11 
SUITABLE BORDERS FOR THE CULTIVATION OF TENDER 
EXOTICS IN THE OPEN AIR. 
Every one who cultivates an ornamental garden, even on the smallest scale, is 
naturally and laudably emulous of adorning it with all those foreign plants which 
can, by any contrivance, be brought to stand through the winter without being 
positively destroyed. This desire is, from various causes, as much cherished 
by the large proprietor, who has roods of ground covered with glass structures, 
as by the more humble grower who is content with possessing a greenhouse or 
frame. 
It is apparent, therefore, that economy can only be quite a secondary consideration 
in the attainment of such an object. There is a pleasure to all but the actual 
culturist in seeing a plant flourish spontaneously, in a free soil, and beneath the 
open sky, which is never realized by the most perfect comparative success under 
more artificial conditions. Nor can it be expected that an equal degree of luxuriance 
should be reached by a species of merely moderate tenderness, in unnatural circum- 
stances, to that which would be manifested when every essential auxiliary was 
unrestricted. 
That many exotic plants, particularly those which grow in a sterile soil, or are 
periodically exposed to violent changes of temperature or atmosphere, are greatly 
improved beneath the skilful tendance and care of the gardener, none will be 
disposed to dispute. Protective houses may, indeed, under certain management, 
be decidedly advantageous — independently of the temperature they preserve — to 
some of the species they cover. We do not, consequently, advocate any open-air 
system with the view of disparaging what has been effected by more refined 
treatment ; but simply because, by a little judicious interference of art, the chief 
features which occasion superiority in the house may be retained for the open 
ground, and the additional benefit of whatever agency the natural elements exert 
be likewise secured. 
The purport of the present article, then, is to bring into more extensive notice, 
and excite to greater assiduity in cultivating, the narrow borders which usually 
front all kinds of erections with a southern aspect, but especially those connected 
with plant-houses, or walls on which flowering climbers are trained. Numerous 
instances, some of which will be duly cited, have presented themselves to our 
observation, in which borders of this description have been employed for pi an tin o* 
out greenhouse shrubs or herbaceous plants, and numbers of tender bulbs, with the 
most gratifying results ; not a few having been thus conserved without the slightest 
shelter beyond that afforded by the house or wall. Several species, moreover, that 
are ordinarily kept in the stove, have, in the same situations, created a surpassingly 
attractive display during summer, and have required nothing more than a little 
