160 
HINTS ON FLOWER GARDENING. 
from the time they are planted out until they are destroyed by the frost in 4 
autumn. 
Too much attention cannot be paid to the habit of the plants used for groupb 
purposes, as, if the plants are naturally of compact growth, they will not require ) 
much training and pegging down to keep them in form, neither will they look ) 
weedy or neglected where proper attention is not paid to them. 
Among many of the new flowers, which, as flowers, in the eye of a florist are w 
beautiful, there is a great want of compactness in the habit of growth, so much so 5 
to render many of the finest flowers almost useless for flower-garden purpos. 
Take for example some of the Verbenas, and a single plant will cover several sqm; 
yards of ground almost without producing flowers sufficient to form a bouquet f 
the button-hole. These by gardeners are, and very properly, called weedy plan, 
and such ought always to be excluded from a well-appointed flower-garden. I- 
Verbenas of fine habit I should name such as Hendersonia, Atrosanguinea, Resple 
dens, Beauty, Princess Royal, Favorite, and others of similar habit ; but those whi 
have been bred from Neillii, Incisa, and Speciosa, are all loose growers. Again, ‘ 
Petunias, we have some beds of Smithei superb, the finest purple in cultivation, ai 
also Meteor, Princess Royal, and Famossissima, which at the present time are n, 
more than nine inches high in the tallest part of the bed, and are yet so dense 
covered with bloom, that you could not in any part from the centre to the sides 
three square inches in one place which is not covered with flower. These beds we 5 
planted about the middle of May, the plants being placed about fifteen inches apai 
they have been pegged down three times since they were planted, and are now wh 
we have described them. One thing is worth remarking, and which in a gre 
measure accounts for their being so dense and dwarf, and that is, the young shoo 
are regularly stopped once a week by pricking out the points of the blooming shoot 
so that we have constantly a succession of young wood coming up from the bottoi 
and also a regular succession of bloom. One great advantage of training Petuni; 
so closely as this is, that neither wind nor rain has any power upon them, where; 
beds in which the plants are allowed to get from eighteen inches to a yard hig 
always look shabby for a long time after a heavy storm. 
Now, our object in calling attention to these things at the present time, is 
suggest the propriety of commencing a reformation of our flower-garden manag 
ment at the proper season ; and as, by the time these remarks meet the public ey 
it will be the season to commence the propagation of plants for the coming seasc 
of 1848, we would insist upon the following general principles being attended t 
First, with reference to the form of the garden itself ; if it is proposed to make ar 
alterations in its form, let the plans and arrangements be made at once, and aft( 
you have convinced yourself of the propriety of the design, lay it down in a tempi 
rary manner on a bed of sand, and then fill each bed with flowers of the same coloi 
which you think of planting the beds with next season ; recollecting, that if the bee 
are large, each may be edged with its complementary colour — as, scarlet with whit 
