274 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Being asked, in the first place, to read a paper on spring 

 bedding, I proposed instead the more comprehensive title of 

 Spring Gardening, as one that would permit me to speak of 

 many interesting plants ineligible for bedding purposes. The 

 display of spring bedding plants generally takes place from the 

 beginning of April to the end of May, but there are flowers 

 that appear and pass away before that time, and amongst these 

 harbingers of the opening spring are some of our most cherished 

 examples of floral beauty, and even more welcome for their 

 precocity than are those which appear amongst a crowd of 

 others a month or two later. 



For convenience I may divide spring flowers into three groups, 

 the first consisting of the early-blooming kinds, those that com- 

 monly appear in February and early in March. The second will 

 comprise those that succeed, and continue in succession, through- 

 out the spring season. The third will include those plants which 

 may be commonly employed in massing for floral display in beds 

 and borders. The distinction between the bedding plants and 

 the others is merely arbitrary. It may be said generally that 

 the groups first named are impatient of frequent removal, and 

 their blooming period individually is comparatively short, while 

 those plants selected for bedding-out purposes possess a more 

 active vitality and freedom of growth, and can be annually 

 transplanted with safety, and even with advantage, and freely 

 propagated both by seed and division. 



The Christmas Eose family may claim a foremost place in 

 my group of early plants. Although some of the Hellebores 

 are really winter-blooming, they still belong to the spring from 

 the duration of their flowers, while others have the merit of 

 appearing in February and March. The kinds I find most use- 

 ful are H. niger, and n. angustifolius, and altifolius or maximus. 

 Added to these are some of the orientalis section. The 

 Hellebores, like other free-blooming large-leaved plants, show a 

 partiality for rich deep soil, and are benefited by a surface dress- 

 ing of manure after the flowering period. Propagation by 

 division may be successfully effected in March, except perhaps 

 with the orientalis section, which flower much later than the 

 niger group, and may be divided towards the end of April. The 

 late Miss Hope, who was a good grower of the niger varieties, 

 recommended as a suitable time when the leaves were at their 



