96 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



plenty,' would well describe the appearance of our 

 fields and gardens in this year's September. 



There is as yet no lack of flowers, and of many 

 kinds. The summer ' bedders ' are at their best ; and 

 to those who wish for large masses of colour in August 

 and September, nothing is so useful or so effective 

 as these summer 'bedders.' To me a 'bedded-out' 

 garden gives little pleasure, and I see little beauty in 

 'carpet beds' and 'pincushion borders,' but the flowers 

 which compose these beds and borders have each their 

 charm and beauty, and we cannot do without them. I 

 would not willingly be without the sweet scent of the 

 heliotropes ; and I use largely geraniums, calceolarias, 

 and begonias, but I use them as single plants to fill up 

 many gaps, and to brighten up many an odd corner, 

 and for such purposes they are most useful, and do what 

 I ask of them most effectually. But there are plenty of 

 fine flowers besides the 'bedders.' The autumn roses 

 have been very abundant and beautiful; some more 

 beautiful than in their midsummer bloom. The grand 

 old rose Souvenir de Malmaison is never so beautiful in 

 summer as in autumn, so that it is quite worth while 

 to sacrifice the summer blooms, and let it bloom in 

 autumn only. Then there are the beautiful asters, — not 

 the gay French asters, which I cannot admire, though 

 their colours are sometimes very beautiful, but they 



