382 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[March 20. 
1 could plant a mixed bed of very distinct kinds. It is 
for this very cause that I have so often backed out of 
j questions which have been sent, asking us to name so 
many kinds for one bed. What my experience, or that 
1 of any one else, would show on a particular soil, might 
very easily lead a third party quite wrong in a different 
locality, but with the single exception of the Gloire de 
Rosamene, this does not hold good with the China breed 
j of dwarf ones. For the bedding purpose, I look on the 
Gloire dc Rosamene as a true China, although they call 
it a Bourbon in the catalogues. Once we get among the 
true Bourbons, we enter on the difficulty of making 
good mixtures for oue bed. 
Mrs. Bosanquet and Barclayana are two old light- 
coloured Chinas, but not pure white, well adapted for 
beds, or for edgings to the dark red ones, as they are 
constant bloomers, and grow without making rambling 
shoots. Barclayana has not been in the catalogues for 
many years, but many gardeners prefer it to newer ones 
for beds. I had it first from Cbatsworth, where it was 
a great favourite, and I believe is so still. These are 
certainly the cream of the white bedding roses of this 
class. 
Among the red ones there is a great variety for choice, 
and the Old dark red China, which is seen all over the 
country trained up against the front of cottages, makes 
as good a bed as any on the list; and Henry the Fifth 
is the best to mix with it, plant for plant, as they grow 
exactly alike. The latter is a shade more red, and has 
a light centre when the flower is full open, and some¬ 
times a light stripe here and there : all this with the 
dark-red of the old one has a fine effect in a bed. 
Madam Breon is one of the best rose-coloured Chinas 
for cut blooms, and some are fond of it for a bedder, 
but with me the flowers seem too heavy for the stalks, 
so that it hangs down too much to show to the best 
advantage, but on strong soil 1 should think it would 
make a fine bed. Archduke Charles, Cramoisie Supe- 
rieure, Prince Charles, and Abbe Midland, have four 
shades of red crimson which assist each other very much 
in a bed, and I would rather have the four mixed than 
any of them by themselves in a bed ; but the four have 
the bad habit of making one or two strong shoots from 
the bottom if they have their own way. This should 
never be allowed in a bed of China roses, otherwise the 
symmetry of the bed is all gone. Stop the strong shoots 
when they are under four inches, so as to keep them 
close and bushy to the ground, as they never look rich 
or well managed if you can push a walking stick into 
any part of the bed without touching a shoot. Eugene 
Beauharnois and Belle de Florence are two which answer 
pretty well together, they are a shade lighter than the 
reds and crimsons. For a very small bed of one sort 
Fabler is unquestionably the best; it might be called the 
little grandson of Gloire de Rosamene without inheriting 
its manner of making strong shoots here and there. 
Plants of Fabler, three or four years old, would make a 
good mixture with biennial Gloire de Rosamene. Both 
of them have good light centres, and Fabler is more 
double, with a well-marked stripe in the petal. Out of 
the above a nice shaded bed might be formed, and these 
shaded beds, of whatever kinds of flowers, look best in 
circles. Then three plants of the strongest and darkest 
should stand in the middle, say of Cramoisie Superieure; 
after that two rows of Abbe Mioland, or Prince Charles, 
for a lighter shade, followed by one row of Belle dc 
Florence, and another of Eugene Beauharnois, then Mrs. 
Bosanquet; the outside row to be either Aimee Vibert, 
or the Old White China. If of the latter, the plants to be 
quite young, as it is a strong grower. 
The best way to prove Roses, Geraniums, Verbenas, 
&c., for shading, is to begin by planting one of each 
along a border by the side of a walk, the border to be of 
uniform richness throughout; to regulate the growth by 
stopping strong shoots ; training others, either down or 
upwards, and then to watch their habits, and colours, 
and shades, both when they first open their flowers and 
as they fade away, and to mark all peculiarities and 
memorandums about them, on the spot, in the garden- 
book. One or two seasons at this kind of gardening 
would teach more than all the writing and reading of a 
whole year, for there is hardly a family of plants but 
shows something different in one place which is never 
seen in another. Besides, to learn the real art of think¬ 
ing for oneself is one of the greatest secrets among the 
best gardeners, and without that, in some degree, one 
may be led by the nose for a whole lifetime, and not be 
much the wiser after all. 
Geraniums for Beds. —From my own notes on the 
large florists’ geraniums for the last four years, I am 
enabled to say confidently that the Priory Queen, a 
lightish oue, is the very best of them all for a good bed. 
Rising Sun is the next best, and Madeline Superbe the 
third best. The latter is a very dark red one, that is, 
very dark back, and deep red front petals. The Rising 
Sun is a light red, and much of the same colour all over. 
I crossed the three among themselves and with others 
which I thought likely to answer for raising bedders from, 
but all to no purpose, and I think it is quite useless to 
fight with this class, although I have no doubt but the 
florists themselves often get a bedding variety out of the 
thousands they get from seeds, but which they destroy 
as soon as they flower for fear they should spoil their 
breeders. 
Among geraniums the great desideratum is to get a 
really good white one fora bed. There is not yet a single 
white geranium fit for a bed. Once last year, while 
lamenting the want of a white bedding geranium, I said 
that I had just seen one seedling which came up to my 
standard, and that the largest leaf on the plant might be 
hid under a shilling. Very fortunately this seedling is a 
breeder, and I may now congratulate my friends on the 
certainty of having soon a choice in this class and colour, 
as sure as we now have in the scarlets. 
Another piece of good news about bedders is, that a 
London breeder sent me lately leaves of a new class of 
seedling geraniums which have not flowered yet; but if 
he is quite sure of the parents, I hesitate not to say that 
he has found his way into a new strain that none of us 
have yet hit on. Of course this is crying “ chick, chick,” 
before the eggs are hatched; but I have staked what 
little credit they give me as a breeder, on the issue, by 
sending him word about the best and most promising of 
his batch from a mere sight of single leaves. 
I wish I could write so as to entice young gardeners 
and amateurs to embark in cross breeding of flowers ; no 
matter what class they take in hand, or what failures 
they may meet with. I promise them, from my own 
experience for twenty long years, that there is an endless 
source of enticing amusement before them, very innocent 
in itself, and which may add to the gratification of others 
some day or other. But to be and continue so they 
must keep clear of speculation, and never think of tinn¬ 
ing a single penny by their seedlings. Of course those 
who make then living by raising and selling plants, 
must look to who is to pay the piper; but that is alto¬ 
gether a different thing from taking up the pursuit for 
recreation and amusement. 
In the flower-garden itself people will be very busy 
for the next six weeks, and for the sake of looking tidy 
in a hurry we often put off jobs which do not appear 
to us to be in immediate want of attention. Those who 
are much troubled with moss on the lawn had never more 
reason to apply an early remedy to keep it down. In 
all my experience 1 do not recollect a winter more 
favourable to the growth of mosses than this one; a low 
moist atmosphere and steady temperature throughout, 
has encouraged the moss to grow rapidly ever since the 
