846 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
February 8. 
I 
liis excellent papers last year, advising friends to label or 
number their plants in the borders as they come into 
flower, &c., for the sake of knowing whore they are at the 
proper time to re-arrange them in the borders. This is 
very important, and what we at all times attend to. 
Now, last March, we re-airanged a favourite little border 
in the following manner:—It is a border situated by the 
side, and the whole length of a south terrace-walk. The 
walk is twelve feet wide, with a grass verge, one foot-and-a- 
half wide, separating the walk from the border. The border 
is three feet-and-a-half wide, and at the foot of a brick-wall, 
eleven feet higli, which is covered with flowering slirubs, 
and other climbing plants. This wall and border are from 
seventy to eighty yards in length, and have been crowded 
witli flowers for the last twenty years, and at most seasons 
of the year something or other could be seen in dower 
either in the border, or on the wall, or both. The 
border was filled many years ago with hardy border-plants, 
in three rows, about two-feet-aud-a-half from plant to plant 
in the row, and none were placed there that grew very tall. 
That is, we had nothing that was more than about from 
two feet to two-feet-and-half in height, at the most; of 
course, these were in tlie back row. The next row was still 
dwarfer, from one foot to one and-a-half high, and the front 
row principally of bulbous kinds. The three rows of plants i 
were always kept in compact snug bunches, and precisely i 
alternate with each other in the rows, that is, in the (quin¬ 
cunx-form, and all labelled. In the summer, abundance of : 
other bedding plants were inti'oduced as intermediates to . 
the permanent arrangements ; something of all sorts, so as j 
to be as various as a regular mixed border could well be, ' 
but still avoiding any that were tall, so as not to obstruct 
the. light to the wall. As I said before, it was thought well 
to alter the preceding arrangement, and in the month of 
March we set about it, taking up every plant, and working 
up the border well, adding a little well-rotted manure ; not 
that we needed much in this way, as the border gets well 
manured by a top-dressing of old hotbed manure every winter. 
This serves as a protection to many of the plants upon the 
wall. Comfort is comfort to a man when he is going out of 
a cold winter’s evening, to put on a great coat and an extra 
cravat round his neck, and so it is with these plants under 
our waU, to have a good top coat of this good old manure 
packed up well round their collars, or the base of their 
stems, and over their roots too. 
Having the border ready to receive the plants, a line was 
set down at one foot-and-a-half from the wall, length-ways, 
and the plants selected and planted three feet apart in the | 
row. This done, the line was brought forward one foot, | 
and the second row of dwarfer kinds pdanted, both rows in ! 
front of the line, of course, and precisely alternate with each 
other, and thus confining the border to two rows of perma¬ 
nent plants. These were all labelled, as usual, and very nice 
the border looked, and so it does at this time. In this front 
row we have introduced, every now and then, a bunch of 
Crocus, indeed, all the bulbs at certain distances, for the 
purpose of introducing the summer plants of a certain kind 
and colour in the same line, in the place of those bulbs, as 
will be seen hereafter. The reason why we planted our 
permanent plants three feet apart in the row, and confined 
tliem to two rows only, is to bo the more regular and com¬ 
plete when introducing a summer plant between every two 
permanent plants, from end to end of the border, without 
injuring these; and should there be any chance of this, the 
watchful eye can soon see, and soon cut away anything that 
is intruding. 
.\ny number of Iciiids of plants may be employed as the 
pmmer intermediates in this still mixed border; but this 
is not our plan. We use three colours, and intend so to do 
as yet. The back row of summer plants, from end to end, 
is of tbe Crelestiiia ngeraioirlcs, light blue; the front row of 
summer pihints is of Scarlet Geraniums, of the Tom Thumb 
variety, except where bulbs stand as the permanent plants; 
here a Yellow Calceolaria, Calceolaria riajosa, is let in with 
care with a small trowel, so as not to injure or disturb the 
bulbs. I must add, that I never saw a mixed boi'dcr to 
jdease better than this did last season, and so said many 
others who saw it. Of course no label is ivMjiured to the 
summer plants. 
I have omitted to say, that there is a bed of the Mexican 
Tiger flower, Tlyridia jiavonia, in the centre of this long . 
border, and it does not seem at all out of place. This bed 
is about four yards long. The Tiyridias are taken up every 
three years, and the bed well worked-up, and a little new 
soil added, such as comes from the old melon bed, and 
a little sand with it. The bed being ready to plant, a ‘ 
drill is chopped with the spade six or seven inches 
deep, and the strongest bulbs planted as thick as i 
they can well stand by each other in the drill; this done, ' 
the drill is filled up, and .so on in three drills length- , 
ways of the border; and nothing can possibly dower more 
freely, or do better. They are taken up about the middle 
of March, when their time is to be replanted. The bed , 
is top-dressed, and more carefully in severe winters. ! 
The hardy herbaceous perennial plants that are planted 
in this border are not very choice, the situation being very 
hot at times ; indeed, too hot for many others of our choicer 
kinds to do well; therefore, we have to suit the idauts to 
the border. We have, in most cases, only one specimen of 
a kind; in others, two of a kind. AVhen two of one kind 
are jdauted, they are qdaced at certain distances aqiart, so as 
to look uniform. The following is a list of the permanent 
hardy plants, in the order they stand in the border :— 
BACK ROW. 
Dracocephalum Virginiacum. 
Dianthus Garnerianus. 
Erigeron Fhiladelphicuui. 
Clirysocoma Linosyris. 
Geranium Ibiricum. 
,, striatum. 
,, sylvaticum. 
,, Phocum. 
Geum Chilense. 
,, ,, grandiflora. 
Inula glandulosa. 
Rudbeckia hirta. 
Melittis grandiflora. 
Mimulus cardinalis superba. 
Jlelissa grandiflora. 
Phlox suaveolens. 
,, maculata. 
,, odorata. 
,, speciosissimum rubrum, 
,, delicata. 
Polcmonium coeruleum. 
Achillea rosea, or asplenifolia. 
Anemone japonica. 
Aster lievis. 
,, amclloides. 
Astrantia maxima. 
Betonica grandiflora. 
Centaurea montana. 
Crucianella stylosa. 
Campanula persicifolia pleno alba. 
,, ,, ,, rubra. 
azurca. 
,, grandis. 
Symphytum Bohcmicum. 
.Solidago (a pretty dwarf kind). 
Veronica maritima. 
,, Candida. 
,, lacincata. 
,, clegans. 
I.ychnis viscaria. 
Malva l.ateritia. 
Trollius Asiaticus. 
FRONT ROW. 
Primula auricula, vur, hortensis. 
,, vulgaris pleno alba. 
,, ,, ,, lilacina. 
Potentilla Tongueii. 
Pulmonaria Virginica. 
,, oflicinahs. 
' Pancratium Illyrieum. 
Smilacina bifolia. 
■ Pentstemon spicatum, or proccras. 
I Scilla prtecox. 
' Saxifraga umbrosa. 
i Silene Shaftii. 
! Sempervivum montanum. 
j Sedum Aizoon. 
I Veronica pallida. 
I ,, gentianoidcs. 
I Omphalodes verna. 
1 Gtnothera prostrata. 
I Cheiranthus alpinus. 
Crocus vernus. 
i Iris pumila. 
i Erythronium dcns-canis. 
! Eranthis hyemalls. 
I Helleborus niger. 
I Francoa appendicula. 
I Fritillaria alba. 
I Geranium sanguincum. 
Galanthus nivalis pleno. 
Lithospermum ))urpurco cterulcum 
Muscari racemosum. 
,, monstrosum. 
Orobus vernus. 
Prunella Pensylvanica. 
Narcissus bulbocodium. 
,, minor. 
,, ajax. 
Ificlytra formosa. 
Corydalis bulbosa. 
Anemone sylvestris. 
,, Apennina. 
Ar.abis Alpina grandiflora. 
,, ,, variegata. 
Aubrietia purpurea. 
Campanula Carpatica. 
,, pumila. 
,, pulla. 
The two ends of this border, for three or four yards, are 
shaded and gloomy, suiting the J’rimulas, the Anemone, 
-tpennina, Saxifraga, Corydiiles, and Diclytra in the front 
row, and the Trollius and some others in the back row. 
Of course, any phmt that is a spreader at root is taken 
up and replanted yearly, so as to keep snug compact ! 
bunches. | 
The following is a list of the plants trained against the | 
wall:— 
Cydonia Japonica. 
„ ,, alba. 
Jasminum officinale. 
,, revolutum. 
,, nudiflorum. 
Edwardsia grandiflora, a very line plant. 
Spirtea Eindleyana. 
Forsytliia viridissima. 
Clianthus puniceus, turned out here last spring, and is now very full 
of bloom. Whether we can save it here has to be proved. 
Garrya cliptica. 
