THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Volume XVni. 



OOTOBEE, 1876. 



Number 214. 



,LOWER ^ARDEN AND ^LEASURE ^ROUND. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



The great exhibition of flower gardening at the 

 Centennial Grounds must have taught our peo- 

 ple how beautifully they can adorn their grounds 

 at a trifling expense, and, as thousands on 

 thousands are visiting the Exhibition from all 

 parts of the Union, the result must be favorable 

 to our general horticultural education. There is 

 one feature which we think must strike every 

 visitor. The gardening that is fitting for a quiet 

 stroll on foot should be of a very different char- 

 acter from that along a carriage drive. In the first 

 case we have to keep in view that which looks 

 well in the immediate surroundings, while the 

 distant glimpses are of far more importance in 

 a carriage ride. Another matter one may learn 

 from the Centennial exhibit, is the advan- 

 tages of studying appropriateness in arrange- 

 ment. Much of beauty comes from the harmony 

 of relations. As noted in our last the piece of 

 rockwork on exhibition is very well, if it had 

 been where a piece of rock-work ought to be, but 

 out of place among the many artificial specimens 

 of gardening about it. On the other hand the 

 sunk garden shows admirably from the foot- 

 walks made along the heights above. There is, 

 however, one feature, an accidental one, which 

 affords us a good lesson. The space for 

 garden work is bounded by a piece of natural 



forest on one side, and the great conservatory or 

 Horticultural Hall on the other. Next to the 

 conservatory are the brightest flowers, and the 

 best kept beds. The plots devoted to shrubbery 

 come next, and then the natural woods. The 

 beds between the shrubs and the flowers were not 

 taken up by exhibitors, and hence had to be 

 filled up by the Centennial Commission with 

 something; so shrubs, evergreens, castor oil 

 plants, petunias, and all sorts of things are mixed 

 together, and the efi"ect of introducing the gay flow- 

 ers to the green leaved shrubbery is beautiful in 

 the extreme. Any one whp studies this little inci- 

 dent will have a good lesson for home gardening. 

 Another matter is worthy of thinking about. 

 We see here how few are the plants that can 

 certainly be depended on for summer gardening. 

 We have to make up our flower beds of fewer 

 items than any other people. Half the things 

 common in European flower-beds will not do 

 here, yet we follow too much those plants which 

 have European reputations. There is little 

 doubt but we have large numbers of things that 

 will not do in Europe, and which would suit us 

 exactly, and this would not only add largely to 

 our bedding plant variety, but give American 

 gardening a special character of its own. This 

 is especially the season to think of these things, 

 as the stock has to be propagated- through the 

 winter, in order to have them ready when spring 

 comes. 



