396 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



the year, and through this living carpet may come up many pretty 

 bulbs. Thus we may have in the same beds, with a little care and 

 thought, two or three different types of flower life. 



The plants that may be used in this way are numerous, and mostly 

 rock and mountain plants of Europe and cold countries, evergreen, 

 often bearing pretty flowers and good in colour at all seasons, spread- 

 ing into pretty carpets easily, and quite hardy, taking often a deeper 

 green in winter, so that used over permanent beds they help to adorn 

 the flower beds in winter ; and through them in the dawn of spring 

 the early Crocus, Scilla and Windflower come up to find themselves 

 in green turf of Thyme ; Rockfoil ; Stonecrop ; or varying these 

 according to soil, altitude or position ; the cooler north favouring 

 many mountain plants, though some face the ardours of the warmer 

 sun. 



THE WASTE OF MONOTONY. A grievous source of wasted effort 

 in gardens is monotony arising from everybody growing what his 

 neighbour grows. Thus it comes that the poor nurseryman who 

 attempts to grow new or rare trees or shrubs very often finds them 

 left on his hands, so that many country nurseries only grow a few 

 stereotyped things, and we see public gardens and squares in London 

 given over to the common Privet, the common Lilac let to run as a 

 weed, and the common Elder, as in Lincoln's Inn Fields. 



Every lover" of the garden could do something to check this fatal 

 monotony by taking up some plant, or family of plants, for himself, 

 which perhaps he is unable to find in the nursery gardens near at 

 hand. There are not only many beautiful species of plant which 

 are excluded from the ordinary nurseries, but even special nurseries, 

 as for Roses, often exclude good kinds from their collections. It is 

 not only the introduction of new plants or species we have to think of, 

 but the raising of new forms (hybrids or varieties), the fine cultivation 

 of neglected groups, as the beautiful forms of our native Primrose by 

 Miss Jekyll ; the making more artistic use of old and well-known 

 plants ; the skilful adaptation of plants and trees to the soil so as to get 

 the highest beauty of which it is capable without excessive care, and 

 without the deaths visible in many places after hard winters. Those 

 who seek to vary the monotony of gardens must be prepared to face 

 some trouble, and they must not take the least notice of what is 

 thought right in the neighbourhood, or of what can be obtained from 

 the nearest nursery garden. The further afield they look, probably 

 the better in the end it will be for them if they would escape from the 

 trammels of monotony. 



ATTACHING CLIMBERS AND FRUIT TREES TO WALLS. Per- 

 haps the most miserable of all garden-work is that of nailing the 

 shoots of trees to walls, on cold days, and the value of climbing 

 plants now in our gardens is so great, that the best mode of 



