have killed your aphides, you must syringe well with clear water, as the soap would not be good for your Roses. Another way is to boil an ounce of quassia chips in a pint of water, and when cold to add two gallons of rain-water; then spray. Many people clean their Roses with a double brush sold for the purpose, and called an ‘aphis brush,’ but they have to be most careful in using it not to injure the delicate young leaves the green fly always chooses.
If mildew appears, it may mean that your soil is badly drained or too wet for Rose-trees. It looks like little white spots on the leaves. You had better syringe or water your Roses, and while they are wet dust with soot or flowers of sulphur. In dry weather this dressing must be washed off when it has been on the leaves a day or two.
Red-rust is a common disease that turns Rose-leaves yellow before their time. Then they shrivel and drop off, and when this goes on toany great extent, it is both unsightly and weakening to the tree. None of the paraffin mixtures that used to be recommended for this and other pests are now considered good for roses. If you can have an Abol Spray you can get a mixture called ‘Abol, White’s Superior,’ which is recommended by Miss Rose Kingsley in her book ‘Roses and Rose-Growing.’ It is easy to use, and efficacious against Green Fly and other pests. If you have neither spray nor syringe, dust a little flowers of sulphur on the leaves.
In summer an occasional dose of manure water is a great help to Roses, but it must never be given in dry weather unless a good soak of fresh water is given first; otherwise the thirsty plants would suck up the strong manure water too greedily, and make themselves ill. We tell you of this way to encourage your Roses in hot weather, in case you belong to a garden where you can get some manure water given. Otherwise you had better use a little Clay’s Fertilizer or some other artificial manure.
Except in very cold districts, Roses should be pruned early in March. Tea Roses, however, should wait till the first week in April. Theobject of pruning is to induce the plant to make new wood, but the amount to be done varies greatly with the size and age of the Rose. Climbing Roses need not be pruned at all, but in the autumn any dead wood you see should be cut out. On strong-growing bush Roses you may leave six eyes on a stem; on weaker growths three or four eyes. If you look at a Rose-tree you will see what we mean by ‘eyes’ are the little knots or buds on the stalks. With a sharp knife you should slice off the upper part of the stalk at a bud that facesoutwards, because then the new shoot will grow outwards, and make a better-shaped tree. All brown, dead wood should be cut away. There will be a great deal more for you to learn about pruning when you are older, either from books or from gardeners. We have only told you one or two of the simplest rules, so that in case you have no gardener or gardening friend to help you, you should not let your bush Roses grow quite wild.
If your Roses have been given you, they may be on various stocks, and not on their own roots, so we think we must tell you how to know when it is the stock, and not the Rose, that is sendingup its tiresome wild shoots. Most Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas, and Hybrid Teas have five leaves, but most ‘stocks’ have seven or nine leaves. When you see these wild shoots coming up out of the ground, you must cut them away, as they are using food that should go to your Roses. But never cut the shoots that come out of the base of the Polyantha or the Rambler Roses. These look very like suckers, but are the flowering shoots of the following year.
You may just as well try to take a few cuttings from your own Roses, and, if they will let you, from other people’s, as if you could succeed you would soon raise a stock ‘on their own roots,’ and have no trouble with briars. August is the proper month for this operation, and what you will want is some silver sand, a sheltered corner, and a sharp knife. A cutting should be nine inches long, this year’s growth, hard and woody, but not succulent. It should either be cut straight across just below a joint, or torn away with a little tag or heel. Try both ways. All the leaves, as well as the tips, must be snipped off. Then make a little trench, fill with silver sand, and press your cuttings firmly in, lettingthem lie sideways rather than stand bolt upright. If you have a hand-light for them, so much the better, but they should strike without that provided you do not let the soil about them get dry or loose. The following year you will be able to transplant them, but while they are young it is advisable to pinch off their flowers.
Youcan grow carnations near London, as they do not mind some smoke and soot; but they are most particular about soil and situation. A damp, heavy, wet soil is poison to them, and they do not like a hot, dry one. They want good plant food, and will do best in a rich loam. The natural way for Carnations to grow is on a steep slope, with their heads hanging down. In the Alps, where the single ones are found in a wild state, their roots are tucked away amongst the rocks, while a mass of flowers hangs over the edge. The real use of the little green cup from which the flower springs is to carry off water and keep the centre of the flower dry and wholesome. Our garden ones do well planted in pots and boxes, and hanging from window-sills and balconies. We do not often grow them so inEngland yet, but you may see splendid displays in the South of France, in Spain, or in South Germany. Carnations will stand more wind than most plants; in fact, the most valuable receipt for Carnation-growing is—‘Give them all the air and sun possible.’ It is useless to put them in shade, and if you have a wet clay soil you must dig in a quantity of sand for them, or, better still, mortar rubbish. Remember, too, that though Clay’s Fertilizer and other patent manures are useful on dry soils, they do more harm than good on damp ones. Carnations do not like to come into direct contact with farm or stable manure, so if you use it you must have it buried at least eighteen inches. When Carnations are growing in your border they will need staking, and you can, if you choose, use the spiral stakes that need no tying. Another good way is to drive two stakes into the ground, about fifteen inches apart, one on either side of the plant, and a little in front of it; then tie a piece of thick string across them near the top and let the flower sprays rest on it. This will keep them off the ground, and is not as stiff-looking as a bunch tied to a single stick.
There are three ways of increasing your stock of Carnations: by layers, by pipings or cuttings, and by seed. We will tell you first how to layer them. If possible, it should be done in July, so that your layers are well rooted and ready to transplant in September. You must prepare some finely sifted compost of loam, leaf-mould, and silver sand. A town child may not be able to get leaf-mould, but you can, at any rate, buy a little silver sand, sift some of the best soil in the garden, and mix the two together. This must be placed round the Carnation you wish to layer, and you must choose those plants which have made good non-flowering shoots, neither too woody nor too tender and sappy. The leaves of each shoot must be stripped off at the end proceeding from the main stalk, leaving about three or four leafy joints above. Then with a sharp knife you make an upward slit, beginning just below a joint, and ending halfway through, so as to form a tongue. The shoot must then be carefully pegged down with a hairpin or a zinc layer pin in such a way that the cut is left open and the tongue is firmly fixed in the soil. A little more soil should then be put over the partthat is pegged down, and water given with a fine rose. In a month or so the layers ought to be rooted, and by the first or second week in September they should be ready to detach from the parent plant and plant out. It is a delicate piece of work to make the layer cut, as if you do not go far enough no roots result, while if you go too far the layer dies. Nor is it easy to peg down your layer successfully. But it is such an interesting operation that we think you will probably want to try it.
Cuttings should also be taken in July or August, because the ground is warm then. One way is to cut the stem square across a joint, remove all the leaves for at least two inches from the bottom, and plant in a situation that is shady but not directly under trees. The cuttings should be inserted at least two inches deep, and in soil that has had sand well worked into it. They must not be allowed to get quite dry.
Another kind of cutting we will describe from that delightful old gardening book published by John Murray in 1840, and called, ‘Gardening for Ladies,’ by Mrs. Loudon. ‘Pipings are cuttings of Pinks and Carnations, and, indeed, are applicableto all plants having jointed tubular stems. They are prepared by taking a shoot that has nearly done growing, and holding the root end of it in one hand, below a pair of leaves, and with the other pulling the top part above the pair of leaves, so as to separate it from the root part of the stem at the socket formed by the axils of the leaves, leaving the part pulled off with a tubular or pipe-like termination—hence the name of pipings; and when thus separated they are inserted in finely sifted earth or sand, and a hand-glass is firmly fixed over them.’
Most gardeners snip off the tips of the outer leaves of pipings and cuttings, because then they can see more easily when new leaves are forming.
The most attractive way of increasing your stock of Carnations is to grow them from seed. In this way you get a great variety, and take a sporting chance of raising a new specimen. But youmustbuy your seed from a first-rate firm. As it is rather expensive, you will wish to give it every chance, so you must prepare the soil carefully for your seed-pan or shallow box.Whichever of these you use must have a few holes in it, then some broken crocks for drainage, and then the compost made of leaf-mould, loam, and silver sand. This mixture should be moist when you use it, as then you will not have to water much. The seed of Carnations is big enough for you to plant one by one with the point of a knife if you have a little patience. When this is done, take a little fine soil between your hands and sift it evenly and lightly over your seeds. Then cover with a glass, and, if you can, place in a frame or greenhouse. If you have neither, you must make shift with a sunny window as long as there is danger of frost; but we must warn you that it is not easy to raise seeds in a room. Even in an unused one they are likely to be too damp, or too dry, or to grow spindly in their effort to reach the light. March, April, and May are all months when gardeners sow Carnation seed, and by the end of May you might set your pan out of doors if you can keep slugs from it. In ten days or a fortnight the seedlings should appear, and then you must face the fact that the biggest and strongest—those about which you feel most triumphant—will bethe single ones, while the poor little weaklings will give you the best double flowers. All should be pricked off when they have four real leaves, either into boxes or pans or into the open ground. If you have raised your seed under glass in March, you must keep your pricked-out seedlings in a frame or greenhouse till all danger of frost is over. When you have neither, you must do the best you can with a room. The important thing is to keep away frost at this early stage. Be careful, when your Carnations are in the open ground, to keep away slugs with soot or lime, and look out for Leather-jackets and Wire-worms, both fatal to Carnations. The Leather-jacket is the larva of the Daddy-long-legs, and in this state has no legs at all. In spite of this, they can get along as fast as they wish. They are slaty-brown in colour, and look like short, fat, lifeless grubs. Wire-worms have yellow bodies, brown heads, and three pairs of legs behind their head. Both these pests may be trapped by burying small pieces of raw potato, carrot, or turnip, beneath the soil, with skewers through to mark where they are. These traps should be examinedevery morning. Another way to catch Leather-jackets, or Chop-worms, is to put pieces of slate, wood, brick, or turf on the ground, as they creep under such things for shelter. Rust, Spot, Eel-worm, and the Carnation Maggot are also enemies that do much damage. The two first are fungi, and the best way to avoid them is to give your plants sun and air. The Eel-worm produces a disease called gout, and no remedy is known for it. The Carnation Maggot can be dug out of the heart of a plant with a needle. We hope we shall not have discouraged you by telling you a few of the forty-nine ills the Carnation is heir to. They are not really difficult plants to keep alive if you can give them plenty of air and the right soil. You must either increase your own stock every year or buy new ones. The same plant will go on for several years in favourable conditions, but you cannot depend on many doing this.
Some of your Carnation seedlings are sure to be single, and they would look very pretty on a rockery or hanging from a wall or a window-sill. We have not said anything about the different classes in which florists divide Carnations andPicotees, because we do not think you need specialize in this way till you are grown up. Perhaps even then you will agree with us and admire many a seedling that the hidebound fancier would consign to the dustheap. The old Clove, that most attractive of Carnations, will do well on a sandy soil, but dies out in cold, wet seasons.
For an edging there is nothing to equal a good fringed white Pink. We have seen the little old-fashioned one doing well in the Pensioners’ Gardens at Chelsea Hospital, and one of the authors has grown masses of Mrs. Sinkins six miles from Charing Cross. They want an open border and ordinary well-dug garden soil. In times of drought, and on very hot, dry soils, they want water from April on until they flower; but in most districts they look after themselves in this respect. When the clumps are more than a year old, we have seen a good gardener give each one a liberal dressing of fresh soil in early spring, so that it should not feel starved. This was done without disturbing the roots by coaxingthe soil under and amongst the shoots. Pinks can be divided quite early in the spring, or after flowering, or they can be increased, like Carnations, by layers, pipings, or cuttings. When you divide plants always choose showery weather, and dig the hole for each portion of your plant so deep that the roots are not bruised and crammed. When gardeners divide Pinks, they replant them deep, and with the leaves rather bunched together. The habit of the Pink is to spread itself on the surface of the soil, with its stalks uncomfortably exposed, and in the course of the summer you will see each clump coming back to its untidy ways.
We agree with Mrs. Ewing, who said that some gardeners had witchcraft in their hands, and could make anything grow and flourish. We have seen one of this kind transplant a Crimson Rambler on a hot July day, and the Rose liked it. We used to see the same one divide her Pinks, and make every bit take root and increase. But as you may not be a born witch or wizard, and as you may find layers, pipings, and cuttings all difficult operations, we will tell you the easiest way in the world to increase yourPinks. We came across it inGardening Illustrated, in one of those little narratives of real personal experience that make a good gardening paper so useful and interesting. The writer said that all he did was totearoff strong young shoots with a good heel or tag attached, trim off the lower leaves, and plant firmly in a partially shaded situation and in sandy soil. We have tried this plan ourselves, and have found that every slip we took grew. We take them when our Pinks have quite done flowering. The following year we plant them out, and they flower a little, and by the second year they are good strong clumps. But you will probably not find this way answers if you have a cold, heavy soil.