218 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENINa. 



mature the wood and form the flowering buds for 

 next year. Of all plants it may be said that the 

 roots need protection from direct sunshine even more 

 than the tops. More plants perish, of those put out 

 to harden, through the sun beating on the pots or 

 surface soil than, perhaps, from any other cause. 

 Various means are adopted to prevent this, such as 

 a surface mulch of moss or cocoa-fibre refuse, and 

 the plunging of the pots to the rims in coal-ashes, 

 sand, or other substances. The simplest, newest, and 

 for some classes of plants — such as Indian Azaleas — 

 decidedly the best method, consists in planting them 

 out in beds of peat for the summer, placing them so 

 closely together that the whole ground is covered, 

 without the plants being overcrowded. This saves 

 an immense amount of labour in watering, and the 

 plants ripen and form flower-buds with a regularity 

 and profusion scarcely reached by any other system. 

 A good soaking once a week or so in dry weather is 

 almost all the attention they require, and no scale, 

 thrip, red spider, nor other pests, get a foot-hold on 

 the plants under this semi-natural mode of treat- 

 ment. 



As the balls of these plants (see article on Potting) 

 are hard, it is needful, in planting them out, to take 

 the same securities against dry balls as recom- 

 mended for potting, and the peat or other compost 

 must be rammed as firmly round and among the 

 balls as possible. This system may be called the 

 perfection of hardening off plants throughout the 

 summer months. Early in October, at latest, 

 Azaleas and other plants summered in the open thus 

 must be potted up, a size larger pot being used as a 

 rule than that which they were planted out in. 



But for small growers this plan of planting out 

 choice plants for the summer is never likely to be 

 popular, and the best and cheapest imitation of it is 

 the plunging of the pots to the rim in coal-ashes on a 

 worm-proof base, and the mulching over the surface 

 soil of the pots with layers of cocoa-fibre refuse or 

 clean moss. 



THE FLOWEE GAEDEK 



By William Wildsmith. 



CARPET BEDDING. 



BY this term is meant regular and formal arrange- 

 ments of dwarf foliage plants, both tender and 

 hardy, either alone or in combination with flowering 

 plants. The popularity of this style of bedding has 

 excited a corresponding amount of adverse criticism 

 from parties who can see nothing to admire in any- 

 thing that does not coincide with their own notions 

 of beauty. It would be uncharitable to accuse such 

 people of want of taste, but their taste is certainly of 



a curious order, where no "keepmg" of lawns, and 

 the just allowing of all flowers to grow at random, or 

 as they themselves prefer to put it, " at their own 

 sweet will," is the professed model of their garden- 

 ing. This we call at least as great an extreme in 

 the opposite direction, and of the two prefer carpet 

 bedding, which it is possible to carry out with far 

 less of formality than is generally done. 



The term of carpet bedding is not a good one, but 

 doubtless originated from the table-like flatness 

 which the arrangements were made to assume when 

 the style was first introduced, a mode still practised 

 by some. But a more graceful style is gradually 

 springing up, the stiffness or formality being broken 

 at regular intervals with standard gracef ul-foliaged 

 plants, so that the term ''carpet" is no longer 

 appropriate, and a far better term coming into use is 

 panel gardening. 



In our uncertain climate the advantages of this 

 method of gardening are immense, particularly 

 during the summer, when it is desirable to have 

 brightness and gaiety, which neither ordinary bed- 

 ding plants nor hardy perennials insure in stormy 

 weather. Such weather dashes the flowers to pieces, 

 and then it is that foliage arrangements show to the 

 greatest advantage, and maintain their effectiveness 

 long after autumn fogs have destroyed the flowers of 

 Pelargoniums and other bedding plants. But even 

 apart from this advantage, a few such beds are 

 desirable in every bedded-out garden, and more 

 especially in such as are required to be kept fur- 

 nished all the year round, there being numbers of 

 hardy carpeting plants which look just as well for 

 summer if a few of the brighter kinds (Alternan- 

 theras, for instance) be intermixed with them ; these 

 giving place in the autumn to other hardy kinds. 



Position and Extent. — As regards the posi- 

 tion there cannot be two opinions in the matter. 

 The fo7-mal terrace garden, with its vases, fountains, 

 statuary, and other stone-work, is the rightful place ; 

 but all these should be supplemented with good 

 breadths of turf, and a goodly array of shrubs on it, 

 wherewith to break or prevent all excess of stiffness 

 or formality. This might also be accomplished — 

 more particularly in the summer time — by planting, 

 at certain distances, beds of the more graceful and 

 more dwarf " sub-tf opicals," which latter plants 

 could be replaced with shrubs for the winter. 



Then there is the opposite of this, \dz., that a few 

 carpet beds may with excellent effect be associated 

 with other bedding and foliage plants in a less 

 formal garden. Of course the arrangements of the 

 plants in this connection should be of the least 

 formal type. Another good position for such beds 

 and borders is on each side of a straight walk, the 



