130 



THE FLOEAL WORLD AND CIARDEN GUIDE. 



a terrace, or surrounded with sculpture, or 

 even very simple stone-'ivork, will ire- 

 quently reduce to vulgarity the entire 

 scene ; but on a lawn, dotted M'ith trees, 

 and surrounded b}'^ mixed beds and borders, 

 they add very much to the general charm, 

 both in their forms as specimens of a pecu- 

 liar kind of art, as also because they lift 

 the flowers to the level of the eye. This 

 last feature should give the key to plant- 

 ing thom. Whatever looks best when 

 viewed horizontally is more suited for them 

 than flowers which you need to look down 

 upon. Thus fuchsias never look so charm- 

 ing as when elevated; but verbenas, having 

 fiat trusses, are seen to better advantage 

 when pegged close to the ground. For the 



At the same time we were lumbered up 

 in the potting-shed with a lot of large 

 shallow baskets, in which shrubs and other 

 stock had been sent up from Bagshot by 

 Mr. Standish, and I cast my eye on these 

 with a determination to use them for my 

 purpose. We went to work instanter, 

 hunted up root-stumps and logs to make 

 legs for the baskets ; then made the baskets 

 ready by winding round some of them a 

 length of stout scaifold-rope ; others, which 

 had a good-looking pattern in the difierent 

 colours of wicker, we merely cleaned, and left 

 as they were. To have planted in such 

 things would have been a folly. We made 

 the most of our pot-plants, and hid the pots 

 with moss, and, as a finish, cut a lot of ivy, 



same reason as verbenas and petunias are 

 about the worst of gay things for the pur- 

 pose, geraniums, calceolarias, cupheas, 

 and trailing plants, are the best. But the 

 fact is, anything in the way of summer 

 flowers can be used in rustic baskets if the 

 colours and forms are well balanced, and 

 they may be managed on the principle of 

 the bedding system, taking the boldest and 

 brightest eifects as preferable to any refined 

 attempts at shading. I never knew till 

 last summer how easily and cheaply such 

 things as rustic baskets could be extempo- 

 rized. On a certain day I wanted my 

 garden dressed rather extravagantly, and I 

 had a lot of surplus bedding-stock in 

 frames, and quantities of ferns in pots, etc, 



and bound it round the edges of the bas- 

 kets. The scheme answei-ed so well, and 

 elicited so much admiration, that a few 

 days after I had two of the baskets 

 sketched, and liere they are, one stocked 

 with pot-fei-ns, edged with pots of varie- 

 gated mint, variegated ivies, the very 

 pretty Linaria cymbalaria, variegated 

 ground ivy, and green and variegated peri- 

 winkles. The beauty of the ferns would 

 have been marred if gay colours had been 

 mixed with them. The other onewasfigured, 

 not so much because of the planting, which 

 was a mixture, as for the pretty appear- 

 ance the basket itself presented, with a 

 rope to give the edge a finish. The plants 

 were thrust in with very little attempt at 



