90 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



the ordinary mixed border. This special culture of favourite flowers 

 may be best carried out in a plot of ground set aside for beds of the 

 choicer flowers, in a piece of ground in or near the kitchen garden or 

 any other open position, sheltered, but not shaded. Such ground 

 should be treated as a market gardener would treat it well enriched, 

 and open, and thrown into four-foot beds ; the little pathways need 

 not be gravelled or edged, but simply marked out with the feet. With 

 the aid of such a division of the garden, the cultivation of many fine 

 hardy plants becomes a pleasure. When any plant gets tired of its 

 bed, it is easy to make the Carnation bed of past years the bulb 

 one for the next year, and so on. It would be easy to change one's 

 favourites from bed to bed, so that deep-rooting plants should follow 

 surface-rooting kinds, and thus the freshness of the garden would be 

 kept up. If any edging is used, it should be of natural stone sunk in 

 the earth, as such edgings are not ugly or costly ; but the abolition of 

 all edgings, beyond one or two main lines, would tend to simplify the 

 work. Such a plot is excellent for giving cut flowers in quantity, and 

 is also a great aid as a nursery, while it would also be a help to 

 exchanges with friends or neighbours, in the generous way of all true 

 gardeners. The space occupied by it will depend upon the size 

 and wants of the place ; but, wherever the room can be spared, an 

 eighth of an acre might be devoted to the culture in simple beds 

 of favourite flowers, and even the smallest garden should have a 

 small plot of this kind. 



WHAT TO GROW IN THE RESERVE GARDEN. Among the fair 

 flowers which in this way may be cultivated, each separately and 

 well, are the delightful old Clove Carnations white, crimson, and 

 scarlet, as well as many other kinds ; tall Phloxes, so fair in country 

 gardens in the autumn ; scarlet Lobelias, splendid in colour ; Pinks of 

 many kinds ; Persian and Turban Ranunculus ; bright old garden 

 Anemones, and the finer species of Anemone ; Lilies, and as many as 

 possible of the splendid kinds introduced into our gardens within the 

 past dozen years from California and Japan ; tall perennial Delphiniums, 

 with their spikes of blue ; double Rockets ; beautiful Irises, English, 

 Spanish, Japanese, and German ; Pansies in great variety ; Tiger 

 Flowers ; the Columbine, including the lovely blue Columbine of the 

 Rocky Mountains ; Pyrethrums, Chinese Pinks, Scabious, Sweet 

 Williams ; Stocks of many kinds ; Wall-flowers, double and single ; 

 the annual Phloxes ; Zinnias, which, if grown as grown abroad that 

 is to say, well and singly grown are fine in colour ; China Asters, 

 quilled and others ; the Sweet Sultan, in two or three forms ; showy 

 tricolour Chrysanthemums ; Grasses for cutting in winter ; Grape 

 Hyacinths ; rare Narcissus ; Meadow Saffrons ; Lilies of the Valley ; 

 Crocuses, the autumnal as well as the vernal kinds ; Dahlias, cactus 



