346 THE FLORIST. 



P. LiEViGA.TUS. An interesting species, a foot and a half high, hearing light 



purple flowers in spring. 

 P. HiRSUTUs. This species grows from one to two feet high, has rather 



large leaves, and light purple flowers, in perfection during summer. 

 P. DiFFUSUS. This is an unattractive species, of a rather coarse hahit ; 



grows about a foot and half high, and has small purplish red flowers. 



J. HOULSTON. 



ON WINTER PLANTING FLOWER GARDENS. 



However gorgeous the display which well-arranged flower-gardens 

 make from the end of June to October, a considerable part of the year, 

 during which out-door enjoyment is coveted and enjoyed, passes away 

 without there being anything to attract the eye, except the mere outline 

 of the naked beds. That there are many exceptions to this I admit ; 

 and as I should like to see them become general, I give you my ideas 

 on the subject, for insertion in the Florist. 



I do not see why the flower garden should not be as interesting 

 during winter, and present as gay an appearance during spring, as later 

 in the season ; to be sure it is not possible to get up such a blaze of 

 colour in March and April as can be done in August ; but still much 

 may be done towards it ; and there is a freshness and brightness about 

 spring flowers which make them perhaps more really delightful than 

 summer ones. Besides, most of our spring flowers have been associated 

 with us from our very childhood ; and although great improvements 

 have taken place in many of them, and there are more numerous 

 varieties, with new names and brighter colours, yet the resemblance to 

 the pets of our boyish days is not entirely obhterated, and such things 

 as Heartsease, Windflowers, Crocus, Daffodil, Hepaticas, Tulips, Poly- 

 anthus, &c., still hold their place in the list of modern garden plants. 



But to my subject : I must now suppose the summer-flowering 

 plants destroyed or out of bloom, and that it is intended to make up 

 the beds to look interesting during winter, and gay in the spring. It 

 now becomes a point to consider how this can best be effected. In 

 the first place, where beds exist without any particular arrangement, 

 the best way will be to half fill them with a mixture of such dwarf 

 shrubs as Avill suit the purpose, taken from a list I will append ; 

 planting them sufficiently apart to allow for Anemones, Tulips, Nar- 

 cissus, &c., or early-blooming herbaceous plants, to grow fi'eely between 

 them. The beds will be further improved by an edging of low-growing 

 bulbs (as Crocuses), or Heartsease, or similar gromng plants. The 

 shrubs will give the beds a cheerful appearance during winter ; and on 

 the approach of spring they will daily become more enlivened as one 

 thing after another creeps into bloom. But for gardens laid out in the 

 geometric style something more than this should be attempted ; with 

 the plan before you each bed should be marked ^^^th its appropriate 

 colour, carefully contrasted throughout, so as to harmonise as a whole. 

 In most designs there are what may be termed neutral beds, or beds 

 dividing the whole design into separate patterns ; now these and the 



