HERBACEOUS PLANTS VS. BEDDING PLANTS. 57 



being more than recompensed in spring and summer b}' the unique 

 beaut}' of blossom with which some of the more tender species are 

 favored. 



I have set the two classes of plants — the hardy and the more 

 tender bedding plants — against each other for our consideration 

 and comparison. The latter includes the Geranium, Coleus, Alter- 

 nanthera, Pyrethrum, Lobelia, and others, and depends for effects 

 upon color and strong, often glaring, contrasts. That is to saj", 

 most bedding effects have these characteristics. Some combina- 

 tions of bedding plants, in certain gardens, have these faults 

 less obtrusively displaced, and often a harmony in the blending of 

 colors is apparent, forming a pleasing picture in a wide frame of 

 green, where distance and also perspective tend to soften, and at 

 the same time to enhance, the effect of the contrasts. These effects, 

 produced with bedding plants in combination with large and 

 small succulents, aided here and there with the hardier palms and 

 bromeliads as adjuncts to the whole, are noteworthy and com- 

 mendable, bringing into play the utmost fancy, skill, and taste of 

 the gardener ; who each year seeks for new combinations of 

 color and form. Such displavs show favorabl}' in certain loca- 

 tions, where they are but one feature among many others and do 

 not wholh' absorb the gardener's interest and attention. 



But in this country', where gardening as an art is still something 

 of a weakling, these pleasing horticultural pictures must neces- 

 sarily be confined to the gardens of a few wealth}' persons, who are 

 fortunate enough to command the services of able gardeners whose 

 taste is marked and preeminent. I would not have it inferred 

 that all men of wealth are so favored, for in man}' instances I 

 have known the master and the man, while intending to beautify 

 an estate, to be joint partners in making it hideous and a complete 

 exposition of bad taste and vulgarit}', when in other hands it 

 would have been made strikingly beautiful. 



Bedding out, as generally' practised by the amateur and gardener, 

 is like the first attempts of a tyro in painting, — A'ery crude and 

 inharmonious. Ignorance of the character and value of plants, 

 in their relation to the picture or mosaic to be formed, is, perhaps, 

 the chief difficulty in these instances. In man}', and, I may sa}', in 

 most, places where a gardener is intrusted with power to fill up 

 and arrange the beds for the season, will be found a yearly recur- 

 rence of the monotonous, never-blooming reds and j'ellows, with a 

 few inconspicuous and ding}' intermediate colors, which, in our 



