HERBACEOUS PLANTS VS. BEDDING PLANTS. G3 



and a more general use of these conveniences shonkl be favored. 

 In them, Violets, Anemones of all the earlj-blooming kinds. 

 Forget-me-nots, Primroses, Hellebores, Hepaticas, Pansies, and 

 many other beautiful things can be grown to greater perfection 

 than in a greenhouse. It only needs that the possibilities of 

 frame culture should become fully known and understood to 

 insure to the amateur who lacks a greenhouse the greatest success 

 with the class of plants I have named. With frames open to the 

 sunlight, and protected by the usual methods, one ma}' have flowers 

 in plenl}' from January till June. The Pansy, which is everybody's 

 favorite, is rarely seen in perfection except in a cold frame. 



The arrangement of hardy flowers in the garden affords so much 

 scope for taste and knowledge, that it would require a volume to 

 make plain tlie numerous and various phases of grouping tliat ma}' 

 be devised with an eye to effect and continuity of bloom. The 

 landscape gardener, in laying out lawns, etc., endeavors to form 

 groups of trees and shrubs of contrasting habit of foliage, through 

 which pleasing vistas for the eye may be open. Only tlie inexpe- 

 rienced will proceed to dot in here and there an individual tree or 

 shrub, which, by its isolation, loses its effect. We must carry this 

 idea into the flower garden, in our arrangement of hardy plants, 

 so far as it relates to the grouping of a number of one species or 

 variety by itself. A hundred Daffodils growing gregariously is a 

 much finer sight in bloom than if the same number were scattered 

 or dotted over the surface of a bed, and by carrying out this idea 

 with all the dwarfer plants, much better results are attained ; and 

 we can extend it, if space permits, in combinations of hardy flower- 

 ing shrubs, the use of which I favor most decidedly in forming 

 our beds of hard}' flowers. 



We have few dwarf shrubs like the Hollies and Yews of England, 

 which, with their shining foliage, are such additions to flowering 

 beds there, but in place of the latter we can use, for the backs of 

 such beds as rest against a wall or fence, and for the centres of 

 beds which stand upon the lawn, the dwarfer hardy Rhododen- 

 drons, the Kalmia, Barberry, Sjnrcea Thunbergii, Hydrangea panic- 

 vlata, and here and there some of the stronger growing roses, 

 which seem to have been supplanted nowadays by the more deli- 

 cate and tender exhibition sorts. The latter, for general display, 

 cannot be compared with varieties like Mad. Plantier, Harrison's 

 Yellow, and many of the climbing roses, like Baltimore Belle 

 which, though a climber, is a most beautiful sight when left to 



