Sutton & Sons Ltd.

“ In fact, in a batch of seedlings nearly every plant may differ from its companions. They all agree, however, in possessing the delicate perfume which is characteristic of the hardy woodland favourite. Fancy Primroses are prized as pot and border flowers, and they fully reward florists for all the care which has been devoted to their improvement. They will bloom satisfactorily in any shady spot; but to grow them to perfection requires a stiff moist loam, on the north side of some hedge or shrubbery, where glimpses of sunshine occasionally play upon them. ”

“ Calcareous soil is by no means unfavourable to Asparagus; still, a sand rich in humus is not the less to be desired, as the finest samples of European growth are the produce of the districts around Paris and Brussels. The London Asparagus, which is prized by many for its full flavour and tenderness, is for the most part grown near at hand, in deep alluvial soils enriched with abundance of manure. Nature gives us the key to every secret that concerns our happiness, and on the cultivation of Asparagus she is liberal in her teaching. ”

“ To the gardener the chemistry of crops is a matter of great importance, because he cannot restrict his operations to such crops as the land is particularly adapted for, but must endeavour to make the land capable of carrying more or less of all the vegetables and fruits that find a place in the catalogue of domestic wants. That he must fail at certain points is inevitable; nevertheless his aim will be, and must be, of a somewhat universal kind, and a clear idea of the relations of plants to the soil in which they grow will be of constant and incalculable value to him. ”

“ THE CULTURE OF FLOWERING BULBS
Our popular flowering bulbs are obtained from many lands; they are exceedingly diversified in character, and they bloom at different periods of the year. Each variety has a value of its own, and answers to some special requirement in its proper season under glass or in the open ground. In the darkest winter days we prize the glow of Tulips and Hyacinths for brightening our homes. And bleak days are not all past when Aconites and Snowdrops sparkle in beds and borders. ”

“ If the proper season for sowing seed of some important flower has been allowed to pass, an attempt is made to compensate for lost time by hurrying the growth in a forcing temperature. Every needless degree of heat will be harmful, and result in attenuated growth, poverty of colour, or in the attack of some insect plague which the weakly plant seldom invites in vain. It is wise always to employ the lowest temperature in which plants will flourish. This necessitates the proper time for their full development, and will result in a sturdy growth capable of yielding a bountiful display of bloom. ”

“ Sow on raised beds of light soil, the more sandy the better; and in seasons which speedily burn the life out of other plants, Portulacas will display their beauty, no matter how fiercely the sun may beat upon them. Water will occasionally be necessary, but it should never be given until there is obvious need for it. Portulacas are easily grown in pots or window-boxes, and they will bloom profusely where many other flowers only wither and die. ”

“ For the more important positions in the flower garden we have choice of many really sumptuous subjects, such as Stocks, Asters, Balsams, Drummond’s Phlox, Lobelias, the lovely new varieties of Antirrhinums, Dianthus, Portulacas, Zinnias, tall Stock-flowered Larkspurs, Nemesias, and many other flowers equally beautiful and lasting. We do not hope by these brief remarks to change the prevailing fashion—indeed, we have no particular wish that way—but we feel bound to observe that it is sufficient for the beauty of the garden that the greenhouse bedders should be confined to the parterre proper. ”

“ It may be said in a general way that a Cabbage may be grown almost anywhere and anyhow; that it will thrive on any soil, and that the seed may be sown any day in the year. All this is nearly possible, and proves that we have a wonderful plant to deal with; but it is too good a friend of man to be treated, even in a book, in an off-hand manner. The Cabbage may be called a lime plant, and a clay plant; but, like almost every other plant that is worth growing, a deep well-tilled loam will suit it better than any other soil under the sun. ”

“ Tropæolum majus nanum.—The Tom Thumb, or Dwarf varieties, make excellent bedding plants, blooming far on into the autumn after many of the regular bedders have faded and become shabby. There is an extensive choice of colours in reds, yellows, and browns, which come perfectly true from seed, and all possess the merit of flowering freely on very poor soil. They grow luxuriantly on rich land, but then the foliage becomes a mere mask under which the flowers are concealed. ”

“ In considering the general order of work in the Kitchen Garden, the first principle is that its productive powers shall be taxed to the utmost. There need be no fallowing—no resting of the ground; and if it should so happen that by hard cropping perplexity arises about the disposal of produce, the proverbial three courses are open—to sell, to give, or to dig the stuff in as manure. The last-named course will pay well, especially in the disposal of the remains of Cabbage, Kale, Turnips, and other vegetables that have stood through the winter and occupy ground required for spring seeds. ”

“ The Winter Aconite is the very ‘firstling’ of the year, for it blooms in advance of the Snowdrop, covering the ground with gilt spangles in the bleakest days of February. Any soil or situation will suit it, and it should be planted in large patches where a winter’s walk in the garden affords pleasure. It should also be grown in quantity within view from the windows, for the benefit of those who, in the dreary season, cannot get out. The bulbs may be left in the ground for several years, or they may be taken up and stored after the leaves have perished. ”

“ In almost every soil, whether strong clay, mellow loam, poor sand, or even chalk, there are comminglings of all the minerals required by plants, and, indeed, if there were not, we should see no herbage on the downs, and no Ivies climbing, as they do, to the topmost heights of limestone rocks. But usually a considerable proportion of those mineral constituents on which plants feed are locked up in the staple, and are only dissolved out slowly as the rain, the dew, the ever-moving air, and the sunshine operate upon them and make them available. ”

“ The chief objection to the use of stable manure, however, even when well rotted, is that it induces a free growth of foliage instead of promoting an early development of fruit. The most enduring method is that which is based on chemical knowledge of the constituents of the soil, and the relation which the plant bears to it. One of the most successful growers for the London market almost entirely avoids the use of stable manure, and he is able, by applications of nitrate of potash, dissolved bones, and the occasional use of lime, to grow splendid crops in the same houses year after year. ”

“ We do not say that all who save their own seed act unwisely, for some are most expert in the business. But we do say that seed saving is not learned in a day, and many who think they save shillings when they save seeds, actually lose pounds by burdening themselves with a bad article. The art of ‘roguing’—the elimination of plants which are untrue to type—is but one part of the seed-saving process. There is the proper storing, the selecting and sorting operations, to which eyes and hands must be trained, and there must be no scruple about the sacrifice of false, immature or diseased samples. ”

“ In the first place, what are known as ‘Ridge’ Cucumbers only should be grown in the open air; the large sorts grown in houses are unfit. In the second place, the plants should only be pinched once, and there is no occasion for the niggling business which gardeners call ‘setting the bloom.’ Provide for their roots a good bed, and then let them grow as they please. In the third place, as encouragement, we feel bound to say that, as Cucumbers are grown to be eaten as well as to be looked at, those from ridges are less handsome than house Cucumbers, but are quite equal to them in flavour. ”

“ So far as the culture of Godetias is concerned, the usual spring sowing and the regular treatment of hardy annuals will satisfy those who are content with a display entailing the least possible trouble. But the Godetia is no ordinary annual. The plants flower with such amazing profusion, and the colours are so magnificent, that those who wish to produce striking effects in beds or borders in July and August will find Godetias of the highest value. All the varieties come perfectly true to colour and admit of numerous contrasts and harmonies. ”

“ Preparation of Ground.—The cultivation of Beet is of the most simple nature, but a certain amount of care is requisite for the production of a handsome and profitable crop. Beet will make a fair return on any soil that is properly prepared for it; but to grow this root to perfection a rich light loam is necessary, free from any trace of recent or strong manure. A rank soil, or one to which manure has been added shortly before sowing the seed, will produce ugly roots, some coarse with overgrowth, others forked and therefore of little value, and others, perhaps, cankered and worthless. ”

“ Daisies, some of them now almost as large as Asters, are not only suited to the ribbon border, but make an amazingly brilliant show when the white, pink, and crimson are planted in masses or in separate beds. Seedlings flower with far greater freedom and produce much larger blooms than divided plants, and even after the first few weeks, when the later flowers become smaller and less perfect in form, a brilliant display is maintained till late in the summer if the beds are not wanted for other things. ”

“ The air may and does afford to plants much of their food, but it can only help them to the minerals they require by dissolving these out of pebbles, flints, nodules of chalk, sandstone, and other substances in the soil which contain them in what may be termed a locked-up condition. Every fresh exposure of the soil to the air, and especially to frost and snow, is as the opening of a new mine of fertilisers for the service of those plants on which man depends for his subsistence. ”

“ The most pressing business is to repair all losses, for even now, if affairs have gone wrong, it is possible to get up a stock of Winter Greens, and to sow all the sorts of seeds that should have been sown in March and April, with a reasonable chance of profitable results. It must not be expected, however, that the most brisk and skilful can overtake those who have been doing well from the first dawn of spring, and who have not omitted to sow a single seed at the proper time from the day when seed-sowing became requisite. ”

“ Almost every imaginable glass structure can be employed for growing Tomatoes, from the small suburban greenhouse to the vast span-roof, hundreds of feet in length, devoted to their culture in the Channel Islands. And it is not essential that the crop should be grown alone. Potatoes, French Beans, Strawberries, and Vines may be forced in the same building, provided there be no obstruction to light and air, nor any interference with the conditions which experience has proved to be imperative for sustaining the plants in vigorous health. ”

“ Where the soil is deep and the staple good, trench a piece every year two spits deep, the autumn being the best time for this work, because of the immense benefit which results from the exposure of newly turned soil to rain, snow, frost, and the rest of Nature’s great army of fertilising agencies.
In practical work there is nothing like method. Crop the ground systematically, as if an account of the procedure had to be laid before a committee of severe critics. ”

“ The best way to prepare ground for the summer crop is to select a piece that has been trenched, and go over it again, laying in a good body of rough green manure, one spade deep, so that the plant will be put on unmanured ground, but will reach the manure at the very period when it is needed, by which time contact with the earth will have rendered it sweet and mellow. By this mode of procedure the finest growth is secured, and the plants stand well without bolting, as they, are saved from the distress consequent on continued dry weather. ”

“ An elegant plant which is not quite hardy enough to be trusted in the open ground; but it is the easiest matter possible to grow it well in the greenhouse. The bulbs should be potted as soon as they begin to grow in the autumn, and several bulbs may be put into each pot. There can be no better soil than turfy loam, without manure or sand. It is of the utmost importance that the plants should have abundance of water, when they will produce leaves two inches across, and spikes of flowers fully double the size of those commonly met with. ”

“ The young plant is such a slender, delicate thing, that, to the thoughtless operator, it seems folly to thin down to one only. The consequence is that two or three, or perhaps half a dozen, plants are left at each station to ‘fight it out,’ and these become so intermixed as to appear to be one, though really many, and of course amongst them they produce more shoots than can be fed properly by the limited range of their roots. Severe, or may we say mathematical, thinning is a sine quâ non, and it requires sharp eyes and careful fingers ”