232 HARDY PLANTS TOE, THE 



gate it like a bedding plant. The graceful mixtures and 

 bouquet-like beds that might be made with the aid of such 

 plants need not be suggested here, while of course an estab- 

 lished plant, or groups of three, might well form the centre 

 of a bed. Planting a very small bed or group separately in 

 the flower garden, and many other uses which cannot be 

 enumerated here, will occur to those who have once tried it. 

 Some hardy plants of fine foliage are either so rampant or so 

 top heavy that they cannot be wisely . associated with 

 bedding-plants. This is, on the contrary, as tidy and tract- 

 able a grower as the most fastidious could desire. It 

 would be a pity to put such a pretty plant under or near 

 rough trees and shrubs. Give it the full sun, and good 

 free soil. 



The Tkitomas. — So hardy, so magnificent in colouring, 

 and so fine and pointed in form are these plants, that we 

 can no more dispense with their use in the garden where 

 beauty of form as well as colour is to prevail, than we can 

 with the noble Pampas grass. They are more conspicuously 

 beautiful when other things begin to succumb before the 

 gusts and heavy rains of autumn, than any plants which 

 flower in the bright days of midsummer. It is not alone as 

 component parts of large back ribbons and in such positions 

 that these grand plants are useful, but in almost any part 

 of the garden. Springing up as a bold close group on the 

 green turf and away from brilliant surroundings, they are more 

 effective than when associated with bedding plants ; and of 

 course many such spots may be found for them near the 

 margins of the shrubberies in the generality of pleasure 

 grounds. It 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. 

 However, tastefully disposed in the flower garden, they will 

 prove generally useful, and particularly for association 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 consumption of 

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

 causing a farthing of expense for wintering, storing, or re- 



