SOILS AND CULTIVATION IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 399 



ning them very carefully, we find them make trees and give better 

 effects than in the common way they are generally placed, as the trees 

 protect and comfort each other, and shade the ground. I have planted 

 true pinetums in this way, the trees in which have stood violent gales 

 without giving way, and which were never staked, any more than they 

 are on their wild mountain homes. But in this case, as with sailors, 

 we must begin young. 



Wasted Labour in Glass-Houses. — Among the evils of the 

 " bedding " and " carpet system " is the need of costly glass-houses 

 in which to keep the plants all the winter, not one in ten of these plants 

 being as pretty as flowers that are as hardy as the Grass in the field, — 

 like Roses, Carnations, and Delphiniums. It is absurd to grow Alternan- 

 theras in costly hothouses, and not to give a place to flowers that 

 endure cold as well as Lilies-of-the-Valley. Glass-houses are useful 

 helps for many purposes, but we may have noble flower gardens with- 

 out them. To bloom the Rose and Carnation in mid-winter, to ripen 

 fruits that will not mature in our climate, to enable us to see many fair 

 flowers of the tropics — for these purposes glass-houses are a precious 

 gain ; but for a beautiful flower garden they are almost needless, and 

 the numerous glass-houses in our gardens may be turned to better 

 use. It would not be true to say that good hardy flower-gardening is 

 cheaper than growing the half-hardy plants that often disgrace 

 our gardens, as the splendid variety of beautiful hardy plants tempts 

 one to buy, and it is therefore all the more necessary not to waste 

 money in stupid ways, apart from the heavy initial cost and ceaseless 

 costly labour of the glass-house system of flower garden decoration. 



For those who think of beauty in our gardens and home land- 

 scapes, the placing of a glass-house in the flower garden or pleasure 

 ground is a serious matter, and some of the most interesting places 

 in the country are defaced in that way. In the various dividing 

 lines about a country house there can be no difficulty in finding a site 

 for glass-houses where they cannot injure the views. There is no 

 reason for placing the glass-house in front of a beautiful old house, 

 where its colour mars the prospect, though often, in looking across 

 the land towards an old house, we see first the glare of an ugly glass 

 shed. If this were the case only in the gardens of people lately 

 emerged from the towns to the suburbs of our great cities, it would 

 not be so notable ; but many large country places are disfigured in this 

 way. And, apart from fine old houses and the landscape being defaced 

 by the hard lines and colour of the glass-house, there is the result on 

 the flower garden itself ; efforts to get plants into harmonious and 

 beautiful relations are much increased if we have a horror in the 

 way of glass sheds staring at us. Apart from the heavy cost of coal 

 or coke, the smoke-defilement of many a pretty garden by the ugly 

 vomit of these needless chimneys ; the effect on young gardeners in 



