Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

Biennials are plants which do not flower till the second year. They are generally sown in March, April, or May, and are transplanted in September, to the situations where they are to flower the following year. The best known of these flowers are the different kinds of hollyhock, snapdragon, Canterbury bells, wallflowers, sweet-williams, Œnotheras, and Brompton stocks; but there are many others extremely beautiful and equally well deserving of cultivation. Most of the biennials may be propagated by layers or cuttings, and thus treated, they will last four or five years.

Perennial herbaceous plants are so numerous, that few general directions can be given for their culture, and it will be necessary to treat of the principal families separately. Perennial flowers are generally propagated by layers, cuttings, offsets, suckers, and division of the root; for when raised from seed, many of the kinds do not blossom for several years. When propagated by layers, the earth which is pressed over the pegged-down shoot, should not be kept too moist; as layers of herbaceous plants, particularly where the stem has been partly slit through, are very apt to rot. The same remark holds good as to cuttings; and they should generally have fewer leaves left on, than cuttings of trees and shrubs. Many plants produce offsets, such as the potentilla, the wild geranium, &c., and these only require separating from the parent, and planting in spring; all the flower-buds should, however, be pinched off the first year, to strengthen the plant, and to encourage it to send down roots. Suckers are treated in exactly the same manner as offsets. Division of the roots is, however, the most common way of propagating perennials. To do this the plant is generally taken up, and the roots pulled asunder if dry, or cut into pieces if fleshy, and replanted; care being taken to cut off any part of the fibrous roots that may have been wounded, or broken, by the removal. The plant itself is also generally pruned or cut in, and some of its leaves are taken off before replanting, and carefully shaded and watered till it has recovered from the effects of its removal. All perennial plants should be occasionally taken up, thinned, and replanted with the same precautions: and the ground dug over, and renovated, before they are replaced.

The most remarkable kinds of herbaceous plants are those called florists’ flowers. This name indicates plants grown principally for the purpose of exhibiting at some show to gain a prize, and on the culture of which an extraordinary degree of care has been bestowed. Most of these are either bulbs or tubers, but some few come under the present head; and of these the most remarkable are the auricula, the polyanthus, the carnation, the pink, the heartsease, and the chrysanthemum.

Auriculas are well-known and favourite flowers; the wild plant is a native of Switzerland, but it is almost as different from the cultivated kinds, as the wild cabbage is from brocoli or cauliflower. The garden auriculas have almost innumerable names, but they are all divided into four kinds, very distinct from each other. These kinds are the green-edged, the grey-edged, the white-edged, and the selfs. The beauty of the flowers depends upon their size, the clearness of their colours, and their roundness and flatness; these last qualities being often assisted by art: the anthers of the stamens should also rise above the pistil; as when the pistil is seen above the anthers, the flower is called pin-eyed, and is esteemed of little value by florists. The culture of the auricula, when it is to be grown as a prize-flower, demands a degree of care and attention that no one but a professed florist would think it worth his while to bestow. The great points appear to be to make the soil as rich as possible, only, however, using the cold manures, such as cow-dung, &c.; to let the pots be very well drained, by placing about an inch and a half deep of broken pot-shreds in each pot; and to keep the plants well and regularly watered. When the flowers expand, they are generally shaded with square pieces of board, tin, or paste-board, supported by a stick just over the flower, so as to shelter it from the direct influence of the sun, but to admit a free current of air, and sufficient light. This precaution is said to improve the clearness and intensity of the colours, which otherwise are apt to become dull and clouded. Those persons who grow auriculas for sale, generally show them on what is called a blooming-stage, and shade them with an awning like that used for a tulip-bed. The plants are propagated by offsets, or dividing the root; and new varieties are continually being raised from seed. Auriculas are occasionally double or semi-double, but these varieties are considered by florists very far inferior to the single kinds.

The Polyanthus is of the same genus as the auricula, and of the same species as the primrose. It is, however, a very distinct variety of the last; and it is said to take its name of polyanthus, which signifies many-flowered, from its producing its flowers in trusses like the auricula, while the flowers of the primrose are produced singly, each on a separate stalk rising from the root. The qualities of the polyanthus resemble those of the auricula as to form and shape, but there is not the same variety as to colour, as the polyanthus is always of a very dark brownish red and golden yellow. The best flowers have generally a narrow edging of a bright golden colour, and as clear and distinct as possible, round the margin of each petal; and no flower is at all esteemed that has what is called a pin-eye; that is, as before mentioned with regard to the auricula, when the pistil projects beyond the anthers of the stamens. The polyanthus is propagated by slips, and division of the root, and new varieties are raised from seed.

The Primrose differs essentially from the polyanthus and the auricula, in being only esteemed when double, while they are not considered to rank as florists’ flowers unless they are single. The primrose, indeed, is not a florist’s flower; and its pretty double pale yellow, dark scarlet, lilac, and white varieties are only grown as common border flowers. They like a rich loamy soil, rather moist than otherwise, and a shady situation; and they are propagated by division of the roots.

The Carnation has long been a favourite florists’ flower; and, as it is not quite so difficult to grow to a considerable degree of perfection as the auricula, it is also a favourite border flower. The florists’ carnations are of three kinds, viz.—the flakes, which are striped with broad bands of two colours; the bizarres, which are striped or streaked with three colours; and the picottees, which are much the hardiest, and are only bordered with a narrow margin of some dark colour, or dotted with very small and almost imperceptible spots. The carnation, in its wild state, is a native of England, and is generally found on the walls of some old castle, or other ruin, or growing in very poor, gravelly, or calcareous soil. The cultivated plant, of course, requires different treatment; and the following directions have been kindly given to us by one of the first growers of carnations in France, M. Triquet de Blanc, Rue de la Madelaine, Paris:—“The compost should be a fresh mellow loam, mixed with an equal quantity of what the French call terre de taupinière, and we, casts from mole-hills; to this mixture should be added a fifth of well-rotten cow-dung, so thoroughly decayed as to have become quite black. The soil thus prepared should be pressed firmly into the pots, more so, indeed, than for any other plant: thus there should be twice as much earth as usual in pots for carnations. The pots are placed in the sun till the 15th or 20th of November, and watered a little at a time, but often. After the 20th of November, at latest, the plants should be kept entirely in the shade, so that they may not be exposed to the sun at any time during the day; and it is also absolutely necessary that they should be kept under a roof where they may be sheltered from the rain and snow; but they must not be put in a hot-house, as a cold situation suits them much better. During frosty weather, they should be very little watered, in order that the soil in which they grow may not freeze very hard. They are thus left in the shade till the end of April, when, there being no longer white hoar frosts to fear, they may be exposed to the east, so that the sun may shine upon them from its rising to the middle of the day, but no longer. Thus treated, they will grow luxuriantly, and produce a magnificent show of flowers.”

The best places for carnations in London, are, Groom’s, Walworth; and Hogg’s, Paddington Green.

Carnations are propagated by layers and cuttings which, as we have before mentioned, are called pipings. The layers are made when the flowers are in full blossom, and several are made at once, as the operation frequently kills the old plant, and consequently cannot be practised with advantage unless a great many plants are ready to take its place. The layers are cut half through as usual; and covered half an inch deep with mould. As the stalks are very brittle, when they are wet and succulent, it is customary to place the plant in the sun for about half an hour, or an hour, to render it flaccid before the layers are made. The layers will generally be well rooted in a month or six weeks, and will then be ready to be separated from the parent plant. The mode of treating pipings has been already described. When the buds begin to form they are frequently tied round with a strand of bast mat, to prevent them from bursting; and just as they are opening, a bit of paste-board curiously cut is slipped under the flower to keep the petals in their proper place. Each flower is also furnished with a paper or tin cap to shade it from the sun, and a stake to tie it to, in order to keep the stalk erect. Clove-carnations bear the same relation to florists’ carnations, as unbroken tulips, or self-coloured auriculas do to the finer flowers. The tree-carnation is a half-shrubby variety of the same species, and the mule pink is a hybrid between the carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) and the sweet-william (Dianthus barbatus.) All these may be treated as common perennial border flowers.

The Pink.—It is remarkable that though the pink is a commoner and hardier flower than the carnation, it is not known in a wild state, and it does not appear to have been much cultivated till the latter half of the last century, though it is said to have been introduced in 1629. Its origin is indeed very uncertain; some botanists considering it as a variety of the carnation, and others making it a distinct species, under the name of Dianthus plumarius. There are now many named sorts, and the best laced pinks rank as florists’ flowers; their culture being the same as that of the carnation. The other kinds are considered inferior, and are grown like common herbaceous plants in the open borders.