822 



OPEN FLOWER-GARDEN. 



scarlet, and, with the last, good for edgings to 

 other beds ; Golden circle, scarlet ; Lady Ply- 

 mouth, prettily variegated with silver; Lateripes 

 variegata; Mangles', silver-leaved; Mountain of 

 light, fine. 



Sweet - scented - leaved geraniums. — Betulsefo- 

 lium ; Citriodorum majus, and its varieties, 

 elegantissimum, roseum, and grandiflorum; 

 Coquette; Delicatissimum ; Delictum; Emilia; 

 Exquisita; Fairy; Imogene; Jetty Treffz ; 

 Lobatum ; Odoratissimum, and its varieties 

 erectum, variegatum, &c. ; grandiflorum; Pan- 

 dora; Prince of Orange, and its variegated varie- 

 ties ; Quercifolium ; Rose - scented, with its 

 varieties, majus, odoriferum, and nervifolium. 



§ 9. THE RESERVE-GARDEN. 



No flower-garden can be maintained with a 

 succession of bloom throughout the greatest 

 part of the year without having such an adjunct 

 in the same establishment. The situation of 

 such a garden may be in some convenient place, 

 shut out from the principal gardens. It should 

 contain pits and frames for propagating, forward- 

 ing, and retarding plants according to circum- 

 stances ; of these abundant examples are given 

 in vol. i., section Pits, and to these turf pits 

 and other economical contrivances may be added. 

 It is important that such a piece of ground be 

 enclosed, sheltered, and in some parts shaded ; 

 if by walls, so much the better. It should also 

 be so arranged that other parts are fully exposed 

 to the sun and air ; and it should have prepared 

 beds of various soils, more in the nursery than 

 in the flower-garden style, for the cultivation of 

 plants intended to be removed when coming into 

 flower to the borders of the flower-garden, also 

 beds formed of sand or coal-ashes for plunging 

 pots in. The beds in which perennial plants are 

 to be grown should be composed of turfy or fib- 

 rous soil, as plants (not in pots) can be removed 

 from such with much greater safety than were 

 they composed of light finely-pulverised com- 

 post. We have found a mixture of various 

 species of the commoner mosses, flax-dressers' 

 refuse, &c, exceedingly valuable in such cases, 

 the plants attaching themselves by their roots 

 freely to such substances, and lifting with ex- 

 cellent balls. Indeed, as has been exemplified 

 by Mr Ferguson of Stowe, plants, such as ver- 

 benas, &c, struck by cuttings planted in semi- 

 decayed moss, about 3 inches in thickness, 

 may be safely removed at an early stage of their 

 growth, by cutting the moss into pieces of 2 or 

 3 inches square. Successive sowings of the 

 best annuals should be made, that a constant 

 supply may be secured for making up blanks in 

 the parterres ; these, if well watered prior to 

 removal, choosing a cloudy or rainy day, remove 

 well. Most of the best Californian annuals are 

 very hardy, and of these several sowings should 

 be made in September and October. Most of 

 them will survive the winter, and will be in ex- 

 cellent condition for transplanting in February 

 for an early bloom, to be followed after their 

 season is past with planting-out things. Roses, 



particularly of the autumnal -blooming kinds, 

 should be grown in pots, and kept plunged till 

 required ; and where the expense of pots is not 

 gone to, and the plants grown in the soil, Mr 

 M'Glashan's smaller transplanter may be had re- 

 course to. Both roses and all hardy shrubs in- 

 tended to be kept in a portable state should, if 

 in pots, be taken up during summer, and all 

 roots protruding beyond the pots cut off, while 

 those growing in the free soil should have their 

 roots shortened back by thrusting down a semi- 

 circular-shaped sharp spade, of such a radius 

 that two insertions of the instrument may en- 

 compass the ball of soil necessary for the sup- 

 port of the plants. All plants grown in such a 

 garden should be allowed plenty of space, so 

 that each may develop itself fully ; they should 

 be pruned and trained according to their natural 

 habits, or the purposes for which they are in- 

 tended. Bulbous-rooted plants remove well ; 

 and in the case of scillas, crocuses, and similar 

 small growers, they should be planted in patches 

 so as to be taken up in pieces about 9 inches in 

 diameter. All American plants remove safely ; 

 and azaleas, rhododendrons, kalmias, &c. may 

 be taken up just as they are coming into flower, 

 transferred to the flower-garden, and returned 

 when their bloom begins to fade to make way for 

 other things. In this garden, also, hundreds 

 of scarlet geraniums, heliotropes, verbenas, and 

 similar flower-garden plants, should be brought 

 forward in pots to be ready to fill up beds from 

 whence other plants have been removed. There 

 are some shrubby plants that will not bear re- 

 moval with safety, unless grown in pots, of 

 which the double-flowering whin, Ulex europea, 

 all the genus Spartium, Genista, Cytisus, Adeno- 

 carpus, Ononis, Anthyllis, which are very scantily 

 furnished with fibres at their roots, may be given 

 as examples. Phloxes, Oenotheras, campanulas, 

 asters, veronicas, remove freely, but penstemons, 

 alyssums, and similar rooted plants, with much 

 less success. The numerous varieties of wall- 

 flower and stocks readily transplant, even when 

 coming into flower. The great majority of showy 

 flowering Alpine plants which do not root deep, 

 such as Sedum, Saxifraga, Draba, &c, may be 

 lifted in large masses by introducing a broad 

 spade under them, and placing them on a board 

 corresponding to their size, on which they may 

 be carried to their destination, and the board 

 left under them to facilitate their removal back 

 to the reserve-garden, when it should be with- 

 drawn. The hepaticas, and most of the ane- 

 mones, remove very freely, while the extensive 

 genus Helianthemum, with its varieties, must 

 be grown in pots ; and those of 6 inches 

 in diameter will sustain a plant 2 feet in 

 diameter. The same may be said of Saponaria 

 ocymoides, many of the Dianthus, most of 

 Gypsophila, Silene, &c. It is not the number of 

 species and varieties that are adapted to suc- 

 cessful transplantation that ought to be so much 

 a consideration with the flower-gardener, as 

 those which are adapted for removal, and are 

 possessed of such properties as are adapted to 

 the parterre — moderate height, fine habit, 

 profusion of bloom, and, above all, that the 

 colours be bright if primary ones, or of suf- 



