26 HARDY FLOWERS. 



only permitted to develop their leaves in peace. In many other 

 orders are there things of beauty suited for the sort of gardening I 

 am advocating : however, it is needless to mention the many plants 

 that may be used in the spring and early summer garden, as that is 

 done in the body of the work. But is there any of this beauty to 

 be seen in eight out of ten of the gardens of England of the beauty 

 of either choice British or exotic hardy plants ? Very little ! A 

 chance spray here and there has escaped the incursions of the 

 Vandals, and though people write and talk a good deal of spring 

 flowers and spring gardening, yet, speaking generally, there is no 

 such thing as spring-gardening to be seen in English gardens. I do 

 not call the display of a few Forget-me-nots, Wallflowers, etc., stuck 

 in in the autumn to produce a few faint and abortive flowers in 

 spring, and perhaps to be torn up before they have time to open 

 them fully, " spring gardening." 



Leaving out all the fine hardy subjects introduced into botanic 

 gardens during the last twenty years, where are the Anemones 

 of sorts, the double Eockets, the pretty double white Ranun- 

 culus, the fine double Wallflowers of sorts, and the numerous 

 " good things " with which our fathers used to make a garden 

 pleasant during the sweetest months of the year ? Frequently 

 thrown away, or so neglected that persons with large gardens, and 

 who spend much money on them, have, during the sweetest months 

 of the year, not half so many floral charms around them as the peasant 

 who happens to live in a good wild-flower district ! 



But, by the judicious use of the spring and early summer-flowering 

 subjects described herein, the surroundings of almost every country 

 or even suburban house, may be made delightfully attractive at 

 these seasons. To this end they may be used in mixed borders, and 

 in beds in the flower-garden proper, and removed in time to plant 

 out the bedding subjects in early summer. In this way the dwarf 

 Phloxes, Iberises, Daisies, Pansies, etc. are used with very good 

 effect, and when removed in early summer, are taken to nursery 

 beds, where they remain till the season arrives for placing them in 

 the flower-garden again. It may, however, be well to tell those 

 who have not proved it for themselves, that it is impossible to see 

 our best spring and early summer hardy plants in all their beauty, 

 if treated on the autumn-plant- and- spring-root-up principle, and 

 perhaps, the prettiest way of all is to naturalize the numerous spring- 

 nowering exotics in shrubberies, by wood-walks, etc., as pointed out 



