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THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 



varieties are especially adapted, as well as such varieties as aronia, azarolus, 

 coccinea, corallina, flava, punctata, and a few others. These are charming 

 things planted in bushes as underwood, to cover banks and gravelly slopes. To 

 heighten the effect trailing Roses of the sempervirens, Ayrshire, and Austrian 

 Briar classes should be mixed with them, as well as the double Rose, sweet- 

 scented and showy Brambles. These should have no manner of pruning or train- 

 ing, but be allowed to grow wild and naturalise themselves at pleasure. Another 

 combination which I have tried is of different varieties of the Ribes, of which 

 there are eight or ten really worthy of growing largely. Nothing can be 

 prettier for a piece of rather hilly ground or bank than the appearance pre- 

 sented by the graceful white Broom overhanging Ribes sanguineum. Later in 

 the season the cream-coloured Broom is quite a gem in its way, and comes 

 into bloom about the same time as Robinia hispida and its allies, which are 

 mixed with them. Double Cherries, the new double Plum, and Chinese 

 Peaches I am only just beginning with on a south bank, and if they succeed in 

 blooming freely, as I expect they will, they will form quite a new feature. I 

 am rather disposed to try a few of the new hardy Bamboo amongst them to 

 give variety after the Primuses are over. What a charming thing for an old 

 dead tree, or even a live one, is the common Wood Honeysuckle (Lonicera 

 periclymenum) ; and how deliciously sweet and graceful when mixed with the 

 Eglantine Rose, and such others as the Dundee Rambler, Ruga, and Ayrshire. 

 I must not omit to mention two or three varieties of Honeysuckle of the 

 Belgian class, which make admirable bushes, with here and there a Syringa 

 with them : the latter, however, should be kept rather out of sight, as the 

 bush soon grows too large for a foreground. 



I once tried, wanting to make a great blaze, a bank of common and Moutan 

 Paeonies, but was obliged to remove them. They were too heavy, though 

 strikingly beautiful, and require very rich soil to induce them to flower freely, 

 as I want a mass of colour at a particular season. At this point I have now 

 substituted Papaver orientalis ; and a grand thing it is for the purpose, growing 

 amid a group of Yucca aloifolia. I am not fond of Cytisus standards of any 

 sort (in which form we generally see them) — that is, Cytisus or other plants, 

 including Roses even, worked on a four-feet stem like an inverted mop, are to 

 me an abomination ; and so I content myself with planting dwarfs of this tribe 

 on a roughich piece of ground, something between a tumbled-down bank and 

 a modern rockery. Here they are as good as they can ever become ; but I do 

 not like them. 



I am going to try this autumn a plan on a large scale which I have tried 

 on a small. Here it is : Dwarf Apples, regular antique old fellows, which I 

 have been picking up for some years, with fine deep pink and rosy-coloured 

 blooms, and of which I advise your readers fond of this line of planting to 

 procure some also. These, with, a few striking varieties of Pear, which I have 

 also selected, I am going to dot about a long sloping piece of ground, and 

 plant Clematis of all sorts amongst them, allowing the latter considerable 

 liberty by way of creeping up and around the Pears and Apples. .1 expect to 

 have something, a picture in April and May, with the Pears and Apples ; and 

 also something good in August and September when the Clematis fall into 

 bloom, and cover up all the old stems of the Apples and Pears. Probably I 

 shall also introduce a few Mountain Ash amongst them, the coral berries of 

 which, like some of the cyder-fruiting Apples, will look rich overhanging the 

 deep blue and white of the Clematis. 



Perhaps these remarks will be too homely and discursive for you ; but if 

 you choose to insert them I will resume the subject in your next. 



Old Gossip. 



