158 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 1. 
and gravel, and, like all such places most effective in 
massing of colour, are distinguished for the simplicity 
of their outline. The smallest of these delighted me 
most; very likely, because there was something unique 
and uncommon about it. The place lias an irregular 
outline, but the chief part of the plan is regular, 
commencing with an oval in the centre, with four circles 
round it, and the spaces between tilled with four figures 
of unique, rounded sided parallelograms, to chime in 
with the lines of the oval and the circles. The other 
clumps follow each other regularly, until getting into 
the unequal-sided corners, the character of the ground 
gives form to the clump. It was among the first attempts 
I had seen to make the oval the centre of ii group, as 1 
saw this some days before the delivery of The Cottage 
Gardener of the 11th. What delighted me most, how¬ 
ever, was, that in the centre of this oval, and in the 
centre of tho four circles round it, a somewhat shallow 
vase was placed, elevated some four feet or so on a 
pedestal. These vases were to be filled with plants. 
Now, however they were filled, whether of the same 
colour as that of the bed, or of a shaded or contrasted 
colour; and whether these five vases had the colours 
shaded or contrasted with each other, two effects would 
be produced by them thus filled, whether the garden 
was looked upon from tho gravel walks’ level, or from 
the balcony which enabled you to look down upon them ; 
namely, the garden would seemingly be contracted in 
size, and all the colours of the different beds would be 
brought nearer the eye ; and, secondly, these elevated 
vases would be so many points that would break in upon 
the level uniformity of the beds, and thus impart to 
them massiveness and dignity. Let any one fix a 
standard shrub among a bed of low plants, and mark the 
effect on his own perceptions and feelings. 
Rosary.— There is a good lesson to be derived in this 
department, so far as ornament is concerned. As far as 
I recollect, the beds are arranged in a concentric circular 
fashion. The tallest Roses are placed in the centre, 
fastened to poles. As you recede from the centre, the 
Roses became dwarfer, until the dwarf, free-blooming 
kinds occupy the outer ring appropriated to Roses. 
But beyond those there is on outer ring of massive 
beds appropiated to bedding-plants, and to be arranged 
all round, to show the contrasting of colour. This will, 
therefore, always be a beautiful spot, from the Roses 
commencing to bloom, until the frost removes the 
bedding-plants. 1 have seen several attempts, and my 
own among the rest, to combine the beauty of the Rose 
and the interest of bedding-plants in the same place; 
but the result, whether the Roses and soft-wooded plants 
were in the same bed, or in beds immediately contiguous, 
and forming part of the same group, was more or less of 
a failure; chiefly because, by the end of August and 
September the leaves of the Roses will be losing their 
green summer tints, while those of the bedding-plants 
will bo in the highest state of luxuriance. This massive 
ring of beds, and especially with a few summer climbers 
on poles, would so take possession of the eye, that as 
autumn got on there would be little disposition for the 
promenader to wander beyond them, or sustain any 
shock to the unity of expression, by a brown or black¬ 
ened Rose-leaf breaking in unwclcomely on the scene. 
The main range of glass extends for some 350 feet in 
length. In these, in addition to nice, compact specimens 
of plants in the plant houses, three things struck me 
particularly. The first was a peculiar mode of training 
many of the Geraniums. Few of these were in bloom; 
as that was not wanted until somewhat later, many of 
the pots were next to completely concealed by the 
branches, and the foliage seemed as healthy as on those 
l shoots that were permitted to rise in a more upright 
! direction. Each of these plants, when in perfection, 
! must have formed nearly a round ball of bloom. 
Secondly, the crops in the houses were fine and abun¬ 
dant, and the Grapes were beautifully thinned. Many 
readers of this work, and we gardeners, too, err often in 
this respect; there is such a timidity in cutting away 
berries from a bunch. Now, to give you an idea of the 
Nuneham plan. Take a bunch in your hand—your 
greenhouse vines will soon be crying for the scissors— 
in that bunch there is a central stem, or axis, from which 
all round the branches holding the berries radiate and 
diverge. Now, I need not ask you how many berries 
you leave on these branchlets; hut, at Nuneham, it 
struck me as a very general thing that there was only 
oue berry left to each branehlet. No doubt, Mr Bailey 
finds his account in this. Large berries must be pre¬ 
ceded by free thinning. The third thing that struck 
me forcibly was a magnificent Fig-tree , of the brown 
Ischia kind, occupying the whole of the back-wall of a 
house, fifty feet in length, and from twelve to fifteen 
feet in height, and well supplied with fruit from 
top to bottom. There is nothing else of a station 
ary character grown in the house. A temporary 
bed for French Beans, &c., was then in its centre. 
This huge Fig-tree has repeatedly had its roots 
cut clean down, all round, to within two feet of its 
stem, but it was quite luxuriant, and fruitful enough. 
Another thing that struck me forcibly was a row of 
remarkably fine specimens of Humea etegans, that even 
then were receiving something like hot-house treat¬ 
ment. I can well conceive how splendid they would 
look out-of-doors in July. 
Besides the main range of houses, there was a fine 
range of pits and frames, with forward crops of M elons, 
ko. On the north aspect were one or two cool glass 
houses, for retarding plants, and rusticating them a 
little after blooming; and on the samo aspect there 
was frame-work neatly put together, on which canvass 
or cloth might be rolled, to keep all things the least 
tender from the frost, and valuable plants from drench¬ 
ing rains in autumn; a contrivance of great use in 
hardening off plants for the open air. The main 
stock of bedding-plants were hardening off' in wooden 
boxes in a sheltered place, over which a tarpaulin could 
easily be thrown. Though la^t, not the least important, 
is a range of very narrow lean-to houses, to be followed by 
others, for the growth of Peaches, Figs, &c., against the, 
back wall. There is a broad, horizontal shelf, where the 
glass joins the wall plate, and a suspended iron bracket 
affords space for another broad shelf higher up, both 
being quite under the eye, allowing of thorough passage, 
but no waste as to room. These shelves would hold an 
immense number of bedding or other plants in winter, 
and Strawberries, or French Beans in spring. Whether 
such houses, or the upright-front ones at Trentham, will 
ultimately be the most economical and successful', 1 am 
not learned enough in the matter to say. It is high 
time, however, if such seasons as we have had lately are 
likely to continue, that the open wall should be given up 
for our best fruit. This season, previous to the 24lh ult., 
the show of fruit on my own Peach-trees was as thick as 
could be, and the shoots green and healthy. A few days 
afterwards, the shoots were browned and blackened, and 
attacked by pests of insects; and so many fruit have 
already fallen black in the heart from the frost, that, 
independently of injury to the trees, the crop will be 
rather thin. ’These, too, were defended with thin 
Nottingham-thread netting. So severe was the frost, 
that the leaves of the Gooseberry fully exposed to it 
were quite blackened. When some thirty or forty feet 
in length, under glass, yield as much fruit as for the time 
a family knows what to do with, true economy would 
point to the necessity of several small houses, where 
certainty, instead of uncertainty, could be relied on. 
The walks and edgings of the kitchen-garden are as 
well kept as those of the pleasure-ground. The soil is a 
