96 
THE AMATEUR’S FLOWER GARDEN. 
in flower, and would like to grow thousands of them, are 
prepared any day to ignore the whole tribe of herbaceous 
plants as weedy things that have had their day, and, with the 
exception of a lily or two, and, perhaps, a hollyhock, deserv¬ 
ing of a place only in the unsavoury hole where grass-mowings 
and the sweepings of the poultry-house are deposited with a 
view to a “ mixen.” It ought to be needless to attempt this 
vindication, but we feel bound in duty to the reader to urge 
that every rational development of the hardy garden will 
prove advantageous to the lover of flowers, as tending both to 
lessen the expense and labour which the keeping of the garden 
necessitates, and considerably augment the pleasures that it is 
capable of affording as the seasons change and the year goes 
round. 
As hardy herbaceous plants of some kind or other will 
grow in any soil and any aspect, not one single square 
foot of ground in any garden need be utterly barren. 
A tuft of Solomon’s seal in a dark spot where the soil 
is quite unfit for better plants, may be better than nothing. 
Sunny, shady, hot, cold, dry, moist, or even wet positions, 
have their several capabilities for hardy plants, and we 
have but to make our selections prudently to insure a 
plentiful clothing of herbage and flowers for every scene. 
But a herbaceous border designed for a good collection of 
plants should consist of good deep loamy soil; the greater 
part of it should be fully exposed to the sunshine and the 
breezes, but it is well to have some extent of ground partially 
or considerably shaded, to provide the greatest possible variety 
of conditions for the greatest possible variety of the forms of 
vegetation. In preparing a border, in the first instance the 
ground should be well dug two spits deep and at the same 
time liberally manured. In the case of an old border requir¬ 
ing a repair, it may be well to lift all the plants and “ lay 
them in ” safely while the border is trenched and manured ; 
or it may suffice to leave the good plants undisturbed and 
provide sites for additional planting by opening holes and 
digging in plenty of manure. In any case we would earnestly 
advise that herbaceous plants should be thoroughly well cul¬ 
tivated, even if, to do full justice to them, the bedding display 
has to be contracted or abolished. The majority of the best 
herbaceous plants—the hollyhocks, phloxes, lilies, tritomas* 
delphiniums, pinks, chrysanthemums, primulas, pyrethrums. 
