SEPTEMBER. 
211 
Fisli saw it after it had withstood a very cold and wet summer, and pronounced 
it to be one of the finest plants for bedding purposes he had seen for many 
years; and if “ D. W.” could see 280 yards of it now in the ribbon-border at 
Oulton Park, after such a dry season, I think he would be inclined to alter his 
opinion of it very much. 
It is a seedling from the old Yerbena venosa, crossed with Lady Grey 
Egerton. After trying for several years to ripen seed on Yenosa, that had been 
crossed with some of the garden varieties, I at last succeeded, but only one seed 
came up from the whole batch. The first year it was very weak and sickly, but I 
managed to keep it through the winter of 1861. The next year it grew stronger, 
and I was very much pleased to find I had gained the object I had in view, and 
that my incessant labour for several years had been crowned with success. I 
have little doubt but that it will originate quite a new race of Yerbenas, which, 
for bedding purposes, will drive the kinds of Yerbenas now cultivated for 
bedding completely out of the flower garden. 
Last year I was successful in getting a batch of seedlings from seed gathered 
from Yelvet Cushion, and crossed again with Yenosa. Amongst them are some 
very fine things ; and to show how easily Yelvet Cushion is propagated, I will just 
mention that, after supplying Messrs. E. G. Henderson with sufficient stock for 
their purpose, owing to a misfortune we met with in losing a lot of cuttings, 
I had only eight small plants of it left. I did not till late in March begin to pro¬ 
pagate from them, because I had only made up my mind to have two or three beds 
of it. At the end of April I determined to have it in the ribbon-borders. I 
then began working it in earnest, and by the second week in May I had nearly 
two thousand fine plants of it, which are now to be seen in the height of their 
beauty. 
The Tropseolums General Lee and Rouge et Hoir were also raised by me. 
They have been very much admired for the past two seasons by all who have 
seen them. I may at some future time give you a description of my mode of 
treating the Yerbena, with a list of the finds I consider the best for bedding 
purposes. 
Oulton Parle. T. Wills. 
MODERN FLOWER GARDENING. 
Residences, from the most simple structure to the most elaborate and im¬ 
posing Graeco-Italian design, are incomplete and unsatisfactory to the eye without 
the embellishments of decorative flower gardening. The simple name of flower 
gardening, we would have it to be understood, does not preclude other varieties 
of scenery from being introduced to suit the general landscape, and to tally with 
the dimensions of the mansion, which must always form the starting point in any 
comprehensive design. All these fine intervening lawns, all these noble and sym¬ 
metrical specimens of arboriculture here and there dotted upon the foreground, 
all that infinite diversity of scenery with which we are so familiar in this land of 
the mountain and flood, such as ridge, knoll, swelling undulation, &c., form either 
the ground work of, or are subordinate to, what is called the flower garden proper. 
The taste for flowers and floral decoration rapidly increases, and with its increase 
comes such a variety of design, and so great a revolution in the materials used, 
that the expenditure comes to be a matter of consideration both at the cottage 
and the mansion. What nurseryman twenty years ago ever dreamt of selling 
sixty thousand bedding plants in the month of May ? or would even credit the 
capability of a staff of propagators to produce that number of saleable plants. 
There are nearly two thousand nursery and seedsmen in Great Britain and Ireland, 
and if we consider that out of that number one thousand firms might be named 
who will sell on an average each spring—say ten thousand plants, then we have 
exactly a million plants for decorative purposes, sold at from 10,?. to £1 per 
hundred, which will yield at least £6000. Add to all this the numbers that are 
propagated and planted out in all gardens where regular gardeners are kept, and 
the aggregate number which a night’s frost in September will destroy is truty- 
