1'6 



69.] SPRING GARDENING. 36' 



There is also another use in these grounds : they serve as a kind of 

 school of instruction for many of the surrounding gardeners, who are 

 far removed from the centres of horticultural enterprise and activity. 

 The proprietor, Mr H. G. Quilter, although not a practical horticul- 

 turist, is yet alive to the importance of introducing any new feature 

 into his bedding-out system ; and new designs and new agencies are 

 instantly seized upon as soon as they present themselves, if they can 

 be turned to account, with the best possible results. Even subtropical 

 gardening is here extensively carried out and much appreciated, 

 though it is amusing in the highest degree to stand by one of the 

 raised beds in which the curious Echeveria metallica plays an impor- 

 tant part, and listen to the altogether unique criticisms which fall 

 from the lips of some of the excursionists from the " black country," 

 of which Birmingham may be regarded as the metropolis. 



In the centre of the grounds stands a walled-in garden of 4 acres, 

 in shape a square, and formerly the kitchen-garden belonging to Aston 

 Hall. While flower-gardening is largely carried out in various direc- 

 tions outside this central garden, it is within it that it is most elabor- 

 ated. Broad gravel-walks, running from east to west and from south 

 to north, and intersecting each other in the centre, form a kind of Mal- 

 tese cross ; and at a certain distance from the centre, each arm of the 

 cross opens out, as it were, and embraces a large oval bed, occupying 

 the centre of the walk. A border some 8 feet in width is on either 

 side of the gravel- walks, and rises from the path-level to a height 

 of 3 feet in the middle, forming a kind of ridge, and falls away to 

 the ground-level on the other side. This gives an 18-feet border, 

 raised considerably in the centre. This raised border and the gravel-walks 

 form the cross, the angles being filled with turf, on which are flower- 

 beds of various shapes and sizes, specimen trees, ornamental shrubs, &c. 

 The centre of this garden appears in the plan on next page. The 

 outer border of the plan represents one-half of the sloping bed — that 

 falling inwards to form the centre of the cross. 



This central garden, as given in the plan, is to some extent complete 

 in itself, as the summit of the sloping bed (forming the exterior of the 

 plan) has a kind of fence of galvanised iron, the top of which hangs in 

 the form of festoons, like the " slack rope " on which an acrobat per- 

 forms. Each circle on the exterior of the plan represents a standard 

 plant of Acer negundo variegata, immediately under the silvery-foliao-ed 

 head of which the extremities of the festoons meet. This iron fence 

 is covered with Irish Ivy, and gives an admirable background to the 

 flower-beds in front and at the back of it. The openings made by the 

 walks are overarched by strong and elegant wire archways of ornamental 

 designs, and from the centre of each is suspended a handsome hanging 



