318 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 19. 
PLANTING FLOWER BEDS, &c. 
[The following letter is sucli a tissue of interwoven 
queries and information, that we insert it entire, append¬ 
ing some commentaries by Mr. Beaton.] 
“ Mine is a geometric flower-garden, looked down upon 
from tlie drawing-room windows. The beds are on turf, 
and, being very numerous, I am anxious, if possible, to fill 
a few of them with hardy perennials that will flower for 
some time, and thus save the gardener’s labour, and diminish 
the stock of tender things that too thickly inhabit the frames 
during the winter. Am I likely to find the common Holly- 
leaved Berberry patient under the pruning-knife, so that it 
might • form the outer row of a couple of beds facing each 
other? and will it flower if regularly cut back? Within 
these I think of planting the old Tiger Lilies and Bee Lark¬ 
spurs, filling the centre with tall late-flowering varieties of 
Phlox: can any one recommend a better assortment, and 
name any other things—novelty being less an object than 
long duration of bloom ? My Scarlet Geraniums are so 
gorgeous against a south wall, which is broken into recesses 
by buttresses, and which are slightly protected by reed 
frames in the winter, that I wish to increase such valuable 
ornaments. Is Rollisson’s Unique likely to attain a height of 
nine or ten feet ? Is the new white variety sent out by 
Messrs. Henderson, of Wellington Road, worth planting in 
such a situation? and is Henderson’s Defiance geranium 
distinct from, and superior to, Low's Amazon, which appears 
the perfection of beauty? I have a small plant growing 
i against the wall, bearing one bunch of flowers, which has 
been open a full month, and is still fine ; the truss is large, 
and the individual flowers equally so, while their substance 
is such as to resist decay in a wonderful manner. The 
Flower of the Day geranium, would, I imagine, scarcely 
answer my purpose, and I fear that Petunias are too delicate 
to stand the winter, even protected like the geraniums. 
Plants that will flower the -whole of the summer and autumn 
are, of course, the only things worth growing. The prettiest 
new thing I have seen is the Californian Diplacus, intro¬ 
duced by the Horticultural Society; I saw it in Messrs. 
Yeitch’s magnificent nursery, a week or two since. If it 
proves hardy, and continues long in bloom, it will be valu¬ 
able for bedding, as the individual flowers are large, and the 
colour new and striking.—A Devonian.” 
I think “ Devonian ” sent me a plan of his geometric 
flower-garden, on which I cannot lay my hands jus\ 
now, hut I well recollect the favourable impression it 
made on me at the time, and I know the shapes and 
sizes of most of his beds from memory. That it would 
be a most desirable point gained to get a sufficient 
number of hardy plants to keep a garden in bloom all 
the season, no one will deny. Many more correspondents 
have suggested the same plan, but unfortunately it can¬ 
not be done successfully; and before I reply to any of 
“ Devonian’s” questions, I shall here briefly state a few of 
the reasons why geometric gardens, indeed any garden 
laid out on a regular plan, is not suited for the old 
mixed style of planting. I may also premise that my 
own opinion of the fitness of what is called “herbaceous 
plants ” for furnishing a symmetrical flower-garden is so 
well known, that it now seems a dry subject to refer to. 
They do not erect long rows of “ model lodging-houses” 
for members of parliament, because they cannot make 
a tenant for a given house, the house must be^made to 
suit the tenant. 
According to the present fashion, bedding plants are 
lost, or next to lost, if they are not planted in masses; 
and if we had only one bed, -would it be better to have 
it filled with {Scarlet Geraniums, or with Calceolarias, 
Verbenas, Ac., or be planted in the mixed style, with 
| herbaceous plants, some of which would be in flower 
I from March to October ? Surely the mixed style would 
be the best here, as producing variety. Now, instead of 
one bed, a hundred beds might be so scattered over a 
given surface, as that none of them would appear as 
| being part of a plan ; eveiy bed would be, like the tub, 
j on its own bottom, without any reference to the other I 
ninety-nine. Here, again, the mixtures, and the clump¬ 
ing, or massing way of filling the beds might be adopted 
without any great violence to taste or prejudice; and this 
is by far the cheapest style of gardening. The display 
of flowers might also be very gay, but it could not be 
striking after what we have been accustomed to with 
“ bedding plants.” But this bed mode of planting her¬ 
baceous plants is not by any means the best, it is only 
a compromise between taste and the purse. Borders, 
and the outsides of clumps, for choice shrubs, are the I 
true positions for herbaceous plants. The moment you ! 
arrange two beds, or any number of beds, on any given 
principle, as in a geometric figure, the style of the 
design is higher in degree, and, therefore, we maintain 
that the mode of planting should also be of a higher 
style to correspond. Without insisting on particular 
tastes, and without reference to the nature of the grounds, 
for a flower-garden, the true geometric is the highest 
style of the art of laying-out flower-gardens; that is, 
where the ground is suitable, and the owner is not 
averse to that particular style; therefore, if that be so, 
the very highest style of planting should be aimed at 
for geometric gardens. It is quite true, that fashion is 
an arbitrary law; but this law being the fashion of the 
present day, those who desire to be in the fashion, and 
to keep within the letter of the law, must plant geome¬ 
tric gardens; and all other gardens, which are laid out 
symmetrically, in the “ bedding style.” 
Again, there are as many degrees of excellence in 
laying-out and planting a geometric figure as there are 
in any other designs; then the highest degree of the 
geometric style is that in which suitable beds or spaces 
are laid down for all the colours, and the due quantity of 
each colour, and also for the different sizes of the plants 
that are to be used in making out the composition or 
picture, and from this most and all-important rule there 
are no exceptions. Hence it follows that an artist, or 
designer, may be at the head of his particular calling, 
but unless he is well acquainted with all the suitable 
plants used for bedding at the period he works, he may 
not be able to put three beds together without making 
«, blunder; and, if a faulty design is once laid down, the 
mixed style of herbaceous plants is the safest way of 
planting, because the glaring faults in the design are 
more easily hid that way than by the true bedding-out 
in masses. Of course, all this is only known in “ the ! 
craft;” but it is so far unfortunate, that after having a j 
perfect figure laid down one should be obliged to plant 
it so that even a designer might think the planting was 
as much intended for hiding faults, as for giving the 
charms of a flower-garden. So that it comes to this at | 
last, if one chooses to despise the fashion of the day, in 
this particular, and set the law at nought, he may still 
be as open to public criticism as he who attempted to 
follow the herd and lost his way among the bushes, j 
Still, there is this consolation, that all public writers of 
the present day despise public criticism on private con- , 
cerns, private tastes, and private individuals, as such, j 
and whoever wants the assistance of The Cottage j 
Gardf.nf.p, to carry out privately any notions round j 
about the garden, shall have it without reference to this 
or that rule or fashion. The Cottage Gardener goes 
farther, and says that every one has a perfect right to 
follow out his own views in his own way, provided 
always that lie does not insist on others doing as he is 
doing. 
The first question on “ Devonian’s” list, is—Will the 
common Holly-leaved Berberry (Berheris aquifolium) 
bear the knife to keep it low as an edging plant, and 
flower? I have used it that way, and found it to 
answer perfectly well. The time for pruning it for that j 
purpose is early in May, just as it is going out of flower. ; 
The strongest shoots are to be cut back to the height ' 
required, after that it shoots out laterally, making a 
