BEDDING PLANTS 149 



laid on the flowers of any bedding plant, however beauti- 

 ful they may be, because the leaf effect is valuable and 

 satisfactory throughout the season, while the flowers 

 fade in a few days, not to return, or if they return they 

 bloom in a scattering or intermittent way. It would 

 not be saying too much to declare that leaves should be 

 the first and most important consideration, and not the 

 flowers, and, above all, that plants exclusively valuable 

 for their flowers, like lilies, should not be mixed through- 

 out the mass of any bed, to the obscuration of the 

 clearly defined design, for while there may be, and gen- 

 erally should be, a blending of colors and forms, there 

 should not be confusion of eifect. Clearly defined and 

 striking colors and forms, should be sought in landscape 

 gardening on the smallest and most formal plan of bed- 

 ding, for bedding belongs in the foreground of the pict- 

 ure, and therefore rich color is just as much in place 

 here as the green foliage, with its mysteries of eifect 

 and soft blending, is in sympathy with the middle dis- 

 tance and background of the picture. In bedding, we 

 welcome all the color and glow we can get, while in the 

 tree and shrub mass we deprecate the use of any other 

 color than green, unless it be used with unusual self- 

 restraint and skill. 



Nothing more perfect of its kind offers itself than, 

 perhaps, the different varieties of alternantheras, which 

 are glowing and rich with color, and yet have a grassy 

 habit that fits them better than almost any other plant 

 to take the place of grass in all schemes of bedding. 

 Next to this grassy effect, we have the yellow feather- 

 few, and the nasturtium of charming habit, and the 

 begonia, and after that, taking the place of the shrub in 

 the ordinary landscape scheme, comes the geranium, 



