y» THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



possessed of ordinary intelligence will believe and understand that. 

 A Cr\ stal Palace or a Battersea Park are not wanted for my experi- 

 ments and comparisons, a few square yards of glass and ground 

 suffice ; ay, and the few that I have make more work than I can 

 find time to attend to properly. I say this, because I shall have to 

 describe the system in such a way as to show that it can be carried 

 out on a large or a small scale, according to the means and ta^tes of 

 the practitioner, and to encoura<2:e the possessors of small gardens. 

 I wish it to be known that mine is extremely small, and without 

 that plunging system would be (to me) unbearable at any and every 

 season. In common with the thousands of detached villas that abound 

 in the Suburbs of London, the house is approached through a fore- 

 court, and this fore-court is the scene of operations ; it is kept at all 

 seasons richly furnished, as gay as weather will permit, and under- 

 goes some change every two or three weeks the whole year round. 

 The plunging system is nothing unless there are at least four changes 

 in the year — say in April to put out hyacinths and tulips, and in 

 May or June to put out geraniums, calceolarias, and mixtures; in 

 October for chrysanthemums, and in December for evergreens. But 

 there may be twelve, twenty-four, or even fifty-two changes, if it is the 

 taste of the proprietor to encourage change, and he has the means 

 of keeping the wheel turning at that rate. At the risk of all that 

 may be said of a man who praises his own work, I will at once say 

 that I have never in all my travels seen a garden, whether of similar 

 dimensions, or whether larger or smaller, kept so gay, so richly 

 furnished, and so frequently changed in aspect as mine. What I do 

 on a small scale, others may do on a large scale; and wherever the 

 plunging system is fairly tried, it will be found to surpass in 

 splendour, certainty, and variety, every other system that can be 

 thought of to compete with it. 



Let me endeavour to give an idea of the system as practised at 

 Stoke iSewington. There is a centre circular bed enclosed in a 

 beautiful jar di net of Eansome's imperishable stone, and there are three 

 borders, all of them faced with a handsome moulded curb, also in 

 Eansome's stone. Two of the borders are planted with trees and 

 shrubs, the principal border of the three being as richly furnished 

 as possible with Aucubas, Hollies, Yews, Berberis, Box, Japan 

 Privet, and other first-class evergreens. During winter this plantation 

 is still further enriched by plunging amongst the permanent shrubs 

 pot-plants of Cupressus Lawsoniana, pyramid Ivies, Irish Yews, and 

 other characteristic plants, all of which are removed in spring to 

 better quarters to promote their growth for the season, as the scene 

 of the plunging is very much overshadowed by large trees. The 

 front lines of these borders and the circular stone bed consist of 

 cocoa-nut fibre refuse two to three feet deep. It is in these front 

 lines that the plunging, j^ar excellence, is carried out in the most 

 complete manner, and a display of colour produced at all seasons of 

 the year, the eftect of which is greatly heightened by the depth of 

 green and richness of variegated foliage of the background. 



T«ro remarks are proper at this point. In the first place, well- 

 grown pot-plants, plunged in cocoa-nut fibre, have a much brighter, 



