CHAi'. xiiT VILLA GARDENING 79 



tioweis, and their numberless forms and types of beauty, would 

 tend to increase the love of Nature, and raise up in us an earnest 

 spirit of reverence and love for the good and beautiful. 



Hardy Edging Plants. — Where a group of beds are expected 

 or desired to be always in a bright, cheerful condition, the value 

 of edgings of hardy plants or low-gromng shrubs will soon meet 

 with appreciation. A band of Ivy, 1 foot or 18 inches wide, will 

 fit in appropriately in many places if well managed. If the design 

 is on gravel, the Ivy may be used in the place of the Box ; and on 

 Grass, the green of the Ivy being of a darker tint, will form a 

 harmonious band or connecting link between the Grass and the 

 flowers. The Golden Yew, the Golden Box, the Silver Euonymus 

 (radicans variegatus), the dwarf pink-flowered Heath (Erica her- 

 bacea carnea), the dwarf evergreen Barberry (aquifolia), several of 

 the dwarf Japanese Cypresses, such as Retinospora plumosa aurea 

 and obtusa aurea nana, and the Viuca elegantissima, will be useful. 

 Then, for small beds, there are dwarf plants in great variety, of 

 which I shall only name a few : Arabis albida variegata, Stachys 

 lanata, Golden Thyme, Festuca glauca, Lamium maculatum. The 

 variegated Coltsfoot is a very striking plant, either in a mass or 

 as an edging, but it has one objectionable featiure : when it dies 

 down in winter it disappears altogether, but its underground stems 

 continue at work, and it may perhaps come up in some other part 

 of the garden in spring. I have a large bed edged with this Colts- 

 foot, and very striking it looks in summer ; but the young oftsets 

 must be carefully sought for in spring, and be lifted vv^ith a jMece 

 of root attached, and planted again where they are to live during 

 the summer. I have just been looking round the bed to find the 

 whereabouts of the crimson and green-coloured leaves which are 

 now rapidly rising through the ground. Some of the little bright 

 oftsets are in the grass 4 feet or 5 feet from their point of depart- 

 ure, others are as much the other way, having travelled into the 

 centre of the bed. When one is acquainted with the habit of the 

 plant, we know where to look for its uprising. Sedum lydium 

 and S. glaucum, Cerastium tomentosum, and several of the Saxi- 

 fragas, are pretty. Some of the plants named may be left from 

 year to year, but the Sedums are best transplanted annually — at 

 least I like to replant all the beds that occupy conspicuous positions. 

 Edgings of Ivy are easily formed ; the site should be well pi-epared, 

 as even Ivy does best in good land made firm. If planted in 

 autumn, cuttings will do pegged down close to the surface, which 

 should have been put into shape with the rake, and made firm by 

 beating with the spade, the same as is done with Box edging ; only 

 instead of opening a trench as for Box, the cuttings, which should 



