CHAPTER IX 



BEDDING PLANTS 



This is a conveniently comprehensive term for the 

 tender plants that are put out for th e summer. To 

 these plants a small portion of my garden, well sheltered 

 within enclosing walls and yet open to full sunshine, 

 is devoted, so that the little place is in some kind of 

 beauty from the end of July to the last days of Sep- 

 tember. There has been so strong a revulsion in 

 garden practice since the days when the bedding out 

 of tender plants in stiff and not very intelligent ways 

 absorbed the entire horticultural energy of owners of 

 gardens that many people have conceived a dislike to 

 the plants themselves. It is a common thing for friends 

 to express surprise at seeing scarlet Geraniums, yellow 

 Calceolaria and blue Lobelia in my garden, forgetting 

 that it was not the fault of the plants that they were 

 misused or employed in dull or even stupid ways. 

 There are no better summer flowers than the single, 

 and double zonal Pelargoniums that we commonly call 

 Geraniums, and none so good for such uses as the filling 

 of tubs and vases ; for not only do they enjoy full 

 sunlight, but they benefit by the extra warmth at the 

 root that they obtain by being raised in the warm air 

 above the ground level. There certainly are among 



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