498 Notes on the Brighton Gardens. 



to form bushes of width proportionate to their height, or they 

 should be neatly tied up to stakes, and pruned, so that their sides 

 may be regularly furnished with branches. 



Tawdriness in plants in pots is, if possible, still more objec- 

 tionable than in plants in the open garden. It is produced by 

 growing them crowded together in pits or green-houses, at a 

 distance from the glass, instead of keeping them at all times 

 quite near the glass ; never so close as to touch one another, and 

 always admitting abundance of air in the daytime. 



When tawdriness exists, the only remedy for it is cutting in, 

 and neatly tying up to stakes ; allowing no plant to be so near 

 another as to touch ; but, on the contrary, allowing such a dis- 

 tance between them, as that every plant may not only stand 

 distinct, but have room to become clothed with foliage from the 

 ground to its summit. We have been led to these remarks on 

 tawdriness, as contrasted with neatness, distinctness, and bushi- 

 ness, by observing some of the front gardens to the street houses 

 at Brighton. In many of these there is a degree of neatness, 

 select planting, and high keeping, which is far from being com- 

 mon, in the same proportion, in the street gardens of London. 



In the management of plants (we are not now speaking of 

 their propagation and culture), whether in the open air or under 

 glass, the first point to attend to is neatness as opposed to taw- 

 driness; the second order, as opposed to confusion, or disorder; 

 the third is regularity, or a succession of similar parts; and the 

 last, symmetry, or a correspondence between the parts which 

 compose the two sides of an object. 



Brighton Gardens, Sept. 17. 1838. — We were particularly 

 gratified by the high style of planting and keeping exhibited 

 in the front gardens of some of the houses facing the London Road. 

 Not only did they contain many of the finest hardy and half-hardy 

 annuals, but pelargoniums, fuchsias, calceolarias, lobelias, salvias, 

 and other green-house plants. Scarcely anything can surpass 

 the neat manner in which many of these were tied up ; and 

 all appeared remarkably healthy, and free from insects. In 

 some of the gardens were stages of choice plants in pots ; and 

 we observed, in one or two, framework of green-painted wire 

 of different forms for containing plants ; but, instead of these 

 frames, or cases, being filled with pots in the ordinary manner, they 

 were lined with turf, the green side outermost, and the grass 

 kept closely clipped, as it protruded beyond the wire. W^e no- 

 ticed particularly the front gardens to the following houses, all 

 on the London Road, and within a few yards of St. Peter's ; a 

 very handsome church, erected, a few years ago, from the design 

 of Mr. Barry. 



Marlborough Place. — No. 15. In a plot not containing more 

 than two square yards, dark and light-flowered nasturtiums, 



