EFFECTIVE FLOWER GARDENING.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2009, 2 August 1880, Page 3

EFFECTIVE FLOWER GARDENING.

["Field."]

Yases and rustic baskets, when well placed in a flower garden and planted with suitable subjects in a tasteful manner, are very pleasing objects. The fine old Humea elegans is a graceful subject for service in this way, making an admirable centre plant with pelargoniums, fuchsias, Phlox Drummondii, petunias, Nierembergia gracilis, and others about it, with some trailing and climbing plants growing over the sides. The old Lophoapormum scandens, Maurandia barclayana, Tropseslum canariensis, and suoh like make durable and effective edging plants. Vases and rustic baskets look best when filled as full as possible, and there are many things that come in handy for the purpose. Whan the baskets and vases are planted, a good watering can be given, and the surface mulched with cocoanut fibre to the depth ef an inoh or so. It must be remembered that vases in particular are subject to the drying influences of sun and wind, and must be freely watered in consequence in drying weather. A check . from drought will materially and injuriously affect the effectiveness of these garden ornamenta. If amulohing of short dung and leaves or of cocoanut fibre be given, the soil will be kept cool and moist, and much labour is the way of watering dispensed with. In small gardens, where there are but a few beds, it is very difficult to make anything like an arrangement as a whole, nor is it desirable. The beds should be filled with those things that are most acceptable to the the gardener, avoiding, as a matter of course, anything in the way of inoongruity. The first use of a flower garden should be that of presenting to the eye something pleasing, and which can constantly be made a source of enjoyment to the gardener. The next should be to furnish flowers for the many home uses to which they can be put. This necessitates the cultivation of suitable things, of which there are many. The pretty blue ageratum, the useful old cupped platycentra, fuchsias, the fragsant heliotropes, annual and perennial lobelias, myosotis, marigold, Nierembergia gracilis, pansies, penstemons, double' rockets, Aloyeia citriodora, stocks, asters, tropceolums, verbenas, and others, are all plants that can be used with charming effect when judiciously mixed, and they afford much cut flower in the summer. After the plants are placed in the beds or borders, shonld any not grow so freely as may be wished, a little stimulus should be given—say weak manure water, or some of the many fertilisers that are now so useful to amateur gardeners. Sometimes amateurs buy new plants, but have little knowledge of their character. It is best to place them out by themselves until this is displayed, and it is seen what service they are likely to afford, rather than to risk a flaw, even in a simple arrangement, by having inharmonious subjects vis-a-vis. Sometimes plants die from unavoidable and unforeseen causes, and for this reason there should always be a few subjects in reserve to fill vacant places. By spreading out, supporting, tying into shape, or pegging down some plants that need a little attention of this kind, the effective display of particular subjects is furthered. Such trailing plants as tropseolums, Phlox Drummondii, verbenas, thunbergias, &c, are greatly helped in this way. Pegging down is frequently resorted to, and the common fern or brake, where it abound", is a convenient plant to cut these from. Where fern is not to be found, wood that is cut out of fruit trees, &c, can be employed, cutting them into fire or six inch lengths, and pushing the two ends into the soil, securing the shoot between them.

In the mixed border all herbaceous plants and hardy perennials that need it should be kept neatly tied up ; but it is a great mistake to gather the shoots up into one untidy bundle; this practise is too commonly followed, but is offensive to good taste. Neat deal Btafces can now be purchased at a comparative small cost; and if these are employed, one for eaoh main shoot, and tying the smaller side shoots to these, the individual character of eaoh plant is maintained. In dry weather a small Dutch hoe used on the surface of the borders will be found of great benefit to the plants. The looser the soil is on the surface in hot, dry weather, the less do the plants suffer from the drought. Frequent Btirring tends to keep down weeds. After heavy rains the surface will dry hard, and bake in the sun. the surface, and making it pervious to the Again the hoe comes into requisition, loosening air.

The dahlia will be a popular garden flower for many years to come, and the many bedding and pompone varieties are now much used in gardens, both for effectiveness and for cutting from in late summer. The plants should be put in rich soil, and a stake should he put to each plant at the time. If delayed, injury is often done to the extending roots by the act of thrusting it into the ground. The dwarf-growing forms of double zinnias, dwarf marigolds, double and single pyrothmms, antirrhinums, and especially the pretty striped varieties, petunias, and helichrysuma may be taken as representing many One old-fashioned things of great beauty and

fitness in the flower garden in summer. Many can grow these who have no convenience for cultivating the tenderest sorts of bedding plants, such as coleus, alternanthera, &s. Let no garden be without its patoh of fragrant mignonette; but let it be grown as it deserves to bo, and not starved as it too frequently is. A fine strain, like that of Parsons's Giant White, deserves the very best culture that can be given it; and if the large spikes of flower be removed as they decay, lateral growths will be put forth, that will furnish flowers till the storms of autumn break up and bring to an end the sequence of effectiveness a wellmanaged garden always furnishes.