98 



THE GARDENEWS MONTHLY 



[ April, 



good oonilition. Wliy should those imrtii-idar 

 beds grow so dwarf? To be honest, it is necessary 

 in this connection to record a faihire. 



The beds in cinestion were not intended for 

 Salvia, and were filled in May with plants of a 

 widely dirtVrent genus, which however grew so 

 slowly and became such bald-headed looking spe- 

 cimens that their presence amongst health and 

 beauty could not be tolerated. Anticipating this 

 failure, I propagated suHicient Salvia in April to 

 replace them. The cuttings were taken from 

 some large old plants wintered over, and were 

 planted in the beds early in July. It was a 

 struggle for life with them, but they held their 

 own, however, and commenced flowering at the 

 same time as did those which were well grown 

 plants when put out. In this instance, that 

 which was intended merely as a make-shift, hap- 

 pened to prove a success. I have no desire to 

 repeat the experiment, however, but " necessity 

 knows no law," and one never knows how soon 

 it may be necessary to devise some means of 

 hiding that which would otherwise prove a 

 failure. 



It is absolutely necessary to grow bedding 

 plants. A tastefully arranged, well-kept garden, 

 on what is generally understood as the bedding 

 system, is most beautiful. We also need flowers 

 to cut, and bedding plants generally produce 

 bloom adapted for the purpose. But what valid 

 reason can be given why this particular mode of 

 decoration should be adopted to the exclusion of 

 all others ! Is there no beauty except in masses 

 of brilliant color ? True, we may arrange them 

 with artistic taste, may tone down glaring colors, 

 with neutral tints, so as not to offend the most 

 fastidious ; but congruity, " the eternal fitness of 

 things " should not be lost sight of. Few indeed 

 would place a grand piano-forte in a room with 

 bare walls and floor, nor a carpet of velvet pile 

 in a kitchen. Yet it is a fact well known to most 

 readers of this periodical, that inconsistencies 

 almost as glaring, are often perpetrated in what 

 is considered to be the embellishment of grounds. 



I would be understood here, not as seeking to 

 depreciate the efforts of the owners of small 

 country places to make their surroundings more 

 home-like by planting a few flowers, flowering 

 and evergreen shrubs, &c. This is as it should 

 be, only more of it is needed by our rural popu- 

 hition, and much more migVt be done in that 

 line at trifling expense. 



A short time since, the writer was called to 

 visit a place where considerable expense had 



he<'n incurred in imjjroving the landscape. 

 There was, previous to the iwpmvnnnil, a (ino lot 

 of old cedars, every vestige of which had been 

 removed. The grove had been cleaned up "spic 

 and span," not an Azalea nor a Kalmia dared 

 show a spray. The lawn was sharply defined, 

 the flower-beds far too numerous and too nar- 

 row. The herbaceous border was entirely ig- 

 nored, of course, as being too anticjuated for the 

 " modern style of gardening, you know." Some 

 Abies excelsa had been planted singly within 

 six feet of the drive ; and a few other shrubs, &c-, 

 were dotted about here and there, looking very 

 much out of place. A great deal had been done, 

 much of which, however, would have been far 

 better let alo.ie. In fact, we shall be making 

 rapid progress towards our next Centennial, be- 

 fore some of the grand natural objects thus ruth- 

 lessly torn away can be re-placed in as noble a 

 form. Yet this estate contains within itself all 

 the diversity of hill and dale, were it availed of, 

 to make the scene most beautiful. At theproi^er 

 distance from the front piazza, where the drive 

 could have been carried in a bold sweep ai^ound 

 the brow of a hill, could have been placed some 

 grand clumps of Geranium argenteum, Erian- 

 thus Ravenna^, Yucca filamentosa and Y. glori- 

 osa, Canna, Caladium es-^ulentum. Hollyhock, 

 &c., &c. In connection with the above, could be 

 used with charnfing eflect Juniperus, Retino- 

 spora, Cupressus, Biota, Thuiopsis, &c. Away 

 beyond these again should have been planted 

 specimens of fine foliaged, weeping trees, &c., 

 carrying the eye over a fine undulating surface 

 to a higher hill beyond, skirted by a wood on 

 the northern side, where might have been 

 planted some fine clumpj of Abies, Pinus, &c., 

 perhaps fringed by European Larch; and all 

 this beauty might have been had for very little 

 more than it cost to destroy that which pre- 

 viously existed. As a country, we have some- 

 thing yet to learn in Landscaping and in For- 

 estry. Could not the Granges do something to 

 induce farmers and others to plant a few trees 

 annually, both for ornament and utility? 



Suppose the members of a Grange club unite to- 

 gether and buy a few tliousands of— say Norway 

 Spruce, of smallish size, and divide them pro- 

 portionately. Being of somewhat rapid growth, 

 if properly planted and attended to, the present 

 generation would reap the benefit, Avhile those 

 to come would bless the memory of those who 

 ha I beautified their surroundings, and at the 

 same time the country. 



