10 HARDY FLOWERS. 



the dullest seasons ; and thus we should be delivered from digging 

 and dreariness, and see our ugly borders alive with exquisite 

 plants. 



Assuming that one did not sufficiently esteem hardy flowers to go 

 even to the trouble of adapting the margin of a shrubbery to them, 

 it may not be amiss to point out that the beds of Rhododendrons 

 and American plants generally offer the finest positions that can be 

 desired for the making of the most charming and satisfactory kind 

 of mixed borders. 



The culture of Rhododendrons has for many years been so popular 

 in this country that there are few places that do rot possess beds or 

 masses of them, or in which fertile masses of peaty soil have not 

 been gathered for their reception. The Rhododendron bush, how- 

 ever fine in flower, has at all times a flattish, formal outline, and 

 this is often disagreeably apparent where large masses are planted, 

 as is now the custom in many places. The soil suited to the 

 Rhododendron is also perfectly suited to the most beautiful and 

 fastidious of all fine perennials. The bold and tall heads of Lilies 

 standing above the flat green of the Rhododendrons in summer, 

 sometimes, as in L. tigrinum Fortunei and L. superbum, in magnificent 

 candelabra-like heads, are the very things to relieve these masses in 

 the most effective way. Then again the Lilies themselves will be 

 seen to much greater advantage ; the bases of their stems, being 

 hidden by their surroundings when withering, will not be an eyesore, 

 as they often are when in a border, so that an impatient gardener 

 might want to cut them down before their time, or have something 

 else in their place. The very open spaces which long remain 

 between Rhododendrons, &c., in consequence of their somewhat 

 compact and slow-growing habit, encourage the kind of arrange- 

 ment suggested. It would be desirable to treat various classes of 

 plants in this way, as, for instance, the Lilies, the Gladioli, Sparaxis 

 pulcherrima, Tritomas, Crocosmia aurea, &c., none of which need be 

 disturbed after being planted, though tall and graceful subjects 

 are undoubtedly best suited for it. 



But even round the edge such comparatively dwarf subjects 

 as the Solomon's Seal and the beautiful Lilium longiflorum might be 

 placed with the happiest results. In the case of some of the 

 American Lilies, like L. superbum, this plan is not merely a good 

 one for growing the plants, but it is better than any hitherto pursued 

 with them, the peat soil and the partial shelter enabling them to 



