BEDDII^a PLAINTS. 



97 



verbenas are first-rate bedding plants, and ofter valuable 

 masses of flower in all shades of crimson, rose, scarlet, 

 purple, violet, and mauve, besides a good white. Purple 

 king verbena is in constant requisition. Verbenas flower 

 in the summer, and keep gay a long ^Yhile. Petunias are 

 especially good as bedding plants, because the flowers 

 are large and conspicuous, and full and varied in colour, 

 showing a good mass of bloom at one time. They 

 bloom from June onwards, and keep in flow^er for 

 months. All plants of a creeping habit, which throw 

 out abundant masses of showy bloom, are good for bed- 

 ding, and all upstanding flow^ers used for forming beds 

 should be of low bushy growth, and such as flower so 

 abundantly as to show the w^hole plant a mass of bloom 

 when the flower comes out. 



The pegging down, so useful in getting a bed covered 

 with foliage and flower, is done with twigs cut just below 

 where there is a fork. Cut one side of the fork short, 

 and leave the other a few inches long : the long side is 

 pushed into the earth, and the shorter bit fixes the stem 

 to be pegged down. 



The plants with foliage of peculiar colour form an 

 important feature in gardens of this kind, and have the 

 merit of filling a void in maintaining a pretty general 

 appearance at any time that accidental disarrangement 

 may happen to those the beauty of which depends on 

 the flow^er. Among plants of beautifully varied silvery 

 foliage we have the variegated coltsfoot and Cineraria 

 rnaritima before mentioned. Cerastium Biehersteini and 

 Cerastium tomentosum have a low habit of growth, and 

 white flowers. They are easily propagated by division 

 of the root in spriug, and w^ill grow in any light mode- 

 rately rich soil. For taller silvery foliaged plants we have 

 the Salvia argentea, three feet high, bearing yellow flowers 

 in June; the Stachys lanata, two feet high ; the Arctotis 

 grandiflora argeiitea, about the same height, and requir- 

 ing a mild sheltered situation, and a place in-doors for 

 winter ; the Agathcea ccdestis variegata, the same height, 

 and also delicate, with beautiful blue flowers; the 

 Centaiirea argentea, Centaurea candidissima, and Cen- 



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