THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



131 



arrangement, and somehow a tuft of Pha- 

 laria in a pot, that had no business in the 

 frame the others were taken from, got 

 mixed with them, and gave the affair quite 

 an odd appearance. Otherwise most of the 

 plants were from newly-struck cuttings 

 thrown aside when the bedding-out took 

 place; but being packed close together with 

 a bit of bloom on most of them, and the 

 moss forming a lively green surface, they 

 had a really chai-ming appearance. 



When the event had passed by for 

 which they were used, I retained a few as 

 ornaments for the rest of the season. One 

 was filled with Tom Thumb's Bride Gera- 

 nium, which I shall never use again for 

 bedding. They were spring plnuta in sixty 



deep, inside measure. Whoever wants 

 elegant trailers should procure this senecio ; 

 it will not be likely to flower, but it grows 

 at a mosti'apid rate, and is the most chaste 

 and cheerful of all the trailers I know to 

 dangle from a basket, whether of bark or 

 wire. The foliage is of the shape of 

 English ivy, of a waxen lustre, and in- 

 tensely bright green, and its ringlets of 

 verdure take the most graceful forms ima- 

 ginable. Another basket was filled with 

 Calceolaria aurea floribunda, edged with 

 Leptodactylon Californicum, but the edging 

 would not show well when the basket was 

 lifted up, so that was placed only a foot 

 above the level of the turf. 



People who are buying such furniture 



^44^ 



pots, packed as close as possible, and round 

 them variegated mint, also in sixty pots, 

 with a plant of Imperatrice Elizabeth Ver- 

 bena at each of the handles. This was 

 placed on a low block of wood near the 

 path at a turn on to the lawn, and had a 

 very cheerful look. Another I filled with 

 Tom Thumb, edged all round with potted 

 plants of that Senecio mickaniiB which Mr. 

 Thompson sent out last year. I had one 

 of Mr. Thompson, for which I paid two 

 shillings. I took off' the top joint, and 

 struck it in heat, then struck the side- 

 shoots, and in time got half-a-dozen strong 

 plants, which were placed at eighteen 

 inches apart all round, the basket mea- 

 suring three feet across by nine inches 



should, if possible, first see Mr. Curry's 

 stock, for there is no collection in London 

 to equal it, and I know of no other man 

 skilled in the manufacture who possesses so 

 genuine a taste for such things. In plant- 

 ing baskets, all sorts of odds and ends 

 may be worked up, but the best effects 

 are produced with the fewest colours. 

 The crimson-flowered ivy-leaf geranium 

 makes a splendid basket, at a foot apart all 

 round, and six inches from the edge to 

 trail over, with a dot of calceolaria in the 

 middle. Tropteolum canarieuse does well, 

 but its base must be hidden by some large 

 leaved plant that will spread over its roots, 

 for it always gets shabby near the soil. 

 Purple verbenas make a good centre to it , 



