102 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GAEDENIN&. 



coloiirist) vexation of spirit for the wLole season. 

 There is nothing like buying one's experience dearly 

 to make us more cautious ahout future failui-es ; and 

 having had thus to buy more than once, the fol- 

 lowing rule is the result : — Give no special prominence 

 to any one ooloui-; or, in other words, the various 

 colours must be so dispersed over- the whole garden, 

 that if asked to decide which was the prevalent 

 one we could not easily do so. The endeavour to 

 carry out such a rule wiU of itself prevent any 

 abruptness of colouring, and eventually perseve- 

 rance will be rewarded by the realisation of the ideal. 



Plans and Arrangements The an-ange- 



ments of indi- 



SCALE OF FEET 



4 e 



I'idual beds, as 

 being likely to 

 be of most ser- 

 vice to the 

 general reader, 

 will here be 

 treated of ; and 

 if the rule of 

 no prominence 

 be kept upper- 

 most, it win be 

 unnecessary to 

 say anything 

 further in re- 

 spect of the 

 more general 

 arrangement of 

 the above, ex- 

 cept that all 

 geometrical 

 patterns should 

 have their 

 counterparts 

 planted in ex- 

 actly the same way, and there should be no cross-corner 

 arrangements, such as some people seem to have a 

 special affection for, but which surely cannot be real, 

 and must be only occasional freaks of eccentricity. 



TOl recently it was the general practice in all ar- 

 rangements of summer bedding plants, to have no 

 standard, or what we should now call sentinel plants, 

 to break the surface-outliae of pelargoniums and 

 other similar dwarf plants. This notion of arrange- 

 ment is totally at variance with good taste, or the 

 chai-m which is always, and with truth, said to ac- 

 company variety ; and yet the practice of so breaking 

 the surface is, even now, anything but as general 

 as it ought to be. The prominence given to such 

 leading plants in the following arrangements will 

 show that we, at any rate, do not consider the point 

 a matter of Kttle moment, but rather one which. 



whilst it insures variety, produces a tone of refine- 

 ment throughout the whole, and effectively disposes 

 of gaudiness and monotony of outline ; whilst it is 

 just as suitable for application to the most severe 

 geometrical pattern as for the plainest symmetrical 

 one. 



It is also necessary to observe that the airange- 

 ments shown are made with a view of lasting for the 

 longest possible period, independently of the weather ; 

 on this account many plants are set down here aa 

 summer bedders, which are not generally recognised 

 as belonging to that order ; but it may be as well to 

 say that none are enumerated except such as have 

 been practically tested as being in every particular 



good compa- 

 ' nions for bed- 



ding plants 



78 generally. 



I^iS- 1 — 1. Box edging ; 2, gi-ound-worli; of Herniaria glabra ; 3, Eoheveria secnnda 

 glauca (sliglitly raised) ; 4, Alternanthera parouychioidea ; S, Mesembryan- 

 themum cordifolium variegatam ; 6, large plant of Eobeveria metallioa, alter- 

 Bating in other beds with B. glauoa metallioa; 7, Sempervivum Californioum 

 (slightly raised); 8, Sedum acre elegans; 9, Eetinispora plumosa (about 18 

 inches high); 10, Sednm glaucum; 11, Cupressus Lawsonii ereota veridis 

 (about 18 inches high); 12, band of Pyrethrum— Golden Feather; 13, Lobelia, 

 dark blue, and light bine Viola (alternated) ; 14, Pelargonium Mauglesii varie- 

 gata and Sophia Dumaj-esque (alternated) ; 16, yellow Marguerites (Chrysan- 

 themum Hoi d'Or) and Bliie Harguerites (Agathea cseleatis) ; 16, single 

 Dahlias in several colours, tied in spreading fashion to hedge ; 17, hedge of 

 Cupressus Lawsonii (5 feet high). 



Design 



Fig. 1 is given 

 as being a fair 

 illustration 

 both of the 

 value of sen. 

 tinel, standard, 

 or "dot" 

 plants, and a 

 long season 

 of effectiveness 

 from a free 

 use of hardy 

 plants, more 

 especially in 

 the front parts 

 of the design. 

 These are so 

 arranged that 

 when the ten- 

 der plants have succumbed to frost, the border 

 still presents a fm-nished effect, only partially pei-- 

 haps, but still sufficient to render it an object of 

 beauty the whole winter through. The winter 

 effect can easily be made stiU more beautiful, by 

 planting "dot" plants (say small Heaths) in 

 No. 6, and after clearing away the Mesembryan- 

 themum and Alternanthera in Nos. 4 and 5, sui-- 

 facing the ground with cocoa-fibre refuse, or better 

 still, laying down flakes of Sedum (/laiicum, or 

 in fact of any other variety. We have also used 

 with excellent effect smooth turves of heather cut 

 from a common— that which has been bitten down 

 closely by rabbits is the best. The small shi-ubs 

 in Nos. 9 and 11 root in such a thick fibrous 

 manner that they can with safety be moved at any 

 season, or twice or thrice in the season, if required y 



