

CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 



f^ 



«^a 



FLO^VEIt-BEnS. 



.ONSIDERABLE care should be exercised in tlie preparation of 

 flower-beds, after which they will give less trouble, and will last for 

 many years with a little addition of manure every fall or spring. 

 They may be various in shape — either round, triangular, palm-leaf 

 or stars — or several of one shape with grass or paths between, grouped 

 or massed together. They should be dug to the depth of at least a 

 ot, and deeper if the natural soil is stiff or heavy. If the soil is poor, it would 

 .isable to remove it entirely and supply its place with better. If the 

 lage is bad — a wet soil, for instance — the surface eaith that has been 

 -■ned for the bed should be thrown aside, and two or three inches of gravel, 

 cinders or what is still better, some long straw manure or brush, be placed 

 in the bottom, the soil thrown in again, manured if necessarv, the lumps well 

 beaten out, and the bed raked fine and even. After this it will require onlv to be well 

 stirred with a digging-fork every spring to loosen it up a little. It is better in low 

 situati<ins that the beds should lie a little above the surrounding surface; but in high, dry 

 lawns exposed to the wind, it is well to have them a little lower, the edges being trimmed as 

 frequently as may be required; or, if surri>untlcd by gravel walks, a border of close-cut 

 grass is very neat as marking the outlines of the bed. In some parts of California flower- 

 beds are well rolled down, to pack the surface, so as to give off less evaporation during 

 the months of drouth. The terra cotta manufactured for the purpose, as well as tiles, 

 bricks standing on end and touching sides, or thin, flat stones set in the same manner, are 

 sometimes used to preser\e beds from the encroachments of grass. 



FLOWER-BEDS IN RELATION TO SYMMETRY AND COLOR. 

 In arranging flower-beds, some attention should be paid to the effect different plants 

 will produce when brought together. The taller ones should go to the center, and the 

 lower growing and prostrate ones toward the margins, so that one will not hide another. 

 The same rule applies to straight borders of walks, the taller ones going back against the 

 grass. This is usually easy to do, as in most cases the heights of plants are given on seed 

 packets. For a fine display, too much forethought cannot be given to the various colors 

 that are to be brought in contact, as some colors, though handsome in themselves, utterlv 

 destroy the beauty of each other. For instance, scarlet and purple and some shades of 

 blue do not afliliate at all, and are what are called antagonistic colors. We will fill an 

 imaginary bed with Verbenas of inharmonious tints if put together wrongfully, but very 

 pleasing and harmonious if rightly placed. Our stock consists of a dozen plants each of 

 scarlet, purple, pink or rose color, and white. Placing the scarlet at one angle of the bed, 

 we arrange next to it the pure white, that harmonizes everything in color and reconciles 

 natural antagonism; adjoining it we plant our purples, and then our rose-tint — and how 

 happily the two latter combine! The pale tints of all colors are more easy of assimilation 

 than the deep ones, but what richness and depth of tone there is in some of the darker 

 ones! For display-beds cut in the lawn or grass-plats, masses of one color for each bed, 

 or at most two complementary colors, produce the finest effect. 



i. '1 ^ .sag 



