276 EVERGREENS FOR 



labour to the ordinary routine of llower-gardeu management. The 

 mere filling of the beds in autumn, and removing the plants to 

 the reserve garden in spring, when the summer occupants were 

 ready to take their places, would form but a trifling item in the 

 year's labour. The vast amount of young plants which has to be 

 produced every season for the summer display would in the 

 winter decoration be, in the main, dispensed with, for when once 

 a proper stock was secure very few vacancies would occur ; as a 

 whole they could be employed for a long succession of years. 

 This is a very great advantage in the system. 



To many persons the frequent removal of the plants — twice in 

 a year — appears to be a formidable barrier in the road to success. 

 And to obviate this apparent inconvenience it has been sug- 

 gested that the plants should be kept in pots to insure success in 

 removal. This is, however, by no means necessary. Plants 

 which are moved twice a year are always in a condition to trans- 

 plant, and when, as in this case, they have merely to be taken 

 from one part of the garden to another, it may be performed 

 at almost any period of the year, if ordinary precautions are 

 taken, with perfect success. 



As a general rule the beds would be filled in October, and the 

 plants returned to the reserve garden in May, months especially 

 favourable for transplanting evergreens, especially when so well 

 prepared as those would be which we are now treating of. 



In filling the beds a pre-arranged plan will of course be carried 

 out. The heights and colours of the plants employed will be 

 taken advantage of to produce a pleasing combination, and the 

 sameness in the height may be judiciously broken if desired by 

 the introduction at regular intervals of taller plants having 

 symmetrically formed heads. 



In the matter of colour, too, there is much scope for variety, 

 as a great diversity of hue exists in the plants which are suitable 

 for the purpose, as will be seen by the list of a few which we 

 append to this article. 



But such a garden need not be wholly dependent on evergreens 

 for its attractions. Various early-flowering bulbs, as the crocus, 

 snowdrop, hyacinth, &c., may be introduced with very pleasing 

 effect, either mixed with the dwarfer shrubs or in small detached 

 beds, or a combination of both may be adopted. But, under any 

 circumstances, the bulbs should be in pots, so that they may be 

 readily removed with the evergreens, for at that season they 

 would be in full growth, and could not, therefore, be safely trans- 



