FLOWER-GARDENS. 105 FLOWER-GARDENS. 



ing stems, as for Epiphytes and 

 orchideous plants. When the baskets 



fig. 13. 



FLOWER BASKET. 



are used for Epiphytes, the wire should 

 generally he filled with moss, instead 

 of having a pot placed in it. 



Flower-Gardens embrace a sub- 

 ject on which a volume might be 

 written without exhausting it ; but 

 the present article will be confined to 

 a few general observations, applicable 

 in every case ; and to a short notice 

 of the different kinds of flower-gardens 

 which have been, and are, in most 

 general use. 



All flower-gardens, to have a good 

 effect, ought to be symmetrical; that 

 is, they ought to have a centre, which 

 shall appear decided and obvious at 

 first sight, and sides ; and all the 

 figures or compartments into which 

 the garden is laid out, ought to be in 

 some way or other so connected with 

 the centre as not to be separable from 

 it, without injuring the general effect 

 of the garden. All the beds and 

 borders ought to have one general 

 character of form and outline ; that 

 is, either curved, straight, or compo- 

 site lines ought to prevail. The size 

 of the beds ought also never to differ 



to such an extent, as to give the idea 

 of large beds and small ones being 

 mixed together ; and the surface of 

 the garden ought to be of the same 

 character throughout ; that is, it ought 

 not to be curvilinear on one side of 

 the centre, and flat or angular on the 

 other. In the planting flower-gar- 

 dens the same attention to unity 

 ought to he kept in view. One side 

 ought not to be planted with tall- 

 growing plants, and the other with 

 plants of low growth ; nor one part 

 with evergreens, whether ligneous or 

 herbaceous, and the other part with 

 annuals or bulbs. Flower-gardens 

 which are intended to be ornamental 

 all the year, ought to have a large 

 proportion of evergreen herbaceous 

 plants distributed regularly all over 

 them ; such as Pinks, Sweet Wil- 

 liams, Thrift, Saxifrages, and inter- 

 mixed with very low evergreen 

 shrubs, such as Heaths, Whortle- 

 berries, Thyme, Gaulth^ria prociim- 

 bens, and a variety of similar plants. 

 Flower-gardens which are intended 

 to be chiefly ornamental in spring, 

 ought to be rich in bulbs and early 

 flowering shrubs ; such as the Meze- 

 reon, Cydonia, or Pyrus Jap6nica s 

 Rhododendron dauricum atrovirens, 

 Erica herbacea, &c. ; those that are 

 intended to be chiefly ornamental in 

 summer, should be rich in annuals ; 

 and those that are to be in perfection 

 in autumn, in Dahlias. Flower- 

 gardens on a large scale never look so 

 well as when the spaces between the 

 beds are of turf ; but those on a small 

 scale may have the spaces between the 

 beds of gravel, and the beds edged 

 with box. It may be thought by 

 some, that a flowering plant would 

 look better than box for the edgings 

 to the beds ; but no effect is ever 

 produced without contrast: and as 

 the box is always green, and never 

 flowers, it forms a striking contrast to 

 beds of flowers in which the leaves 



