SPRING GARDENS. 



perhaps, the noblest effect of blue flowers that one can enjoy in our 

 latitudes in spring. The tall Phloxes are plants of the summer, but, 

 there is a group of American dwarf alpine Phloxes of the moun- 

 tains which are among the hardiest and most cheery flowers of 

 spring, thriving on any dry banks and in the drier parts of rock 

 gardens, forming mossy edgings in the flower garden, and breaking 

 into a foam of flowers early in spring. 



The Viola family is most precious, not only in the many forms 

 of the sweet Violet, which will always deserve garden cultivation, 



but in the numerous varieties of the Pansy, which 

 Pansies. flower so effectively in the spring. The best of 



all, perhaps, for artistic use are the Tufted Pansies, 

 which are delightfully simple in colour white, pale blue, or lavender, 

 and various other delicate shades. Almost perennial in character, 

 they can be increased and kept true, and they give us distinct and 

 delicate colour in masses as wide as we wish, instead of the old 

 "variegated" effect of Pansies. Though the separate flowers of 

 these were often handsome, the effect of the Tufted Pansies with 

 their pure and delicate colours is more valuable, and these also, 

 while pretty in groups and patches, will, where there is space, often 

 be worth growing in little nursery beds. 



These are among the most welcome flowers of spring. Before the 

 common and most beautiful of all the marsh Forget-me-not comes, 



there are the wood Forget-me-not (M. Sylvatica) 

 Forget-me-nots, and M. dissitiflora and M. alpestris, all precious 



early flowers. Allied to the ever-welcome Forget- 

 me-not is the common Omphalodes, or creeping Forget-me-not, 

 valuable for its freedom in growth in half shady or rough places 

 in almost any soil one of the most precious of the early flowers 

 which take care of themselves if we take a little trouble to put 

 them in likely places. 



Among annuals that bloom in spring where the soil is favourable, 

 excellent results are often obtained by sowing Sweet Peas in autumn. 



When this is done, and they escape the winter, 

 Annual flowers, they give welcome hedges of flowers in the early 



year. So, too, the Cornflower, a lovely spring 

 flower, and perhaps the finest blue we have among annual plants ; 

 but to have it good and early it should be always sown in 

 autumn, and for effect it should be in broad masses, sometimes 

 among shrubs or in recently broken ground which we desire 

 to cover. Some of the Californian annuals are handsome and 

 vigorous when sown in autumn, always provided they escape the 

 winter. The White Godetia is very fine in this way. In all chalky, 

 sandy, and, warm soils the Stocks for spring bloom are handsome- 



