THE GARDEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2152, 23 May 1895, Page 4

THE GARDEN.

OPERATIONS FOR THE WEEK. Hitchen Gaeden. — The formation of a warm border in a sheltered corner where the frost will hardly reach, as on the north side of a fence, is b great assistance in raising and growing Email Baladiogs during the wiDter. The border should be composed of the lightest soil obtainable, and well enriched with the manure from a spent hot-bed. It should bo raised a foot above the surrounding level, and slope from back to front, to enable the surface water to drain off quickly. By means of movable or fixed frame 3 , roughly |mt together, which can be covered at night, and a few bell glasses or hand liglti, a good deal may be done in raising early crops. Radishes, lettuce, mtutard and cress, to., oan be thinly sown at once, and another part of the border can be devoted to raising early ashleaf feotatoes. By collecting all the ttea leaves and S Being them round the frames, a gentle heat ill be obtained which will be serviceable . in bringing the yousg plants forward, t JPioweb Qahdes. — A week or two back instructions were given for the formation of 'a bed of nardy perennials, as adviied by Robinson in his work on "Hardy Flowers." From the same source we extract the mode of forming a grand bed of lilies. Unhappily, the flno hardy kinds of lilita ire anj thing but as plentiful as they should be, though in a freo rich soil they increase readily

enough. Few may have them sufficiently plentiful for some time to make beds of them, but when once people know how truly fine they are when eeen well arranged in a large bed in an isolated place, they will hardly rest content without tuch glorious garden ornaments. With such kinds as Lilium teataceum and Tigrlnium Fortune! in ' the centre, surrounded by the queenly candidnm, burnished croceum, spotted oanadense, pomponium, colchicum, vivid chalcedonicam, and gradually worked down to the edge withdwarf but beautiful kinds likeeximium, losgifloruin, and tea en folium, » large circular or oval bed might be made on the grass in some isolated spot which for the highest beauties of colour, form, and fragrance — for, in f aot, almost every quality by which vegetable beauty endears itself to vs — could not be surpassed by any arrangement of indoor or outdoor plants. The only precaution that need bo meut ioned ia that to grow lilies well they should have 3ft, or nearly that, of free loamy earth, with a good dash of vegetable mould in it. GnEENHOUSB.— As the b?auty of salviss, chrysanthemums, and scbizostylis will soon be on the wane, the amateur who desires to keep up a display of bloom must look out for other plants to supply their place. If the double Roman narcissus and the Roman hyacinth were potted, they will be ready to bring into the house. These, with Hellebores niger and some of the early cyclamen, ought to bagin to bloom by the middle of next month. The plants of oakeolaria, in the cold frame, will be sufficiently advanced to have the central shoct pinched out, to cause ihem to send up half a dozen trusses instead of one. If a few platts are wanted to come in early, let it run up to bloom without pinching ; still ke^p the plants cool, give plenty of air, and look after green- fly. Cinerarias will require similar treatment, but they are a little more sensitive to froßt.