Embellishments 127 



in the ground all the year: and the summer crop should 

 be planted at intervals between the winter plants. Or 

 the summer crop, having been brought forward in pots 

 under glass, or by nightly protection, may be planted 

 out about the middle of June, after the winter plants 

 in pots are removed. A number of hardy bulbs ought 

 to be potted and plunged in the beds in the months of 

 October and November; and when out of bloom, in 

 May or June, removed to the reserve garden and 

 plunged there, in order to perfect their foliage and 

 mature their bulbs for the succeeding season." 

 There cannot be a question that this method of planting 

 the flower-garden in groups and masses, is productive of 

 by far the most, splendid effect. In England, where flower- 

 gardens are carried to their greatest perfection, the pref- 

 erence in planting is given to exotics which blossom con- 

 stantly throughout the season, and which are kept in the 

 greenhouse during winter, and turned out in the beds in 

 the early part of the season, where they flower in the great- 

 est profusion until frost; as fuchsias, salvias, lobelias, scar- 

 let geraniums, etc., etc.* This mode can be adopted here 

 \vhere a small green-house or frame is kept. In the absence 

 of these, nearly the same effect may be produced by choos- 

 ing the most showy herbaceous plants, perennial and bien- 

 nial, alternating them with hardy bulbs, and the finer 

 species of annuals. 



Where the proprietor of a country residence, or the ladies 

 of a family, have a particular taste, it may be indulged at 



! In many English residences, the flower-garden is maintained in 

 never-fading brilliancy by almost daily supplies from what is termed the 

 reserve garden. This is a small garden out of sight, in which a great num- 

 ber of duplicates of the species in the flower-garden are grown in pots 

 plunged in beds. As soon as a vacuum is made in the flower-garden by 

 the fading of any flowers, the same are immediately removed and their 

 places supplied by fresh plants just ready to bloom, from the pots in the 

 reserve garden. This, which is the ultimatum of refinement in flower- 

 gardening, has never, to our knowledge, been attempted in this country. 

 A. J. D. This use of the reserve garden is probably as common in 

 America today as in England. -- F. A. \V. 



