CARPET-BEDDING. 



637 



good plants for flower-beds, and if kept pegged down are 

 suitable for carpeting or edging beds, their Fern -like 

 leaves being pretty and attractive. If grown for foliage 

 alone, the flowers should be removed as they appear. 

 Propagated by division. 



Salvia. — Many of these easily- grown plants may be 

 utilized in the flower-garden. One of the best is S. patens, 

 with rich deep-blue flowers produced all summer. S. 

 splcndens has bright-scarlet flowers, and is at its best in 

 autumn. Propagated by cuttings in autumn in heat. 



Tagetes patula, the French Marigold, and T. erccta, 

 the African Marigold, are very showy bedders, though 

 not much used. T. tenuifolia and T. pumila are also 

 good dwarf bedders. Propagated by seeds sown in heat 

 in spring. 



Trop^eolum. — The dwarf or Tom Thumb section is 

 useful for bedding. The best forms are — Mrs. Clibran, 

 golden-yellow ; Mayes Seedling, deep-yellow ; Bedfont 

 Rival, dwarf scarlet; Vesuvius, brilliant scarlet; The 

 Moor, dark -maroon ; and Hermine Grasshoff, double 

 orange-scarlet. Named varieties propagated by cuttings; 

 others by seeds. 



Verbena.— Bedding Verbenas (fig. 765), of hybrid origin, 

 have always been favourites for the flower-garden, as they 

 possess many charming qualities and are of easy culture. 



Fig. 765.— Bedding Verbenas. 



Young plants should be kept growing during the winter, 

 by placing them close to the roof glass in a dry house, 

 dusting them with sulphur occasionally to keep down 

 mildew. After planting them out the shoots require to 

 be stopped and pegged down frequently so as to produce 

 a close cushion-like growth and an abundance of flowers. 

 Some of the best bedders are Ball of Fire, Blue Beauty, 

 Crimson King, Boule de Neige, Purple King, Lulu, Grace 

 Darling, Stadtgartner Schwarz, Melindris Splendens, 

 Lord Brooke, and Miss Willmott. 



V. venosa, a hardy perennial of erect growth, with 

 purple-blue flowers, is a useful bedding-plant easily raised 

 from seed. The hybrid sorts are propagated annually by 

 cuttings in August, and again in spring if required. A 

 new race of Verbena named compacta, of erect growth 

 and about 6 inches high, is very suitable for bedding pur- 

 poses. Seeds should be sown in a little heat in March, 

 transplanting the seedlings to the open ground in June. 



[E. B.] 



CHAPTER XLII. 



CARPET-BEDDING. 



Those gardens in which the arrangement of 

 the plants is most diversified afford most 

 pleasure and interest, and the arrangement of 

 the plants employed in carpet-bedding should 

 form a pleasing contrast to the less formal 

 and quieter disposition of the plants in other 

 parts of the garden; if done with taste and 

 with due regard to the fitness of the plan to 

 the surroundings, carpet-beds may form not the 

 least pleasing of its features. 



Carpet-bedding is a geometrical arrangement 

 of neat, dwarf-growing plants in beds, which 

 should be flat, and slightly raised above the 

 ground level. When foliage plants only are 

 employed they have an advantage over flower- 

 ing plants, in that wet weather does not affect 

 their colours as it does 

 when flowers are used. 

 Should the plants at any 

 time become too luxuriant, 

 they must be clipped or 

 pinched back, at least once 

 a week in hot, growing 

 weather, to preserve the 

 design. This is so essen- 

 tial, that carpet -bedding 

 should not be attempted 

 unless labour can be af- 

 forded for the weekly trim- 

 ming. Richly-coloured beds 

 are not always desirable, 

 a quieter scheme of colour 

 being as a rule most pleas- 

 ing. This may be secured by the free use of 

 such gray-greens as are to be found in some 

 succulent plants, such as Echeveria, Semper- 

 vivum, Sedum, and Saxifraga. Rich colours like 

 scarlet and yellow must be used with care, and 

 the darker colours, such as crimson and brown, 

 should be employed as a rule only near to or in 

 the centre of a bed. 



The question of colour arrangement is of so 

 much importance that a few general rules may 

 be given. The primary colours, yellow, red, 

 and blue, when true, may be placed together 

 in some arrangements and the effect will be 

 pleasing; as a rule, however, the colours of the 

 flowers or plants selected are not quite true, and 

 it is better therefore to avoid such extremes. 

 These colours combined give birth to the 

 composite colours. Thus orange is a blending 



