THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 



SUCCESSION OF BLOOM. 



The directions given in the foregoing pages, 

 and in the floricultural calendar appended, it is 

 hoped, will assist in leading to an arrangement 

 whereby a constant succession of blossom may be 

 obtained, for on this much depends. As a further 

 aid, we offer the following hints, furnished by a 

 correspondent to the Gardeners' Chronicle : ' Sup- 

 posing equal skill in the cultivation of plants in 

 general to exist among gardeners, the great supe- 

 riority in effect of one garden beyond another 

 consists in the distribution and arrangement of 

 the plants themselves, so that a succession of 

 blossom and a due contrast of colour should, 

 where practicable, keep every border furnished 

 even to the end of autumn. In this respect, most 

 gardens are deficient. Succession is not attended 

 to, except for the more limited space and favoured 

 spots near the mansion, or in front of the conserv- 

 atory. In most gardens it is considered sufficient 

 to keep any border where plants have blossomed 

 free from weeds and neatly raked. To the mind 

 of the gardener, this border tells its own history, 

 of the beauty of which he had boasted but a few 

 weeks since ; but the visitor or casual observer 

 who walks through the garden, only seeking to 

 please his eye with varied gaiety, makes no allow- 

 ance for the past which he has not seen, and 

 remarks, that though some parts are beautiful, a 

 great portion of the ground has nothing worth 

 looking at 



' By the subjoined method, the comparative 

 gaiety of the scene may be kept up, and a relief to 

 the eye, not without interest to the observer, pre- 

 served. Mix the seeds of the following well-known 

 annuals : 



Mignonette. 

 Carnation poppy. 

 Papaver amcenum. 

 Dwarf Dutch poppy. 

 French poppy. 

 Branching larkspur. 

 Eschocholtzia Californica. 



crocea. 



Campanula speculum. 

 Candytuft, varieties. 

 Nasturtium. 

 Centaurea Cyanus, various. 



Heart's-ease. 

 Clarkia pulchella, 



it alba. 



Godetia of all sorts. 

 Antirrhinum majus. 



sparteum. 



IT versicolor. 



Collinsia bicolor. 

 Coreopsis tinctoria. 

 Convolvulus minor. 

 Gilia tricolor, and other 

 species. 



Then let this mixture of seed be very thinly scat- 

 tered upon the borders early in the spring ; it 

 need not interfere with any ordinary work on the 

 borders that may be required afterwards, and in 

 places where the ground may be disturbed, many 

 of the seeds will only appear at a subsequent 

 period, and consequently flower later in the 

 autumn. Most of these annuals will continue 

 flowering until the frost kills them, and if not re- 

 moved too soon, will leave behind them sufficient 

 seed for years to come. Every gardener has re- 

 marked the strength, the beauty, and the effect of 

 single plants of self-sown annuals that spring up 

 occasionally in a flower-border, and have escaped 

 that destruction which the merciless hoe, in the 

 hand of the undiscriminating labourer, inevitably 

 entails upon them. 



' One case yet remains of much consequence to 

 present as well as to future effect, though gener- 

 ally but little attended to : this is the frequent 

 examination of all annuals as they expand their 



first flowers, and the pulling them up, unless in 

 habit, form, and colour they are fit to remain for 

 stock. Crowded as annuals generally are in the 

 patches sown in gardens, their true character and 

 beauty are seldom seen ; and if, among the mass 

 sown, some few blossoms appear more striking 

 than the rest, and the seed of these is considered 

 more worthy of preservation, it is generally too 

 late to take away the worthless without destroying 

 the plants most desired ; and the seed so saved 

 from the most select variety is but little better 

 than that from any of the other plants. 



'The system now recommended gives the ad- 

 vantage of separation and a power of selection, 

 with the certainty that a selected plant will, by its 

 position as a single plant, not only blossom in 

 beauty and vigour, but afford that abundant har- 

 vest of good seed which will amply repay in future 

 years the trifling care thus proposed to be bestowed 

 upon it' 



PLANTS FOR THE GREENHOUSE, AND FOR 

 WINDOWS, &C. 



These are of various kinds, both herbaceous 

 and shrubby, and require to be distinguished from 

 the preceding, because they are exotics, too deli- 

 cate for open-air exposure in all weathers, and 

 require to be kept in a temperature above the 

 freezing-point This is done by placing them in a 

 greenhouse or conservatory heated slightly in winter 

 by means of flues or pipes of hot water. The most 

 approved situation of a greenhouse, of the old lean- 

 to form, is against a wall with a southern exposure ; 

 and, if possible, placed in connection with a range of 

 artificial vineries or hothouses. In many instances, 

 a conservatory is connected in a very agreeable 

 way with the parlour of a dwelling-house, by which 

 its beauties are enjoyed without the trouble of 

 going out in bad weather or during the inclemency 

 of winter. Except a few prominent specimens 

 planted in the beds or borders, all the plants are 

 in pots ; and whenever it can be done without 

 risk of injury, the sashes are opened, and free ex- 

 posure permitted. At the country seats of various 

 English noblemen, as well as in public gardens, 

 such as those at Kew and Edinburgh, conserva- 

 tories are formed on a magnificent scale, so as to 

 allow the free growth of even tall trees, such as 

 the palm and other large tropical plants. 



The most beautiful greenhouse flowers usually 

 cultivated are camellias, geraniums, fuchsias, or- 

 chids, cacti, and azaleas. The camellia is a woody 

 shrub, yielding splendid rose-like flowers of colours 

 varying from white to red. The geranium is a well- 

 known exotic, with clustering bunches of flowers of 

 different colours, or with beautifully variegated and 

 tinted foliage The fuchsia, introduced from Chili, 

 is a handsome shrub, of different varieties, yielding 

 exceedingly beautiful flowers, varying from pure 

 white to bright crimson ; and the manner in which 

 these flowers depend from the branches, like drops 

 of ladies' ear-rings, has a singularly graceful effect 

 The cacti are interesting exotics, distinguishable 

 by their thick and succulent leaves, on which 

 usually grow small and sharp prickles ; the flowers 

 are splendid. Besides these, we may enumerate, 

 either for their great beauty of blossom or fragrant 

 odours, the nerium, jasmine, gardenia, hydrangea, 

 Chinese primrose, daphnd, heliotrope, acacia, 

 mimosa, eucalyptus, passion-flower, amaryllis, and 



