Violets will make no show in your garden, but if you have room you will wish to have some of your own to gather. You must put out of your head some of the things the poets say about them, and remember that they like a rich soil, the sun in early spring, some shelter, and plenty of light and fresh air. We have seen them belying all the pretty traditions about their modest and retiring ways. They were scrambling in sheets over the granite walls of a Cornish garden, and, so far from hiding, they were showing their pretty faces to the sun, and saying as plain as plain, ‘This is what we like. Don’t stuff us into shady dells and enclosed, sunless places.’ So now we put them where they will have rich soil, sun and air, and the moisture they require. A south border would be too dry for them in summer, but they will stand a good deal of sunshine if their roots are in rich soil. You must watch for their runners, and cut them off all through the summer, but later in the year you should leave some for stock. In May or June you can increase your Violets—either by taking up your plants and pulling them carefully to pieces, when every bit with roots will grow; or you can put some runners under a hand-light in a shady border. If you cut off their tips, you will be able to see when they have struck and begin to grow, and then you must tilt your hand-light a little, so as to give ventilation. After a short time you can take it away altogether, and by September your cuttings should be ready to plant out. The rows should be one foot apart. The plants will soon spread, and should be kept well weeded. All gardeners advise you to make a fresh bed every two years. There are many beautiful varieties. In a Cornish garden we have known the fine double kind, Marie Louise, bloom incessantly from August, through the winter and spring, till the hot weather came again; but this variety would need a frame in a cold climate.
Michaelmas Daisies, or Starworts.
You must be sure to have some of these in your garden, because they are easy to grow and come into flower in September, when many things are over. They are delightful, too, for cutting, as they last well in water and look well in any size or shape of bowl or glass. The only complaint people ever make of them is that they increase too fast, and take up too much room in the borders. We have had the best flowering clumps sometimes from patches we have dug up in autumn or spring, pulled to pieces and divided. But a clump may be left year after year, if convenient. There is all the difference in the world between Michaelmas Daisies grown in rich soil and good air and those grown in starved conditions. We have seen an inexperienced gardener buy a collection from good nurserymen, plant them in a bed of starved, poor soil on the east side of a suburban house, and then be surprised that her Starworts made no growth, and were not worth looking at. And, as it happened, we saw a handful of Aster Amethystinus taken from those miserable conditions to a sunny, sheltered garden in West Cornwall, where it was pulled to pieces and planted in good soil all along a low granite wall running north and south. In October a whole row of healthy plants was looking over the wall, and sending up masses of clear mauve starry flowers; their very colour and size improved out of knowledge by the change. Michaelmas Daisies lose much of their beauty if they are tied up in untidy bundles; but it is impossible to avoid tying them if they stand in an open border where they may be caught by autumn gales. They look very well amongst shrubs, or if you have a fence or a wall you can put them all along it. Drive a stout stake in at either end, and tie a strong string or length of coir rope so as to catch your Starworts at the height that will best support them. If you must have unprotected clumps, be sure to stake and tie them as soon as they are tall enough, and before they flower. There are many beautiful varieties. Four of the best are Amellus, Acris, Cordifolius, and Vimineus.
Staking.
This is such an important operation that we must give it a paragraph to itself. You must try from the beginning to tie up your plants when they require it, and to do it in a workmanlike way, but you will often find it a difficult and troublesome thing to do well. We once saw an amusing picture in a gardening book of how not to tie up a plant, and many a time have we remembered it after a hot and weary struggle with our own. Some plants are more easily and successfully supported by the branched stakes that need no ties; but heavy plants, such as Dahlias, Sunflowers, and Michaelmas Daisies, require strong pointed sticks, either those cut from trees or the square green ones to be bought in towns. You should hammer your stake firmly in just behind the plant. Never drive one straight through its heart. Consider to what height your plant will grow, and do not mind if the stake is too tall just at first. Tie it carefully with raffia, or, if you want something stronger, with thin cord. Roughly speaking, we should say that raffia is strong enough for plants that can be supported by the little round stakes sold in bundles, but that plants needing the square Dahlia stakes also need strong ties. If you support your plants while they are young, you must look at them from time to time, because as they spread and grow they will want fresh ties and sometimes fresh stakes. A spreading, top-heavy plant often needs three or four stakes to support it properly. You will not think your trouble has been thrown away, however, when you find that a three-days storm has not done much damage to your garden, because your plants were so carefully prepared for it.
CHAPTER IV
BULBS, CORMS, AND TUBERS
A True bulb has a series of layers, or scales. An onion is a bulb, and so is a Hyacinth; so are Lilies, though of a different kind. A Crocus, a Gladiolus, and a bulbous Iris, are all corms. They are solid, and could not be pulled to pieces in scales. A tuber is a thick fleshy root that increases as the plant grows, and ripens when it has done growing. Dahlias and Begonias have roots of this kind; so have many Anemones and many wild flowers. Certain tubers are good to eat. You have one kind for dinner whenever you have Potatoes, and another kind when you have Jerusalem Artichokes.
Some people buy fresh bulbs every year, and pull up the old ones directly they have done flowering. We think that if you are a really-truly gardener, you will not wish to do this. You will want to see some of your bulbs come up year after year, with increasing strength and beauty; and you will want to take up others at the right time, divide them or store them, as the case may be, and replant. But if you do mean to grow your bulbs year after year and increase your own stock, you must remember that for many weeks after the flowering season you have masses of untidy-looking dying leaves. Therefore you must plant as artfully as you can in places where other things will be growing up close by and attracting attention. The leaves of bulbs must not be removed until they are quite dead and come away with a touch, and this does not happen until the summer sun has baked them for a long time. While they are green the bulb is getting strength from them. We shall only tell you about a few varieties that are inexpensive to buy and easy to grow. When you have learned to manage these successfully, you can try some of the many others you will find in catalogues and in gardening books. Our advice to you is to spend your money on one or two kinds every autumn, and not to buy a collection. This applies especially to children who have a corner of a London garden, because the collections always include some bulbs (such as Anemones or the Persian Ranunculus, for instance) that are not quite easy to grow, and would do nothing in the town border.