0 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. October 6. 
outline as the old ones with the Cypresses in their 
centre, hut they are made so much more dignified by 
having rich edgings ot' dressed stonework. This edging 
is one step, or five inches high, above the gravel, and 
eight or nine inches wide on the top; the bed inside 
this is on a level with the top of the stone. The first 
eighteen inches of the bed is covered with the finest turf 
all round, so that although the whole is on a gravelled 
terrace, these flower-beds may be said to be on grass. 
After the grass comes a band of silver-sand, found in 
the park, six inches wide ; a little walk, in fact, bounded 
by grass-edging on the outer side, and a box-edging 
next the soil and plants. Now, without looking at the 
flowers at all, what with the good colour of the gravel, 
the glare of the Caen stone balustrades all round, the 
iich facings to a succession of terraces, and the whole 
west-front of the house, with the Albert Tower in the 
south-west comer, white and all white, with many other 
flower-beds besides the eight principals, and a row of 
standard myrtles on each side of the centre walk in 
richly-worked stone-boxes, as it were; the whole struck 
me as the richest and most beautiful thing I ever read 
of; for to see such another, no one that has never been 
out of England could do, for there is nothing at all in 
this country to compare it to, much less to put into 
comparison with it. 
This Balcony Garden being now ten feet lower from 
the principal drawing-rooms than the old one, and on 
gravel instead of grass, and also surrounded by so much 
stonework, the planting of it is very different from the 
way I used to plant it. There is not now the same 
necessity for a glare of strong colours, such as large 
masses of Punch, bordered by a white edging, could 
give. At first, the style of planting did not strike me 
as judicious, and for some time I could not understand 
the principle of it. I told this to Lady Middleton, 
with whom I had so often discussed such subjects, and 
her ladyship was so kind as to tell me the whole meaning, 
from first to last; also what alterations she thought 
would improve the design; but as I did not hint to her 
ladyship that I would say anything about the gardens 
in print, and also, that it is not lawful or gentlemanly to 
criticise any garden while it is undergoing alterations, I 
shall not describe the exact manner the beds are planted, 
but confine myself to a critical and historical account of 
the plants in use all over the garden, beginning with 
Bedding Plants. —The last plant that was named 
there in my time, singularly enough, was the very first 
that caught my eye on entering the conservatory terrace 
by the gilded gates, at the east end, and it was the Lady 
Middleton Geranium, in the centre beds of a chain 
pattern, along the bottom of the terrace. This pattern 
is divided into two parts by a fountain, between two 
flights of steps, in the centre of the terrace; the corres¬ 
ponding half of the pattern, on the other side of the 
fountain, is planted with the Cerise Unique Geranium, 
having nearly the same tint as Lady Middleton, but 
with a sickly horse-shoe mark in the leaf, white footstalk 
and peduncle, and a striped back; a very good bedder, 
but requires the centre of the truss to be often relieved 
of dead flowers during wet seasons like this, while Lady 
Middleton stands all weathers. The chain, or ribbon, 
which winds round this pattern, are of three plants this 
season; in my time there were only two—a good blue 
dwarf variety of Lobelia aud the (Enothera prostrata. 
Now, Lobelia ramosoides, the very best of this race, is 
one, and the Mush mimulus, and a yellow Pansey, called 
Malvern, are in the place of the (Enothera. There 
cannot be less than four thousand plants of this new 
Lobelia here this season—a proof of the correctness of 
what The Cottage Gardener always said of it. The 
plant is kept by cuttings, like a Verbena; it has an 
upright, rigid style of growth ; and when a mass of it is 
together, a very dark blue tint is produced. In this 
pattern there are several small circular beds only one 
foot in diameter, only fitted for one specimen plant, and 
no flowers are wanted on it, the blaze all round, and the 
white sand on which the pattern is worked-out, together 
with the light-coloured stonework bounding the terrace, 
want so many green plants to relieve the sight as green 
beds in a close-bedded flower-garden. At first, these 
little beds were filled with three’s and four’s of the small 
close-growing Geranium, called Orossularifolia, or Goose¬ 
berry-leaf, a plant that can be made the most archi¬ 
tectural, or symmetrical, of the genus. By growing 
these plants in warmth, the first winter after 1 left, Mr. 
Davidson got each one large enough to fill one of these 
beds. I never saw anything more cleverly done, or better 
suited for the purpose; and the same plants will last a 
dozen years, at least. 
There is another Geranium near this pattern, called 
Liliputian. It looks like Tom Thumb, but by using 
spring-struck cuttings of it, the very smallest bed, in a 
close, intricate pattern, may be made with it, as then it 
will only rise a few inches high. A delicate, purplish- 
pink, seedling Geranium of mine matches Liliputian 
to a hair, the name of it is Caroline; but I fear it is not 
in the trade yet, although seven or eight years old. It 
was called after Lady Caroline Courtney, who admired 
it above all the seedlings in the place. Queen of May 
Geranium is to be discarded here, except as a green 
plant for neutral beds. There is an excellent new 
variety here, of the old variegated Scarlet Geranium, 
with crimson flowers, and a softer leaf than the old one. 
Whether it will answer for the shot-silk bed has not yet 
been proved; but at a venture, I would suggest, equal 
quantities of it and the old one as better than either, 
with the Verbena venosa, for that style of mixture. There 
is also a very strong-growing Geranium, of the Noserjay 
breed, with crimson or dark scarlet flowers, called Mrs. 
Vernon, a lady who is famed for her taste in flowers and 
flower-beds. This will match with the Salmon Geranium 
in size and growth. This makes the fourth Nosegay. 
Another good bedder of the fancy class, after the Jehu 
breed, but very dwarf, is called Sir William Middleton. 
I never said much about this seedling as a bedder, which 
is one of my raising, as I only flowered it one season. 
Mr. Fleming told me it was the best of that class at 
Trentliam ; and I saw beds of it here, at Shrubland Park, 
doing remarkably well for a fancy, and it is one of the 
favourites. All the bedders of this class which I used 
to write about from this place are still kept up, and a 
few more added to them. Diadematum rubescens, and 
regium, with Lady Mary Fox, are the best of them. 
One called Ignescem, in the way of Quercifolium, is the 
best of the strangers to me. A lilac Unique did not 
strike me as particularly good, but I saw a trailing 
variety of oak-leaf, and of the Capitata section, with 
deep lilac flowers, and a large dark blotch in the middle 
of the leaf, which is the best rock-plant among all the 
Geraniums, and, if it would seed, a regular treasure, to 
work out more varieties in the style of Unique. Why 
should we not have a true Unique or Capitata in every 
tint peculiar to the family? The best white-flowered 
Geranium, of the scarlet breed, is Hendersonii, a horse¬ 
shoe leaf, and strong habit. My Shrubland Cream 
and Tricolor, with Boul de Niege, they grow in pots for 
the conservatory only. They also keep pots of Cherry 
Cheeli, Salmon, Compaction, Nosegay, Punch, Tom 
Thumb, Shrubland Queen —one of the best pot ones— 
Cerise, Unique, aud a few others, for coming into the 
conservatory late in the autumn. All these, on Harry 
Moore's plan of never shaking off the old soil, answer 
the purpose with little trouble, and come in very useful 
when flowers are scarce. They propagate all the bedding 
Geraniums in the open soil, in temporary cold-pits, from 
which they are potted before the frost comes, and they 
find autumn-struck cuttings of (Enothera prostrata, 
