190 
A FURTHER GLANCE AT MODERN FLOWER-GARDENS. 
plants imparts ! The small-flowered Anthericum, too (Liliastrum ?), a plant altogether dressy and chaste 
looking. Verbenas of the taller kinds, neatly tied up, are of excellent habit. The lighter foliaged 
Phloxes, too, such as Van Houttii, and such Veronicas as the white spicata, incana, carnea, incar- 
nata, &c., have much elegance. Let such forms as these be compared with coarse Asters, Rudbeckias, 
Tradescautias, Aconitums, Pulmonarias, and a host of other heavy-leaved and flat-headed flowers, and 
it will be obvious that form or habit has much to do with the beauty of the parterre. I do not mention 
these plants as worthy of utter rejection—this is a matter of fancy; but merely by contrast to throw 
light on the subject, and to point to the propriety of having what I call transition scenery—before 
alluded to—to which all things rejected from the parterre might be removed, and where the very 
points for which they were excluded would form their principal recommendation. 
I may here be permitted to remark on the benefits of a reserve garden ; no place of any pretensions 
should be without this useful adjunct of good gardening. Where flowers are grown extensively, and 
high culture is aimed at, a young man who had been accustomed to plants and flowers would here find 
constant employ from April until September ; especially if a propagating pit or two, and some cool pits 
for hardening off, were contained within the boundaries. Such should always be the case, and thus this 
division of the business, although subservient to the general scheme, would form a distinct branch, and 
leave the other portions of the establishment perfectly unfettered. For what benefit can be derived 
from cramming Melon or Cucumber frames, or the Vinery or Peach-house shelves, with a host of small 
fry intended for the flower-garden P Such may be justified by necessity, but never by principle. 
As bearing on this portion of the subject, I would here point to the propriety of cultivating annually 
some of the herbaceous tribes, which become coarse and exhausted by standing long in one situation. 
Phloxes, Asters, Pentstemons, and indeed most herbaceous plants, blossom incomparably finer from 
young plants propagated betimes in the preceding summer, than from the old and exhausted stools 
which we generally see in pleasure grounds. This then would be one legitimate object for the reserve 
ground, where, indeed, an alphabetical or some other arrangement of plants considered permanently 
useful should be kept up ; many kinds becoming entirely lost for want of such an arrangement. 
I would now try to refer again to the clumping system, and to offer a few remarks on pegging- 
down, &c. One of the first essentials I would suggest, is to keep up the idea of distinctness; confusion 
of forms is surely out of place here. Let the Brambles and Dog Roses in the wilderness intertwine and 
smother each other as they will, but distinctness, I say, for the parterre. Now, it is worth while to 
examine into this principle. The first point of distinctness I would urge is the propriety of keeping 
every individual flower separate—no two allowed to touch. I know not who might be the real originator 
of this idea as applied to flowers, but the late clever and ingenious Mr. Loudon was, I believe, the first to 
make it patent amongst the lovers of gardens. “ The recognition of art” was a favourite motto of his; 
eschewing boldly, as he did, all hybrid mixtures of the true picturesque and the simply beautiful. There 
can be little doubt, therefore, that what he chose to designate as the “ recognition of art” is a real prin¬ 
ciple, having its foundation in the human mind, and consisting in a desire to distinguish, separate, and 
recognise what are termed styles, and to avoid unmeaning confusion. This then is, I conceive, the 
only principle which can guide the flower-gardener; and it is well, in recognising such a guide, as 
well as due attention to form and outline, that no sacrifice is called for from the greatest stickler for 
mere colour. 
The thing mostly to be repudiated is that pell-mell sort of style, which, content with a blaze of 
colour alone, bids defiance to all expression through the medium of form and outline, by fusing all into 
an unmeaning and chaotic mass. I feel persuaded that, where beds of flowers are well conceived, the 
plants individually healthy, and blossoming freely, the relief afforded by intervening portions of cleanly 
raked soil is just the sort of relief that suits the human eye in the majority of cases. As for those who 
require merely to be taken by surprise, through a prurient and false taste, why mere blazes of colour 
and sparkling contrasts must, in the main, be the order of the day. 
Next to the individuality of the plants in a given bed, I would suggest that the use of edgings or 
borderings will be frequently found a useful adjunct in promoting beauty of outline. No flower-bed 
ever looks to me perfectly satisfactory without at least two distinct heights, if three so much the better. 
Now, this admitted, no one will doubt the propriety of placing the lowest next the exterior of the bed, 
however the other heights may be arranged. Here, then, an edging of some kind makes an elegant 
and artistical finish; and, as I think, edgings sometimes look best if they can be made to form 
continuous belts; this is easily accomplished by pegging-down well during the earlier stages, allowing 
the points to rise in relief as soon as the object shall have been attained. To put a case ; suppose a 
long oval bed standing in considerable relief. A row of the Scarlet Cupheas as an edging, no part of 
them allowed to approach the outer edge of the bed nearer than four inches. In a parallel line, at 
