OCTOBER 189 



be mansions I have not seen them myself which 

 demand among their surroundings the stiff and 

 monotonous decoration of bedding plants ; but the 

 ordinary English house is at its best in the really 

 English garden a garden of herbaceous plants, 

 and roses, and carnations, and good things which 

 have been relegated for so many years to the 

 kitchen domains that we feel ashamed to give them, 

 as we should do, the best places in the parterre. 

 It may be said that the season of bloom of carna- 

 tions, for instance, is too short to allow of their 

 usurping the best beds. This taste for perpetual 

 bloom on a given piece of ground is a depraved 

 taste, and should not be encouraged. 



To return to the greenhouse. When all the 

 bedding plants have been consigned to the rubbish 

 heap with the exception of a few zonal and 

 ivy-leafed pelargoniums, which will be wanted 

 for next year's tubs or hanging baskets, if these 

 are used the whole of the glass-house will be 

 available for its proper purpose. The next thing 

 to do is to send nearly all the hard-wood plants 

 the way of the bedding stuff. Even many of those 

 which flower in winter cannot be usefully retained 

 if the best possible results as regards quantity are 

 to be gained. The amateur with but a small 

 greenhouse cannot have these beautiful things. 

 He cannot have azaleas, because they take up 

 large spaces on the stage from October to February 

 which should be given to flowers that bloom within 

 those months. He cannot have bouvardias for the 

 same reason, for they will not do their best in 

 winter in the ordinary amateur's house. Fuchsias 



