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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



rounded with flowers ; whereas your 

 forecourts, borders, lawns, and all 

 else, are flowerless, and probably con- 

 tain no plants at present, and have 

 not contained plants of any kind for 

 some months past. My plunging sys- 

 tem changes all that, and the extent 

 to which it is to be carried out is to 

 be measured by the purse only ; for 

 as a matter of art, or science, or mere 

 convenience, it is illimitable. Take a 

 common case : a series of beds and 

 borders in the most conspicuous posi- 

 tion that can be found for them, and 

 all they do for their possessor is to 

 produce a glow of colour from June 

 to September. For seven months in 

 the whole year they are literally use- 

 less, and virtually unsightly. To be 

 sure, those who really read theFLOEAL 

 Woeld and follow its advices, do not 

 follow so false a system. During the 

 seven years of our labours in these 

 pages we have brought forward nu- 

 merous simple methods of redeeming 

 the bedding system from its numerous 

 evil accompaniments, and the conse- 

 quence is that a much more liberal 

 system is coming into fashion ; so that 

 we see hyacinths and tulips in spring, 

 and pompone chrysanthemums in 

 autumn, and evergreen trees and 

 shrubs in winter, besides geraniums 

 and verbenas during the summer 

 months. But the plunging system, if 

 adapted to any place, by any means, 

 supersedes and outshines, and all but 

 extinguishes, every other system; for 

 it can be carried to such an extent as 

 affording a complete change of scene 

 every day throughout the year, or it 

 can be contracted to three or four 

 changes a year ; and independent of 

 complete changes and re-arrange- 

 ments, the various minor details may 

 be varied ad lib. ; so that if you have 

 but a dozen plants in flower, and 

 capable of bearing exposure in the 

 open air, that dozen may be intro- 

 duced in the midst of thousands 

 already placed for effect, and will tell 

 their own tale and justify their own 

 presence from first to last. 



I am bound to say further, by way 

 of preface, that I have horticultural 

 as well as artistic reasons for follow- 

 ing out this plan. I am so shut in by 

 high walls and large trees that there 



are some difficulties occasionally in 

 producing a fine display of flowers at 

 the entrance to my little garden, 

 where it is most important to give to 

 all who present themselves a floral 

 welcome. I can grow a few dozens, 

 hundreds, or thousands of plants, and 

 introduce them to the scene while 

 they are in their full glory, and the 

 shade of trees and walls does no harm, 

 seeing that when their bloom is over 

 they go back to their pits or green- 

 houses, or elsewhere, or to the rubbish 

 heap if done with for ever, as will of 

 course be the case with such things 

 as asters, balsams, etc., when their 

 best display is over. The system has, 

 however, not been forced upon me. 

 The walls and trees are not so near 

 and so darkening as to render it im- 

 possible to grow flowers in the usual 

 way; it is the result rather of intense 

 dissatisfaction, and sometimes of dis- 

 gust, at the appearance of unoccupied 

 beds and borders for months together, 

 for by the planting system there must 

 be blanks at times, and the evil must 

 be borne with patience. But I want 

 more than the planting season will 

 give me. I want to be constantly 

 enjoying my little enclosure, and have 

 no stomach to live on mere anticipa- 

 tions and remembrances ; as by look- 

 ing forward to the display that is to 

 be, and calling to mind the display 

 that was ; so if we can walk on car- 

 pets of flowers all our days, it is much 

 preferable to walking sometimes on 

 flints and brick-bats. 



It must be understood that I am 

 not advocating the plunging system 

 as intended to bring about a revolution 

 in amateur gardening. You all know 

 I am as careful as can be not to write 

 about hobbies in a way to make 

 people forget the serious duties of 

 life, and ruin themselves in extrava- 

 gant schemes of horticultural display. 

 The regular geometric garden must, 

 no doubt, remain to be dealt with on 

 the planting system, though that sys- 

 tem is greatly open to enlargement 

 and improvement ; so, perhaps, must 

 it be with the generality of borders 

 and beds on lawns ; but the plunging 

 system is particularly adapted for 

 entrances, approaches, groups of beds 

 placed immediately under the win- 



