40 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 20. 
“ It can novel- be affirmed too often, that the first four 
inches of a flower-bed cannot be made too rich, so that 
the plants may take to it at once, and start away as if 
they were forced by bottom-heat; but no sooner than 
they cover the bed than the roots ought to strike down 
into a poor soil, so as to give a sudden check to rampant, 
leafy growth, and throw the whole into flower at once ; 
the lower and more damp the situation, the more is this 
check needed ; but even on the highest and more dry 
situations it is not safe to make the beds of the same 
richness throughout.” 
I have had a good spell at visiting Flower-gardens this 
autumn, the result of which suggested this notice, which 
I would earnestly recommend young amateurs and 
gardeners to copy into their memorandum-books, or at 
the head of their lists of' bedding-plants in the garden 
book, lor I shall take it for granted that no one, now-a- 
days, who keeps, or cultivates, a garden, however small, ( 
is without some garden memorandum-book, in which 
the names ol every plant in the garden is inserted, with j 
blank pages for entering observations on the said plants. I 
When one ol these books is filled, or at the end of every j 
year, the book lor that year ought to be laid by as , 
carefully as il it contained the only record of the property j 
ol the family. Then, when the plans for another year ' 
are being considered, and any doubt is entertained of i 
the value, or suitableness, of this or that plant, or mode 
of going to work , a reference to the old books is more 
to be depended on than the best suggestions of the 
oldest and longest heads. I have proved all that myself 
down to the last chapter in my own experience in 
service. As soon as the time for slipping the collar was 
determined on, and long before my successor was thought 
of, Lady Middleton and I took out the garden books of 
the previous ten years, at least—from them, and from 
our extended experience in the meantime, “ a consulting 
book was made, which has proved to be of some use to 
her ladyship, and a source of great satisfaction to me. 
Therefore, I can appeal to past experience with the 
greater confidence, in urging the adoption of garden 
memorandum-books on all and every one interested in 
the progress of our craft and calling. 
One thing I regret omitting when I was at Shrubland 
J’ark the other day, which is, that I did not ask per¬ 
mission to have a plan of the “Fountain Garden” 
there, taken, to have it engraved for The Cottage Gar- 1 
dener, for two reasons—first, as an example of ex- ( 
ception to the general rule, which I insist on in laying- j 
out a regular figure or flower-garden, when I say, that 
you should not so dispose the walks and beds as that , 
company can walk up straight to the centre, like so 
many ^soldiers abreast, or “following the rest like 
sheep. This fountain Garden is so planted, that the 
design of the planter cannot be understood until you 
leach the centre of it, then the sooner and more easily 
you reach the centre of this garden the sooner you are 
in the position whence you can best study the most 
unyuc and perfect arrangement of flower-garden plants 
m Europe; and, secondly, to diffuse a knowledge of the 
system of planting, according to the heights and shades 
of the principal bedding-plants now in use in this 
country. 
There, was a bed by itself, near the “ Fountain 
Garden, about which I need not, however, be so par¬ 
ticular, as it is done away with, and a more characteristic 
bed, for that situation, now occupies the place of it. 
ihis was the “ Diamond-bed,” a medium-sized bed that 
would make a good bed by itself in any garden where 
it did not interfere with any arrangement near it. A 
diamond-bed may be made a tent-bed, as the one in 
question was in my time, and a comfortable bed it was 
too ; and this is the way to make one like it. Take the 
ace of diamonds for a pattern, and make each side of 
the ace twelve or fifteen feet long, but not just so 
straight as in flic ace of diamonds; let each side 
curve inwards a lew inches in the middle, and that 
is a diamond-bed, which you may plant with Tom 
Thumbs, or any other bedding-plant whatever. It may, 
also, have a border all round of some edging-plant, and 
the thing is complete. To make this into a tent-bed, 
get a straight pole ns thick at the bottom as a giant’s 
wrist, let it taper away to the top, so as to be no thicker 
there than a stout walking-stick; the length of the pole 
should bo the same as the distance across from one 
point of the diamond to another, besides the length that 
goes in the ground. If this pole is painted of a dark 
green it will last the longer, and look all the better. 
Now, fix it very firmly in the very centre of the diamond- 
bed, and fix a smaller and a shorter one in each corner ; 
if the centre pole is just fifteen feet high out of the 
ground, or not less than twelve feet, the corner posts 
should be five feet long out of the grouud ; pass a small 
cord from the top of each of the four corner posts to the 
top of the pole, and let the cords be so slack, that they 
will form a slight festoon in the middle, that is, nearly 
the shape of a military tent, but to give it a bed character, 
run a cord from post to post round the four corners, and 
let it also festoon a little in the centres between the 
posts; let cords, posts, and pole, be clothed with the 
most beautiful climbers you can think of, and then, 
when the bed is in full bloom, with an appropriate 
fringe next the grass or gravel, take my word lor it, 
there was not a better bed at Olmutz for the Emperors 
to rest within. 
A gardener makes more beds than all the housemaids 
of all the emperors in the world, but never a bed more 
like the bed of an emperor than this one, and yet it is 
not finished. In the centre of each of the four festoons 
between the corner posts, drive down a small stake, so 
that there, be just length enough to tie the middle of the 
festoon to it and no more. Maurandyas are as good 
as any to plant against these between stakes—they soon 
get up to the bottom of the festoon cord, and then run 
along right and left. If one had two old Cohceas and 
two old plants of Eccremocarpus to plant against the 
four corner posts, with branches enough to cover the side 
festoons, and the festoons to the top of the centre pole at 
once, how lucky it would be. It is desirable to fasten 
down the side festoons by the stakes with the Mauran¬ 
dyas, else the wind might dash them against the plants 
in the bed, if these were high enough, and that would 
be as bad as disturbing a man in a real tent-bed; while 
the festoons over the bed might play as the wind listed, 
without doing harm to themselves or to any other part 
of the furniture. Two Clematis montana, and two sweet- 
scented Clematis (C. flamula) are among the best hardy 
climbers to plant against the four corner posts. When 
once they were big enough to cover all the cords, they 
could be taken up at the end of every autumn, and 
planted in their places the same day; and this annual 
transplanting would just keep them in the right degree 
of strength that they would not look too heavy, and the 
bed be overdone with furniture. 
The C. montana would give a snow-white covering 
from May till the sweet-scented Clematis was readv to 
put on its equally white but less large flowers; and 
when all was over, the white beards on the seed-pods of 
the latter would still be in the desired tint, and look 
airy and feathery besides. On the approach of winter, 
poles, posts, stakes, and cords, might be taken down, 
and put by in a dry place, and temporary stakes from 
the Dahlias be put up all round the diamond, to tie the 
climbers to till next March or April, or at whatever 
time they began to grow freely. After a hard, close 
pruning, to Jlamula only, for the montana must not be 
pruned much in winter, as it flowers, in May, on the 
long shoots ot last summer (but it should be pruned as 
soon as it was out of flower), these long shoots would 
