20^ 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



ia matters of vegetable physiology, ac- 

 customed to observation, and that " fore- 

 casting of the whole " which Cowper notes 

 as so essential to success. Those wb.o 

 dabble with little town plots, and never 

 soar beyond paternal laurels and sweet- 

 williams have an idea that the gardeners' 

 season begins in May and ends in Septem- 

 ber ; but y our genuine gardener finds as 

 much to do, and as many pleasures in his 

 work in the depth of winter as in the 

 height of summer. I do not know but 

 what the winter pleasures are the best, as 

 they certainly are the most intellectual. 

 Philosophers say, tliat "anticipating" is 

 a greater joy than " realizing," and when 

 a man sits down to sketch out his scheme 

 of culture lor the next season, to plan his 

 beds and arrange his planting, he has to 

 exercise some very high faculties of mind. 

 Perhaps he has done verbenas and gera- 

 niums, and lobelias, till he is sick of the 

 repetitions, and now he means to -^^'ork out 

 a new style of bedding altogether. He 

 looks orer his st0!;k, and by a strong effort 

 of imagination pictures out a plan and sees 

 it planted in i^3 proper colours. Here, 

 however, " is the rub," and the man of 

 experience must be the man of inven- 

 tion ; for when his plans are ail conceived, 

 the colours marked, and tlie scheme com- 

 pleted, the thing liaa yet to he done in 

 actual plants, and, strange to say, no gar- 

 dener, however talented and rich in ex- 

 perience, can predict to a certainty how 

 any scheme of bedding not before tried 

 will answer. It must be done first, and 

 judged on the ground ; and hence the 

 risking of a whole season, and perhaps 

 thousands of plants, on an idea, is a bold 

 adventure, and success proves a far-sighted 

 sagacity. 



But consider the anxiety of the winter 

 work where new patterns and styles are 

 tried every year. Think of giving a man 

 a bit of golden leaved stonecrop, or a new 

 variegated balm, or ground ivy, the gift 

 being perhaps a mere scrap of an inch long, 

 and what would you say if you were to see 

 a hundred yards of it forming the most 

 delicate edging to geometric beds next 

 summer? Yet this is just the sort of 

 achievement in which an earnest gardener 

 delights. Your scrap of something new or 

 curious is made to root iu heat ; then the 

 top nipped off and struck, and then every 

 stem, as fast as they appear, taken off and 

 rooted again, till in the course of a few 

 months your valued gift has been multi- 

 plied a thousand-fold, and a simple sport ! 

 of Xature, which an unobservant eye would 

 have passed unlieeded, is, once secured ' 



in its entirety, converted into garden-stock, 

 and the splendour of a grand show made 

 perfect by it. 



The vigilant gardener is always on (•he 

 look-out for novelties and improvements. 

 He observes an early pea come into blossom 

 before any one in the row shows any signs 

 of bloom. He does not look at it in idle 

 wonderment, but at once secures it as a 

 prize. He tears down the whole row, clears 

 a space about it, gives it extra light, air, 

 and nourishment, and ripens its pods a 

 fortnight before any of the rest, and he 

 secures seed of an earlier sort, and lays the 

 foundation of a fortune. 



But apart from the daily work, apait 

 from the seasonal change and the call 

 for various operations consequent on the 

 growth and decay of things, what a joy is 

 a garden as a place of retreat from worldly 

 cares, from anxieties and worry of all kinds ! 

 There is our school of Nature, where we 

 watch the first greening of the leaf, the 

 growth of the full summer's verdure, and 

 the slow but sure passage of autumn's 

 " fiery hand " among the branches. There 

 are tlie glittering constellations, and the 

 soothing odours, that beguile one into 

 the belief that God lets some fragments of 

 heaven fall upon man's lot, that when he 

 feels "of the earth, earthy," and the pres- 

 sure of sordid musings, or the fever of 

 worldly ambitions eat up the heart, and 

 threaten to crush every tender emotion 

 out of it, he may in the freshness of the 

 innocent woidd of flowers feel that life has 

 its lovely compensations, and its rewards 

 liere^ and that the words of the Saviour 

 appropriately answer his complaints — " If 

 God so clothe the grass of the field, how- 

 much more shall he clothe you, O ye of 

 little faith?" 



Think of the morning walk, all cool- 

 ness and fragrance ; think of the mid-day 

 lounge under embracing branches, where 

 the mind sinks into sweetest dreams, and 

 all our past readings of old lore, poetr3', 

 and Holy Writ take shapes, and fioat 

 before us like realities. Think of the mid- 

 day summer glow of all things when the 

 parterres burn with colour, and the cool 

 greea grass defies the sun to brown one 

 ravel of its mossy carpet ; think of tlie 

 " quiet cigar," all alone in seraphic contem- 



j plation ; think of the indoor readings of 

 the works of men who have loved gardens, 

 from Bacon to Wordsworth, whose avenues 

 of hollyhocks were the pride of Eydal ; 

 think of the summer visits to the gardens 

 of friends to make notes of comparison ; 

 the trips to botanic gardens, not forgetting 



fetes and exhibitions, where the genuine 



