September 21, 1676. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



253 



ia no season have I ever tasted a NoblesBe Peach grown under 

 glass equal to one ripened in a fine season on the open wall. 

 Peaches in pots require, no doubt, constant attention as to 

 water, and any error here may deteriorate the fruit ; but I 

 believe the real cause of inferiority is the difficulty with which 

 the actinic (not the luminous) rays of light pass through glass. 

 The fact of such inferiority was noticed by Andrew Knight, and 

 he constructed a Peach house expressly to allow two sets of trees 

 to receive in their turn the direct rays of the sun without the 

 intervention of glass. In his case the trees were planted out. 



In the answer abov9 referred to manure water is not recom- 

 mended. I find rotten hay a good covering for the surface, 

 and the roots seem to like it much. This is refreshed with 

 weak liquid manure, which is discontinued as soon as the fruit 

 is fully swollen. If used with moderation it seems useful. 



Why are bones prohibited ? If fresh they are of course ob- 

 jectionable, but when decayed and in a porous condition roots 

 penetrate them readily. They seem beneficial both mechani- 

 oally and chemioally.— G. S. 



BEDDING-OUT PLANTS. 



I am almost entirely in accord with the article en bedding- 

 out plants which was extracted from " The Gardener," and 

 appeared on page 217 of the Journal of Horticulture. There 

 is no reason why, when there is room and a proper situation, 

 that persons should not grow more herbaceous and perennial 

 plants ; but each year more and more convinces me of the 

 difficulty of keeping beds of perennials tidy and gay for any 

 length of time, and that it would not do to have mixed 

 perennial borders, instead of bedded-out plants, in any formal 

 garden close to a house where it is to be daily seen from the 

 windows. There is no reason why choice half-hardy plants 

 should be anyway inferior to choice perennials, and there can 

 be no doubt that those plants which have been generally 

 selected for bedding purposes are more lasting and give more 

 continuance of bloom than almost any other kind of plants. 

 If persons are content to see constantly under their windows 

 or on their parterres (a word which, by the way, I hate — why 

 not say gardens or lawns ?) a geometrical bedded-out garden 

 cut out of coloured foliage, presenting day by day the same 

 features, except when it may have been newly cut or clipped, 

 then of course there is no necessity for flowering plants, and 

 both perennials and half-hardy flowering plants may go to 

 the wall. I have no fear, however, that lovers of flowers will 

 long be content with the sort of thing I saw in front of a ducal 

 mansion in the south of England— a dead flat without a flower, 

 and a badly laid-out carpet of Sedums, Alternantheras, et id 

 genus omne. English people are essentially lovers of flowers, 

 and while foliage may help to diversify and adorn, foliaged 

 plants will not for long be allowed to cover the whole of a 

 bedded garden. 



Neither, again, do I see the wisdom of growing every kind 

 of perennial, be it high or be it low, be it alpine or be it herb- 

 aceous, merely because it is a perennial and hardy. No doubt 

 many of our most beautiful plants, as Phloxes and Del- 

 phiniums, Sweet Williams, &c, are perennials ; no flowers, 

 perhaps, when massed produced finer effects in the distance 

 than Phloxes and Foxgloves and Antirrhinums ; but then, 

 with some few exceptions, their season is but short, and some- 

 thing must be put to supply their place, or else there is a 

 blank. If we try to make a perennial border with low-growing 

 flowers in front it will be found that nearly, if not all, are 

 spring plants, as Arabis, Aubrietia, Myosotis, Auriculas, Poly- 

 anthus, Anemone, Pansies, &c, and if the front of the border 

 is gay with them in May and June, what is to supply their 

 places in July and August, unless annuals are pricked-in 

 amongst them to the detriment of the other plants another 

 year ? Again, if the back row is gay with Sweet Williams and 

 Snapdragons in July, what is to supply their place in August 

 should the summer be dry ? Phloxes seem to me among the 

 most valuable of perennials, to say nothing of Gladioli, 

 Liliums, &a., but under no circumstances does it appear to me 

 that a mixed perennial border can supply the place of a bedded- 

 out garden, where flowers as flowers strictly predominate. If 

 proper care is taken in the selection of sorts and arrangement 

 of colours there need be no undue glare or formality. 



The mistake too often made is to substitute quantity for 

 quality, or to repeat over and over again the same Geranium, 

 or same Calceolaria or Lobelia, Bimply because it seems to 

 thrive or propagate easily. I have, for instance, on a sloping 

 bank in my garden twenty beds of Geraniums, ten of which 



are pinkB and ten scarlets. Many persons would have repeated 

 the same pink — say, perhaps, Christine, and the same scarlet, 

 perhaps Vesuvius, for the whole of the twenty beds. I have 

 oarefully avoided having two alike. I have selected ten pinks, 

 five of them with a lilac tinge, and five of a true pink in dif- 

 ferent shades, and ten scarlets, five of which are crimson in 

 tone and five vermilion ; but there are sufficient diversities 

 in the tones and habit of growth, Bize of truss, colour of 

 foliage, &a. , to help to prevent monotony and to add to the 

 interest, not merely by comparing the different varieties, but 

 also by blending the shades of colour. Again, I find by ex- 

 perience that large trusses are far more effective than Bmall, 

 even though there may be three times the number of smaller 

 trusses, and that those that throw-up a quantity of small 

 trusses as Vesuvius, never last. Others, again, like Jean- 

 Sisley, will not stand sun or drought. 



I have the following beds in the bank this year: — Mrs. 

 Fytche, John Gibbons, Florence Durand, Rev. J. F. Atkinson, 

 Mrs. Holden, Bayard, Amaranth, Star of Fire, Mrs. Augusta 

 Miles, Le Grand, Mrs. Lowe, Mrs. Whiteley, Mrs. Musters, Sir 

 J. Outram, Contessa Quarto, Vesta, Amaranth No. 2, Corsair, 

 Rose Rendatler, and Mrs. Vincent. This is the order in which 

 they are planted. Amongst these John Gibbons, Rev. J. F. 

 Atkinson, and Mrs. Whiteley are new varieties of Mr. Pear- 

 son's ; the first two of strong growth with enormous trusses 

 and large individual flowers, one a true scarlet the other a 

 crimson, and both very effective. Mrs. Whiteley is rather like 

 Jean Sisley but a better flower, and does not drop its petals in 

 the sun. Most of the others will be known to many of your 

 readers. Among the scarlets Star of Fire and Corsair still 

 keep-up their charaoter ; and among the crimsons Bayard 

 and Sir James Outram. There is no light pink which has yet 

 with me surpassed Mrs. Lowe ; and among deep pinks Mrs. 

 Fytche, Mrs. Holden, and Augusta Miles are particularly fine. 

 Florence Durand always does well towards the latter end of 

 the season, but Amaranth is invariably good among the lilac 

 shades, and equally good is Mrs. Musters. Another lilac which 

 I have bedded this year for the first time is Mrs. J. F. Fenn, 

 and this year it surpasses both Amaranth and Mrs. Musters, 

 and is one of the largest-trussed Geraniums I ever saw, and at 

 the same time a free bloomer with a good stiff flower stalk. 

 The same trusses have continued in bloom for more than ten 

 weeks, so that trusses which were on the plants when bedded- 

 out in the end of May were still giving flowers in August. 



In a large oval bed round which I have trial sorts of Gera- 

 niums, I have twelve newer kinds this year. Lucy Bosworth, 

 a pink, is beautiful in pots, but does not promise to bed so 

 well as some others. The same may be said of Lady Byron. 

 Mrs. HuUh, one of the old Lord Palmerston type of colour 

 with larger trusses and brighter flowers, has been very promis- 

 ing. In another bed Frank Miles with enormous trusses has 

 had a very massive appearance. Lady Stanhope and Sir H. 

 Stanhope have also done well. The first is an admirable pot 

 plant. Among older sorts, Arthur Pearson, Rose Bradwardine, 

 and Lady Kirkland have still held their own ; and last, but 

 not least, except in stature, Violet Hill Nosegay has been as 

 good as ever with me in a row under the windows of my house, 

 where almost every other Geranium would have gone to seed 

 or else grown too grossly. 



Among tricolors William Sandy has been the best, and 

 Macbeth next to it. Lady Cullum, Edith Pearson, Sophia 

 Dumaresque, and Sophia Cusack have all done well. I will 

 pursue my remarks in another number. — C. P. P. 



POT VINES IN THE OPEN AIR. 

 It is a very common practice to remove Vines growing in 

 pots from a close warm house into the open air in autumn. 

 Plaoes in which Vines are growing throughout the summer 

 are often wanted for other plants when the cold days and 

 nights set in, and the idea seems somewhat general that any 

 kind of treatment will suit young Vines after the wood is fully 

 developed. This is a great mistake. The future success of 

 a young Vine does not depend so much on its great thickness 

 as being thoroughly well ripened, and placing the Vines in, 

 the open air is certainly not the surest way of securing this. 

 They may not be " tucked up against an open wall " until the 

 wood is brown to near the point; but it is very well known 

 that Vines assume a brown hue long before the wood is hard 

 and ripe, and while the leaves are quite green. Vines of this 

 description must be checked severely when taken from a close 

 atmosphere and exposed to all weathers in the open air. 



