126 THE NEW GARDENING 



is past. Modernized bedding has a great part to play. 

 The monotonous expanse of large lawns can often be 

 broken with advantage by flower-beds, and the amateur 

 who has to garden in restricted areas in or near towns 

 will often find that he can practise flower-gardening 

 more successfully in beds than in borders under walls and 

 fences. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that I do not advocate 

 a revival of the old style of bedding. Flaming breadths 

 of Zonal Geraniums and mosaics of coloured-leafed 

 carpeting plants are equally things of the past. They 

 constitute the " penny-dreadfulism " of gardening. They 

 held sway just as long as a cultured public for flower- 

 gardening was lacking. With the birth of an educated 

 opinion they were I can hardly say extinguished, in view 

 of what I see and hear, but at least relegated to a 

 subordinate place. 



The " new bedding " does not limit itself to the 

 elementary duty of putting Hyacinths into a bed in 

 October, and turning them out to make way for Geraniums 

 in May. It plays a broader part. It provides a greater 

 variety of material, and utilizes it in a more tasteful way. 

 One of its cardinal principles is to reduce the area of 

 bare earth to a minimum. Another is to bring different 

 plants into combination in tasteful and pleasing ways. 



It is now my purpose to show how beautiful beds may 

 be arranged so as to give a display for the greater part 

 of the year, and at a comparatively small expenditure of 

 money and labour. 



Has the reader contemplated those charming little 

 flowers, the ennobled double Daisies, and reflected on 

 their suitability for planting as a groundwork to Tulips 

 in autumn ? These modest but beautiful Daisies are 

 green all the winter. They are compact, and they bloom 



