Subtropical Gardening. ^^ 



is as an isolated group flaming up amid the verdure of trees and 

 shrubs and grass that their dignified aspect and brilliant colour are 

 seen to best advantage. Hovs^ever tastefully disposed in the flower 

 garden they will prove generally useful, and particularly for asso- 

 ciation with the finer autumn-flowering herbaceous plants. It 

 seems we do not sufficiently appreciate the advantage of good 

 hardy plants, however much we may grumble at the consump- 

 tion of coals. Here are the finest of all autumnal flowers, never 

 causing a farthing of expense for wintering, storing, replant- 

 ing, &c., but merely asking for a little ordinary preparation of 

 the soil at first, and yet they are merely grown as adjuncts even in 

 good gardens, and in many you can scarcely find them. For every 

 quality that should make a plant valuable in the eyes of the 

 flower gardener, they cannot be surpassed by any subjects that 

 require expensive care all through the winter ; indeed we may 

 say they cannot be equalled by any of such — a sufficient proof that 

 it is not only those who possess stoves, greenhouses, and glass-gar- 

 dens, so to speak, that may enjoy the highest beauty in their gardens ; 

 and that it is not solely among tender plants we must look for sub- 

 jects wherewith to carry out that most desirable end — the adding 

 of a greater degree of interest and beauty to British flower gardens. 

 There can be little doubt but T. glaucescens is the most generally 

 useful kind, flowering profusely, no matter what the weather, ixi 

 August and September, and coming in at a time when people 

 frequent the country garden so much. Next to it in importance, 

 and greater than it in stature, is T. grandis, which comes in flower 

 very late. The stems grow to six or even seven feet high, sometimes 

 throw out a side spike, and flower away if the season prove mild 

 till Christmas, or even till the end of January. T. Rooperi, with 

 which this has been confounded, appears to be quite a different 

 plant, one of very strong agave-like habit of leaf, and flowering 

 very late — so late indeed that it is all but useless for open-air work, 

 though it may make a useful pot plant, and flower indoors in winter. 

 T. serotina would seem to be a variety of T. uvaria, and not far 

 removed from what we call grandis. T. media is not worth grow- 



