18 



ladies' flower gardener. 



CHAPTER III. 



ON LAYING- OUT. 



j^HERE are many modes of adorning a small piece of ground, 

 so as to contain gay flowers and plants, and appear double its 

 real size. By covering every wall or palisade with monthly 

 roses and creepers of every kind, no space is lost, and unsightly ob- 

 jects even contribute to the general effect of a "Plaisaunce." The 

 larger flowers, such as hollyhocks, sunflowers, &c, look to the 

 best advantage as a back ground, either planted in clumps, or 

 arranged singly. Scarlet lychnis, campanula, or any second- 

 sized flowers, may range themselves below, and so in graduated 

 order, till the eye reposes upon a foreground of pansies, auriculas, 

 polyanthuses, and innumerable humbler beauties. Thus all are 

 seen in their order, and present a mass of superb coloring to the 

 observer, none interfering with the other. The hollyhock does 

 not shroud the lowly pansy from displaying its bright tints of yel- 

 low and purple ; neither can the sturdy and gaudy sunflower hide 

 the modest double violet or smartly clad anemone from observa- 

 tion. Each flower is by this mode of planting distinctly seen, 

 and each contributes its beauty and its scent, by receiving the 

 beams of the sun in equal proportions. 



If the trunk of a tree stands tolerably free from deep over- 

 shadowing branches, twine the creeping rose, the late honey- 

 suckle, or the everlasting pea round its stem, that every inch of 

 ground may become available. The tall naked stem of the 

 young ash looks well festooned with roses and honeysuckles. 



