384 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 10. 
I 
The flower-garden is the principal thing; and, with 
limited space, everything else must tend to its adorn¬ 
ment. Second, there is the 'practice of having the prin¬ 
cipal rooms in the mansion supplied with plants in pots 
in a flowering state. Every good thing, as it comes into 
bloom, must be conveyed there. Upon the maxim, 
“ everything in its place,” few things could be more mis¬ 
placed than the generality of hard-wooded plants in such 
circumstances. As perfectly suitable would it be to shut 
up a tenderly-reared lady for a week in the humid at¬ 
mosphere of a plant-stove in summer. In towns, the 
very possibility of thus getting within reach of the beau¬ 
ties of the vegetable kingdom will bring an interest of 
its own. In the country, no such necessity exists; and 
if no attempts are made to harmonise the plants with 
the style of the room, anything but gracefulness and 
beauty are the consequence. What can there be in 
harmony, or yet in pleasing contrast, with a great red 
earthen pot, and the chaste furnishing of a lady’s 
boudoir? To remedy this evil, I lately saw pots all 
clothed over with green moss, involving a good deal of 
labour, and yet the effect was anything but satisfac¬ 
tory—a fine inlaid table, with two or three hillocks of 
green moss, surmounted by a mass of bloom !! As I 
have previously shown, a fine effect in such circum¬ 
stances can only be produced by hiding the pots al¬ 
together, and using ornamental vases and baskets of a 
character suitable to the other furniture of the room. 
But even then the intelligent gardener looks upon such 
displays with anything but pleasure. If be attends the 
plants daily himself he may lessen the evil. If the 
lady becomes curator, or enlists a deputy in the shape of 
maid or housekeeper, alas! for the poor plants!! The 
best thing, in such circumstances, is to use soft-wooded 
things, free-flowering, and not easily injured, or whose 
injury is of little consequence. A week, or a fortnight, 
in such places, and under sucli care, will render the 
finest hard-wooded plants fit only for the rubbish-heap, 
or, at least, require a twelve-month of hospital treatment 
to bring them round again. Third, there is the hin¬ 
drance of cut flowers. A gardener, well known to fame, 
along with your humble servant, was examining, not 
long ago, some line specimens at an exhibition. “ Ah,” 
said he, “ these would be of little use to me now. I 
should have to send my knife through them, and cut off 
and pack up every flower-stalk. Specimens are out of 
the question; the most flower in least room is what I 
must aim at. My pots are scarcely ever looked at; 
bloom, and plenty of it, is everything.” Certainly, cut 
flowers, in moderation, give a cheerful character to a 
room, and it is much more easy to arrange them taste¬ 
fully than pots; bur, where in winter and spring vast 
quantities are required, a hindrance is thus presented to 
good specimen growing. 
Now our correspondent’s floral boudoir would tend 
greatly to remove all these, and if adjoining to, and 
forming part of, the mansion, as it ought to do, every 
part and room of the house would or could have its own 
distinctiveness, which it never can have when plants are 
scattered promiscuously over all the principal rooms. 
Few minds can pleasantly and clearly grasp more than 
one set of ideas at the same time. The hotch-potch 
mingling of objects is apt to give us indefinite and 
muddling perceptions; no matter the beauty of the 
objects, let but discord and unfitness appear, and the 
beauty is dashed and gone. The most unlettered see 
and feel this, though they cannot tell you the reason. 
I have seen fine plants on stair-cases, lobbies, entrance- 
halls, and in the recesses of rooms, where no direct ray 
of light could reach them. Could they maintain a 
healthy existence there? Could any one, who knew 
what plants needed, look on them with but feelings of 
pity ? But walk into this boudoir —every plant stands 
erect inviting your inspection. You may walk, sit, 
i 
lounge, knit, read, sing, and, if the ladies are generous, 
as they generally are, the master may whiff his 
cigar in chorus, and tender would the plant be that 
would reproach you with a reproving look. Besides, 
here you may come and go at pleasure. There is 
neither the monotony of staring at a few plants in your 
sitting-room, nor the lassitude and the headaches often 
promoted by their rich perfume when in confined 
apartments. A slight moving of the plants would 
present you every day with a fresh scene. The ability 
to give the plants just what they needed, the seen and 
felt fitness for a defined object, would lend your plants a 
charm which they could never possess when coddled, 
petted, and, as a consequence, ruined in a luxurious 
drawing-room. 
I must now compress by answering the following 
questions briefly. 
First: How can such a boudoir suit different plants 
in bloom, as greenhouse plants, stove plants, and 
orchids? Perfectly well, if due care is exercised. The 
place need never be higher in temperature than a 
common sitting-room, and at night may be much lower. 
What was said lately of the warm conservatory will 
here apply. Plants in bloom in the conservatory, in the 
winter and early spring mouths, will bloom longer and 
better for the extra heat, the greatest difficulty will be 
with hard-wooded plants, such as Heaths and Azaleas 
after April, they will require to be kept in the shadiest 
and airiest part. Stove plants and orchids will just bo 
in their element, and will remain in bloom longer than 
in the house in which it is necessary to grow them ; 
they should have the warmest and closest end, but no 
need to be so close as to be distressing to the visitors. 
Air should be so given as to occasion as little draught 
as possible. Very thin gauze surrounding the house, so 
as to exclude flies, will render the bloom longer lived. 
The same thing, and the comfort of the visitor would 
also be promoted, by shading the roof in summer, or 
covering it with Hartley's patent rough glass. 
Secondly: Will the climbers mentioned for each depart¬ 
ment flourish and bloom well ? Yes, for the greenhouse, 
except Bignonia venusta. The plants would there consist 
of Tecoma, Tacsonia, Mandevilla, Zicliya, and Harden- 
bergia. I would mention, that Tacsonia mollissima is a 
rampant grower; Kennedya Marryatta would be desir¬ 
able ; and so would such Passifloras as Ccerulea, Gce- 
rulea racemosa, and Golvillii. The warm end climbers 
are, Combretum purpureum, Ipomcea Learii, Tacsonia 
manicata, Bignonia picta, Dipladenia crassinoda, Passi- 
flora alata; and to these I may add the Bignonia 
venusta. Will these answer ? Yes, if a sacrifice be 
made; No, if the boudoir character is to be maintained 
during the season. To do the best with Bignonia, Com- 
bretum, and even Dipladenia and Passiflora alata, a 
greater and moister heat will be necessary for six or 
eight weeks in spring, at least, than would suit the place, 
as a storehouse for blooming plants, or a pleasant and 
healthy resort as a lady’s floral boudoir. That interest¬ 
ing character, I think, could be maintained during the 
season by substituting such plants as Passiflora Bil- 
lottii, Passiflora hermesina, Steplianotis floribunda ; and, 
in the coolest part, Rynchospermum jasminoides. 
Thirdly, What is the best neat-leaved evergreen to 
clothe permanently two panels, between the pillars, for 
creepers ? I presume these panels are against a wall ? 
Mention was made of the tloya, &c., last week, but 
second thoughts are often best. For such a position I 
know of nothing superior to Ficus Stipulacea: the leaves 
are small, neat, and as close as a mat. It will soon 
cover and cling to a wall; it will do, but not so well, 
against a trellis; summer and winter it will always be 
green, and beyond a dash of water now and then, 
requires no further trouble. R- Fish. 
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