January 8. 
COQNTEY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
255 
ancient art of mixed planting; neither, as I have said 
alreadj", do 1 know of a hook to which to refer to for 
instruction superior to that which was old and stationarj' 
wlieii I was a boy, 
I'liat tlio cream of the present race of plants with 
which mixed borders are filled up has been introduced 
to our hand since that time, is true enough; but that 
does not alter the case one inch, as the style of planting 
them has not improved. There must have been some 
progress, however, and, in some places, a thorough re¬ 
vision of this sy.stem of planting, although we have no 
])articular account of it, nor I tlie good fortune to have 
seen any such, till the otiier day; therefore, if for no 
other reason, would it not he worth “the while” of any 
young gardener, or amateur, who may know of any 
improved steps that have been taken in the mixed 
system, to give us a full and particular account thereof, 
in order to be able to say, that “ I taught Mr. Beaton 
to plant that way ; or I helped to clear his brains on 
that, or those points, about which he seems, now, so 
fond of writing.” But, mark me! the bird is too 
old to be caught with chaff. The information sought 
for must be as sterling as our currency; the art of 
teaching a grandmother will not do for a man at my 
time of life, with my past experience, and my present 
thirst for sound practical information. Mr. Applehy, 
and .Mr. Fergusou, and all such nurserymen as go about 
the country for orders and money matters, with their 
eyes open, must know more of the progress of the art, 
in any direction, than the rest of us; from each of them, 
therefore, let us expect a chapter on the subject. MTiat 
is “ Upwards and Onwards” doing now? Has he never 
seen a mixed bed planted differently from tlie old type? 
But what I should like to see, more particularly, is 
fresh blood altogether getting into the fast current of 
writing about new ideas and old thoughts and practices, 
! and that more particularly from young gardeners. All 
Mr. Appleby’s advice will go for nothing, in the eyes of 
country gentlemen and fashionable ladies, if they cannot 
express themselves in writing with ease and common 
sense. A man may be clever enough to force Cucumbers 
out of a stone wall, but if he cannot write a plain, 
: sensible letter to his employer, when the latter is from 
I home, that employer will take him to be as stupid in 
, everything else as in his first letter; and there is no 
J “ Letter-w'i'iter,” or college either, from which they could 
learn so easily how to write out their ideas, or describe a 
: thing, as by writing occasionally to some magazine, or 
! book, like The Cottage Gardener. Hundreds of first- 
i rate gardeners take in The Cottage Gardener solely 
‘ for their sons and for the young men about the garden. 
Now, if i had a son for whom I took in '.riiE Cottage 
Gardener, the first thing I would do, would be to make 
him write out his ideas about anything he read in it 
which particularly struck him at the time. The moment 
he had read an article, or a whole number, would be the 
best time for him to write out what he thought of it. 
The effects of this maiden effort are not complete, 
however, till the effort itself has passed the ordeal of 
tlie Editor’s office, and appeared next week in “ our 
pages;” but from that day the young man is on his 
legs. The milky way is belore him, and, at last, a fixed 
star appears in “ our system” to guide the planters and 
purveyors for the rising generation. 
Meantime, allow me to point out the alterations, or 
improvements, I would make on the model border 
which was descrihed last week. I cannot see that the 
first row could be much improved, unless it were by 
having a plant of Ranunculus amplexicaulis at regular 
distances in the row, say four feet apart, and that to 
stand between the single and double Snowdrop, not 
next to the Do<j s-tooth Violet, which would not show 
the difference of the leaves so well when all the plants 
were not in flower. The Snowdrops would be out of 
bloom by the time this IdanuncMlus would be coming j 
iu — early in March — and tlie Ranunculus would can y i 
on the bloom, in patches, to the time of the flowering j 
of the Dog’s-tooth \'iolct iu April. j 
Tlie next row, wdiich is planted w'ith Crocuses, cannot i 
ho improved upon by mixing any other bulb or jdant 
along witli it; at least, 1 think so ; hut it requires a great 
deal of consideration to plant a full row' of Crocuses to 
the best advantage. You might think nothing is easier; 
but without making notes during one season of flowering 
a large collection of them, 1 question if five gardeners 
could be found equal to the task. I do not know exactly 
how many kinds of Crocuses one could buy to plant 
I such a row'; but to make any show at all', the least 
! number should not be under tw'elve or fifteen kinds. 
J ^Ye must keep to the character of the mixed system, 
' although we are attempting to bring out that of the 
j massing, or bedding style; and I am quite certain, that 
I the nearer W'e come to the latter, the better and the 
! more permanent will bo the effect; but w'e should not 
j shrink from the difficulty of arranging together many 
I kinds of one family, like that of Crocus, in order to 
I make a fine display for a shorter period, at the expense 
I of poverty for a longer time to come. Blue, white, and 
I yellow, and their shades, are all that can be made out of 
' Crocusesbut on the average of seasons, some of each 
of the principal colours open their flow'ers in February, 
; some follow them in March, and many not till April. 
I Then, if w’e do not represent and embrace these three 
periods at exactly regular distances along the whole row, 
I our planting is not a single step iu advance of what 
, the style was thirty years ago. In a mixed line, or row, 
i a blue Crocus should not stand next to a yellow one, as 
' we have so many white, pale white, light and deeply- 
I streaked white ones to dispose of. The deepest blue, 
: which is a bluish-purple, would “carry” the purest 
! whites, that is, the clearest white, and the next clearest- 
I streaky white should stand on each side of the deepest 
: blue, and betw'een it and the lightest yellow. The light 
; blue w'ould carry the heavy lilac, or purple-streaked ; 
I white between it and the deepest yellow, which seems j 
easy enough ; but, then, which are the kinds that are 
thus the hiost marked,'and which of them for the three 
! periods of Fehruary, March, and April? Here is a 
difficulty which few can get over this season; and take 
my word for it, there are not five men in England who 
can plant this row properly with twenty-five kinds of 
Crocuses, or with twenty, or with twelve. The lower the 
; number of kinds, the easier to dispose of them, of 
I course; hut say five-and-twenty kinds, and that the 
' row is 500 yards long, that you want every yard to have 
^ its own full share of colours, properly pdaoed, for the 
j period of three months, or nearly so. Not that all the 
■ plants iu one yard should be in bloom by the 1st of 
March, the next yard to be coming in bloom by the 
1st of April, and so on with each succeeding yard, or 
colour, which would be hap hazard, or a return to olden 
times. Then, if there is one gardener in one thousand 
iu this country who can plant this single row of Crocuses 
I properly, I do not think that I ever heard his name. 
I Hero is an admission, at the planting of the second 
I row of a mixed border, which should make gardeners’ 
j sons prick up their ears, and fix their gaze on that 
quarter whence the fixed star for future guidance is 
1 expected to rise, or to be discovered for the first time, 
j The third row is of Polyanthuses and Auriculas; two 
I of the former and one of the latter all the way, tfom end 
j to end. Is that a better way than to have the two kinds 
I alternately? Or, is it better to have the two as they 
1 stand in the model border, or to place some other kinds 
i of plants along with them, but only such as are very nearly 
I of the same habits and time of flowering as the Folyan- 
i thus can be admitted? How many of such plants can 
! we procure, and what are their names? Look to the 
