180 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
Bedding Plants. 
The present style of ornamenting gardens and 
lawns with Summer bedding plants, is much to 
be commended. The old fashioned flower-gar¬ 
den, with its medley of annuals, biennials, per¬ 
ennials, shrubs and vines, should not he discard¬ 
ed, by any means; but the plants now referred 
to may be used as adjuncts to produce certain 
effects which common plants can not. If we had 
only a small patch of ground to ornament, we 
should use bedding plants alone ; and if our 
flower-garden were necessarily very con¬ 
spicuous, we should use them almost 
exclusively. These plants are in 
bloom nearly all the time from Spring 
to Winter, while the others have 
only a temporary, evanescent beauty. 
The Verbena is perhaps the best 
of all bedding plants ; it is so easily 
managed, so abundant in bloom, and 
so varied in color. Fragrance is now 
being added to its many excellences. 
It is a good plan to set them in dis¬ 
tinct masses of one color, or of two 
colors side by side in strong con¬ 
trast. Scarlet and white make a 
brilliant combination, and blue and 
white are very pleasing. If any 
reader wishes advice in selecting 
sorts, we can only say in brief that 
the following verbenas are excellent: 
scarlets: Robinson’s Defiance, Orb 
of Day, and Chauvere. Crimsons : 
Lord Raglan, Giant of Hatties, and 
St. Margaret. Blue and Purple : Blue 
Defiance, Blue Bonnet, Rand's Blue, 
Purpurea odoratissima, and Hiawa¬ 
tha. Pink: Cornelia, Peter B. Mead, 
and Eva Corinne. White : Constel¬ 
lation, Rand's Seedling, and Mrs. 
Holford. Striped: Mad. Lemonnier, 
Imperatrice Elizabeth, Sarah, and 
Striped Eclipse, with many others. 
The petunia, is now rising in favor. 
The striped varieties are beautiful, as 
also the reds with white throats, and 
the double sorts. The latter have mostly a pleas¬ 
ant odor. A bed of eight or ten kinds, neatly 
trained to green stakes is surely a very fine sight. 
Scarlet Geraniums, and those with variegated 
foliage deserve a conspicuous place. Lantanas, 
of several sorts, Ageratums, Pentstemons, Neir- 
embergias, Cinerarias, Fuchsias, Pyrethrums, and 
the like, if tastefully arranged, make a brilliant 
show, and keep a garden gay all Summer long. 
For most of our readers, it is not yet too late 
to supply themselves with these desirable flow¬ 
ers. They can probably all be had at any respect¬ 
able nursery or florist’s establishment. 
Thin out the Plants. 
Most persons allow their plants, both vegeta¬ 
bles and flowers, to grow too near together. 
Beets, onions, carrots, parsneps, etc., should be 
thinned out very soon after they appear above 
ground. Cucumbers, squashes and melons need 
similar treatment. Three plants left to grow in 
a hill are sufficient. 
So of flowering plants, raised from seed. They 
are too often left to grow in a dense jungle or 
bunch, where they crowd each other, become 
weak and spindling, and never attain their native 
beauty. Annuals may sometimes be grown in 
masses, but even then they are much finer if the 
individual plants stand several inches apart. 
Where it is not wished to mass them, such flow¬ 
ers as Candytuft, Phlox Drummondii, Astersj 
Balsams and Stocks should stand at least one 
foot asunder. We now recall the sight of a sin¬ 
gle plant of white candytuft grown in our gar. 
den last Summer, which was shaped like a bee¬ 
hive and covered with a profusion of flowers in 
every part, and looked much better than if massed. 
It sometimes requires a good deal of courage to 
pull up vigorous growing young plants and throw 
them away, but it must be done, if one would 
have a valuable garden of vegetables or flowers. 
Fountains for Gardens and Lawns. 
Few ornaments are more ideasing, more uni¬ 
versally attractive, more worthy of admiration, 
than a fountain in a garden or lawn. Nor is an 
artificial fountain so costly or difficult of con¬ 
struction, as is generally supposed. It is one of 
the cheapest luxuries, where there exists the na¬ 
tural advantages of hilly ground, and some source 
of water on a higher level. There are almost in¬ 
numerable localities of this character in various 
parts of this country. With a few additional 
feet of pipe, and a simple structure, the same 
stream that now supplies the barn-yard and house¬ 
hold, may easily be made to throw up a jet of 
water ten, twenty, or more feet in height, to fall 
back upon a pile of loose rocks or stones, or into 
an artificial pond, producing the most pleasing ef¬ 
fect. We have seen them made by constructing 
a shallow basin, six to twelve feet in diameter, 
the bottom covered with gravel, and the sides 
formed of brick laid in cement. In the centre a 
pipe projects upward a few feet from the bottom, 
and this is surrounded nearly to the top with a 
mass of broken, not rounded stones. The pipe 
may extend higher, and pass through two or more 
iron basins, placed one above the other, the upper 
one smaller than the lower. The basins are not 
necessary, however, where it is desirable to avoid 
expense. A few water (aquatic) plants growing 
around or among the rocks, are a pretty addition 
Shells may also be introduced. Trees planted 
around the basin or pond, partly overhanging it, 
add to the effect, dispense a cooling spray, and 
furnish a delightful resort on a sultry day. 
How to Impro ve a F lower Garden. 
Books and papers will afford much information 
on this subject, but there is something to be 
learned outside of them. By reading, we get hold 
of many useful principles and facts, but careful 
observation will teach us many more, hardly 
less useful. He is likely to make the best 
gardener, who knows best how to 
use his eyes. We therefore make 
this suggestion to our readers, for 
their use the present Summer. Visit 
all the gardens within your reach, 
and make notes of every new thing 
you see. Begin early in this very 
month of June, and continue yout 
visits throughout the Summer. Every 
proprietor of a fine garden, on learn¬ 
ing your object, will welcome you 
within his enclosures, and give you 
all facilities for learning what you 
desire. Study, then, the arrangement 
of walks, and how they are made. 
Note the trees, shrubs, vines and 
plants. Observe their times of flow¬ 
ering, their color, fragrance, and 
whatever else may strike you. Per¬ 
severe in this, and by the close ol 
the flowering season, you will have 
learned much that will be of great 
practical use—saying nothing about 
the enjoyment you have experienced. 
From your notes, you can select a 
list of plants with whose habits you 
are already familiar, which will add 
much to i he beauty of your own gar¬ 
den. Many persons annually ransack 
the catalogues of distant nursery¬ 
men, in order to find plants to deco¬ 
rate their grounds with; and on 
selecting those which have high 
sounding names and brilliant descrip¬ 
tions, they are often disappointed, when the 
plants come to flower in their own grounds. If 
you can see specimens of your flowers before you 
purchase them, it is much better than to buy at 
hap-hazard. By carefully putting down upon pa¬ 
per, notes of what you see in your own gardens 
and in those of others, during the present season, 
you will be all ready to make early selections 
another year, and also to arrange various plants 
in proper harmony. 
--. - - 
Roses in Pots 
When oses are bought at the green-houses in 
the Spring for home culture, their growth is fre¬ 
quently checked after a week or two, and though 
they may not die, the promising young shoots 
make but little progress. After the first flowers 
they show but little disposition to continue to 
bloom, and thus disappoint those who were at first 
attracted by their showy appearance. This is 
owing partly to unskillful management. At the 
green-house they had been kept in a temperature 
of from 60° to 70°, frequently watered and occa¬ 
sionally treated to a dressing of liquid manure. 
Any sudden change in the treatment of plants will 
generally be followed with unfavorable results. 
The rose, as usually treated in green-houses, is 
made very sensitive to such changes by having 
been forced into early bloom. The plants were 
taken from the open air late in the previous Fall, 
