26 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



of pelargonium alone. It is calculated that 

 the bedding-out of a single good-sized garden 

 will take at least 100,000 plants to make it 

 effective. 



But now, leaving the question of summer 

 bedding-out, we are glad to note signs of real 

 advance in other directions. It is something that 

 within the last ten or fifteen years our gardeners 

 should have discovered that bare earth, all spring, 

 is not particularly beautiful, and should have 

 taken to what is called Spring gardening. All 

 flowers are welcome in spring, and even masses 

 of double daisies are acceptable. But indeed in 

 all the most elaborate bedding-out of summer, 

 there is nothing that can give greater pleasure 

 for colouring than a blue lake of Myosotis dis- 

 sitiflora, or of autumn-sown Nemophila insignis. 

 Then again, owing to our more rapid and easy 

 intercourse with Holland and Belgium, tulips 

 and hyacinths, which, however, were always in 

 favour, are more used than they were some years 

 ago. The quantities sent over by the gardeners 

 of the Low Countries must be very great. Not 



