MAY. 223 



ORNAMENTAL GARDENING IN THE SOUTH. 



BY ANDREAV GRAY, SAVANNAH, GA. 



I SPTALL now endeavor to draw our garden memoranda to 

 a close. 



The area at the front door, which is about thirty yards 

 wide and of an oval form, has in the centre an elliptical figure, 

 running athwart the door, and twelve by six yards in size, 

 planted round with red cedars at about three feet apart, which 

 are cut into a hedge about five feet high, arched between the 

 plants. The arches are about three feet high, and from the 

 top of them to the summit of the hedge, it forms a semi- 

 circle. Formerly this was a magnificent affair, but the cedars 

 now begin to decay, and they, unlike many other evergreens, 

 will not admit of severe cutting in. At each end of this 

 ellipsis and about eight yards from it, is a cassine (Ilex cas- 

 sine) hedge, forming a kind of crescent, which divides the 

 area from the shrubbery. I have heretofore spoke of this 

 plant ; its adaptation for ornamental hedges cannot be sur- 

 passed. This hedge fully proves the assertion ; it stands 

 about four feet high and three wide, cut square and perfectly 

 close from top to bottom. 



The pillars which support the pallisade attached to the 

 steps, are covered over with ivy, which grows luxuriantly 

 here. The cassine hedge above alluded to, terminates about 

 five feet from those pillars, and forms the entrance to the 

 flower garden on either side of the house. About twenty 

 yards from those entrances on each side, and nearly on a line 

 with the pillars, is raised a small rock work about four feet 

 high, also covered over with the ivy and the Agave ameri- 

 cana planted on the top ; in the rear of this grows a fine 

 Magnoh'a grandiflora, and a little further off a camellia. The 

 rockwork and camellia are both shaded under the spreading 

 branches of the magnolia, and are a sight one can hardly be- 

 hold without admiration, especially when the camellia is in 

 flower. 



We are now in the flower gardens, and shall speak of them 



