November 20, 18TS. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICOLTDBK AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



393 



arrangement and skilful application of the material used, a 

 pleasing and harmonious effect is generally produced, which 

 seldom fails to give satisfaction to the most fastidious. 



It is also said that the encouragement or preference given to 

 this style of decoration has had the effect of banishing from 

 the parterre the many interesting and beautiful early and late 

 flowering hardy plants. In reality this is not the case, for 

 even the most devoted practitioners of the bedding-out system 

 are only too glad to avail themselves of the use of these plants 

 to enable them to carry out and to extend their favourite 

 system, which must, however, plead guilty to the charge of 

 having banished in a great measure from the parterre many 

 huge and unmeaning clumps or beds which were generally 

 furnished with a few flowering or evergreen shrubs, together 

 with an assemblage of coarse-growing herbaceous plants, many 

 of them as destitute of beauty as of interest, unless in a bo- 

 tanical point of view, while evidently the only arrangement 

 which had been attempted in planting them was that of placing 

 the tallest-growing sorts in the central parts of the beds, and 

 «ven this was by no means always accomplished. 



The neit charge brought against this well-abused system, is 

 that of leaving the beds and borders empty during five or six 

 months of the year ; and much has been said against the 

 cnsightly appearance of the heaps of raw bare earth which 

 the parterre presents during so long a time. Now there is in 

 reality much less in this charge than is attempted to bo proved. 

 A tastefully-designed flower garden, whether on grass or on 

 gravel, surrounded by its usual accessories in the form of 

 evergreen shrubs and ornamental trees, &c., with the beds 

 Deatly dug-np for the winter, is by no means so unpleasant a 

 picture as it is represented to be. But at the'same time it is 

 not necessary that the beds should be empty or devoid of 

 interest for so long a period as five or six mouths. The wea- 

 ther in this country during some four mouths of the year, 

 commencing with November, is certainly incompatible with 

 the enjoyment of a flower garden in the open air, as, taking 

 one season with another, unless it be in the case of some 

 €ew favoured localities, the surface of the earth is cither 

 frost-bound or hidden from view by snow for at least half 

 that time, so that a winter flower garden in these isles can 

 only exist and be enjoyed under glass and' in an artificial 

 climate. 



The parterre may be said to be rendered gay and attractive 

 by the summer bedding-out system alone for about five months 

 of the year, or from the beginning of June until the end of 

 October ; and to this may be added at least three months 

 during which it either is, or ought to be, interesting and 

 attractive by the display of spring-flowering plants and early- 

 flowering bulbs, or, say, from about the beginning of March 

 tmtil the end of May, at which time they must, of course, be 

 removed to make room for their summer-blooming successors. 

 Bo taken altogether, if matters connected with the parterre are 

 managed as they ought to be, there is really little to complain 

 of as regards the length of time during which it is rendered 

 enjoyable. 



It has already been admitted that in some instances gay 

 colours may have been used somewhat too freely in the embel- 

 lishment of the parterre; but this charge will, I think, apply 

 more to the pioneers of the grouping style, or the practitioners 

 of the bedding-out system of some thirty or more years since; 

 and when the paucity of material at command for this pur- 

 pose at that period is taken into consideration the circum- 

 stance is not by any means surprising. The flower gardener 

 of to-day would certainly be at his wits' end wore he confined 

 to the list of bedding plants which were available at that time 

 wherewith to furnish his beds and borders next season. It is 

 quite possible that the introduction of such plants as the 

 Dahlia and the Verbena may have had much to do in suggest- 

 ing, as it were, the bedding-ont or massing system, which has 

 been steadily progressive in its development even up to the 

 present time. The material now at command for the purpose 

 of garden embellishment is rich and varied in the extreme. 

 This great wealth is due to the indefatigable exertions of the 

 bybridiser and crossbrcedcr, to the collector aud introducer, 

 also to the adapter, if I may be allowed to apply tliis term to 

 the experimentalist who has successfully used for this purpose 

 many denizens of oar stoves and greenhouses, also hardy 

 plants of various sorts, proving their adaptability to the pur- 

 pose of garden embellishment as bedders, marginal plants, or 

 for lines in ribbon borders, &c. 



Many species of tender plants with large and ornamental 

 foliage which it was formerly supposed could only eust, or at 



least be successfully cultivated, in our stoves, are now in garden 

 establishments made to furnish an interesting department in 

 the open air during the summer months, this department 

 being known as the sub-tropical garden, where such plants 

 may generally be found growing with a luxuriance and fresh- 

 ness which they seldom attain under glass with even the most 

 skUful treatment. Various tribes of succulents, hardy as well 

 as tender, together with hardy Alpine plants possessed of 

 ornamental foliage, are also made to play a very distinguished 

 part iu a style of planting known as " carpet-bedding." This 

 has certainly much to recommend it to popular favour, being 

 entirely distinct from all other methods of grouping, and dis- 

 plays to advantage the singular and interesting appearance of 

 a number of the plants used for the purpose, and many of them 

 being quite hardy have the advantage of requu-ing little or no 

 protection during winter. 



To successfully arrange the materials employed for the em- 

 bellishment of the parterre it is quite necessary to take into 

 careful consideration the habits of the various plants used, 

 more particularly as regards simultaneous and continuous 

 flovreriug. Form as well as colour must likewise always be kept 

 iu view, and foliage as well as flowers. Indeed, some of the most 

 beautiful and effective beds that I have seen this season have 

 been entirely destitute of bloom, being arranged in the carpet 

 style and composed of such plants as Eoheverias, Semper- 

 vivums, Sedums, and Saxifragas, together with the new Golden 

 Fleece Thyme, Golden Feather Tyrethrum, and the several 

 varieties of the beautiful aud richly-coloured Alternantheras, 

 lie. ; while other beds have been composed of the finest sorts 

 of gold and silver tricolor Pelargoniums divisted of their 

 bloom, and margined by such plants as Iresine Lindeni and 

 Coleus Versohafi'elti. 



As soon as the autumn frosts have rendered the summer 

 bedding plants unsightly no time should he lost in finally 

 removing them, iu order to make room for the spring bedders 

 and bulbs, which should without delay take their place in the 

 beds and borders. As regards harmony and contrast of colours 

 as well as symmetry aud habit of growth, the rules which 

 govern the summer planting are equally applicable to that of 

 the spring ; and in cases where carpet-bedding may have been 

 followed during the summer months such beds will merely 

 require to have hardy plants substituted for tender species, 

 such as allowing the Sempervivum californicum to take the 

 place of the Echeveria secuuda glauca, which is nearly but not 

 quite hardy ; and such plants as Ajuga reptaus rubra, Oxalis 

 corniculata rubra, aud other dark-foliaged hardy plants to 

 replace the tender Alternantheras, Iresines, &o. Excellent 

 substitutes for variegated Pelargoniums may be found in the 

 Dactylis glomerata variegata and Polemonium caruleum va- 

 riegatum. 



It has already been remarked that the present style of 

 summer bedding does not necessarily exclude hardy herba- 

 ceous plants from the attention they really deserve. On the 

 contrary, a portion of them at least are eagerly sought after 

 on account of possessing a dwarf habit of growth, combined 

 with silvery-white or variegated foliage, rendering them ex- 

 ceedingly useful as marginal plants in summer grouping and 

 carpet-bedding, &c. But in addition to this, a garden establish- 

 ment can hardly be considered as being complete without its 

 collection, more or less extensive, of hardy herbaceous plants. 

 If this class of plants have really experienced anything like 

 neglect a reaction is now rapidly setting-iu in their favour, and 

 the grouping of hardy plants for spring display is now becom- 

 ing as popular as the system of summer bedding-out has been 

 for some years. But as the flower beds and borders are being 

 compelled, as it were, to do doublo duty, it is therefore neces- 

 sary that they should receive the most liberal treatment in the 

 form of fresh soU and other fertilising materials, which should 

 be carefully prepared during the winter months aud incor- 

 porated with the soil of the beds as soon as the spring bedders 

 are removed to their summer quarters, or just before the sum- 

 mer bedders are planted out. The buds may also be eurichtd, 

 should this be thought necessary, at the time of planting-out 

 the spring bedders ; but this will seldom be the case. 



On commencing this paper I intended to have attempted 

 further inquiry into the origin of the bedding-out system — 

 viz., as to where it was first practised aud by whom, but as 

 my remarks have already run to a much greater length than 

 was contemplated I must conscciuently leave the subject for 

 the present, or recommend it to the consideration of some of 

 your numerous and able contributors who may feel interested 

 in the matter, and who may be in a position to afford more 



