308 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



bright and showy in all seasons. It stands on a circle of loam, to 

 keep a moist bottom ; over this is a layer of sand six inches deep, 

 and on the sand the pots are placed, and hidden with moss or sand. 

 Thus, as soon as the geraniums get poor, they are lifted out, and the 

 bed filled with pompone chrysanthemums in pots. When they are 

 past their best, potted evergreens take their place for the winter. 

 In spring, potted bulbs are used as a succession ; hyacinths, in four 

 colours, make a very gay show ; the hyacinths are succeeded by 

 autumn-sown annuals in pots, or large patches of Aubrietia purpurea 

 and Alyssum saxatile, two of the gayest of hardy spring flowers. 

 These last are succeeded by select bedders, and thu3 the round of 

 the year is completed. I make some good jardinieres of the shallow 

 baskets in which nurserymen send plants ; mine mostly measure 

 three feet across, and nine inches deep. In furnishing them, we first 

 put in a layer of moss, then arrange a lot of potted plants on the 

 moss, and with the greenest of the moss, cover the surface, so as to 

 hide the pots entirely. For surplus stock, that would otherwise be 

 standing in pits, or on beds of coal-ashes, these baskets come in 

 well. Potted ferns, variegated plants, geraniums, etc., are all useful 

 if tastefully disposed of. Some of my baskets, filled with hardy ferns 

 in pots, with the hare's-foot and a few other greenhouse potted ferns 

 amongst them, made very beautiful objects. I had a large stock of 

 that wretched geranium, Tom Thumb's Bride, which made a capital 

 pair of baskets on the lawn. On gala days, we cut a lot of ivy, and 

 twine round the rims of the baskets, and this keeps its colour for 

 two or three weeks, and gives them a nice finish. I even use newly 

 struck cuttings, if short of flowering plants ; it is better to turn them 

 to account in this way, than to let them grow unseen in the nursery. 

 A circle of young hydrangeas or camellias makes a very pretty 

 edging to a basket of ferns ; the variegated mint, Cerasiium tomen- 

 tosum, and variegated Alyssum, make capital edgings, and if you have 

 no stock of pot plants, you have only to take cuttings, pot them in 

 sixties, shade them a week, and then furnish your baskets. They 

 root quickly, and produce an effect from the first. The old-fashioned 

 rustic baskets are best planted in the ordinary way, a bottom of large 

 crocks, then a layer of moss, and then filled up with a potting com- 

 post, and the plants bedded out in it. For all baskets, vases, etc., 

 that are to be elevated to a level with the eye, use plants of a pen- 

 dant and graceful habit, but for baskets, that are to be below the eye, 

 geraniums and other bushy plants are the best. Fuchsias never 

 show to such advantage, as when lifted up from the ground level, 

 and seen on a level with the eye. Potted plants plunged in moss 

 should be removed somewhat early in autumn, because they are apt 

 to root into the moss, not only through the bottom of the pot, but 

 over the surface ; and as these roots will be destroyed when they are 

 taken out, they cannot have time to recover, before being put into 

 winter quarters. Slugs and snails are apt to harbour under the bas- 

 kets and among the moss ; an occasional hunt will therefore be 

 necessary, and the baskets should be lifted up and the bottoms ex- 

 amined. Jardinieres of this kind, therefore, may either be good 

 traps, or a positive nuisance, at the discretion of the proprietor. In 



