78 VILLA GARDENING part i 



pleasant diversity of efiects approjniate to each season may be 

 created. Bulbs may bleud with the shrubs for spring effect, and 

 some beds may be planted altogether with spring flowers ; and so 

 the winter and spring may meet and bleud in the garden without 

 separating lines. Of late years considerable attention has been 

 given to shrubs suitable for massing in winter, and below I give 

 a list adapted for filling flower beds at that season, and, being 

 frequently transplanted, they will remain at a manageable size for 

 a number of years with a little pruning. The variegated Hollies 

 and the spiral-growing conifers will take oft" the dumpiness of the 

 loAv flat things : Aucuba japouica, A. j. mascula, Buxus japonica 

 aiu-ea, B. suflruticosa argeutea marginata nova, Cupressus Law- 

 soniana albo variegata, 0. L. erecta viridis, C. L. lutea, C. L. 

 nana glauca, Cryptomeria elegans. Erica herbacea carnea, E. vulgaris 

 aurea, Euonymus radicans variegatus, Hedera (Ivy) arborea aurea, 

 H. a. elegantissima, H. a. Regneriaua, H. a. fructo-luteo (yellow- 

 berried), Juniperus sabina (Savin), J. s. variegata, J. tamariscifolia, 

 Laurestinus, Ligustrum japonicum (Japan Privet), Mahonia aqiu- 

 folia, Osmanthus ilicifolius, Pernettya mucronata, and others. The 

 Pernettya has branched out under the hands of the hybridist of 

 late years into many varieties, bearing dift'erent coloured berries. 

 Retinospora ericoides, R. obtusa aurea nana, R. plumosa, R. p. 

 argentea, R. p. am-ea, R. squarrosa Veitchiana, Taxus baccata 

 aurea, T. elegantissima, T. aurea, T. elegantissima, T. vervseneana, 

 Thujopsis dolabrata, Veronica decussata, Vinca elegantissima. 

 Yucca recurva, and others. 



Of course scarcely any one garden would require all those 

 named above, but everybody should possess a power of selection, 

 and in all the large niu-series they may be seen, and examples of 

 the best things for this purpose are frequently exliibited at the 

 great London and other shows. 



Change of Design. — The same groups of beds planted in the 

 same way, with the same coloured flowers, must in time become 

 monotonous. Even beds and borders of herbaceous plants are 

 benefited by removal occasionally to a fresh site. When the beds 

 or borders are surrounded by gravel the matter is not so easy, as 

 it involves more work than just marking out a few beds on turf; 

 but such work is exceedingly interesting, and it finds something 

 for restless horticultural spirits to do and to think about, and keeps 

 up a perpetual interest. We all need a change sometimes, and if 

 we looked upon our flower beds and borders as movable objects, 

 not only would these clianges be pleasing in themselves, but our 

 taste would be educated, so to speak, by familiarity with different 

 combinations; and the grouping experimentally of plants and 



