PLEASING COMBINATIONS. 



In addition to avoiding glaring contrasts, due regard must be paid to the habit of 

 growth of the various kinds of plants. It is true much can be done towards regu- 

 lating the various heights by topping, pegging down, or training, but the less this 

 kind of work is needed the better. Where the beds have also to be kept filled during 

 the winter, a free use of hardy edging plants, including Santolina incana, Antennaria 

 tomentosa, Stachys lanata, Fcstuca glauca, Dactylis glomerata, and Cerastium 

 tomentosum, should be made, as these will answer the same purpose during the winter. 

 Much the same rule holds good in the case of carpet beds, the spaces between the 

 figures or panels, as previously indicated, being filled with hardy plants of close growth. 



Good positions for a variety of sub-tropical and other plants of a hardier nature that 

 associate well with them have already been pointed out, and it only remains to add that 

 a happy combination of these and ordinary bedding plants never fails to give pleasure to 

 the beholder. For instance, a large bed might be planted with Acacia lophantha, 2 to 

 3 feet high, disposing the plants 3 feet apart, and between them coloured celosias, 

 Ophiopogon spicatus, and Begonia semperflorens rubra, covering the rest of the soil with 

 Alternanthera paronychoidcs, and edging with blue lobelia. A companion bed might 

 have either Eucalyptus globulus or Ficus elastica as prominent plants, filling in thinly 

 between with white begonia, carpeting with Alternanthera amoena, and edging with 

 blue lobelia, just inside of this appearing a few widely-disposed plants of Anthericum 

 variegatum or white centaureas. Tall fuchsias, trained heliotropes, and ivy-leaved 

 pelargoniums are admirably adapted for this style of bedding, employing them freely 

 among violas, verbenas, ageratums, and other trailing plants that afford a good contrast. 

 Large beds principally devoted to ricinuses, cannas, solanums, wigandias, and others of 

 stately habit, thinly planted, with a few trailing plants by way of a carpet, may be said 

 to be both cheaply and effectively filled. 



Sub-tropical plants ought not to be confined to the flower beds. Very pleasing 

 effects can be produced by plunging a variety of palms, ferns, dracaenas, musas, and 

 other plants used for conservatory decoration, in partially-shaded and sheltered nooks, 

 much as shown in Fig. 112, p. 225. The pots or tubs containing these should be plunged 

 for the sake of appearance and the well-being of the roots, while partial shade prevents 

 burning or discolouring of the foliage in the case of plants that will not bear strong 

 sunshine owing to not having been much exposed previously, while shelter is needed to 

 prevent the foliage from being torn by strong winds. Added to this a background of 

 trees serves to set off the plants in front to the best advantage, the whole forming a 



