JOURNAL OE HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 10, 1863. 



that we hops he will give the purport of it somewhat enlarged 

 to the Editors for the general benefit j the purport of the part 

 of the letter to which we are now referring being an advocacy 

 for planting beds on the level instead of elevating them at all in 

 the centre— in other words, objecting to the opinion we ex- 

 pressed of the raised beds on the terrace of ciroles at Wood- 

 stock. Now, with all due deference to the opinion of our kind 

 Mentor, we should not easily be convinced that that terrace 

 would have anything like the same gorgeous effect, if each cirole 

 were planted so as to be level across ; but we thoroughly agree 

 with him, though we should not object to a few prominent raised 

 parts, that in such a parterre as is here represented, if placed 

 not only beneath the eye but below the level of the feet of the 

 spectator, the more level each bed is from side to side, and the 

 more uniform the general level of the beds throughout, the better 

 will be the effect. To raise the beds of such a parterre much in 

 their centres would throw the whole into a series of ridge and 

 furrow ; and, therefore, when looked at from a distance, little 

 except the ridges of the farther beds could be clearly seen. The 

 same principle must be kept in view in the slightly sloping 

 ground of these parterres. The beds as a whole should not only 

 be level, and plants of similar height be used as much as possible 

 so as to lessen pruning and pegging, but the rising slope of the 

 ground may even be added to, by having the tallest plants next 

 the Roses. Any great break in the uniform slope would act as 

 a ridge and conceal what was beyond. Circumstances, therefore, 

 should regulate treatment and modes of action. We see no 

 reason why a single bed, a terrace of a line of circles, or even 

 an avenue of beds, whatever their form, should be treated the 

 same as a close-packed parterre, over which the eye is intended 

 to sweep at once. 



The beds of these parterres were not only well filled, but there 

 had, on the whole, been an extremely successful attempt made to 

 secure the desirable level and slope. If you ask us what was 

 the system of planting as respects colours adopted, we Bhould be 

 inclined to say, it waB a system thoroughly orthodox, and yet 

 perfectly heterodox. Even a paasing examination would have 

 given you examples of Bhading, examples of contrast, instances 

 of balancing, and instances of uniformity ; but then these ap- 

 peared to come in less as a matter of primary design than as 

 adjuncts to carry out the main idea, which seemed to be that 

 each parterre should in itself form a harmonious whole con- 

 stituted of as diversified parts as possible. It was, therefore, but 

 seldom that the opposite pair or balancing-beds were planted 

 alike, or even of similar colours. We never could please our- 

 selves with this mode of planting, and we never were thoroughly 

 satisfied with what has been done by others. As carried out at 

 Straffan, it was by far the best we had seen, and that most likely 

 because the idea was not driven too hard. There must have 

 been ten times more thought required than any mere simple 

 system of centering and balancing, and to us the latter with all 

 its simplicity is the most pleasing. We have had many rubs on 

 this subject already ; and, as in the case of the raised circles, we 

 expect to get many more from the ladies and gentlemen of 

 progress. Well, after a fair share of bantering, we have gone to 

 some places to see the working-out of this grand new idea where 

 variety is to be everything, and balancing and uniformity nothing. 

 We have seen single beds with six or seven patches of colour 

 and of all heights and Bizes, and frequently the highest where the 

 lowest should be. We have been asked to admire the beauty of 

 a geometrical group where not only no two beds were at all 

 alike in colouring, nor yet any bed that had its own ends and 

 sides balanced either in colour or in height. And then there 

 were ribbon-beds and borders looking one way, with tall plants 

 at the back, and low plants between tall plants, and all for 

 variety. And, again, there were ribbon-borders that faced two 

 sides, with one side filled with tall plants as if they meant to go 

 to the clouds, and the other side not only dissimilar in colour, 

 but clothed with plants so clinging to the earth as if they wished 

 to gravitate to its centre ; and all this striving for variety and 

 much scheming for effect ending in what most people, except 

 the planners, looked upon as a careless, unmeaning pitching of 

 things together. One of the most earnest of these mere variety 

 advocates, pointed somewhat triumphantly to a pretty pair of 

 ponies in a phaeton carriage, one cream-coloured, the other a 

 piebald, like a magpie, and exclaimed, "You see I will have 

 variety in everything." "Not quits yet," was the calm reply; 

 " the two sides of the carriage are yellow, the two wheels are 

 blue. What a pity there should be any uniformity." 



Could we see the desirableness of encouraging this mere taste 



for variety instead of any attempt at balanoing in regular geo- 

 metric parterres, we should have given the planting in these 

 parterres at Straffan in 1861 as combining variety and some 

 little duplicating and balancing with much harmony and beauty. 

 But as Mr. Kelly has most kindly given us the lists of several 

 years' planting, and told us to take which we liked, and say and 

 do just what we liked with them, we have with some reluctance 

 taken the planting of 1862, because assured by visitors that the 

 results were at least equally gorgeous with 1861, because we 

 ourselves are more pleased with the more simple mode adopted, 

 and because Mr. Kelly himself, after being so successful in planting 

 for variety, has last season adopted chiefly the balancing system. 



The beds are all numbered, except the four large ones at the 

 four corners, which are named first, second,. &c. The parterre 

 on the left-hand side of the centre walk was thus planted : — 

 1, Lobelia speciosa ; 2, 2, Yellow Calceolarias ; 3, Tom Thumb 

 Geranium ; 4, 4, Lord of the Isles "pink Verbena and Saponaria 

 calabrica ; 5, 5, + cross of Tom Thumb, filled up with Elower 

 of the Day and Manglesii Geraniums ; 6, 6, Purple King "Ver- 

 bena ; 7, 7, Annie Clayton Verbena, white, and Cerastium to- 

 mentosum ; 8, 8, Mrs. Archer Clive Verbena, maroon, and 

 Rouge et Noir Verbena ; 9, Yellow Calceolaria ; 10, ribboned — 



