AUTUMN DAYS IN THE GARDEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2201, 7 May 1896, Page 8

AUTUMN DAYS IN THE GARDEN.

N By J: Gkbbie, jun.

We have had a wonderful display of bloom this autumn. I have no recollection of the dahlias continuing so long in bloom. Up to the first of- this month they have kept the borders bright with their varied colours, bnt the. sharp frosts of last week have completely destroyed their beauty, and their glory has departed. Obher thinga less tender are still affording an amount of pleasure to those who delight in the boauties of flora. Among these are j the cobdqos, tall-growing annuals, natives of Texas. These produce flowers two or three inches across, very like single dahlias, the colours being white, pink, crimson, and a few other shades. They ara exquisite in the cut state for decoration, and are eagerly sought after by the ladies for that purpose. They sSse autumn flowering plants, requiring to be sown early in the spring. Many of them are of poor quality and worthless, but when a good one is produced the beat plan is to take cuttings, which root readily, and k«ep over winter, and when planted out in tha borders during spring grow away vigorously and flower sooner than they otherwise would do. Besides ono has the satisfaction of knowing what they are cultivating. Penstemons are still blooming freely. The showery weather has freshened them up considerably, and almost every shoot is terminated by a fine spike of bloom. These are fine border plants, continuing in bloom ( for a long period. Tropaiolum tuberosum, a tuberous-rooted plant of climbiDg habits, is flowering grandly. Planted at the foot of a dead spxuce tree, it has covered the branches completely, and ia covered with thousands of ytllow and orange flow.ers. , Other plants which are flowering freely although late ia the season are delphiniums, which bad the old flower stems cut off as soon as the flowers began to fade. G-aillardias, Coreopsis ' lanceolate, scabious, verbenas,summer chrysanthemums, and Rome others are, owicg"to the mildness of the autumn, Jloweriug beyond their usual time. Of oourse | the flower of the season is the chrysanthemum, and tbsso ft[Q Jflgfr rt<u » i ng into flower-*

With royal and dauntbas mien, , Pacing the frosts of winter, Wo crown the autumn's queen, with your gleam of lain, sweet sunshine " You biighten the short'ning daya, And keep us thinking of summer Till tho winter we droad is hero.— B.E.R. Many of our hardy shruba are at this season very ornamental, being covered with bright-coloured borrie3. ' The most noteworthy are several species of fruiting hawthorns, with crimson, yellow, and orange berries: Cotoneaster^'red berries; Arbutus auedo, or strawberry tree, one of the most ornameatal, with strawberry-like fruits. Solanutns, Pyracanthas, and the English holly are all fruiting freely this season. Flowers, fruits, and large specimens of pampas grass, with hundreds of silvery white plumes waving in the breeze, and backed up by the autumn-tinted foliage of beeob, golden willow, biroh, elm, oak, sumach, and guelder rose, with their various shades of brown, yellow, crimson, and orange, form a picture whioh at this season of the year has many admirers. Public Gardens, Oamara, May 4.