HARDY BORDER PLANTS. 



T)RILLIANT as is the display afforded by the bedding-out system at some seasons, a 

 *J garden entirely given over to this method of adornment has several defects. 

 Much labour and expense are involved in protecting the necessary plants during winter, 

 and for a considerable part of the year the garden is unattractive and uninteresting. 

 This is even felt where both spring and summer bedding are attended to, as there is 

 necessarily a gap between the spring and summer flowers, and frequently the former have 

 to be cleared away while still in beauty, in order that the later flowering plants may be 

 put in their places. It is thus questionable if the brilliant display at certain seasons is 

 not infrequently secured at too great a cost, and at the expense of lessening the enjoyment 

 of the garden by its owner. There is no reason why the average garden, large or small, 

 should not be so perpetual a source of pleasure and interest that a lover of flowers 

 may enter it at any season of the year with the certainty of finding in it some plant to 

 attract attention and give enjoyment from its beauty of form or colour. 



At no time more than the present was there such a possibility of doing this. When 

 the herbaceous border became neglected and its occupants were banished to make room 

 for " geraniums," calceolarias, and other bedding plants, it was very different from the 

 border of the present day. There were, of course, several gardens in which there existed 

 a great variety of plants, some of which are almost lost, and which we should be glad to 

 recover to make our modern gardens of hardy flowers still more attractive. As a rule, 

 however, the choice of plants was limited. Communication was not so easy, nurseries 

 were fewer, and the parcel post and railway deliveries did not assist distribution as 

 they now do. All this is changed ; plants are being brought from all parts of the world, 

 nurseries are more numerous and better stocked than before with good and cheap plants, 

 and besides the convenience of the railways, the parcel post virtually brings every garden in 

 touch with the best nurseries of the time. All these things combined aid the movement in 

 favour of hardy flowers, and there is still another and very powerful force at work. This 

 is the improvement effected in many genera by the work of the hybridist and the seedling- 

 raiser. Think of the phloxes, the asters, and many other flowers as they were even in 

 comparatively recent times, and it will be seen how many are the advantages now offered 



