A Few Good Hardy Flowers.

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 10

A Few Good Hardy Flowers.

A correspondent of the Field writes: — " Flowers that furnish a good display of bloom for tbc flower garden, and are alse useful in a cut state, are fatt taking the place of the ordinary bedding plants ; for there is such a gnat and increasing demand for cut blooms that the gardener has little room to spare for flowers that cannot be usrd for this purpose. The list of hardy aud half-hardy summer flowering plants that are useful in this way is naturally a lengthy cue, nud although objection might be taken to some of them for their short-lived beauty in a cut state, there are a few very good things which can be obtained by all to which no objection can be raised. Alstcemerias are very useful both for quickly filling a flower basket, for vases, or for the simple nosegay, and all lovers of a garden 6bould possess ai few clumps. There is an idea prevalent that they move badly, but this is not so if the operation is care-

fully performed. The ground for their reception should be trenched, the clumps lifted with care, and a thin mulching of short manure laid over the crowns. The individual spikes will not . be quite so large the first year after the removal, but the plants themselves will not suffer from their change of quarters. Sweet peas are amongst the very best summer flowers one can have, and with the splendid variety that can be obtained from a small quantity of seedj a posy comprising nearly all shades of colour may.be had. Three things are necessary in their cultivation—vig., early sowing, a deep tilth, and, the constant removal of seed pods. This latter matter is not always attended to, arid it is surprising -with what rabidity the plants will die off in such a Case } but with constant picking they will Continue blooming moat profusely until Very late in the season. Godetias are among the best of the annuals for cutting, and last in per* fection a long time in water> theit delicate satiny flowers being very attractive. Lady Albemarle abd The Bride are two good varieties. Another very pretty annual of lasting properties is the blue cornflower, and for this and the godetias some out-of-the-way border may be chosen. The Beed ones sown, the foundation is laid for permanent beds, as they will come up season after season, and will only require a little thinning, with perhaps an occasional dusting of manure. A pretty combination fdr vases is to be obtained by mining spikes of mignonette with the cornflower or the dark godetia. The herbaceous phloxes are very short-lived in water, but it may not be generally known that it is hot so with the phlox Drummondi, and as this embraces now so many shades of colour, it will be found very useful. The above are a few of the best common flowers for summer cutting, and which with good cultivation will always furnish a good supply.

Messrs Howden and Moncrieir", who have re* oently started business in Dunedin as seedsmen and florists, forward us a very handsomely got HP seed list for 1888-89. The list— which, by the way, would have been none the worse had ifc been printed in the colony — in addition to a priced list of seeds of all varieties contains lengthy descriptions of the more important, and full instructions as to the method of growing. It also has a useful garden calendar, adapted for New iZealand, and for general completeness could i scarcely be surpassed by the best Home house.