SUMMER FLOWER BEDS 69 



problem that confronts him lies in the means that shall be em- 

 ployed to attain it. If I may offer a humble word of advice, it is 

 that he should begin at the beginning. He will not achieve per- 

 fection easily or immediately ; before the goal is reached he will 

 have expended hours nay, years of careful watching, noting 

 and doing ; he will have had meanwhile to put himself into 

 closest acquaintance and sympathy with growing things ; will 

 have marked their diversities of habit, and their peculiarities 

 of colouring and growth, so that, working in harmony with Nature, 

 he may assist her in producing the perfect garden picture. 



And the beginning of the art of summer bedding is to be found, 

 I believe, in striking at the outset the note of simplicity. Let the 

 inexperienced amateur confine his activities to a few of the plants 

 with which he is most familiar, such as the geranium, the cal- 

 ceolaria, Ihe viola, the pansy, the verbena, and the fuchsia ; half- 

 hardy annuals like African marigolds, petunias, phlox Drummondi, 

 nicotiana (the new hybrid and coloured varieties), stocks, asters, 

 and the like, and for edgings such simple plants as lobelia, blue 

 or white, alyssum, arabis, and .Virginian stock. 



Here there is ample choice for the display of a nice discrimina- 

 tion in the selection of colours and in the disposition of the 

 plants. What, for example, is calculated to produce a simpler 

 or finer effect than a bed or two devoted exclusively to the culti- 

 vation of violas ? The range of colours is wide, and the beds 

 may be confined to flowers of a single hue or to mixed varieties 

 at d scretion. The supreme advantage of the viola over other 

 bedding plants lies in its extended period of flowering. If care 

 be taken regularly to remove faded blossoms the viola will flower 

 with astonishing persistency, even in a shady situation, from late 

 in April until the end of September. Here is a list of a few of the 

 many varieties that lend themselves to simple bedding arrange- 

 ment, with their distinctive colours : 



Snowflake 



Sylvia 



Seagull 



White Empress 



white 



Royal Sovereign 

 Kingcup 

 Mrs E. A. Cade 

 Walter Welsh 



yellov 



