December 2, 1669. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOHTIC0LT0RE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



431 



"WINTER BEDDING PLANTS. 



si^^ OT without some feeling of disappointment, I 

 fi'MK ''*id your report of the plants exhibited lately 

 at the Royal Honicultural Society's meeting 

 for the prizes for the best collection of winter 

 bedding plants. Having advocated for many 

 years the claims which winter plants have as 

 compared to spring ones, I felt anxious to 

 learn what class of plants might be recom- 

 mended for the purpose by those to whom 

 we may fairly look to be leaders in such 

 matters ; and I cannot but regret that more collections 

 than one were not sent to the meeting ; for, without in the 

 least disparaging the class of plants described by you as 

 taking the first prize, I fear the general public are not yet 

 in a position to patronise choice shrubs and Conifers for 

 winter decoration. Plants less costly, and involving less 

 labour during the"eason when their services are not 

 wanted, appear to me more likely to meet the requii'ements 

 of the majority of cultivators. All of these have not the 

 means of obtaining Hollies, Aucubas in berry, or .Japanese 

 Conifers, and yet would like to have their flower beds 

 ornamented from November till March or April : and I 

 would have been more glad had collections been exhibited 

 such as persons of moderate means could have stoclsed 

 their beds with at a cost not gi-eater than that which is 

 requisite to do so in May. Now, with the costly plants 

 to which Mr. Wilson Saunders' prize was awarded, the 

 expense of winter decoration must be at least fourfold that 

 for ordinary summer bedding plants, assuming both are to 

 be purchased in the usual way. Even assuming the 

 winter decorative plants to be made to do duty for two or 

 three years, still the trouble and expense in keeping a 

 large collection of plants over the summer in pots will be 

 quite as great as in wintering and propagating Pelargo- 

 niums, Verbenas, Calceolarias, and the like. I fear, there- 

 fore, only the most affluent will be inclined to patronise 

 the costly collection, and the less fortunate will have to 

 be satisfied with a more homely list, or dispense with 

 winter decoration altogether. To assist the latter in 

 making a creditable display at a small cost, I beg to offer 

 the following observations, not with any intention of dis- 

 paraging variegated Hollies, Osmanthus, Aucubas, and 

 choice Conifers, but to shosv that a tolerably good effect 

 can be produced without incurring the expense which 

 Conifers, &c., entail. 



Before entering on the description of the rather meagre 

 list of plants I have generally been satisfied with, I may 

 say that I am no advocate fur great variety either in 

 summer or winter bedding, and I have sometimes been 

 thought, in carrying out tliis view, to go to an extreme 

 when using only four varieties of plants for two beds 

 or borders containing upwards of a quarter of an aero of 

 ground (or a space equivalent to about l.'iO circular beds, 

 each of 10 feet in diameter) ; yet I do not think that any 

 one who saw them considered the effect could be improved 

 by more variety. It is the same in winter gardening ; a 

 few effective plants do more service than the most clioic3 

 No. 453.- Vol. SVn.,NEw Seeies. 



collection when too much mixed, unless it should happen 

 that tlie bed they are placed in should be so close to the 

 eye that every leaf and feature of each individual plant 

 will be under the eye. In the latter case each plant 

 may be scanned in the same way as the occupants of a 

 conservatoi-y shelf or greenhouse stage ; but where flower 

 beds at the distance of .JO yards or more have to be filled, 

 the number of species used must be very limited, or a sort 

 of chaotic confusion will be the result. Although there 

 may be cases where a departure from all rules that can 

 be laid down will be necessary, I would venture to say 

 that a better result would follow planting all beds under 

 10 feet in diameter or width with only two kinds of plants, 

 than with a larger number, one of these plants being 

 suitable as an edging, the other being used to fiU the 

 body of the bed. If the bed be a circular one, the presence 

 of an upright central plant, as a Yew, Cypress, or some- 

 thing of that kind, might perhaps be advisable, but I aa 

 not certain that small beds require this. 



Another point necessary to bear in mind in the winter 

 arrangement of flower beds, is the fact, that the surface of 

 the ground is expected to be for most of the time in a 

 moist state, and consequently darker coloured than it is 

 in summer : hence the advisability of using as many plants 

 as possible with light foliage in preference to those with, 

 dark leaves. The advantage of this is especially seen in the 

 case of low-growing plants, where their contrast with the 

 naked soil, or it may be the .surrounding turf, is seen to ad- 

 vantage. The number of plants available for this purpose 

 is sufficiently large for all reasonable requirements, and 

 their plentiful use cannot be too strongly urged. Dark- 

 leaved plants, on the contrary, however ornamental at 

 other times, are seldom satisfactory in winter. Tliis fact 

 I proved some years ago by trying the effect of some 

 fine coloured Beet one autumn, but it was a failure ; 

 the absence of the sunshine, so necessary to bring out the 

 bronzy hue of the leaves of tlie Heet, rendered them 

 ineffective, and the imprudence of depending on colours 

 so much approaching that of the earth became evident. 

 Some shades of green come out better. 



As economy is the assumed qualification of the plants 

 to be recommended, it may be stated here that one of the 

 greatest merits the plants possess is the ease with which 

 they are transplanted twice a-year, with a few exceptions, 

 and with but slight loss: for, be it remembered, pots are 

 entirely dispensed with, and only sucli plants recommended 

 as wUi bear transplanting in autumn with little or no 

 damage to themselves, and if they do not survive trans- 

 plantation in the spring, they are expected to be of such 

 easy propagation and growth as to be no serious loss : for 

 it must be observed that many plants do not succeed well 

 when removed at the latter season, and losses will occur. 

 Where there are the means, however, of bringing on a 

 number of younger plants for the next season the loss of 

 overgrown ones need not be thought seriously of, for it 

 often happens that some places in the shrubbery may re- 

 ceive those cast away, and their aftergrowth can be turned 

 to good account, tiorae of the smaller specimens, too, 

 might be returned to the reserve ground to serve for a 



No. 1105. -vol. m-II., Old SEEiES, 



