ITEMS OF INTEREST 527 



that there is plenty of alternative, but there can be little doubt that for 

 general good effect those of the softer scarlet colourings and those in- 

 clining to a salmon tint are the best. Nothing can well beat the 

 salmon-coloured double King of Denmark. The colour is delightfully 

 satisfying to the eye, both of the critical and untaught ; the doubling is 

 just double enough, and it gives the flower an expansive richness with- 

 out crowding of petals. 



We want our double Geraniums, like all other double flowers, to be 

 improved by a reasonable increase of petals, not to be debased by their 

 being crowded into a tight, formless mass, as is the case in many double 

 flowers, of which, among others, many Geraniums, Begonias, Hollyhocks, 

 and Fuchsias may be quoted. The good King of Denmark has also the 

 merit of a handsome and well-marked leaf; in short, it is a type of 

 beauty for a vase as for any other use of these indispensable summer 

 flowers. Geraniums are rather better in vases than in beds, because the 

 vase becomes warmed, and with daily watering the conditions it offers 

 are exactly what the plants like best, sun-warmth to root and top, and 

 free air all round. 



So, to recapitulate the main part of the answer to the question as 

 to the best plants for vases, it is " Geraniums far and away the best." 

 Nothing is so well dressed or so exactly suited to this use. Whether or 

 not to add some ivy-leaved kinds to hang over the edge is a matter that 

 must be determined by the form and place of the pot, but they are 

 generally more suitable to a thing of larger design. The choice of the 

 pot plants must depend also on the degree of shelter of the place where 

 the pots or vases stand. In a very sheltered place the best of the 

 Petunias are good pot plants. The best means the good whites, whether 

 single or double, the purples being nearly all infected with an unpleasant 

 rankness of colouring that makes them unbearable to the critical colour 

 eye. They have the advantage of remaining long in beauty, for it must 

 be remembered that the pot plant must be long enduring ; it is no use 

 to have a thing that is in beauty for a month it must be in beauty for 

 three months. A vase in a sheltered place, 2 feet high and as much 

 broad, reckoned independently of any plinth or pier on which it may 

 stand, might be beautifully dressed with a standard Heliotrope in the 

 middle about 2 feet 9 inches high, with a base planting of white 

 Petunia, or the standard of such a height as would show just a little of 

 the stem free above the Petunia. A very well grown Fuchsia of the 

 Mme. Cornellisen type, or any red and white double that is not too 

 double, would also be a good centre plant. Here the pendent habit of 

 the plant would seem to encourage the use of a red or white Ivy 

 Geranium to carry on the same idea throughout. 



Where the vases can be carried for the winter into the shelter of 

 some frost-proof place, Hydrangeas, that can remain in them from year 

 to year, are delightful vase plants. For the same use, whether the vase 

 itself is carried into shelter or the plant dropped into it in a large pot, 

 Sweet Verbena, Myrtle, Pomegranate, Oleander, Musa, and the hardier 

 Palms can be used. But to do these things rightly there must be a 



