I 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 8. 
350 
opportunity of seeing this celebrated garden with my 
! own eyes; I did not know Mr. Hayes, nor any one about 
. the palace; I had failed in making my Lord Bishop’s 
acquaintance at Shrubland Park ; and now I never enter 
a garden without some previous acquaintance, or a good 
, introduction. I was fortunate this time in my introduc- 
! tion, and in having found his lordship with a little spare 
time on his hands; a very unusual thing with him 
while Parliament is sitting. I did not make notes, jior 
even intimated that I should mention the place at all in 
black and white, but my reception was so thoroughly of 
the good old English style, and so characteristic of the 
great patrons of our art and calling, that 1 cannot pass 
without saying, that the Bishop of London is just as 
fond of gardening, and of the improvements of the art, 
as ever Bishop Compton could have been; that Mrs. 
Blomfield is as careful and as particular about the 
flower-garden and decorations, outside and in-doors, as 
any lady in the land ; and that Mr. Hayes seems to be 
one of the fixtures of the place, looking now just as 
young as he did twenty years since, when he was so 
lucky as to engage under such kind-hearted patrons; 
peace and good will were stamped on everything I saw 
and heard in this garden. I only wish I could say 
half as much about some other gardens which I could 
[ name. 
The beds in the flower-garden here must have been 
full to overflowing quite six weeks before my visit. I 
never saw beds more full iu July anywhere. I know 
very well that ladies can do wonders in a flower-garden; 
but I know, quite as well, that there are only two modes 
by which flower-beds can be brought up to the right 
standard at once, by the present system of planting 
' them with choice half-hardy plants, and to get at the 
tale is what I have beeu writing for thus far. 
By sowing a selection of annuals from the middle of 
August to the middle or end of September, we have choice 
of a spring crop, at little cost, to fill in between spring- 
flowering bulbs, to flower while the bulbs are ripening 
off their leaves, on the one hand, and for filling up the 
spaces between bedding-plants, to make up for the time 
during which these plants are getting hold of their new 
situation, as it were ; where annuals hold on with little 
loss from the winter, this plan gives greater variety for 
the season with less trouble and expense than that of 
filling the beds at once with Geraniums, Verbenas, 
Calceolarias, and the like. In nine places out of ten, 
you will find, that if all the Geraniums and Calceolarias, 
more particularly, are quite young, that is, from last 
autumn-struck cuttings, one of two things must happen ; 
if you plant such young plants so thick as a bed ought 
to be seen in May, they will not have sufficient room to 
spread themselves so as to show their flowers to the best 
advantage; or, if you allow them the necessary spaces, 
the beds will look cold and naked for a considerable 
time. There are some few places to be met with, however, 
where the situation of the flower-beds is so fortunate for 
the gardener, that his young plants seem never to receive 
a check from turning out, and they soon close on each 
other, flower, and hide every part of the raw-dug earth. 
In such as these, young plants should not be crowded 
at first planting, but in all other situations where plants 
are liable to be affecied by the weather, the rule is to 
have them planted so thick as to look furnished, as we 
say, at once. Then, if it is true, as I maintain it is, 
that young plants do not answer so well for the later 
part of the season if they are planted so thick at first, 
the next plan, and by far the best one, in my opinion, 
is to have recourse to as many old plants as one can 
manage to keep over the winter, and to use the young 
stock for planting all round them. This is exactly how 
they manage to fill the beds so well and so early at 
Fulham Palace, when nine-tenths of the gardens all 
over the country have nearly failed for the first part of 
the season. I did not ask what time they took up their 
bedding-plants; how they were kept through the winter, 
and how iu the spring; nor any of their details, because, 
at the time, I had no idea of making use of such inform¬ 
ation, as I have just said, but I should lose the best 
string in my bow if I were to miss this proof of the 
pudding which I have been cooking for so long a time, 
and mere particularly now, when I cannot appeal to my 
own practice, as in former days. 
Calceolaria rvga and amplexicaulis were the only 
yellow kinds in use here, and Sultan the only coloured 
one, as far as I recollect. Amplexicaulis is generally a 
late bloomer, but it was as full of bloom as it need be 
all the season, and the Sultan was one level canopy of 
bloom, over dwarf, bushy plauts set quite close together. 
A bed of Salvia patens, looking as if of some improved 
variety, more dwarf and stocky than one generally sees 
them, was left out from last year, with a layer of dry 
leaves over them, and some boughs over to keep the 
leaves from blowing about, not one of them was lost, 
although the bed and all the beds here are scarcely 
above high tide mark, and not 300 yards from the 
Thames. Surely, then, this Salvia might be kept out 
in any garden during the winter, and the plants come 
up bushier and stronger every year; they also keep on 
the flowers longer when the roots are thus firmly esta¬ 
blished. A large bed of the double Feverfew ( Pyre- 
thrum parthenium) was the best white mass I ever saw; 
the plants were from twenty inches to two feet high ; 
and iu a large bed of new Verbenas from the Continent, 
were the largest flowers I have seen out-of-doors. The 
best kinds of herbaceous plants are grown by themselves, 
in bed and borders. The new continental Phloxes 
were particularly good, and full of bloom, together with 
a selection of best annuals and hardy Ferns in abun¬ 
dance, for which a rockery was recently made, killiug 
two birds with one stone; shutting out a particular 
view, and forming a naturaLretreat for the best kinds of 
Ferns. Magnolias and all American Plants do re¬ 
markably well here, and grow to large shrubs and trees, 
in the “American Garden,” which is close to one side 
of the Palace, a quadrangular pile; the side of the 
square next the American Garden is entirely covered 
with Ivy up to the roof. I never saw anything done so 
completely for uniting part of a mansion so thoroughly 
with a garden scene. There is no paint or stucco which 
keeps bricks more dry than a good mantle of Ivy like 
this, when it is properly attended to by people who 
understand what they are about. Some people run 
away with the idea, that Ivy makes damp walls, but 
there never was a greater mistake, unless it be the 
foolish notion that Ivy will take care of itself if once it is 
established in good soil. The truth is, however, Ivy 
requires as much attention as the best kept lawn. The 
true way, and the easiest, is to watch for the first 
pushing of growth towards the end of April in each 
year, and then to cut in every leaf and shoot as close as 
the mower would do on the lawn, and to thin out some 
of the younger branches wherever they appear crowded. 
In ten days it is all as green as ever, and ior the rest of 
the season will only need the foreright shoots, or breast- 
wood to be cut in here and there, when any of the 
shoots push out beyond the regular surface of the 
leaves, so that the heaviest rain can never get beyond 
the thick covering of the leaves. 
There is a fine tall plant of Cunninghamia sinensis, 
from the south of China, in this American ground, which 
stood without any protection last winter, and escaped 
unhurt; and in a more open part of the garden, a large 
specimen of a weeping Eucalyptus, from Australia, was 
coming into flower, after passing the winter, with no 
sort of protection ; but a strong plant of Abies Webbiana 
was terribly hurt, and Cupressus funebris suffered con¬ 
siderably. An immenso root-stock of the Coral-tree 
