CULTIVATION AND ANAL 7’S IS OF PLANTS. 
FL O WFF-BFI) S. 
.CONSIDERABLE care should be exercised in the preparation of 
flower-beds, after which they will give less trouble, and will last for 
many years with a little addition of manure every fall or spring. 
They may be various in shape — either round, triangular, palm-leat 
or stars — or several of one shape with grass or paths between, grouped 
or massed together. They should he dug to the depth of at least a 
foot, and deeper if the natural soil is stifF or heavy. If the soil is poor, it would 
be advisable to remove it entirely and supply its place with better. If the 
drainage is bad — a wet soil, for instance — the surface earth that has been 
loosened for the bed should be thrown aside, and two or three inches of gravel, 
coal cinders or what is still better, some long straw manure or brush, be placed 
in the bottom, the soil thrown in again, manured if necessary, the lumps well 
beaten out, and the bed raked fine and even. After this it will require only to be well 
stirred with a digging-fork every spring to loosen it up a little. It is better in low 
situations that the beds should lie a little above the surrounding surface; but in high, dry 
lawns exposed to the wind, it is well to have them a little lower, the edges being trimmed as 
frequently as may he required; or, if surrounded by gravel walks, a border of close-cut 
grass is very neat as marking the outlines of the bed. In some parts of California flower¬ 
beds are well rolled down, to pack the surface, so as to give off less evaporation during 
the months of drouth. The terra cotta manufactured for the purpose, as well as tiles, 
bricks standing on end and touching sides, or thin, flat stones set in the same manner, are 
sometimes used to preserve beds from the encroachments of grass. 
FLOWER-BEDS IN RELATION TO SYMMETRY AND COLOR. 
In arranging flower-beds, some attention should be paid to the effect different plants 
will produce when brought together. The taller ones should go to the center, and the 
lower growing and prostrate ones toward the margins, so that one will not hide another. 
The same rule applies to straight borders of walks, the taller ones going back against the 
grass. This is usually easy to do, as in most cases the heights of plants are given on seed 
packets. For a fine display, too much forethought cannot be given to the various colors 
that are to be brought in contact, as some colors, though handsome in themselves, utterly 
destroy the beauty of each other. For instance, scarlet and purple and some shades of 
blue do not affiliate at all, and are what are called antagonistic colors. We will fill an 
imaginary bed with Verbenas of inharmonious tints if put together wrongfully, but very 
pleasing and harmonious if rightly placed. Our stock consists of a dozen plants each of 
scarlet, purple, pink or rose color, and white. Placing the scarlet at one angle of the bed, 
we arrange next to it the pure white, that harmonizes everything in color and reconciles 
natural antagonism; adjoining it we plant our purples, and then our rose-tint — and how 
happily the two latter combine! The pale tints of all colors are more easy of assimilation 
than the deep ones, but what richness and depth of tone there is in some of the darker 
ones! For display-beds cut in the lawn or grass-plats, masses of one color for each bed, 
or at most two complementary colors, produce the finest effect. 
33 3 
