THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



349 



steins and flowers being all that is absolutely neces- 

 sary after the plants are once in. 



It will be seen that all these advantages are con- 

 tingent on circumstances, such as size of garden, 

 lack of labour, and inability to obtain a good 

 selection of plants ; the merits of mixed flower 

 gardening being still greater where there are none 

 of these hindrances, but instead thereof full scope to 

 carry out the style in its entirety, which, to sum up 

 in a few words, means effectiveness all the year 

 round, as much flower as possible at all seasons, and 

 distributed over the entire bed or border. 



Situation. — To obtain such results, perhaps the 

 most important consideration is situation and sur- 

 roundings, for, though a bed of mixed plants may 

 look well as a heel in any position, care should be 

 exercised that the surroundings be in harmony with 

 it ; no geometry, statuary, or formal stone-work , 

 and that no view, or graceful sweep of lawn, or 

 boles of trees be intercepted by the planting. 

 These avoided, almost any situation having a south 

 or west aspect is appropriate ; but by far the most 

 effective places are shrubbery recesses on the lawn, 

 and, next to these, wide borders of rainbow or 

 horizontal form that are well backed up with shrubs. 

 For there can be no question that, so far as 

 regards effectiveness, the best arrangement is to 

 have but one front to the border, for the reason that 

 most of the tall herbaceous plants are unsightly at 

 the bottom, and should therefore only be viewed 

 over dwarfer kinds, and in front of a background of 

 shrubs or other screen. 



Soil and Culture.— If of moderate depth, any 

 description of soil will grow the plants well, always 

 provided that plenty of manure be given ; but a deep 

 loam of medium texture that does not need annual 

 diggings-in of manure is a long way the best. Of 

 course, all have not such a soil at command, and 

 therefore recourse must be had to supplying the 

 most suitable ingredients to the varying soils that 

 have to be dealt with. A deep loam, if well 

 trenched and given a moderate dressing of well- 

 rotted manure, will need little, if any, other dressing 

 for three or four years — a fact of the greatest im- 

 portance, both as regards saving of labour and well- 

 doing of plants, as many kinds of herbaceous plants 

 attain their most perfect development when left 

 undisturbed for years. Stiff, or what are called 

 clayey loams, should be also deeply trenched, and 

 plenty of light vegetable or leaf soil worked in 

 during the process ; this being another description of 

 soil that, when well drained, the plants will flourish 

 in for years, without any other dressing than that of 

 an annual surface-mulching of manure. 



For light soils, deep trenching is of the utmost 



importance, and with abundance of good manure 

 the plants will do just as well as in the best loam, 

 only every second year a fresh supply of manure is 

 needed, a matter that involves lifting and re- 

 arranging the plants : that is, if the best results are 

 desired. In some respects, this biennial lifting is an 

 advantage, for thereby an increased stock of plants 

 can conveniently be had by division, and defects in 

 previous arrangements of plants can be rectified. 

 All other descriptions of soil will come under one or 

 other of the three kinds here named, and should be 

 treated as advised for these. 



As to general culture, little is needed beyond a 

 surface- dressing of manure in winter, and the 

 keeping the ground free of weeds throughout the 

 growing season, together with tying up such kinds 

 as absolutely require support ; but onhj such, for not 

 a plant should be tied that is at all likely to be self- 

 supporting ; furthermore, the height of stakes ought 

 never to exceed the height of the plants, and the 

 ties should not be drawn so tightly that the plants 

 present a lumpy, broom-like appearance. To some 

 these points may appear matters of little moment, 

 but they are of sufficient importance to make all the 

 difference between attractive neatness and untidiness, 

 and are therefore worthy of attention. 



Arrangement of Plants. — Ever since increased 

 interest has been taken in hardy flowering plants, 

 and in mixed flower gardening generally, there has 

 been more quibbling as to how best to arrange 

 them than in anything else connected with flower 

 gardening. Therefore it is not presumed that the 

 arrangements here proposed will be accepted as 

 perfect. But at any rate they have this merit, viz. , 

 that they have been put into practice, and satisfied 

 those most nearly concerned. The old-fashioned 

 *' dot" system — that is, plants in single file, dispersed 

 over the entire border with just as much precision 

 as to height and distance from each other as might 

 be expected in the severest geometrical pattern 

 — cannot be too highly reprobated. Indeed, one 

 wonders that the plan survived so long, and still 

 more, that numbers yet continue to so arrange them ; 

 a circumstance that can only be accounted for by 

 supposing that such persons have never seen, or even 

 thought of, any other mode of arrangement. 



What may be termed the grouping style is that we 

 would advise, and which consists in planting a given 

 number of plants in a mass, and in numbers pro- 

 portionate to the spread and height of plants ; the 

 aim being to obtain colour in such quantity as to 

 prove effective when seen from a distance. Dwarf- 

 growing plants, such as the shrubby creeping 

 Veronicas, Lithospermums, and the larger Saxi- 

 frages, may be in groups of twch'e or eighteen 



