THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 105 



plants are in their places, and growing freely, give them regular 

 attention. In the first place, let them have only as much artificial 

 watering as will suffice to keep them in healthy growth from the 

 time of planting until there are heavy rains, and thence to the end 

 of the season do not water at all, unless they show signs of real 

 distress by long drought, and then give a tremendous soaking, and 

 no more for a week at least. The watering is in fact the least 

 important of all the needful attentions ; for the fact is, the less they 

 have of it the better. But it is very important to secure an even 

 growth all over the bed, and for this the eye and the hand must be 

 active. Any plant that has a languid look, and fails to grow as it 

 ought, remove, and supply its place with another. Any that grow 

 on one side pinch in, and compel them to grow on the other side 

 also. "Where any very strong shoots take the lead, and show flower 

 early, nip them back "to the same length as the other shoots on the 

 same plant, and the result will be an equable growth throughout. 

 It is by such attentions as these that verbena beds are brought to 

 such perfection in great gardens, and it is for lack of them that 

 verbena beds are frequently so ragged and irregular in small 

 gardens ; yet it is in the small garden where attentions of this kind 

 should be most diligently bestowed, where, in fact, verbenas and all 

 other bedders, if used at all, should be seen in the fullest perfection. 

 There ought to be no pegging done till the plants begin to show the 

 colour of their blossoms, and then the whole should be pegged at 

 once, on the same day if possible, if not, within two or three days, 

 so that the bloom niay ultimately show with uniformity — being 

 dense and rich throughout — which will not be the case if one portion 

 is pegged at some distance of time after another. Generally speak- 

 ing, it is well to peg all the shoots towards the north, but not to 

 such an extent as to leave a bare space on the south side of the 

 ribbon or beds. The fact is, the growth always tends southward, 

 and there should be in pegging a predominance of shoots towards 

 the north. Lay the shoot down with the point of the shoot towards 

 the north, or north-west if possible ; drive down the peg at about 

 the middle of the shoot, between the joints, and leave all the short 

 side-shoots free to rise with the points of the main-shoots when the 

 plants right themselves after the pegging. 



If we had to plant a square mile with verbenas, we should prefer 

 to depend on a very few kinds rather than ascertain how many kinds 

 it might be possible to introduce. But it must not be forgotten 

 that the more we can increase the number of the varieties grown, 

 the more entertainment does the garden aflbrd us ; and those who 

 blunder through the details of garden decoration as if so many 

 colours only were needed, and no risk was ever to be incurred as to 

 the means of securing those colours, had better at once advocate 

 paint-pots and brushes, because the requisite colours could be 

 obtained by such means with even more certainty than with plants. 

 "We should prefer, for example, to have many varieties of verbenas 

 in one bed rather than have one variety only, provided we could at 

 the same time insure perfect harmony and consistency of colouring. 

 Thus the amateur interested in observing the characters of varieties 



