THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 309 



a garden that is well kept, the best places should be kept gay with 

 baskets all the year round, and the best way of managing it is to 

 bave a duplicate set, either of the same, or different patterns. Thus, 

 in September and October the duplicates may be planted withbulb^, 

 and put aside. The summer baskets will keep gay till near the 

 middle of November — mine do. They can then be removed, and 

 their places occupied with those containing the bulbs. But to make 

 these sightly, take the knife and shears, and clip a lot of stems of 

 ivy, variegated shrubs of suitable habit, and dibble these in, and they 

 will keep fresh till the bulbs rise through the surface, and give the 

 eye something to rest upon. Small-leaved, hard-wooded plants are 

 the best, and especially variegated sorts. 



Plants for Baskets. — Some seasons ago I tried the Senecio mihaiuz 

 sent out by Mr. Thompson, of Ipswich, and found it a most useful 

 foliage plant, to form wreaths and ringlets of fresh ivy-like foliage, 

 but whoever trusts to it for flowers will be disappointed. It is of 

 rapid growth, and most elegant in its foliation. The variegated ivies, 

 especially Cullisii, arborea variegata, Vesta, and a few others, are of 

 great service for similar purposes. The variegated and the large- 

 flowered Periwinkle are also good and well known. Verbenas and 

 abronias train down very prettily, and if used with ivy -leaved gera- 

 niums, make very gay baskets. Last summer I planted one of the 

 crimson-flowered ivy-leaved geraniums in the centre of an octagon 

 rustic basket, measuring three feet across, and it soon covered the 

 whole surface, and crept over the edge, and formed a luxuriant fringe 

 of branches, a foot and eighteen inches long. If the planter has a 

 genuine taste and knowledge of his plants, scarcely anything comes 

 amiss in baskets. I generally plant them with whatever bedders are 

 left, after the borders and beds are filled, and if we run short even 

 make it up with cuttings, striking them in their places at once, and 

 as the baskets must be shaded for a week after planting, the cuttings 

 have a good chance to make a start, and if the compost is good, and 

 proper attention given, cuttings of verbenas, petunias, and geraniums 

 soon get strength, and bloom before the middle of July. For stone 

 vases, scarlet geraniums are very effective, as visitors to the Crystal 

 Palace well know. A good edging for the geranium is Mangle's 

 Eodanthe ; Perilla nankinensis is a good colour for the purpose, but 

 rather too erect in habit, but none of the white-leaved foliage plants 

 look well, except in bark or wicker baskets. The yellow moneywort, 

 the variegated ground-ivy, dead nettle, and variegated strawberry 

 are lovely things to creep over and hang down. Por a row of stone 

 vases, fuchsias, and agapanthus, one in a vase, and placed alternate, 

 has a charming effect. Indeed, the agapanthus is the best vase plant 

 we have, and blue and white, or slate and stone-colour are the 

 chastest and most delicate of all contrasts, in gardening, to set off 

 scarlet well, so that where grouped with geraniums, in connection 

 with stone work, the blue agapinthus is most valuable. I must con- 

 fess that I prefer mixtures in bark baskets, in preference to regular 

 arrangements of colours, but if glowing colours are preferred, Tom 

 Thumbs for the centre, and calceolarias next, with purple verbenas 

 round the edge, are charming. To hang down in festoona, lopho- 



October. 



