The Flower Garden , 
183 
to appear as though they and their neighbours had grown up together on terms 
of easy relationship. 
With a choice of plants practically unlimited, and tastes so various, it is 
impossible to do more than offer a bare suggestion of the finishing touches 
needed for our garden. But we think there should be found in it an 
abundance of flowers during nine months of the year, that everything it 
contains should look to be in its right place, and growing under conditions as 
natural as possible. No more violets and primroses struggling for life upon a 
parched border; no more sun-loving flowers pining in the snail and toad 
haunted purlieus of a “ north wall.” In a garden of the kind we are con¬ 
templating, the ground under the trees should be carpeted with ivies, peri¬ 
winkles, anemones, and creeping jenny. Clumps of snowdrops, crocus, 
scillas, narcissus, and even hyacinths may be grown there with advantage; 
ferns may unfold their fronds amid the shades they love so well; primroses 
and violets will cluster about them, and if we manage rightly, we may have in 
two or three years’ time a tangle here and there worthy of a Devonshire 
coombe. One of the borders (h) might be planted with bush roses, and for 
summer colouring allot another to the Blanket Flower (Gaillardia grandiflora), 
and a third to zinnias. Border d might be made the home of the Japanese 
iris, lovely in blossom and foliage, and i might be bright with the tints of the 
Iceland poppy. A yucca ought to find a place here and there at an angle, 
and tufts of silver grass and of Sheep’s or Lamb’s Ear (Stachys germanica) 
may relieve a shrubbery, while as a concession to “ bedding out ” proclivities, 
room could be made for two or three informal groups of crimson or scarlet 
geraniums, and patches of blue lobelia, echeveria, coleus, the ice plant, and 
such things, but as you love the proprieties no arrangement of ribbons or 
edgings ! Do not omit a few groups of autumn chrysanthemums for sheltered 
places. They will richly repay the scanty attention they ask, by rendering 
dull November capable of vieing for colour with many more favoured months. 
Into such a garden, climbers should be freely admitted, and will add much to 
its beauty. Varieties of clematis, tropseolums, Chinese Bindweed, nasturtiums, 
and the canary creeper, will all be welcome to cover stumps, or trellis, or 
rough arches, but let there be but a moderate use of the last, for they are apt 
to look artificial. Rather, let the climbers find their way to the shrubs, and 
the lower branches of the trees if they will, where they will arrange themselves 
in graceful festoons. 
Our garden is now well-stocked, and with such material there is an 
