290 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 0. 
against it, we could make very little impression. The 
next step will bo a better way of laying out plans to suit 
this style; for at present there seems to be no way of 
displaying a quarter of those plants that are by nature 
more fitted for this style of gardening than for any other. 
There is now a widely-spread idea—and a very erroneous 
one—that particular shapes for the flower-beds are all 
that are necessary to crown the system with success ; 
whereas, it is their proper sizes and situations in a com¬ 
position which, at present, are the principal defects. 
Elegant shapes will certainly add to the effect, but if the 
beds are either too large or too small for the plants best 
suited to give the right colour, or the right shade of 
colour, all the elegancies put together will not mend the 
matter. 
In places of limited extent thero is no stylo of 
laying out beds half so effective as the true geometric 
style ; and yet where people are very fond of flowers it 
will not encompass all that they think necessary, nor, 
indeed, all that is necessary for a full display; some 
groups of beds ought to come in as it were, like Paul 
Pry, full in viow, but not intruding. Single beds, also, 
with two or three colours are very effective in certain 
situations in ground of very limited extent, as well as in 
those of the largest number of acres ; and where it can 
be had, a “ mixed border” is also a great luxury, where 
nothing will come amiss. Geometric figures or beds are 
endless in shapes, and they should in all cases bo re¬ 
petitions on two or four sides from a given centre. The 
form of beds arranged in a group not geometric, must 
be in a great measure guided by the size and figure of 
the place they occupy, and it is only where the single 
bed by itself comes in appropriately that full scope can 
be given to a particular form or outline; and here, if 
sharp corners or angles be avoided, any one shape is as 
good as another, provided the owner is satisfied with it, 
and that it is not held forth as being better than what 
our neighbours cliooso for themselves in the same way. 
Besides what I have been learning for the last dozen 
years about these things, every one of the points were 
clearly before me among the different plans I had to 
look over for the last three months. 
There is one very happy idea now carried out in 
several large establishments, but which I believe first 
originated in the flower-garden hore, though not by the 
writer, and not a trace of it could be found in all the 
plans which reached me—it is the shading system of 
planting. Indeed, that way could not be shown in any 
of the plans before me; shading means more than two 
shades of any colour. With the exception of scarlet and 
white flowers, there is not a plant fit for a flower-garden 
of which one could not find three or four shades, and if not 
in the same genus, then in one which has the same style 
of growth, so that the growth as well as the tints agree. 
And the last step of all is to look out the different shades 
in plants that grow to different heights, or what I have 
often said, “heights and colours;” thus, for example, a 
plant with dark purple flowers, and three feet high, for 
one bed ; the next plant to be only two feet high, and the 
shade of purple one degree lighter than the last; and the 
third plant to have the flowers of a still lighter purple, 
and to be a foot in height, or capable of being trained 
down to twelve inches. Now, here are three shades of 
purple, and three heights. The size of the beds, to make 
the most of the colours, ought to be in proportion 
to the height of the plants; therefore, the beds are of 
three different sizes. For a make-shift, Geraniums would 
give three tints of scarlet, and three sizes of growth, but 
that is the most difficult to produce. Pinks, blues and 
yellows can be worked as the purples; and where the 
shades would kill the effect of each other, put white 
betweon them, and no harm is done. After trying as 
many shades as I Could find, 1 have come to the con¬ 
clusion that three of each are the best, so that they run 
in three degrees of comparison, like adjectives in our 
school grammar—good, better, best; tall, taller, tallest; 
and so on. 
One more observation and I have done. With the 
exception of three or four of the plans, there was a great 
scarcity of plants. I could see very clearly where most 
of the ideas for the planting had been got—from The 
Cottage Gardener; and there was no want of variety 
in that quarter; therefore, I conclude that it is easier to 
learn to plant well, than it is to propagate successfully. 
But let us not be behind our neighbours in stock this 
soason at any rate, as all the world are coming over to 
see our doings. Besides we never had a better winter 
season for keeping things from the frost and damp—air 
on, or lights off, almost every day; and now is an ex¬ 
cellent time to get cuttings without having first had to 
force a young growth. Every young top is in motion, 
and with a gentle hotbed will make roots almost as fast 
as we can form them into cuttings; only the very tops 
should be taken, and if the mother plant is a scarce one, 
and wo want to make the most of it for the next two 
months, cuttings two inches long arc a very extrava¬ 
gant length; short cuts and fast returns is a better 
plan. To make the best of the season, it is the height 
of folly and extravagance to waste time in sending letters 
asking where any plant can be bought; every nursery¬ 
man or seed agent in the three kingdoms can get any 
plant that is on sale in Europe or America, if he chooses; 
and the commission is likely to jmy him for his trouble. 
If that fails, write to London at once; any of those 
dealers whose address may be seen in our advertise¬ 
ments, will soon get any plant, if he happens not 
to have it. Four years since Mr. Appleby sent me 
a nice plant of Campanula carpatica alba, by return 
of post, and I made two good beds out of it the 
same season ; and the year following I had to put 
twelve plants into heat about this time, to get a very 
large stock from, because everybody admired it. Since 
that time I have never ceased writing about it, and 
strange to say, not a trace of it could I find this winter 
among the hundreds of flower-garden beds I examined, 
nor of the next best plant to it, except in two instances, 
I mean the lace bed of Saponaria calabrica, the very 
finest flower-garden plant in the whole world, as far as 
we know; a little annual as easily managed as migno¬ 
nette, and six pennyworth of seeds would plant a cir¬ 
cular bed ten feet in diameter. It would be a good plan 
to sow lots of annuals now, or very soon, on any spare 
piece of ground. They would all transplant about the 
beginning of May, when the spring bulbs will fade; and if 
they were lost altogether the damage would not be great. 
I do not like the plan of sowing them thus early where 
they are to flower, even if the bed is already full of bulbs; 
there are so many chances that some of them will he 
gappy, or not come to much that way, that transplanting 
is lar preferable, when every inch of ground may be 
covered, and every plant in a bed flower and be done 
with at the same time. Without a host of annuals no 
garden can be gay from the middle of May till mid¬ 
summer ;—no, not with “herbaceous plants,” and that 
is really their true prime season. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
A Group of comparatively Hardy, Early Flower¬ 
ing, Yellow, Pea-blossomed Greenhouse Shrubs.— 
I have several times alluded to some of the most promi¬ 
nent and useful of these, such as the Cytisus and Genista, 
recommending them both for windows and greenhouses. 
At all times, but more especially iu winter, a yellow 
colour is necessary to lighten up and show off other 
