130 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 14. 
THE PRIORY FLOWER-GARDEN, ARGYLESHIRE. 
“ Having some time ago lost my gardener, without the 
immediate prospect of replacing him, I am obliged to take 
the management of my own garden, and shall be very glad 
of some hints regarding the planting of a parterre, which I 
have under the sitting-room window. I send yon the plan 
of the garden, which I endeavour always to arrange so as to 
have it full for several months in the year; but I find it 
difficult to arrange it, as in this climate, which is mild and 
wet, being on an arm of the sea, with little frost or snow, 
but exposed to frequent storms, the Inter spring and 
summer flowers are not over before the greenhouse plants 
are ready to turn out, and these, if put out before the end of 
May, though they do well that month, are apt to run to leaf in 
autumn, iustead of blowing a second time. The early bulbs, 
such as Crocuses, are as early as in England. I have had 
edgings of these bulbs, but they are apt to come up thinly 
and irregularly, and to be eaten by mice under ground; 
would you recommend me to plant tufts of them in each 
corner of the beds ? Do you approve of an upright ever¬ 
green shrub in the middle of the beds ? and would plunging 
pots of some flowers, instead of turning them out, prevent 
their growing so luxuriantly ? 
“ Geraniums, Salvias, Verbenas, Heliotropes, Petunias, 
Calceolarias, all do well here, out of-doors, until the end of 
October; and Fuchsias, the Bicartonii, and Hydrangeas, 
grow to a very large size, with scarcely any protection in 
winter, and all the American shrubs thrive admirably.— 
A Lady.” 
1 & 5 Scarlet Geraniums. 
2 & 4 Blue Salvias, pegged down. 
3 Pink Variegated-leaved Geraniums. 
0 White Ivy-leaved do. 
7 & 10 Heliotrope. 
8 V 15 Petunias and Heartsease. 
9 & 18 Calceolaria amplexicaulis and 
Integrifolia. 
10 & 17 CEnotliera Missouriensis, and 
Linum flavum. 
11 & 12 Convolvulus minor, 2 shades. 
13 & 14 Scarlet Verbenas. 
11 & 21 Verbenas, of sorts. 
[Your garden is very pretty indeed, and we have engraved 
the geometric parts, without the out-lying shrub-beds, &c. 
Irish Yews, not higher than your eye, when you sit in the 
drawing-room, would not be objectionable in the beds of the 
squares immediately below the terrace; but none to be in 
j 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and C. But you have better places than the 
beds for upright evergreens, in the middle of the half-circle 
entrances, which we have marked with crosses. The only way 
of overcoming the over-luxuriance of the plants, from climate, 
in the autumn, is to have the beds shallow, ten inches to a 
foot, and the six bottom inches of that to be of the poorest 
materials; or else to plunge the plants in their pots ; also, by 
using very old Geranium plants, whose tops and roots have 
ney Roses, and the garden is 
bounded next the smi by a belt of 
Rhododendrons and Fuchsias; a 
covered walk of pillar Roses, 
planted, according to the recom¬ 
mendation in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, with three Roses, a climber, 
a standard, and a dwarf to each 
pillar, leads to a fruit garden, which 
is surrounded by a border of mixed 
flowers, including Hollyhocks, 
Dahlias, and standard Roses. 
been so stumped for six or seven years, as that they go 
easily into a 32-sized pots. We prefer Crocuses in distinct 
patches, or in beds. The reason of your edgings of Crocus 
going off so, is not so much from soil, climate, and mice, as 
from your own hands; after they go out of flower, their 
leaves grow so much as to annoy you by covering other 
things, then the Rob Roy spirit comes on you, or rather that 
of Helen Mncgregor, and you cut their heads off! Poor 
Crocuses get often thus served, and in time they get thin 
and irregularly patchy. 
You manage the planting of the garden very well indeed, 
as it is so much below the eye ; but the same arrangement 
would not answer so well on the level. The only alteration 
GARDEN AS IT HAS BEEN PLANTED THIS AUTUMN. 
20 & 22 Geraniums, of sorts. 
23 & 24 Rose3, with tall Standards in 
the centre. 
In the eight corners are low standard 
Roses surrounded with dwarf 
Annuals such as Mesembryantlie- 
mum tricolor, Portulaccas, Nemo- 
philas, Sedum azureum, Double 
Nasturtium, &c. 
There is a wicker border under the 
low terrace, the wall of which is 
covered with Noisette and Macart- 
