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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



small clumps, rather than merely sticking in one here and there, 

 to give some relief, as is so commonly seen. 



Practically the gardener in planting should aim to produce an 

 illusion to the effect that the beds thus temporarily planted are 

 really so permanently, intermingling between the evergreens such 

 plants, bulbs, or otherwise, as he may have at disposal, and 

 of which there is now such a wealth to choose from. Any 

 attempt to obtain large bold masses of colour, whether from bulbs 

 or hardy spring flowers, should not be tolerated. Those who plant 

 as may be seen in London parks and gardens huge flat mono- 

 tonous beds of bulbs, and those who profess to admire them, 

 have about as much taste as have those pictorial connoisseurs, 

 who find more of art and beauty on a street hoarding than 

 within the National Gallery. Not one whit better are the masses 

 of Silene, Arabis, Myosotis, Violas, &c, often seen in gardens in 

 the spring, and all of which should be banished from garden 

 beddings. It may naturally be asked why take so much of 

 trouble in annually planting and replanting flower beds ? Why 

 not let them be of a permanent character ? Those who prefer to 

 do so may of course have them permanent, merely adding a few 

 fresh plants from time to time, to afford in that way a little 

 variety. But permanent beds means considerable sameness 

 from year to year, as well as all the year round, whilst every 

 gardener knows that if real justice is to be done to the plants 

 utilised, whether they be shrubby or herbaceous or tender, the soil 

 must occasionally be deeply worked and manured, for it is only 

 in that way that striking effects, whether mixed or otherwise, 

 can be obtained. Then, whilst even in permanent beds flowering 

 plants of ordinary kinds may be planted and removed, as occasion 

 or season may necessitate, conifers and shrubs soon become too 

 large, and require all the space hitherto allotted to the flowers, so 

 that the latter become of trifling importance, whereas the beds 

 were originally chiefly designed to enable them to exhibit their 

 decorative qualities. The frequent transplanting of the bedding 

 material may entail considerable labour, but what is there in 

 gardening worth having, that does not entail labour to produce ? 

 Still further the value of such labour is less to be judged by its 

 cost, or time occupied, than by the results obtained. Now there 

 can be no objection to the planting of beds on the mixed plan 

 every autumn, thus saving the spring labour. The advantage 



