English Iris. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE RESERVE AND CUT-FLOWER GARDENS. 



NOTHING is worse in gardening than the way in which plants of 

 all kinds are huddled together without regard to fitness for associa- 

 tion in stature, in time of blooming, or in needs of culture. The 

 common scene of confusion is the shrubbery border, into which 

 Carnations, annuals, Alpine flowers, and rampant herbs are often 

 thrown, to dwindle and perish. There is no shrubbery border that 

 could not be made beautiful by carpeting it with wood and copse 

 plants of the northern world in broad groups, but many of our favourite 

 flowers are not wood plants, and many for example, Carnations 

 cannot maintain the struggle against the bushes and trees. Hardy 

 plants should be divided into two broad series at least those which 

 thrive in and near woody growth, and those which must perish there. 

 Solomon's Seal and the blue Apennine Anemone are types of plants 

 that one may grow in any shady place : Carnation, Pink, Auricula 

 are among the flowers which must have good soil and be kept away 

 from tree roots, 



One good plan that all can follow is the growing of certain 

 plants without heed to their place in any design, but not in any kind 

 of " mixed border " or in other mixed arrangements. Many hardy 

 flowers are worthy of special culture, and good results cannot often be 

 got without it, whether we grow Carnations, Pinks, Pansies, Phloxes, 

 Lilies, Stocks, double Wallflowers, Cloves, or scarlet Lobelias. Even a 

 choice annual, such as Rhodanthe, or a beautiful grass, it is not easy to 

 succeed with unless it has a fair chance, away from the crowding of 

 the mixed border. This special culture of favourite flowers may be 

 best carried out in a plot of ground set aside for beds of the choicer 

 flowers, in a piece of ground in or near the kitchen garden or any 

 other open position, sheltered, but not shaded. With the aid of 



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