THE SUMMER GARDEN BEAUTIFUL. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CARNATION, LILY, IRIS, AND THE NOBLER SUMMER FLOWERS. 



THE flowers of our own latitudes, when they are beautiful, are 

 entitled to the first place in our gardens, and among these flowers, 

 after the Rose, should come the Carnation, in all its brilliancy of 

 colour, where the soil and climate are fitted for it, as is the case over 

 a large area of our sea-girt land. 



Our flower gardens have to a great extent been void of beautiful 

 flowers and plants ; but instead, acres of mean little sub-tropical weeds 

 that happen to possess a coloured leaf Coleus, Alternanthera, Perilla, 

 etc. occupy much of the ground which ought to be true flower 

 gardens, but which is too often set out with plants without fragrance, 

 beauty of form, or good colour. 



It is not enough that the laced, flaked, and other varieties of 

 Carnation should be grown in frames or otherwise ; we should show 

 the flower in all its force of colour in our flower gardens. Many 

 who have not the skill, or the time, for the growth of the " florists' " 

 flower, would yet find the brilliant " self" Carnations delightful in 

 their gardens in summer and autumn, and even in winter, for the 

 Carnation, where it does well, has a fine colour-value of foliage in 

 winter, which makes it most useful to all who care for colour in 

 their gardens, adorning the garden throughout the winter and spring, 

 and full of promise for the summer and autumn. 



What Carnations are the best for the open air? The kinds of 

 Carnations popular up to the present day are well known by what 

 is seen at the Carnation shows, and in the florists' periodicals, like 

 the Floral Magazine, and, indeed, all similar periodicals up to our 

 own day, when I began to insist that all flowers should be drawn as 

 they are. The artist should never be influenced by any " rules " or 



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