• WINTER MEETING. 255 



coloring and descriptions of the new and wonderful things. Quite often one finds 

 disappointment in purchasing these grand novelties. 



Now I will try and enumerate a few of such as are among our best bedding 

 plants. First and foremost stands on the list the queen of all flowers, the rose. 

 Few plants, if any, are more extensively grown than the rose, and when reason- 

 able care is given, the plants respond with an abundance of flowers. The rose is 

 so easily grown and so cheaply got, there should be no garden without at least a 

 small collection of hardy Perpetuals, or some of the more free-flowering Teas, 

 Noisettes and Bourbons. Next to the Rose the Geranium should be in every 

 flower-bed ; the various kinds are so numerous that everybody can be pleased. I 

 well remember the time when there were only a few kinds, but now their name is 

 legion— every imagionable shade of coloring, from the purest white to the deepest 

 scarlet, single and double flowering. Who would have ever dreamed of such mag- 

 nificent kinds as the free-blooming Asa Gray, Double Gen. Grant, or the lovely 

 E. G. Hill, or the beautiful Souvenir de Mirande? What can be more pleasing 

 than a mass of Double Gen. Grants in full bloom? The Geranium grows almost 

 anywhere with the least of care, and pays the grower in proportion to the work 

 bestowed on them with a good supply of blooms. The Verbena, as a splendid bed- 

 der, is not to be overlooked. What a mass of bloom a small bed will produce is 

 wonderful, and the variation of shades is almost endless; they are very easy grown 

 and very cheap, but beautiful, and can be planted on beds previously occupied with 

 bulbs, such as Tulips and Hyacinths. The Pansy, as a bedder for rather shady 

 places, pays for all the trouble and expense. A bed of them will please without 

 fail. The Lantanas of the various kinds will well repay ; and no flower-garden is 

 complete without the sweetest of all flowering plants, the lovely Heliotrope; by 

 all means plant a few ; and who can but admire the Salvia, with its brilliant scarlet 

 spikes of flowers borne well above the foliage. 



The Phlox Drumondi is another good bedder grown from seed. The Culphea 

 or Cigar plant is also admired by many. The Petunias, single or double, rank as 

 good bedding plants and are very eftective in masses ; their brilliant flowers of 

 endless shading are certainly and justly prized ; they are easily grown from seed. 

 I would also mention the Tube-rose and Gladiolus as good and deserving; the 

 Feverfew, an old plant, but their pure white daisy-like flowers are always liked ; 

 the Mignonette, Sweet Alyssum and the Ageratums, blue and white. The double 

 Balsam is also greatly admired, especially White Perfection ; although a common 

 plant, when well grown is hard to surpass by the best of carnation except in fra- 

 grance. One of our most valuable bedders is the Coleus of the different kinds ; 

 there can hardly be anything in the floral kingdom that out-rivals their beauty ; 

 it is of comparative late introduction as a bedder; they stand the sunniest place in 

 the garden ; are easy grown and cheap. The Cannas of the various kinds are very 

 effective in some gardens ; their large and handsome foliage gives the garden a 

 semi-tropical appearance ; they flower very freely and the plants are cheap ; of the 

 easiest growth ; can be ;kept over winter in a cellar free from frost, and multiply 

 very rapidly ; of late immense improvemencs have been made, especially in the 

 dwarf ever-blooming French kinds. What is more beautiful than Madame Crazy 

 or Star of '91. 



Alternantheras of the different kinds for bordering or massing are pai* ex- 

 cellence. For lettering on the lawn or carpet-bedding they cannot be surpassed by 

 any other plant in cultivation. A few years ago one of the grandest sights ever 

 beheld in that line of gardening was seen by the writer at Shaw's Botanical Garden 

 at St. Louis. One could hardly realize that nature and art were capable of produc- 



