HARDY SUMMER FLOWERS. 



267 



the demand for hardy flowers caused the geometrical garden to 

 be filled with them, the planting was not always carried out in 

 the best of taste. I yield to none in my admiration of hardy 

 flowers, but it is difficult to appreciate a style that filled small 

 beds with tall straggling flowers, some of them with only a short 

 season and whose foliage is quickly over, leaving nothing but a 

 few bare sticks and dying leaves. Therefore let me say at the 

 outset, if your hardy flowers can by any means have a position in 

 isolated beds on turf this is where they are seen at their best ; but 

 if a geometrical garden exists, and it is the will of the employer 

 that, although it is to be filled with hardy plants, the pattern is 

 not to be disturbed, the planting must be carried out with a wise 

 discrimination and the exercise of taste. 



It may be added that the opportunity of filling certain beds 

 mainly or wholly with one family of plants, and the chance 

 thereby offered of catering for individual wants, leads to a more 

 improved cultivation in the case of many things than when they 

 are crowded together with many other species in the same bed. It 

 may be also well to note that the greater part of the experience 

 herein recorded has been gathered in a garden south of the 

 Thames, fairly well sheltered, the soil being naturally dry and 

 sandy, with a subsoil of sand very close to the surface. In fact, 

 I suppose the upper part is really sand improved by cultivation. 



Before passing on to the consideration of some specialities let 

 me offer a hearty tribute of thanks, and in so doing I shall carry 

 with me the whole of my brother professionals, to those 

 enthusiasts in the art who by raising so many good things have 

 helped so much to enrich our gardens. Those of us, for instance, 

 who remember the phloxes and delphiniums of a quarter of a 

 century ago, together with the first tufted pansy, and can 

 compare them in our mind's eye with the marvellously beautiful 

 varieties of to-day, are able to appreciate to the fullest extent the 

 wonderful improvements that have been effected. 



A very valuable point in connection with nearly all hardy 

 flowers is the ease with which they are propagated, and a small 

 stock of some . really good thing once acquired we are able to 

 quickly work up a good number by the aid of cuttings, layers, 

 or division. Unless an extra large stock is required the two 

 latter methods of increase are preferable where they can be 

 practised, especially if the soil is light and it is essential to have 



