BEDDING-OUT. 17 



whole character of the English garden would be 

 changed. One of the first plants to be bedded- 

 out extensively was the " Tom Thumb " pelargo- 

 nium, or geranium as it was then more commonly 

 called; it was a dwarf scarlet, and was con- 

 sidered to be of great beauty till the better 

 varieties were introduced. Then followed ver- 

 beneas, calceolarias, and other flowers, which 

 could be kept as cuttings through the winter, 

 and then be planted out when summer weather 

 made it safe to do so. And there were many 

 advantages in bedding-out. In large public 

 gardens, where a glow of colour only was wanted, 

 where no one stopped to look at any particular 

 plant, and where a certain uniformity of growth 

 was essential, it answered extremely well. In 

 gardens which are, as it were, the approaches 

 of great houses, and which seem laid out rather 

 by the architect than the gardener, the bedding- 

 out system was both convenient in itself and 

 striking in its effect. Nothing for instance, in 

 its way, can be more beautiful than to look 

 down from the long gallery at Crewe Hall 



C 



