PLOWER-BORDERS. 895 



judiciously planted, well-selected and arranged, possess ^eat interest. 

 But it is the tendency of many of the hei'baceous plants to become crowded, 

 and to exhaust themselves. Phloxes, Asters, Monardas, Delphiniums, and 

 other free-growing plants, soon choke their delicate companions, leaving 

 little room for the more graceful Gentians, Aquilegias, Camassias, Lychnises, 

 and Gnaphaliums. Unless these are parted, spring- dressed, and re-arranged, 

 every season, all arrangement and proportion is destroyed. The plants of 

 coarser habit expel the more delicate flowers, and with it all idea of order 

 and proportion, on which so much of the beauty of the garden depends. 



1151. Supposing this state of things has gone on until entire renovation has; 

 become necessary ; that the border is exhausted by continually growing the 

 same things for years, and a radical remedy is required, there is only one^ 

 which is effectual. Eemove the plants to a place of safety, and either dig out 

 the old soil to the depth of two feet, and fill up again with a rich light com- 

 post of sandy loam and leaf-mould, or, if the base of the soil is pretty 

 good, mix it with equal portions of the same compost, with a copious- 

 man\iring with well-rotted dung, and trench it two feet deep, taking care- 

 that the drainage is in proper order. Where fruit-trees occupy the walls on 

 such a border, it will be well to leave a space of two feet from the wall, slightly 

 raised above the general surface of the border, unplanted, for the benefit of 

 the trees. 



1 152. On a border thus prepared the plants may be replaced, taking car© 

 that young plants of Phloxes, Asters, Pentstemons, and. similar exhausting- 

 plants, are selected, leaving the old stools in the reserve beds to propagate 

 from ; for it is found that young herbaceous plants, propagated from oldi 

 plants the previous summer, yield the best flowering plants for the beds or 

 borders. In replanting, strict attention should be paid to their height, the 

 dwarfish kinds being in the first row, the next in size in the second ; and so- 

 on, placing the tallest sorts behind. The same attention should be paid to- 

 their colom' and time of flowering, so that the green of the late-blooming 

 kinds should blend harmoniously with the colours of early bloomers, and 

 these with each other, and vice versd. 



1 153. Where a very choice selection of border flowers is aimed at, Mr. Cox,, 

 of Ptedleaf, recommends planting close to the wall, at distances varying from 

 two to three feet, dwarf-growing varieties of tea-scented. Noisette, and other 

 continuous-blooming roses, such as Elise Sauvage, La Pactole, Adam's Mirabile, 

 Strombio, Solfaterre, Victoire Argent, Peine des Vierges, Camellia blanche,. 

 Pink Noisette, Ame, Odorata blandescens. Princess Valerie, Ida, Gloira 

 de Eosamanes, Bouquet de Flore, Yellow China, White China, Devoniensis, 

 Queen, Androselle. 



1 154. Between these and the wall plant Silicum japonicum and sibericum ; 

 Thvmbergia longiflora and speciosa alba ; Alstrosmeria pulchella, Vaa 

 Houtii, aurea, Hookerii, and psittacina ; Gladiolus gandivensis, insignis, 

 cardinalis, and psittacinus ; Amaryllis Belladonna ; Camassia esculenta- 

 In the front, between the roses and the edging, plant Ixias, Tritonias, 



