54 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
would otherwise have been rich in attractions of a permanent 
character, and comparatively exhanstless in interest, have 
been reduced to the condition of manufactories, and the 
summer show, as a proof to all observers of what the factory 
could produce, has been considered sufficient return for the 
sacrifice of all that should make a garden at once a training- 
ground for mind and morals, and a recreative feature of the 
house itself. 
The bedding system has its uses as well as its abuses. In 
many a place it operates injuriously, by contracting the ideas 
of those who profess to love their gardens, and absorbing 
energies and appliances for the accomplishment of paltry 
results, which might be devoted to purposes conducive to the 
production of a really enjoyable garden. But for its own 
particular purpose, and in its proper place, with liberal sur¬ 
roundings, and with means for its proper vindication, the 
bedding is not only invaluable in its present imperfect state 
of development, but worthy of all the energy and thought it 
may demand for its completion. Its one grand defect admits 
of the most perfect remedy, but every step in the remedial 
process is attended with expense and labour. To be sure, 
it is not possible to have a display of flowers in open beds 
the whole year round, but there may be four displays of some 
kind in the course of twelve months. From March to May, 
the parterre should present a succession of masses and lines 
of spring flowers ; say crocuses, tulips, forget-me-nots, scillas, 
iberis, alyssums, pyre thrums, pansies, daisies, and polyanthuses. 
Then should follow the summer display of geraniums, verbenas, 
petunias, and the rest of the generally accepted furniture. 
At the instant of these declining in beauty, early-flowering 
pompone chrysanthemums, brought in from the reserve 
ground, might be planted in their places, to make a brilliant 
display from the middle of October to the middle of November. 
Then the spring display must be prepared for by planting 
bulbs and herbaceous plants, and a few beds, and centres of 
beds, might be left wholly or partially vacant in this planting, 
in order to be filled with showy evergreen shrubs carefully lifted 
from the reserve ground, or grown in pots for the purpose and 
plunged. The programme here sketched out is not strictly 
like the blind man’s fiddle that he made “ out of his own 
head, ,, for the author has carried it into effect and kept it 
going for years, and has thus tested and tried all its capa- 
