a 92 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



but shrubs to thrive must be left alone." The planting of flowering 

 shrubs is a vast subject, and can only be outlined here ; even if a whole 

 lecture were devoted to it, it would be impossible to do justice to it. I 

 have no hesitation in saying that, after allowing for various tastes, the 

 numbers of wooden, cast-ironified attempts that one meets with are 

 distressing. 



The three remaining items are the planting of the borders, the planting 

 of the kitchen garden, and the finishing touches. I will say little or 

 nothing about planting the kitchen garden. Not that it is unimportant. 

 It is an important item to get the right fruits and the right varieties of 

 fruit on each differing aspect of wall, and along the espaliers ; but 

 as the great bulk of my readers are practical horticulturists I could, I 

 feel sure, profit more by a conversation with or lecture from you than you 

 could from me. Before the kitchen garden is planted the head gardener 

 is on the scene, and as his merits have to be judged in a great measure 

 according to its produce I usually work hand-in-hand with him. 



It matters little how formal the filling of your beds on the terrace 

 is, being immediately under the windows of the house, or if you are 

 minded to do a little carpet bedding (let us hope not much on the score 

 of expense) I will not quarrel with it ; I think it is a good deal more 

 appropriate than straggling and gaudy begonias. Try as you will, every- 

 thing within the square-walled rooms of the house is formal, and every- 

 thing in the dress and manner of the occupants is on formal though not 

 necessarily stiff lines. 



As to the borders beyond the terraces, I need not say to practical men 

 that, viewed both from the artistic as well as the practical standpoint, 

 the character of the background in each case alters our plans. Whether 

 the .flowers are to be seen against hedges is another consideration that 

 determines much, as also which of the several differing kinds of hedges are 

 to be our background, concluding, of course, that their roots are restrained 

 by some device from sapping the flower's domain. Time would fail to 

 enter into the unlimited groupings and the changes that are at 

 our disposal ; in fact, we are always improving and moving in the 

 borders if alert, and constantly meeting with new yet old surprises. 

 If a client demands a goodly display from the first — which I do not often 

 advise — then I have a proper border planting plan prepared with good 

 clumps of herbaceous stuff, selecting fixed positions for such plants as 

 Martagon lilies, which resent moving during the triennial lifting, digging, 

 and enriching. But the method I advise is not to plant too thickly in the 

 first year ; and, as no one can well lay down a rule for a locality, see 

 what plants thrive best and tend to the happiest local groupings. Any 

 unoccupied place can easily be filled by annuals and biennials. 



The final visit is to give the few happy balancing touches here and 

 there. It means perhaps, the insertion of a clipped tree or two or three 

 formally kept hollies on the terrace, a few roses, a touch of statuary, 

 animated or reposeful (again a most difficult task to hit the right note), 

 and the right size and proper height of the pedestal, a climber or so, some 

 architectural feature which is obtrusive and hitherto unnoticed to be 

 masked, perhaps an archway of yew or of roses on a framework ; then 

 you must leave the work of your hands for others to make or mar. 



