Systema horti-culturæ, or, The art of gardening in three books ... / by J. Woolridge, gent.

CHAP. V. Of divers other Select Flowers.

SECT. I. Of Gilliflowers.

NOtwithstanding the Flower-bearing Trees are compleat Ornaments with little trouble; the Bulbous rooted Flowers so illustrious that they merit great e∣steem from the most curious, being less sub∣ject to Casualties than most others, and the Tuberose Roots yield such incomparable Beau∣ties in the Spring; yet must they concede to the Gilliflower, the pride of the Summer, that hath its scent as pleasing as its variegations beautiful.

Lovely Carnations then their Flowers dilate, The worth of them is as their Beauty, great. Their smell is excellent.—Rapinus.

Their Colours are not many, but infinitely and variously compounded, and being so easily

and frequently raised of Seed, do annually produce new mixtures, and those have impo∣sed on them new Names, that it is impossible to give you a true account of them; therefore it will be more proper for you to please your own fancy, or confide in the integrity of a Gardener, than to trust to the lame descriptions you may meet withal, or to the florid Names that are given them, on purpose to beget your admiration of such that little deserve it.

Their times of Flowering are generally in July and August; sometimes the early Buds may yield you Flowers in June, but their latter Buds in September and October and by careful defending them in November.

The right Dutch Gilliflowers rarely produce Seed here, but when they do you must pre∣serve it from wet till it be ripe, then gather it and lay it by in the Husk, until the Spring.

In May, after the cold Nights are spent, is a good time to sow these Seeds, which ought to be on good Earth, in some shady place where it may have the Morning or Evening Sun only.

They should be sown thin, and the Earth sifted over it half a Finger thick.

In August or September following, you may remove them into their proper Beds, and the Summer following, they will inform you of their worth by their Flowers. The single and poorer sort reject, and those that blow fair and whole, or are well marked, preserve.

For the first Winter after sowing them,

there is little danger of their being hurt by Cold, in that particular they are like the stock Gilliflowers, which in their first Winter are ex∣tream heardy, and in the second very tender.

You may plant your best Gilliflowers in Pots filled with Earth for that purpose, that you may give them Sun or Rain, according to the Season of the Year, and as they require.

Plant them not under a Wall or other Fence, that may reflect the heat of the Sun upon them, for they delight in an open Air, and not in intemperate Heat.

Great Rains, especially in the Winter and Spring, Prejudice them much, therefore you are to defend them from it equally as from Cold. Those Flowers that are planted in Beds, and not in Pots, are to be defended from Wet and Cold as there is occasion, by some Cover or Shelter to place over them, which must be open at the top, or on one side: The fittest for this occasion, are old Bee-hives, with a Door of about a Span square on the side that may be open off from the Weather, which you defend them against.

You may increase your Flowers by laying them in June, July and August, but in June or July is the best time, the method is this: First trim your Slip you intend to lay, by clip∣ping off the side Leaves, and topping the o∣ther, then with a sharp Pen-knife cut a Tongue half through, from one of the middle Joynts under the Slip, to the next Joynt towards you, beginning next the Root, and cutting upwards,

loosen the Earth under it, and with a small hooked Stick force it down, that the Tongue or Slit may open, and the end of the Slip point upwards cover it with Earth, and water it, which irrigation must be reiterated according as the drought of the Season requires it.

If the Slips be so high that they cannot be bent to the Ground with ease, then take a small Earthen Pot with a slit on the side, in which you may dispose of your Slip as you desire.

About a Month after, your Layers will have taken Roots, then may you take them off with some of the adhering Earth, and plant them in their places prepared for them.

But if any should not have taken root, you may anew lay them, and make the Cut a little deeper, and so let them remain till the Spring, and then you may plant them out as you see fit.

Plant your Layers not too deep, for there∣by many a good Plant hath been spoiled.

A Cave or Pit made in some place in your Garden, would be very convenient to place your Pots of Flowers in for there no Winds nor severe Frosts can annoy them, the driving Rains also cannot much offend them.

The Morning Sun is the most benign to your Gilliflowers; therefore you may defend your most choice from the Afternoon Sun, by some artificial Skreen, in case you have no place na∣turally posited for that purpose: This to be done before, and in blowing time.

To have Gilliflowers or Carnations (as they are vulgarly termed from those ancient English Flowers that were usually of a Flesh Colour) during the most part of the Winter, they may be placed in Pots, in some convenient Room open to the South, and to be shut at pleasure to defend them from the Cold, unless to give them the benefit of the warm Sun at Noon sometimes, or a little Southerly Rain; into which Room may be conveyed some warmth from your ordinary Fire, or else a Fire there∣in on purpose. I suppose a Lamp may be maintained burning at an easie Expence in a close Room, which may be sufficient to de∣fend them from Frost; a constant though small Heat will effect much the Lamp may also be enlarged as the Room or severity of the Wea∣thee requires; the smoak of the Lamp may be conveyed away by a Funnel over it for that purpose: thus may many other Rarities be preserved over the Winter at an easie Charge.

The Earrh about your Gilliflowers, ought to be; renewed once in two Years at the least, for by that time they have exhausted the bet∣ter and more appropriated part of the Earth or Soyl.

Your Flower Pots ought to have holes in the bottom, to let out the superfluous moi∣sture and also in case you are willing to wa∣ter your Flowers, you may dip the Pots half way into a Tub of water prepared, the one after the other; and the Earth will attract the Water through the holes, which is much bet∣ter than sprinkling.

If you have any Gilliflowers that are broken, small, or single, you may graff on them other Gilliflowers that are more choice, but graff them in the most woody part of the Stalk; the best way is by whip-graffing.

Pidgeons Dung being the hottest of Dungs, applied about the Roots of Gilliflowers, maketh them flower the more early.

To defend your Gilliflowers from the injury of Cold and Frost, such of them that are pla∣ced in Beds and not moveable; some have prescribed to take two slender Wands or bend∣ing Sticks, and fix each end in the ground on each side of the Flower, that the Sticks may Arch-wise be across over the Flower, which is said to defend them by some Magical Ver∣tue.

If your Gilliflower or Layer be inclinable to shoot up in the Summer with one single stem, suffer it not to blossom that Year, but nip or cut the stalk off, lest it give you a fair Flower and never thrive after.

Pinks though mean Flowers singly of them∣selves, yet the common red single sort of them, planted on the Edges of your Walks against the sides of your Banks do not only preserve your Banks from foundring, or mouldring down, but when in Blossom, are a very great Ornament, and most excellently perfume your Garde.

Sweet Williams, Sweet Johns, and London Pride, are pretty Fancies, and near of kin to the old English Gilliflower.

SECT. II. Of Stock-Gilliflowers, and Wall-flowers.

THE Lucoium or Stock-Gilliflower is a Flow∣er of much Beauty, delicate Scent, and some Variety; a good Garden cannot be said to be well stored without them, nor a Flower-pot well adorned without some of these; they continuing long in Blossom, from April till the Frost prevents them. They are generally raised of Seed, and the first Winter, because they have not yet spent their finer Spirits; they are very hardy and endure any Weather, but the next Winter they are very tender.

With curled Threads and top-divided now, Along the Margin of your Borders grow Stock-Gilliflowers, whose blushing Leaf may fear, And justly too, the sharpness of the Air.

The double, whereof some are strip'd, and some plain, are very pleasant; but the double yield no Seed.

The single have generally four Leaves in a Blossom, but if there be five Leaves, the Seed thence produced, will bring double Flowers.

The white single usually produce double Flowers, as also do those that are strip'd with white.

The yellow double Stock-Gilliflower is the most rare of any.

The Seeds of those kinds that usually pro∣duce double Flowers, being often sown in the same Soil, will degenerate into all single, and by degrees into all plain Colours, as I have tryed. Quaere, if they will do the same if sown in barren Earth.

There is another sort of Double Stocks, that are not raised from Seed, only by Slips and Layers, that is more durable than the Seed∣lings.

Those raised of Seed will sometimes abide the second Winter if it be mild, or the Stocks well defended; if you take away the blowing Sprigs, the precedent Autumn, it will much further their duration.

They may be laid as other Plants are, and being kept secure from violent Colds, will en∣dure the Winter.

They may be planted out in Slips, if you take such as are not spired to blow, and cut them from the Stock, and slit the end in three or four places about half an inch, and peel the Rind back as far as the Slit, and take away the inward Wood: Then set this Slip with the Rind spread every way about two or three fingers deep, water it and shade it, until it hath taken Root; by this means may you maintain your stock of Double-Stocks, without the two years expectation.

The Seeds from which you expect to have double Flowers, must be sown at the full of

the Moon, or in two or three days after, and when come up four or five inches high, take them up and plant them out, which prevents their running up to stalk, which labour you may reiterate twice before Winter.

If you remove, water, and shade them e∣very time to preserve them, (it being a Sum∣mer work) and do it the first time three days after the Full, and twice more before the next Change, and again three days after the next Full, and once more before the succeeding Change, (all these removes to be in barren Ground.) Then at the third Full Moon, eight days after remove them again into rich Ground, wherein they are to stand. It is said that it will make them bring forth double Flowers.

It hath been long observed that the Moon hath great influence over Plants, (over Ani∣mals it is very conspicuous.) From Pliny to this day, most Authors have been of that O∣pinion. And if it hath any such influence, then surely it is in the doubling of Flowers, for we daily observe that many sorts of double Flowers will degenerate themselves into single, and that most of those double we have (which are of the kinds usually single) are propagated by Art and Industry, and why may not the Lunar influence contribute much thereto? The French Poet was of that Opinion, although differing as to the time,

Till it be full Moon, from her first increase. The Season's good; but if she once decrease, Stir not the Earth, nor let the Husbandman, Sow any Seed; when Heav'n forbids 'tis vain.

The same Poet adds.

Some in preparing of their Seed excell, Making their Flowers a larger compass swell; Thus narrow Bolls with curled Leaves they fill, Helping defective Nature by their skill.

Often removing them doth not only contri∣bute to their worth, but duration.

The Keiri or Wall-flowers, so termed, for that the single kind naturally affect to grow on old Walls, and that the double need the assist∣ance of some Wall or other support, are hardy Plants, though not altogether secure in the most severe Winters, and the better sort of them, that is, the double white, and the double red, very pleasant both to the Eye and Smell; they are easily increased by Slips and Lay∣ers.

SECT. III. Of Auricula's, Cowslips, and Primroses.

BEars-ears or Auricula's, considering their size, are the finest Flowers the choicest Gardens yield, affording a very great variety in Form as well as in Colour, and are not only beautiful to the Eye, but pleasant in Scent.

In your Election of them, it is better to trust your Eye, or confide in an honest Gardner, than in the lame descriptions of them, as be∣fore was hinted concerning the choice of Tu∣lips and Gilliflowers, only that the double is the most rare, and the Windsor Auricula the most splendid of all the rest.

Of late years these Flowers are very much improved, not only for their great variety of plain Colours, and their bearing upright large Bunches of Blossoms, but for their many beauti∣ful sorts of stripes they yield, that all the Colours that have been observ'd to be in that Flower plain, are now found to be mixed in the va∣rious sorts of stripes, that they are lately be∣come the most beautiful Ornaments of the Spring. The greatest variety, and the most beautiful of these Flowers, as well as of Tulips and Gilliflowers, are to be seen in the Garden of the great Collector and Propagator of these and all other curious Plants and Flowers, Mr. George

Ricketts of Hogsder, who supplies with them the best Florists.

They adorn your Garden in April and May, and some of them again about the end of August, and until the Frost prevent them.

If you crop off the Buds that offer to blow late in the Autumn, it will cause your Auricu∣cula's to yield you the fairer Flowers in the Spring.

They delight in rich Soyl and shady, but not under the drip of Trees.

They must be often removed, once in two years at least, and the Ground enriched, else they will decay.

The striped and double must be removed oftner, or else they will degenerate.

If you set them in Pots (which is the best way to preserve them) fill the Pots almost half full with sifted Neats-dung, the rest with a good light Mold enriched with the same Dung.

In the Winter place them in the Sun, but in the Summer in the Shade.

Defend them from wet in the Winter, but they endure all cold very well.

You may raise them from Seeds, by care∣fully gathering the Seeds, and preserving them in their Umbels till about August or September, when you must sow them in Boxes almost fil∣led with the Mixture you made for the Plants, and about a Finger thick at the top with fine sifted willow Earth, or dryed Cow-dung, beat∣en small and mixed with the Earth, in which

sow your Seeds mixt with Wood-ashes, then cover them with the same mixture of Earth sifted thereon, about April following they will come up, then may you plant them abroad, and they will yield you Flowers, some the Au∣gust following, others the next succeeding year.

There are sown very pleasant Cowslips of several shades of Red, the hose in hose, the green Cowslip, and the double Cowslip, that are worth your Planting, they are very hardy, and must be sometimes removed, or they are apt to de∣generate.

The same is observed of the Primroses, which yield the like variety of Colours, and are en∣tertained for their early welcoming in the Spring.

On a broad Leaf the Primrose first will blow.

SECT. IV. Of the Lilly of the Valley and Hellebor.

THE Lilly Conval although wild in some places Northward (as many fine Plants are in one place or other) is yet entertained in many good Gardens for its rich scent, almost equalling the Orange-flower, the use of this ex∣cellent Flower in several preparations, and its specifick properties and vertues in some Di∣seases,

makes it the more acceptable; it is ea∣sily propagated from Plants, is hardy and de∣lights in the shade.

The black Hellebor flowereth about Christ∣mas, and for that cause only is respected, and not for its Beauty: the best sort of white Hel∣lebor with red Flowers, is a Plant in great re∣pute amongst Florists, it Leaves making also a comely shew, and Flowers in April and May.

Our Ladies-slipper (an Helleborine) is much valued by most Florists, although wild in many places of the North of England, it is probable, by reason of its Name occasioned by the like∣ness its Blossom hath to a Pantofle or Slip∣per.

It yieldeth its Flowers early in the Summer, is a hardy Plant in respect of Cold, but not very apt to be encreased.

SECT. V. Of the Hepatica, Gentianella and Dittany.

THE Hepatica or Liverwort is a very plea∣sant humble Flower, never rising high, yet yielding its variety of pretty Blossoms in March; the double and the white are most re∣garded, and do deserve your labour and care, which is not much, to plant and propagate them.

The Gentianella is another very low Plant yielding in April or May many Blue Flowers of a deep dye, and are therefore regarded by most Florists.

Fraxinella or Dittany is a hardy Plant, an∣nually furnishing you with tall Stalks full of not unpleasant Flowers in June and July, and is raised by Plants or Seeds.

Notes

• Of Pinks.
• Sweet Williams.
• Stock-Gil∣liflowers.
• Sir Hugh Plat.
• Of Auri∣cula's.
• Cowslips.
• Primroses.
• Lilly of the Valley.
• Hellebor.
• Calceolus Mariae.
• Hepatica.
• Gentianel∣la.
• Dittany.