168 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



BEDDEES AND BEDDING.— No. IV. 



BY A. HEAD GAB.DENER. 

 SUBTROPICAL PLANTS. 



[T would be absurd to fill the flower garden with masses of 

 Cannas, Castor-oil plants, and Solanums, to the ex- 

 clusion of flowering plants, and no matter how extensively 

 they may be planted in the public parks, they should 

 play a very subordinate part indeed in private gardens 

 of limited dimensions. Plants remarkable for their stately growth or 

 elegant leafage are very well, provided they are surrounded with bril- 

 liant colours to relieve their heaviness, but without they can be balanced 

 with flowering plants, they had better be omitted from the arrange- 

 ments altogether. In all private gardens they should be employed 

 very sparingly, and a few single specimens of good things should be 

 preferred to masses of plants of a second-rate character. Holding 

 these views, the selection of subtropicals will be very limited, and 

 will include only such as can be thoroughly recommended. In 

 small gardens it is a very good plan to back up the mixed border 

 with a bank of subtropical plants, including as many good things as 

 can be procured for the sake of affording as much variety as it is 

 possible to obtain in a limited space. Another good plan for dealing 

 with them in small gardens is to have two or three beds filled with 

 a mixed collection, or to put single specimens in the centre of beds 

 that stand out singly upon the lawn, and are planted with flowering 

 plants. Very choice specimen palms, india-rubber plants, and tree 

 ferns, where the situation is shaded from the sun, may be placed 

 singly on the grass, and the pots or tubs sunk below the level. Apart 

 from the eligibility of the specimens for the respective situations, 

 the only matter to consider in putting them in their allotted posi- 

 tions is to make the holes from one to two feet deeper than the 

 space occupied by the pots. The bottom of the holes must be then 

 filled to the required depth, with large pieces of brick or stone, or a 

 pot can be turned bottom upwards instead. This precaution is 

 necessary to prevent the soil in the pots becoming sour through 

 remaining in a saturated state, owing to the inability of the water to 

 escape quickly. In very sandy soils it is not so important to have 

 a hollow space underneath the pots as in those of a more retentive 

 character, but in the lightest soils the pots ought not to stand upon 

 the soil in the bottom. The majority of plants used for subtropical 

 gardening do much better when planted upon beds raised from twelve 

 to eighteen inches above the level, but for such things as will be 

 here recommended, it is not necessary to incur the labour and 

 expense of raising them, excepting in low damp situations. To 

 assist the planter the average height in feet of each will be given. 



My selection for a small or medium-sized garden would comprise 

 Acacia lophantha, 6 ; Acanthus latifolius, 4 ; Andropogon formosum, 

 8 ; Aralia papyrifera, 5 ; A. Sieboldi, 4 ; Arundo conspicua, 6 ; 

 Bocconia cordata rotundifolia, 3 ; B. japonicv, 5 ; Canna Annei 



