28 



THE FLOEAL WORLD AXD GARDEN GUIDE. 



surpasses crerjtliing else in the same cate- 

 gory to an extent not to be defined in 

 words. Tiie best show of open air roses 

 ever and anj'whcre seen falls far below 

 that of a good breadth of well disposed 

 rhododendron clumps, wliich give the 

 liighest display of colour, character, and 

 solidity attainable among all tlie classes of 

 plants at our command for massing. Foli- 

 age, habit, the strength of the trusses, and 

 tUe varieties of colour that may be used 

 in combination and contrast, these are the 

 ]>jints tliat make the rhododendron jjopu- 

 lar ; and, to do justice to its merits, it 

 should always be seen en masse, though it 

 is not to be denied that fine specimen 

 plants completely covered with bloom are 

 as brilliant as anything we have for the 

 decoration of lawns and for key-pieces to 

 geometric gardens. Of course, the rose 

 beats it when we come to an examination 

 of details. A single bloom of Anna Alex- 

 ieff or Leon des Combats will give as much 

 ]ileasure, and of quite a different kind, as 

 tlie spectacle of an American garden in 

 its higliest state of bloom and perfection. 

 Eut there is a need everywhere for certain 

 substantial featm-es in gardens. In the 

 "Town Garden" I have even ventured to 

 insist on tlie necessity of such features in 

 tbe smallest places as preferable to the 

 assignment of any large extent for bedders 

 and herbaceous plants; in fact, there must 

 be masses of shrub in every attempt at the 

 fjardenesqiie, and the rhododendron must 

 have first place because easily grown, 

 various in chai-acter, unequalled for the 

 richness of its leafoge, and, for a short' 

 season in the earh' summer, pi'ofuse in its 

 display of colour. 



Several correspondents who have written 

 lately, are, I see, in want of features of 

 this sort under circumstances very similar 

 to my own. I have always maintained 

 that roses near the drawing-room window 

 were, hke the "weeds" in Jolms u's Dic- 

 tionary, " in the wrong place." Beautiful 

 all the summer long, many of tliem get 

 very bronzy and russety about the foliage 

 towards autumn, and during the whole of 

 the winter — say for five months at least — 

 are the ugliest objects in creation. Why 

 should we give to tlie blackbirds that which 

 was meant for mankind, namely, the 

 beauty of vegetable forms ? Wliy plant 

 tbe Americans afar off, and keep the roses 

 where, for nearly half the year, they stand 

 like shivering skeletons to prove that 

 beauty is but skin deep. Yet, though I 

 liave so stubbornly, and in the defence of 

 Ai't as applied to gardening, advocated 

 the removal of the queen of llowers, my 



own sj^ecial clioice of all tlie subjects that 

 engage my attention, to a distance from the 

 house and its windows, yet my head was 

 so turned when Spergula pilifera came into 

 the field, that I planted roses under my 

 own windows in order to have a circle of 

 the spergula, like an emerald carpet, to 

 enclose them. I repented. When winter 

 came I said that, "Don't do as I do, but 

 do as I tell yon," was after all a very ex- 

 cellent adage. The roses were removed, 

 the soil was taken out eighteen inches 

 deep, and two waggon-loads half silky 

 loam and half turfy peat were chopped 

 over ill it, and the bed planted with 

 Americans. When I speak of people being 

 circumstanced as I am, I mean this : I 

 have so little garden ground that I cannot 

 grow a hundredth part of the things I 

 should like to grow, and to make the best 

 of it I am obliged to be content with few 

 specimens in order to make as much room 

 as possible for species and varieties. So in 

 planting tliis thirteen-feet bed in the circle 

 of spergida, I determined to crowd into it 

 as much variety as possible, and yet to 

 preserve unity of character, for heteroge- 

 nous mixtures are abominable. Let us, 

 tlien, go over the list of plants used, and 

 those correspondents who ai-e planting 

 evergreen beds will obtain therefrom an 

 index of kinds suited to such work. 



Centre, one large plant of Rhododen- 

 dron Pouticum variegatnm. First circle, 

 next the variegated Ponticum, four Azalea 

 Pontica, which, though leafless all wintei", 

 do not oljtmde themselves upon the eye at 

 that period. These are magnificent when 

 in bloom, being then a dense mass of the 

 brightest gold yellow. In the same circle 

 witJi the azaleas are intervening plants of 

 Rhododendron Tauricum, wliich begin to 

 produce their little purplisli Ulac blossoms 

 in Feliruary, continuing to June. The 

 next circle is more mixed, and consists of 

 Kalmia latifolia, Kalmia angustifolia, An- 

 dromeda pulverulenta, Andromeda poli- 

 folia, Rhododendron Cataubiense, Ledum 

 palustris, half a dozen Ghent Azaleas of 

 various colours, and hybrid rhododendrons 

 to make np. There is room then for 

 another outside circle of large plants, and 

 they consist of Andromeda iloribimda, 

 Ledum buxifolia, Ledum thymifoUum, 

 Rhododendron hirsutum, ferrugianum, 

 myrtifblium, Kalmia rubra (this is one of 

 the most perfect gems in the whole cata- 

 logue of Americans) , some more Kalmia lati- 

 folia, small plants, with hybrid azaleas and 

 rhododendrons to fill up. Most of the 

 species are in pairs or tlu'ees, regularly 

 placed, with the named kinds betweea 



