ON GROUPING FLOWERS. 261 



RULES FOR GARDENERS. 



Study to produce, in perfection, vegetables, fruits, and flowers in their 

 proper season. Be careful of everything put into your charge. Let 

 all your operations be performed with neatness, and endeavour to pre- 

 serve this general appearance in the grounds, gardens, and houses 

 under your control. Never defer until to-morrow what ought to be 

 done to-day : time and nature will not wait, and the proper season will 

 be neglected ; nothing is gained by procrastination, but a great deal 

 lost. Be punctual in hours of attendance, and waste no time during 

 working hours. Care, attention, and management do more business 

 than strength and expenditure. As far as practicable, finish one piece 

 of work before another is commenced. Bear in mind self-improve- 

 ment. Exercise the memory on all occasions, and anticipate the wants 

 of every season. Provide against the contingencies of the weather : 

 liave some work in reserve for a rainy day. Read these rules over fre- 

 quently, and try to keep them in your recollection. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. 



ON GROUPING FLOWERS. 



Calling at the beautiful gardens at Brooklands a few days back, I 

 was much pleased with the neatness and display effected. I saw, too, 

 what was fully realized of the following descriptive character given in 

 a recent number of the Journal, viz. : — " There are two points in con- 

 nexion with the groups of flower-beds at Brooklands, especially that on 

 the south front of the house, which deserve especial mention. The beds 

 are formed on the grass ; they are few in number, and simple in form ; 

 not crowded together, in order to produce or work out an elaborate 

 design, but distinct, with a good breadth of grass supervening between 

 them ; the effect of this is that every bed tells, and the whole group 

 bears the impress of simple, solid beauty ; there is none of that con- 

 fused and tawdry effect which results from the crowding together of 

 objects gay and beautiful in themselves, but lost — not properlj^ seen or 

 appreciated — when presented to the eye without due relief. Another 

 practice adopted at Brooklands is to plant the opposite beds, of a formal 

 design, with tlie same kind of plant ; the effect of the group can never 

 be so well wrought out by adopting different plants, even tliough of 

 similar habit and colour, as when the identical kind of plant is used : 

 thus, whether there are two or four opposite beds, they are all filled 

 with the same individual kind, and rendered as uniform as possible, by 

 obtaining precisely similar treatment. Those who fancy that, under 

 the circumstances, a variety would have a greater charm than uni- 

 formity, should remember that groups of beds of this kind aie viewed 

 as a whole; it is the mass of colour, not the individual plants, whicii 

 is observed ; and a proper balancing of the parts is seldom realised 

 when this plan is not followed." ^ 



