106 



THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



must depend upon the quickness of growth 

 in young plants, but avoid stopping after 

 March if possible, and at furthest not 

 later than the middle of April, otherwise 

 there is not sufficient time for ripening 

 the wood, a matter of the greatest im- 



portance to insure good quality of bloom 

 and well establish the specimen. 



James Holland, 

 Gardener to R. W. Peake, Esq., 

 Spring Grove, Isleworth. 



ANNUALS FOR BEDDING. 



There is great consternation and dismay 

 everywhere about the losses inflicted by 

 this seemingly interminable winter, which 

 began on the 20th of October, and was 

 not ended on the 27th of April last. While 

 we wait a little longer to determine how 

 far trees and shrubs have suffered, let us 

 consider the case of those who look for- 

 ward to the time of bedding out — which 

 will come, spite of present weather— and 

 who have nothing left to begin the (Floral) 

 world with. Soft-wooded plants have been 

 decimated, except in places where they 

 never lose a scrap of anything. In frames, 

 and other unheated structures, all that 

 remain of the autumn-struck plants are 

 the dead stumps and the tallies, and even 

 fuchsias were late in making wood, and 

 spring-struck cuttings and tender annuals 

 are more prone to damp than to grow. 

 Well, make the best of it. Foreseeing 

 that thousands would be in difficulties, 1 

 long ago bethought me of what might be 

 done if we had no bedders at all, and yet 

 were full of the present fashion of arranging 

 summer plants in masses of colour. So, 

 putting the geraniums, and verbenas, and 

 petunias out of view, I sowed a ribbon 

 of annuals, on the 20th of March, and at 

 the same time set two Waltonian cases to 

 work, for the mere pleasure of keeping the 

 candles in use, and I mean to have plenty 

 of colour, and turn over the usual bedding 

 stock to other uses in the lower part of 

 the garden. The ribbon measures five 

 feet six inches across, and is edged with 

 Hogg's tiles, has a rich background of 

 evergreens, repeated in regular masses of 

 colour, and terminates against the side of 

 a small rock bank, planted with conifers. 

 The annuals are in four lines — back line, 

 Collinsia bicolor, purple and white, that 

 is lilac, eighteen inches ; next, Venus's 

 navelwort, silver, eighteen inches ; then 

 Sanvitalia procumbens, yellow, fifteen 

 inches ; front, Saponaria calabrica, pink, 

 filteen inche=. The heights will do to a 

 nicety, and if you like that style, and are 

 as perplexed as the rest, sow at once, and 

 you will have bloom almost as soon as I 



shall. In front of the ribbon line, in a 

 central space of gravel, stands one of 

 Eansome's Jardinets, of silecious stone, 

 which all the winter has been furnished 

 with conifers in pots. To be in keeping, 

 that was sown with Iberis Kermesina, a 

 new criinson-purple, of close habit, and 

 profuse bloom. A narrow cross border, 

 under the front wall, is sown with Nemo- 

 phila insignis. 



As chrysanthemums have been punished 

 for several seasons in succession here, I 

 have determined not to be bothered with 

 them in the borders any longer. The large 

 kinds will make a good show in a tiffany- 

 house ; the choicest of the pompones will 

 do for greenhouse; and the free sorts, such 

 as Bob, Drine Drine, Brilliant, Eequiqui, 

 etc., are hardy enough to face out the wea- 

 ther for beds and ribbons, and will be got 

 into pots from their nursery quarters at 

 the end of July, so as to be plunged when 

 showing bloom in their places. This 

 change, and the removal of the herbaceous 

 perennials to places prepared for them 

 above the general level, has made room in 

 the borders each side of the turf for a pro- 

 fusion of annuals, which are sown in order 

 of heights and colours all along. The 

 shrubs are five feet apart along these bor- 

 bers ; between the shrubs are the tallest 

 annuals ; then, in the line of the dwarf 

 shrubs and roses, the next size ; and along 

 the front the dwarfest, tomake close patches. 

 Along the back row the sorts sown 

 are — Chenopodium atriplicis, handsome 

 foliage; Crimson beet, ditto; Argemone 

 Barclayana, cream ; Pajony poppy, splen- 

 did glaucous foliage, and exquisitely formed 

 flowers; Calliopsis atrosanguinea, crimson; 

 Calliopsis nigra speciosa, dark ; Gym- 

 nopsis uniserialis, yellow ; Helianthus 

 argophyllus, charming silvery foliage, five 

 feet, and requiring a large gap between 

 Spiraeas or other slender shrubs ; tall lark- 

 spur ; Nicotiana glauca, fine foliage, six 

 feet, a pinch up long ago in heat, and now 

 nice plants in 60's ; Biennis species, also 

 good plants in 60' s, from the heat of Sher- 

 wood caudles ; Oenothera biennis in a 



