October 20, 1670. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



305 



which we enclose a copy, is situated directly opposite our 

 cottage, and only separated from the highway by a low row of 

 palisading. The enclosure containing this flower garden is 

 but small, and the beds but few in number, yet in this spot 

 we concentrate our choicest plants, and at all seasons of the 

 year we try our best to make it a spoi of surpassing beauty. 

 There is not a day throughout the year that the beds are un- 

 occupied, for if in the morning we clear them of the summer 

 plants, before evening we furnish them with others that have 

 to remain through the winter, to cheer us with their pretty 

 blooms in the spring, and vice versa. The walls of the cottage 

 are mantled with Rases Clematises, Cotoneasters, &c. 



I will now tell you how the beds are planted, and afterwards 

 make a few remarks respecting the properties of the different 

 plants employed for decoration. The beds are planted as 

 follows :— Bed 1, Ageratum, blue, a small variety between the 

 old A. mexicanum and the new Imperial Dwarf, edged with 

 Golden Feather Pyrethrum. Bed 2, Geranium Flower of the 

 Day. Bed 3, Geranium Flower of Spring. Bed 4, Geranium 

 Douglas Pearson (scarlet). Bed 5, Geranium William Thom- 

 son (scarlet). Bed 6, Geranium Sobieski (scarlet). Bad 7, 

 William Underwood. 8, a narrow border in front of the cottage, 

 is planted with a row of Sedurn Fabaria, edged with Eeheveria 

 secunda and Sempervivum californicnm. This bed is our first 

 attempt at subtropical gardening, and as we do not like it we 

 shall give it up. 9 is the gate. 



For our spring display we had the following : — Bed 1, Centre 

 of the bed Alyssum saxatile compactum, edged with two rows 

 of Aubrietia deltoidea, and the whole of the spaces between the 

 Alyssum and Aubrietia rilled with choice Tulips. Beds 2 and 

 3, Arabis lucida variegata, edged with red Daisies, and filled with 

 Hyacinths. Beds 

 5 and 6, Cliveden 

 Blue Pansies, filled 

 with Tulips. Beds 

 4 and 7, Double red 

 Hepaticas, also fill- 

 ed with Tulips. As 

 the Hepaticas had 

 ceased blooming 

 early, when they 

 were over we took 

 them away and in- 

 troduced Primroses 

 in their places. The 

 narrow border, 8, 

 had Wallflowers 

 edged with Pansies 

 raised from seed 

 the previous sea- 

 son, with Narcissus 

 introduced among 

 the Wallflowers. Nothing could surpass the beauty and use- 

 fulness of the seedling Pansies. The spring flowers were ex- 

 ceedingly beautiful, and we think even more charming than the 

 summer flowers ; indeed, when one of the most able contri- 

 butors of " our Journal" came to see us during the last week 

 in April, he declared it to be one of the best examples of spring 

 gardening he had seen. Now, the frosty mornings have already 

 begun to tell upon our present display, and as we have our 

 reserve garden filled to overflowing with spring flowers, we 

 want you to assist us in our arrangements. What we want is 

 perfection, and any suggestions you can offer, either for spring 

 or summer embellishment, will be considered a great favour. 



Just a word or two on the merits of a few of our favourites. 

 To enter into full particulars respecting the various plants we 

 ■employ would too much increase the extent of this paper. We 

 will just briefly refer to one or two of the most prominent, and 

 devote a paper to the rest hereafter. Too much cannot be 

 said in favour of Douglas Pearson and William Thomson. 

 These were large plants when we turned them out in the 

 spring, and they have kept the lead of all others ever since. 

 They produce large trusses of crimson Bcarlet flowers ; we have 

 counted nearly one hundred flowers to a truss. They surpass 

 Bayard in size and uprightness of habit ; and, therefore, we set 

 them down, notwithstanding our friend Mr. Peach's opinion, 

 as the best two Geraniums in cultivation. Bayard has been as 

 good as ever this season, and William Underwood better than 

 usual. We admit Waltham Seedling to be good, yet the in- 

 dividual trusses are small, and we consider one fine truss of 

 William Underwood to afford as much pleasure as twenty trusses 

 of Waltham Seedling. For Mr. Peach's information, among 



those we consider not worthy of a place in our flower gar- 

 den, we may mention Lord Palmerston, La Grand, Herald of 

 Spring, Cybister, Dr. Lindley, Clipper, Christine Nosegay, and 

 Indian Yellow. Our other remarks we will reserve for another 

 paper. — Sarah Ann, Clara, and Amy Alice, Geranium Cottage, 

 Beulah. 



[We like the spring gardening so much that we would rather 

 not meddle with the arrangement, further than to say that 

 dotting with Hyacinths, Tulips, and Narcissi beds pretty well 

 carpeted already, will have a fine effect. Even in summer 

 grouping the carpetiog of the ground with a low-growing telling 

 plant, and then having the main plants that show at a distance 

 rather thin, has such a good effect that it ought to be more 

 practised. We adopted it once to a considerable extent, but 

 have not much done so lately. It is a good plan for prevent- 

 ing such a thing as blanks in a flower bed, and preventing even 

 the earth being seen. All low-growing plants are suitable for 

 this purpose, as the different Cerastiums, such Verbenas as 

 Maonetti and pulchella, Variegated Alyssum pegged down, &c. 



The much-prized front flower garden — which we like all the 

 more because separated merely by a low palisading from the 

 highway, as thus every passer-by may enjoy its beauties and be 

 tempted to make similar efforts — is set on a parallelogram of 

 lawn, and consists of seven clumps, a large circle in the centre, 

 rather more than a quarter-moon on each side of it, and two 

 smaller circles at each end. Now, the first idea that strikes us is; 

 that your central circle is too large for the other beds, and if 

 the colours used in it were very bright the central bed would 

 at once arrest the eye. Yoa seem to have had this idea present 

 to your mind, as you fill the most of this large bed with a 

 dwarf Ageratum, very nice though dull in colour, and edge it 



with the Yellow Fe- 

 verfew, and thus 

 you prevent the 

 large bed from what 

 we call drowning 

 the ether beds. Be- 

 sides the dullness 

 of such a mass of 

 Ageratum, we have 

 this objection to the 

 dwarf variety, which 

 we presume you 

 have, that it is apt 

 to die off or become 

 shabby rather early 

 iu the autumn, if 

 you cannot give it 

 water. Of course, 

 we speak relatively 

 as to s-ize, as we do 

 not know the exact 

 dimensions of the beds, only we see that the central clump 

 is more than double the size of any of the rest. This may 

 have led you to border that clump and leave the others 

 unbordered, or without edging ; but that is soarcely enough 

 to restore the balance of size, and, therefore, that central 

 figure would be better broken up so as not to show a mass 

 of any one colour. Thus you might have four bands — a 

 centre of Coleus, a band of yellow Calceolarias, a baud of 

 your dwarf Ageratum, and an outBide band of the Golden Fever- 

 few. Then, again, the central bed might be twice crossed 

 with Coleus or Iresine Linden:, filling up the four angles 

 with the Feverfew, and having an edging round of Variegated 

 Alyssum and Lobelia mixed. If the plants in your other beds 

 were not too high, this central circle would look very well 

 if the centre were made into a star, the bulk and the rays of 

 the Btar filled with the Golden Feverfew, the six angles neatly 

 planted with Iresine Lindeni, a rich purple that stands nipping 

 to any height, and then a mixed edging of Alyssum and Lobelia 

 all round. By drawing and painting such a figure you will 

 judge better how it will look. Then, again, as you propose 

 to edge this bed, we would make it a kind of key note for 

 edging ail the rest. The edging makes every bed complete in 

 itself, and gives it a finish which nothing else will, it matters 

 not how small the edging be. 



We are a little in doubt whether, after making the large 

 central bed somewhat neutral in its tints, it would not be as 

 well to make the half-moons, 2 and 3, of the bright scarlets 

 with appropiate edgings, and have the lighter-coloured foliage, 

 as Flower of the Day, at the ends. In this case one circle at 

 each end might be silver-variegated and the other yellow-varie- 



