50 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



flowers that might have lived for days in the house. Large showy 

 flowers like Tulips, suffer with every heavy shower. Anything which 

 makes it easier to have flowers in the house is a real gain ; their 

 exquisite forms are best seen, and tell their story best when 

 brought near to the eye. A flower of our yellow wood Tulip 

 opening and closing, and showing its changing form in a room,, 

 gives ideas of beauty which cannot be gleaned by glancing at a bed 

 of bulbs. 



One of the most marked improvements is the planting of hand- 

 some bulbs in masses of Rhododendrons and like bushes. These 



beds, as usually planted, are interesting only when 



Hardy bulbs in flower, and not always then, owing to the flat 



among shrubs, surface into which the shrubs are pressed ; Lilies,. 



therefore, and the finer bulbs may with great 

 advantage be placed among the shrubs. In many cases where this 

 plan has been carried out, it has almost changed the entire aspects 

 of gardens, and given various beautiful types of life instead of only 

 one, and many fine rare bulbs find a home in such beds, which 

 should be sacred from the spade. In placing choice, peat-loving 

 shrubs, give the bushes room to fully attain their natural forms, and 

 plant the interspaces with finer bulbs. Light and shade, relief and 

 grace, are among the merits of this mode of planting. Beds of the 

 smaller shrubs will do admirably for the smaller and more delicate 

 bulbs, the shelter of low shrubs being an advantage to many little 

 bulbs whose leaves are apt to suffer from cold winds. In this way 

 we get relief, variety, and longer bloom, and the shrubs show 

 their forms better when they have free play of light and air about 

 them. 



Bold beds of Lilies and the taller bulbs are admirable for the 

 lawn, and for quiet corners of the pleasure-ground. The showy beds 



of bulbs which are to be seen in public and other 



Bulbs in beds gardens, and which come so largely into spring 



on turf. gardens, are familiar to all. The beds suggested 



here are of a higher and more permanent nature,, 

 and are intended to be placed where they will be let alone. At 

 Moulton Grange some years ago I saw on the turf in a quiet corner 

 a bed of Tiger. Lilies which had no other flowers near to mar its 

 beauty. It was a large oval bed, and the colour of the finely grown 

 Lilies was brilliant and effective seen through the trees and glades. 

 In point of colour alone, nothing could be better ; the mass of bloom 

 was profuse, and the plants, about 6 feet high, told well in the garden 

 landscape. Among the most lovely beds are those of the nobler 

 Lilies, while Iris, and* many beautiful Day Lily, Paeony, Gladiolus, 

 and Cape Hyacinth may be grouped with them or near them. It 



