Jftnaary 23, 1868. ) 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOULTURB AND COTTAGE GAUDENER. 



65 



ALTEtUTIONS IN SMALL FLOWER 

 GAKDENS. 



' IJO^\^^R gardnner.'i as a rule liavo an appetite 

 for new plants which is not easily satislled, 

 and often adopt some which have very little 

 except novelty to recommend them ; yet as 

 regards the arrangement of colours in beds or 

 borders, and the disposition of walks, clumps, 

 standards, vases, and all those little features 

 which contrilnite to form that harmonious 

 whole which we call a llowcr garden, many 

 even of the very best are just as apt to fall 

 into conventional grooves, and follow year after 3'ear the 

 same old beaten track, as our grandfathers were, whose 

 standstill policy in these matters is now often commented 

 upon. 



A sociable old farmer has a laughable story or a good 

 joke. He has told it over and over again, until half the 

 county and the whole of liis acquaintance know it as well 

 as he does himself, so that it has long since lost all the 

 raciness it ever had ; yet to the humourous teller it some- 

 how seems to bo ever-green, and his whole fabric continues 

 to bo shaken with health}' laughter every time he retails 

 it. So also it often happens with a clever young gardener ; 

 he has laid-out a small tlower garden, most likelj' from a 

 design of his own. It is a decided success, and is acknow- 

 ledged as such by all who see it. Then many an hour is 

 spent in planning how it shall be planted, and in considering 

 the heights and colours of the plants to be used, and the 

 greatest number it wUl be possible for him to rear. After 

 much pleasant labour and anxiet}', it is filled, and in sum- 

 mer, when the colours have begun to produce their ellect, 

 tlie arrangement is found to be also a great success : people 

 of taste, on whose judgment he can depend, say it could 

 scarcely liave been better, and he takes them at their 

 word. It is a good story, and is repeated one season after 

 another with only trifling variations, until we might almost 

 imagine the plants to be well-drilled soldiers, falling into 

 theu' proper places of then- own accord. Now this constant 

 repetition of anything, however beautiful, must in time 

 weary the eye of taste ; every line and curve, this blue bed 

 edged with white, that scarlet one in which there never 

 was anything but Pelargoniiuns, and these Humeas. have 

 all grown so familiar to those for whose gratification they 

 are there, that were the whole swept away, and the plan 

 destroyed, a facsimile could be produced by them with 

 little or no difficulty. The gardener, too, if not unduly 

 biassed b}- a natural prepossession in favour of his own 

 production, may, perhaps, begin to feel just a little th-ed of 

 looking at these .stereotyped copies of his beautiftd picture, 

 but wiU most likely attribute it to the fact of their being 

 all but constantly under liis eye. 



Now. though the breaking through an old and well- 

 considered programme is often followed by consequences 

 more troublesome than most people imagine, 3'et, in order 

 to make and keep small flower gardens interesting to some, 

 frequent changes ai'e absolutely necessaiy ; for, while more 

 extensive grounds and parterres are, by the varied phases 

 Xo. 356.— Vol. XIV., New Series. 



they present from different points, and by their very breadth 

 and massiveness, always attractive, yet with patches of 

 perhaps a fraction of an acre this is not the case, and 

 radical alterations every year or two, not only in the style 

 of planting, but in the arrangement of the beds and -walis, 

 if possible, will be found very much more efficient for 

 this purpose than any substitute of new for old bedding 

 plants. 



Where tlus cannot be done, the introduction of a few 

 vases, of pieces of terra cotta, balustrades so placed that 

 they can be half-covered with low Hoses, a little ornamental 

 wire trellising, or a few specimen shrubs where there were 

 none before, will have a wonderful efl'cct, and few means 

 will be found more useful for transforming these miniature 

 landscapes than a good stock of hardy shrubs grown ia 

 pots. AH the attention they require is not very much, and 

 they can be moved about at any season with the greatest 

 ease, and sunk in the ground where wanted to suit any 

 new an-angement. Those suitable for this purpose arc so 

 numerous that every one, instead of consulting lists, should 

 rather be guided by his own taste. Ilhododendrons, Por- 

 tugal Ijanrels, Aucubas, Laurustinus, Berberis Darwinii, 

 Thujas, Yews, and many of the finer Conifers may be used, 

 and the culture and nianacrement ef a considerable num- 

 ber of these as pot plants have often been treated of in the 

 pages of this Journal. 



In visiting the villa gardens round London, nothing 

 strikes the wondering country gardener more than the great 

 profusion of what arc by coiu'tesy called rockeries, it being 

 rare indeed to find a garden without one or more of these 

 curious creations, often in the most conspicuous places. 

 They are not. nor are they, I believe, meant to ho. imita- 

 tions of anything grand in nature, and though custom may 

 have made them attractive, yet to a stranger they appear 

 anything but ornamental. I have often wondered if the 

 busy city gentleman did not see enough of bricks and rub- 

 bish throughout the day, without having a cartload or two 

 tilted up in his well-kept suburban garden on which to 

 refresh his eyes in the evening. It is decidedly a mistake 

 attempting rockwork at all on a small scale, and it is little 

 less than an outrage to place it where there are no corre- 

 sponding features, but where everytliing around is in the 

 higltest degi-ec artificial : so that in laying out a small 

 flower garden anew no provision should be made for it. 



There are circumstances, however, under which these 

 frequent changes are not desirable, and where they exist 

 the gardener should always respect them as far as possible. 

 I refer to that mysterious yet very i-cal faculty, possessed 

 more or less by every mind, of making the most prominent 

 features v\ith which we happen to be surrounded so many 

 connecting links between the present and the past : where 

 every tree, and shrub, and bed is a hieroglyphic laden with 

 meaning to those who can read them — mementos of lost 

 friends, or objects around which are thickly clustered the 

 recollections of many happj' years, and which when re- 

 moved or obliterated leave a painful blank which no new 

 attractions can fill. And though the discussion of this 

 part of the subject scarcely comes within the gardener's 

 province, yet where these ties may be expected to exist 



No. 100S.-VOI.. XXSIX., Ou) EeeiES, 



