150 

 EOIJGH AND EEADY GAEDENINa.— NO. lY. 



HAEDT PLANTS TOE MASSES. 



COEEESPOXDENT asks for a list of hardy plants 

 suitable for the bedding system, which may be planted, 

 and left for several years to take care of themselves. The 

 subject is well adapted for this series ; indeed, it is the 

 principal object of these papers to assist in the full 

 development of the highest possibilities of decorative gardening, with 

 the least possible expenditure of labour and money. It is not by 

 any means an easy matter to plant a set of beds with hardy plants 

 alone in such a way that, in the height of summer, their appearance 

 will be rich according to prevailing ideas of richness in garden 

 colouring. AVe can imagine some of our readers making the attempt, 

 and at last pulling all their work to pieces, and beginning again with 

 geraniums and verbenas. However, we shall deal with the subject 

 honestly and decisively ; giving to none of the plants we select a 

 character on the couleur de rose principle, and as far as we can fore- 

 see difficulties, pointing them out. It occurs to us to make two 

 practical remarks. In the first place, a group of beds, or an entire 

 garden, embellished with hardy plants throughout may be rendered 

 abundantly beautiful and interesting if a sufficiency of noble forms 

 are introduced. Eor example, the little Campanula carpatica, with 

 its myriads of pure white or light blue flowers. Mill be found one of 

 the best plants for this kind of planting ; but if subjects like it in 

 habit are alone selected, the effect must be tame, though to certain 

 tastes it might be pleasing. Therefore we turn to quite another 

 class, and we find in such a noble subject as the New Zealand flax 

 {^Pliormium tenax), or the Eecurved-leaved Adam's Needle {Yucca 

 recurva), bold decisive outlines which add to the dignity and rich- 

 ness of the garden, and remove from it entirely the tameness that 

 might result from a profusion of hardy herbaceous plants, and the 

 complete absence of the ordinary highly-coloured bedders. The 

 second general remark is, that however carefully hardy herbaceous 

 plants are treated in the first instance, they must not be expected to 

 keep themselves in a trim orderly condition ; and therefore by 

 *' rough and ready gardening " must not be understood leaving the 

 garden to go wild, the weeds to get the upper hand, the best plants 

 to grow into jungle-like masses, or die out and leave bare places, as 

 is the custom of some of the very best of them. Some amount of 

 cultivation must be attempted, some amount of care must be be- 

 stowed, some amount of taste displayed. Yet one more remark. 

 The sort of gardening we are treating of now is not well adapted 

 for gardens strictly geometric in design, and the plants we shall now 

 recommend are not the best possible for a summer display in the 

 formal parterre. In designs prepared expressly for geraniums and 

 other greenhouse bedding plants, hardy plants, however judiciously 

 disposed, will have a somewhat cold appearance ; but the best par- 

 terre in the grandest garden in the world may be made the richer 

 and the more pleasing by the introduction of hardy plants. Many 



