798 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



divided into three classes, which classes are independently altogether of the style in which 

 they are laid out. The first class is the general or mingled Jlower-garden, in which is dis- 

 played a mixture of flowers with or without flowering-shrubs according to its size. The 

 object in this class is to mix the plants, as that every part of the garden may present a gay 

 assemblage of flowers of different colors during the whole season. The second class is the 

 select Jlower-garden, in which the object is limited to the cultivation of particular kinds of 

 plants ; as, florists' flowers, American plants, annuals, bulbs, &c. Sometimes two or more 

 classes are included in one garden, as bulbs and annuals ; but, in general, the best effect 

 is produced by limiting the object to one class only. The third class is the changeable 

 jlower-garden, in which all the plants are kept in pots, and reared in a flower nursery or 

 reserve-ground. As soon as they begin to flower, they are plunged in the borders of the 

 flower-garden, and, whenever they show symptoms of decay, removed, to be replaced by 

 others from the same source. This is obviously the most complete mode of any for a dis- 

 play of flowers, as the beauties of both the general and particular gardens may be combined 

 without presenting blanks, or losing the fine effect of assemblages of varieties of the same 

 species ; as of hyacinth, pink, dahlia, chrysanthemum, &c. The fourth class is the botanic 

 Jlower-garden, in which the plants, are arranged with reference to botanical study, or at 

 least not in any way that has for its main object a ych display of blossoms. On each of 

 these gardens, or manners of arranging plants grown for their beauty or curiosity, we shall 

 offer some remarks. 



6111. The mingled Jlower-garden, or border, is by far the most common; it is what 

 every gardener attempts at in planting his flower-borders, and the aim of the greater num- 

 ber of such as form parterres, or separate scenes for the culture of flowers, seldom goes 

 further. The object here is to display a gay assemblage of colors during the season of 

 flowers, without much regard to variety of form or diversity of character in these flowers, 

 or the plants that produce them. The great art, therefore, in this kind of flower-border, 

 is to employ such plants as produce large heads, or masses of flowers ; to plant an equal 

 number of every color, and such a variety in regard to time of flowering as may afford 

 some of every color in flower from February to October. This object does not require a 

 great variety so much as a judicious selection ; for, supposing the number four to include 

 all the colors of flowers, and one sort to continue in bloom a month, then for nine months 

 of the year, viz. from February to October inclusive, only thirty-six sorts will be requi- 

 site to commence, as it were, the pattern of the border. Much more may be effected by 

 a few sorts than by a great number, for the greater the number of sorts introduced in the 

 pattern above thirty-six, supposing it correct that one sort continues in bloom a month, 

 the greater, the blank spaces that must remain between the plants in bloom. A moderate 

 number of select sorts, or of what are called border-flowers, and that number selected 

 equally from the different colors, and the sorts in bloom in the nine months of blooming 

 season, is what demands the exclusive attention of whoever would plant a mingled bor- 

 der, or flower-garden. It has been frequently observed that flower-gardens have been on 

 the decline for the last half century ; and the cause of this appears to have been the influx 

 of new plants during that period, by which gardeners have been induced without due con- 

 sideration to be more solicitous about rarity and variety, than well disposed colors and 

 quantity. The same error, and from the same cause, has prevailed, during the above pe- 

 riod, in the planting of shrubberies and tree-plantations. 



6112. Abercrombie, Nicol, and other practical gardeners, seem to have no distinct ideas on the subject of 

 arranging flowers in flower-gardens ; but the authors of Hints on laying out Gardens, and of the Florist's 

 Manual, have viewed the subject in its proper light. Neill also has some judicious observations on the sub- 

 ject. He says, " the plants are arranged in mingled flower-borders, partly according to their size, and 

 partly according to color. The tallest are planted in the back part, those of middling size occupy the centre, 

 and those of humble growth are placed in front. The.beauty of a flower-border, when in bloom, depends 

 very much on the tasteful disposition of the plants in regard to color. By intermingling plants which 

 flower in succession, the beautv of the border may be prolonged for some weeks. In a botanic-garden the 

 same plant cannot with propriety be repeated in the same border ; but in the common flower-garden a 

 plant, if deemed ornamental, may be often repeated with the best effect ; nothing can be finer, for example, 

 than to see many plants of double scarlet lychnis, double sweet-william, or double purple jacobea." (Ed. 

 Encyc. art. Hort.) , . , 



6113. The author of Hints, &c. remarks "that the beauty of parterres depends more on the materials 

 with which thev are planted than on their form ; and that the prevailing error consists in crowding them 

 with all sorts of trees and plants at random, or filling them entirely with rare species, which will ever 

 want one principal source of beauty health." In the Florist's Manual it is observed, that "the 

 fashionable novice, who has stored her borders from the catalogue of some celebrated name with variety 

 of rare species ; who has procured innumerable rose-trees, chiefly consisting of old and common sorts, 

 brought into notice by new nomenclature ; who has set apart a portion of ground for American plants, 

 and duly placed them in bog soil, with their names painted on large-headed pegs, becomes disappointed 

 when, instead of the brilliant glow of her more humble neighbor's parterre, she finds her own distin- 

 guished only bv paucity of color, and fruitless expenditure. Variety of species, bog borders, and largely 

 lettered pegs, are all good in their way, but they will not produce a gay flower-garden ; and the simple 

 cause of the general failure in this particular is the prevalent solicitude for rarity and variety, in prefer- 

 ence to well blended quantity ; as, without the frequent repetition of the same plant, it will be in vain to 

 attempt a brilliant flower-garden, and, as in the judicious mixture of every common color, the art of 

 procuring it consists. Hence, the foundation thus laid, the solicitude of those who wish to com- 

 plete the superstructure must not be for rare species, but for new color, so that the commonest primula 

 which presents a fresh shade of red, blue, yellow, &c. ought to be esteemed more valuable than the most 

 rare American plant which does not bring a similar advantage. In the formation of that assemblage ot 



