THIRD WEEK IN JUNE 



&c., with flowers, but these must be carefully placed in 

 suitable positions. 



The lawn is always a delightful part of the garden, and 

 this should never be cut up into flower beds or so planted as 

 to destroy the idea of breadth and greenery, which con- 

 stitutes its principal charm. The sides of the lawn, how- 

 ever, may well be chosen as positions for fine specimen 

 plants, such as a Datura suavolens Knightii, with great 

 white trumpet-shaped blossoms ; a tree pasony, which gives 

 a magnificent glow of colour in June ; or a group of rhodo- 

 dendrons of the hybrid group, which contains so many fine 

 varieties, such as R. mirabilis, R. Gauntletti, &c. 



Tall plants (i.e., white foxgloves, blue delphiniums, 

 kniphofias) look their best when grouped at little distances, 

 and may be well placed behind dwarf rhododendrons and 

 where their spikes of bloom will show up against greenery ; 

 the half-shaded position which suits rhododendrons will also 

 do well for these, with violas, also shade-loving flowers, as 

 an edging, and liliums between the shrubs. 1 But such a 

 border must be well made, with an addition of peat and rich 

 soil ; most of the plants can then be left alone for years, as 

 they do not enjoy any disturbance of their roots, and only 

 need a yearly mulch of manure in spring. Pasonies in many 

 exquisite tints will give a good effect in a year or two, and 

 Oriental poppies, which resent a move, and are finest when 

 left to their own devices, when the pure scarlet of their 

 massive blossoms is very telling. 



When it is necessary to emphasise the corner of a lawn or 

 a border few plants are more effective than the plantain lily, 

 Funkia Sieboldii, with its fine rosette of great glaucous 

 leaves and tassel-like flowers. This is a hardy deciduous 

 plant from Japan and China, of the order liliacaea, easy to 

 grow, and increasing in size yearly if not unduly disturbed. 

 In fact, most of our hardy perennials do best when allowed 

 to take their own way ; and the terrible necessity to dig 

 them up continually entailed by the late fashion of semi- 

 tropical bedding is now happily a thing of the past. 



1 See frontispiece. 

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