Part 7

Seeds of hardy plants may be sown at almost any time during spring, summer, or autumn, provided that due attention be given in the matter of watering, preparation of the soil and the like. Most of the biennials and perennials may with advantage be sown in June and transplanted to their flowering quarters in September. Annuals intended to bloom in the summer or autumn should be sown in March, April and May; whilst those intended to flower in the following year should be sown in August and September.

Most plants may be transplanted at any season of the year if the operation be properly performed. A dull day or an evening should be selected, and a ball of earth should if possible be removed attached to the roots. The ground into which the plant is to be removed, should be well and deeply dug, and a deep and capacious hole be made with a trowel or dibbler. Into this the plant is to be carefully placed, its roots being well spread out and well settled by means of water. For a day or two after being moved, it should be shaded from the hot sun, and for the first few evenings should be liberally watered.

LAYERS AND CUTTINGS

The division of the rootstock is a method of propagation applicable to the majority of perennial plants. In the case of most corms and bulbs, it is necessary, in order to increase the supply, to separate the young bulbels or cormels and to plant them out in a nursery bed until they develop to a useful flowering size. But in the division of the rootstocks of herbaceous plants a certain amount of violence is usually required, and a strong knife, a cold chisel and a mallet will be found useful tools. Each plant, if it is to develop into a new plant, must include at least one eye or bud and must usually also be provided with a supply of rootlets.

Many plants may be propagated by the process known as layering, which essentially consists in pegging down a shoot to the ground by means of a little crotchet stick, having notched with a sharp knife half way through a joint at the point where the shoot touches the soil, and covering the pegged down part of the shoot with a few inches of good gritty loam. In a little while, roots will form at the point of section and the shoot can be separated from its parent as an independent plant. The Carnation is usually propagated in this way, the layering being performed in July and the young plants being separated a few months later. Roses may be pegged down and layered in a somewhat similar way, but in their case it is the middle of a branch and not its base which is cut and pegged beneath the soil.

Another method by which many plants can be increased is that of cuttage. This is the method usually employed by growers of chrysanthemums, pansies, and certain other plants. To effect this, a cut should be made in a slanting direction through the stem to be severed, just below a joint. As a rule cuttings of herbaceous plants should be made in the spring. Some cuttings will root readily in light soil in the open air if a shady position be selected, but usually it will be found to be desirable to plant the cuttings in pots of sandy loam and to place in a hot bed, shading from the sun until they are rooted.

WEEDS

"Let the painfull Gardiner expresse never so much care and diligent endeavour; yet among the very fairest, sweetest, and freshest Flowers, as also Plants of most precious Vertue; ill savouring and stinking Weeds, fit for no use but the fire or mucke-hill, will spring and sprout up." So wrote Boccaccio nearly six hundred years ago, and the truth of his observation has not lost its savour in spite of the centuries--though I, for one, should be sorry to apply to any plant of my acquaintance the adjectives of abuse which Boccaccio so naturally uses.

Of course one tries, and must ever try, to keep the garden free from weeds, but it is a matter for congratulation that we can never entirely succeed. Probably the earliest gardening memories of most of us are associated either with weeds, or with that branch of gardening usually first delegated to children--the operation of weeding. A great deal of the pleasure of growing flowers is undoubtedly due to the difficulties which one has to combat, and gardening with no weeds to worry us, with no snails, slugs, or green fly for us to fight, would be about as insipid an occupation as that known among the provincial middle-class as "paying calls." What beauty there is in these much despised weeds! Few wall plants, for instance, surpass in general "usefulness" the little Ivy-leaved Toad-flax (_Linaria Cymbalaria_), which bears its dainty purple snapdragon-like flowers nearly the year through. It is a tidy little plant, too, for, as soon as its flowers have been fertilised and are beginning to fade, it bends them aside so that the seed vessels may rest in some suitable crevice where the ripened seed may safely be born. The flowers which stand out from the plant, therefore, always look fresh and attractive.

Not everyone can grow the Gentians, but certainly everyone can grow--though not all of us can exterminate--those beautiful Veronicas, the Germander Speedwell and the Field Speedwell, with their brightest of blue flowers. Merely to name the dandelion, daisy, plantain, convolvulus, dock, pheasant's eye, and even the groundsel, is to remind ourselves of the great beauty which our garden weeds possess, and of the essential place which they occupy in the mental picture of a homely garden. Yet is there one "weed"--or "good plant in the wrong place," as a weed has been well defined--more prevalent than all others, hardier than most, and as beautiful as any. No garden, no road, no wall or fence even, but grass does its best to drape and to beautify it. And if gardening has made men blind to the beauty of the grass leaf, so blind that they needs must roll and cut it for appearance's sake, then is gardening to be ranked with that spirit of vestrydom, of which Mrs Meynell says such true, sarcastic things. But gardening need have no such tendency. Rather should it tend to make its devotees observant and admiring where plant beauty is concerned. Still, with weeds, be they ever so beautiful, ever so interesting, must the gardener wage eternal war. Nature, like the artist she is, abhors bare earth as much as she abhors a vacuum, and, where she sees a piece of ground uncovered, there she sows her seeds or projects her roots. One of the best ways of keeping weeds within bounds, therefore, is to have as little earth as possible uncovered by plants, for then weeds have small chance of entry and smaller chance of development. There is a hackneyed saying to the effect that one year's seeding means seven years' weeding, and there is wisdom in it; but rare indeed must be the gardens where in some odd corner weeds do not succeed each year in ripening and scattering their seeds. As soon as a weed is seen, it should be pulled up, or Dutch-hoed off, and, if it have not a perennial root, straightway buried in the garden or used as a mulch round shrubs or herbaceous plants. In addition to its primary object, the mere pulling up of weeds, or hoeing off their heads, is of the utmost value in loosening the surface of the ground, and so checking evaporation and the conduction of heat. In fighting with weeds, garden flowers will be much assisted by deep cultivation, rich soil, and a provision of those general conditions which conduce to their health and vigour. As a rule the annual weeds are kept under with comparative ease, it usually being the perennials with spreading roots which give the real trouble. In preparing a piece of ground, every piece of such root--be it of couch grass, bindweed, or what not--should be picked out and burnt. Then, if, through several seasons, every shoot of perennial weed be pulled off directly it is seen, they will eventually be subdued or even vanquished. For weedy paths, it is no longer necessary to spend hours or days in hand-weeding with basket and knife--historically interesting though that practice is. All that is now required is to water the paths, when dry, with a solution made by boiling five ounces of powdered arsenic in a gallon of water, stirring the while, and then adding two gallons of cold water, and half a pound of soda.

Such is the fate of the man who would be a gardener. He must wage constant battle with flowers whose beauty he can but acknowledge. He must be full of zeal for the murder of plants he is bound to love and admire. It is a little like hitting a woman; and, when one sees the weed, which has been violently hurled from bed and border, patiently trying to live its humble life on wall or rubbish-heap, smiling as sweetly as it may on the "owner" of the soil, one is reminded of that pathetic--even if fictitious--story of the vivisector's dog.

INSECT AND OTHER PESTS

Vigorously growing plants are far less liable than are feeble ones to the attacks of the various living enemies which the gardener is called upon to combat. Therefore the most important item in the suppression of insect or fungoid pests is careful and correct culture. But, even in the best kept gardens, green-fly and earwig, slugs, snails and wireworms will appear, and must be dealt with by repressive as well as by preventive measures.

The green-fly, which is sometimes such a trouble to our roses and fruits, should be treated with vigorous and repeated syringing or hosing with water. If this is found to be inadequate, the affected plants may be washed with tobacco water (made by pouring half a gallon of boiling water on an ounce each of soft soap and shag tobacco, and allowing the strained infusion to cool), or with an emulsion made by stirring well together half a pint of petroleum oil, two ounces of hard soap, and a quart of nearly boiling water, afterwards adding half a gallon of cold water, and thoroughly mixing. This last application should always be applied in the evening.

Wireworms, which are such a foe of the carnation grower, may usually be destroyed by spreading gas-lime at the rate of two pounds per square yard over the unoccupied soil in the fall, ploughing or digging it into the ground a month or two later. If this is impracticable, the wireworms may often be trapped by burying pieces of potato at intervals, removing them every few days.

For destroying the fungus of mildew nothing is more effective than sulphur mixed with soft soap and water in the proportion of one ounce of sulphur and four ounces of soap to four gallons of hot water.

Earwigs, which so often spoil the Dahlia blooms, may be trapped by crumpling a newspaper and placing it among the plants, or by filling a flower-pot with moss and inverting it over a stake--in either case examining the traps daily and destroying the victims.

Snails and slugs should be caught at night and killed by placing them in a bucket and covering them with salt. They may be trapped by placing cabbage or lettuce leaves at intervals about the garden, examining beneath them each morning; or they may sometimes be destroyed by watering the plants which they frequent with lime-water (made by adding a gallon of water to a quarter pound of freshly burnt lime, and straining).

Birds are sometimes harmful, but on the whole they do more good than harm in a garden, and I am inclined to agree with an old gardener, who, having caught a blackbird among the gooseberries, was asked by his master what he had done with it. "Oh," he replied, "I just gave 'im a warning and let 'im go."

POINTS

1. Grow no plant which does not strike you as either beautiful or interesting.

2. Learn the requirements of every plant as far as possible before ordering it, and have everything ready before its arrival.

3. Do not overcrowd, but allow every plant to develop and display its own form of beauty. On the other hand, show as little bare earth as possible at every season of the year.

4. Have few beds and many and wide borders. It will often, however, be found convenient to grow in beds such flowers as Carnations, which require to be frequently replanted, and which will not tolerate the competition of other plants; but even with Carnations may be planted many bulbs, such as Crocuses, Tulips, Spanish Irises and Gladioli. In any case, aim at being a four-season gardener, and make your garden interesting in every part the year through.

5. The borders should generally be wide--where there is ample space not less than nine to twelve feet. They should be backed by a plant-covered trellis or wall, or by flowering and evergreen shrubs.

6. Cultivate the soil to a depth of two or three feet in the manner described in this book, and in dry weather supply _abundance_ of water, and keep the surface mulched either with moss or manure, or with loose soil.

7. In arranging mixed borders, avoid dottiness, preferring rather to plant bold clumps or masses of individual species. Let the surface of the soil be carpeted by low-growing, surface-rooting plants, such as the dwarf Campanulas, Aubrietias, Arenarias, Silene acaulis, S. alpestre, Linaria alpina, Veronica saxatilis and the like. Let the taller growing plants be mostly towards the back of the border, and the smaller plants mostly near the front, but avoid primness by allowing an occasional clump of tall plants (especially those, such as Gladioli and Lilies, which need special care) to break the front margin, and by letting the dwarfer carpeting plants spread towards the back of the border.

8. Keep in a shed or in a corner of the garden a compost heap composed of two parts sand, one part fibrous loam (such as the top spit of meadow land), one part of two-year-old leaf mould, and one part of two-year-old stable manure. Whenever one is transplanting a herbaceous or other plant, it will be found very helpful to cover the roots with a few inches of this soil. Mixed with an equal quantity of sand it will also be useful to place round bulbs when planting them.

9. When planting, always dig a hole sufficiently large and deep to contain the roots well spread out. Place the plant in position, cover the roots with a few inches of the compost just named, and give a bucketful of water to settle the earth. Then fill up the hole with ordinary soil, firmly pressing with the foot if necessary, though the liberally watering often does away with the need. In any case the surface should be ruffled up into a state of looseness in order to check evaporation.

10. Keep a special garden notebook in which to note things which want correcting or developing. If not noted when recognised, they are likely to be forgotten when the season for making the change comes round. Also note any good plants or good effects which you may see in the gardens of others.

11. Buy your seeds of the best seedsmen, regardless of price. Buy your plants from the best nurseries, even though they may be listed a little cheaper elsewhere.

12. Do not be content merely to copy the "arrangements," "groupings" and such which you may see suggested in books or practised by your friends. Study books, study gardens, and study wild nature, but use your own brains.

13. Make, or remake, one border every year. You will thus always have sufficient surprise to afford spice or seasoning to the "settled" part of your garden.

14. It is interesting, in addition to cultivating a large variety of flowers, to grow one flower or one race of flowers as a specialty.

* * * * *

THE most satisfactory Plants for the Garden, and amongst THE MOST BEAUTIFUL are the following improved varieties of

HARDY PERENNIALS

CULTIVATED BY

KELWAY & SON

THE ROYAL HORTICULTURISTS

LANGPORT, SOMERSET

KELWAY'S PÆONIES

Collection D--42s. per dozen; 50 for £7 7s.

KELWAY'S DELPHINIUMS

Collection D--42s. per dozen; 50 for £7 7s.

KELWAY'S GAILLARDIAS

Collection C--18s. per dozen; 100 for £6 6s.

KELWAY'S PYRETHRUMS

Collection C--21s. per dozen; 100 for £7 7s.

Nearly all the best new varieties of the above-mentioned important families ORIGINATED in the Langport Nurseries.

More Certificates and Awards of Merit for improved varieties of Hardy Plants have been awarded by the R.H.S. to KELWAY & SON than to any firm.

KELWAY'S "MANUAL OF HORTICULTURE" for 1901, by far the best Horticultural Catalogue and Guide published, will be sent post free for 1s. 6d. It contains interesting particulars of all the best Hardy Herbaceous Plants, &c., and of KELWAY'S "ARTISTIC" BORDERS (registered).

133 GOLD AND SILVER MEDALS--London, Paris, Chicago, &c.

KELWAY & SON, LANGPORT, SOMERSET

Handbooks of Practical Gardening

Under the General Editorship of

HARRY ROBERTS

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Handbooks of Practical Gardening--_Continued_.

Vol. II.--THE BOOK OF THE GREENHOUSE. With a special chapter on the little Town Greenhouse. By J. C. TALLACK, F.R.H.S., Head Gardener at Shipley Hall.

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The Chronicle of a Cornish Garden

BY

HARRY ROBERTS

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F. L. B. GRIGGS

Crown 8vo. Cloth. 5s. net

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