This section is from the book "The Florist And Garden Miscellany". Also see: All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!.
All the shoots too high up the plant for pegging down having been piped about the middle of June, proceed to layer the general stock; use light sandy soil, and peg them securely after making a clean incision at about the third joint; then place them a little in the shade for a few days. Those about to be layered should be made rather moist, as the water they will receive for some time after will be through a fine-rosed watering-pot. To ensure seed from any fine variety, place small bell-glasses to protect the flowers from wet, admitting all the air possible. Transplant pipings when struck, to make good growth before potting up in autumn. The heat during July has brought them into bloom so suddenly, that in many places they have not been large. This has not been the case here: a finer bloom we never had. C. Turner.
Little requires to be done before the end of the month, further than keeping them clean, and seeing that the pots are placed so as to insure good drainage. Prepare soil for potting them off for wintering, which should be as heavy as that for blooming them in: less manure, but a little more coarse sand. The state of the plants must decide when they should be potted off. The last week in September, or first two in October, will be an excellent time.
Slough. C. Turner.
See p. 258. C. Turner.
My grandfather (writes a respected correspondent) was a florist in the old and true sense of the term, and occupied a pretty cottage, with just the right kind of garden attached. Often have I heard my father speak of it, and the picture he drew is still fresh in my memory. It was situated on a little eminence half embowered in trees, overlooking the public road, which passed the garden-gate, and commanding a view of the "winding Thames" in the distance. But it is of the cottage and garden I am about to speak; for my grandfather was one of Flora's fondest devotees. Trim was that garden in every part, and well was the cottage hung with Nature's most elegant drapery. In the first place, the Honeysuckle - not your fine Honeysuckles which grace the sides of villas now-a-days, but the well-known fragrant hedge Honeysuckle - occupied a prominent place. Then there was the monthly Rose, which was continually yielding its pink blossoms; the blue, or rather deep purple, Clematis, than which, in its season, nothing can be more handsome; and finally, towards the close of the year, the Virginian Creeper clothed the walls in a garment of glowing red. But the decoration of the cottage formed the least part of my grandfather's care.
His garden was his chief hobby; for he was, as I have before said, a florist in every sense of the word, and had his Bear's Ears, his Polyanthuses, his Ranunculuses, his bulbs, his Stocks, his Tulip-bed, and his Carnations and Picotees. But how poor were the latter compared with the Picotees and Carnations of the present day! What if he had seen your last and present plate! - for a sight of which I thank you. Science had not then so successfully investigated the laws of nature as she has done now. He, honest man, knew nothing of the chemical composition of soils, though he had compounded many, and was considered a first-rate cultivator in his day.
At a future time I may bring before the notice of your readers some of his class, who are to be found here and there in our rural villages. In the meanwhile, I wait with interest Mr. Turner's teaching; for on your correspondent something of the mantle of my grandfather has descended.
See p. 306.
Royal Nursery, Slouyh. C. Turnxb.
 
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