BORDERS. 



BORDERS. 



Borders, Renovation of. 



In old gardens the flower border was 

 an important object, nor is it superseded 

 even now by the more modern bedding 

 out, massing, and clumping system. 

 It is the natural abode of the 

 pink, carnation, stock, gillyflower, the 

 wallflower, hyacinths, roses, and helio- 

 tropes, with many other gems whose 

 fragrance loads the atmosphere, while their 

 beauty charms the eye ; and of the gaudy 

 tulip and pseonies, white, crimson, rose- 

 colour, and pink, whose brilliant colours 

 are highly attractive to the beholder, 

 although they yield no perfume. Such 

 mixed borders, when kept highly dressed 

 and judiciously planted, well selected and 

 arranged, possess great interest. But it is 

 the tendency of many of the herbaceous 

 plants to become crowded, and to exhaust 

 themselves. Phloxes, asters, monardas, 

 delphiniums, and other free-growing 

 plants, soon choke their delicate com- 

 panions, leaving little room for the more 

 graceful gentians, aquilegias, camassias 

 (hardy bulbs allied to the Scilla, or squill), 

 lychnises, and gnaphaliums (a variety of 

 plants allied to the helichrysums). Unless 

 these are parted, dressed in the spring, and 

 rearranged every season, all arrangement 

 and proportion is destroyed. The plants 

 of coarser habit expel the more delicate 

 flowers, and with it all idea of order and 

 proportion, on which so much of the beauty 

 of the garden depends. 



Supposing this state of things has gone 

 on until entire renovation has become 

 necessary ; that the border is exhausted 

 by continually growing the same thing for 

 years, and a radical remedy is required 

 there is only one which is effectual. Re- 

 move the plants to a place of safety, and 

 either dig out the old soil to the depth of 

 two feet, and fill up again with a rich light 

 compost of sandy loam and leaf mould, or, 



if the base of the soil is pretty good, mix it 

 with equal portions of the same compost, 

 with a copious manuring with well-rotted 

 dung, and trench it two feet deep, taking 

 care that the drainage is in proper order. 

 Where fruit trees occupy the walls on such 

 a border, it will be well to leave a space of 

 two feet from the wall, slightly raised above 

 the general surface of the border, unplanted, 

 for the benefit of the trees. 



On a border thus prepared the plants 

 may be replaced, taking care that young 

 plants of phloxes, asters, pentstemons, and 

 similar exhausting plants, are selected, 

 leaving the old stools in the reserve beds 

 to propagate from ; for it is found that 

 young herbaceous plants, propagated from 

 old plants the previous summer, yield the 

 best flowering plants for the beds or bor- 

 ders. In replanting, strict attention should 

 be paid to their height, the dwarfish kinds 

 being in the first row, the next in size in 

 the second, and so otf", placing the tallest 

 sorts behind. The same attention should 

 be paid to their colour and time of flower- 

 ing, so that the green of the late-blooming 

 kinds should blend harmoniously with the 

 colours of early bloomers, and these with 

 each other, and vice versd. 



Where a very choice selection of border 

 flowers is aimed at, it is desirable to plant 

 close to the wall, at distances varying from 

 two to three feet, dwarf-growing varieties 

 of tea-scented, Noisette, and other con- 

 tinuous blooming roses, of which a selection 

 may be made from the list of all kinds of 

 this beautiful flower that will be found in 

 another part of this volume. 



Between the roses and the wall plant 

 Thunbergia grandiflora, T. aurantiaca> 

 and T. alba ; Alstrameria pulchella, A. 

 awea, A. Hookerii, and A. psittacina ; 

 Gladiolus Gandavensis, G. Brenchleyensis, 

 G. cardinalis, G. psittacinus> and any of 

 the beautiful gladioli that have been intro- 

 duced of late years ; Amaryllis Belladonna ; 



