September 18 .] 
383 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
fanciful walls after his own craft, against which he 
would consider it madness in any one to attempt any 
floral decorations, we used to have geraniums, petunias, 
and verbenas trained against the old terrace walls, which 
averaged from five to seven feet in height. They looked 
better than those in the beds, and of all the plants I 
ever saw trained that way—with the exception of IIa- 
brothamnus fascicidatus, the then new petunia— Shrub- 
land rose was the most beautiful, and for three years 
running I never knew a party pass through the garden 
without standing in front of that plant; but at last I 
found it necessary to do away with it, because no one 
would look at the beautiful beds of it in other parts of 
the ground after seeing the one against the wall, and 
I was then very desirous to get it out, as a good bedder, 
all over the country, in opposition to the stupid, flippy- 
flappy sorts of seedlings with which the florists had well 
nigh choaked us, and to this day a better bedding 
petunia of that colour has not appeared. One may see 
it now at the Royal Gardens at Kew, and all the other 
public gardens about London, as a standing dish, and 
so also uuth the large white petunia, which I first sent 
to London; but white petunias are too common-looking 
for a wall. 
Then, as to Fuchsias: after testing them for five 
or six years against these walls, I am convinced that 
there is no other mode half so good for making the best 
of them, also ; and now I can hardly reconcile myself to 
the best bed of fuchsias in the country; though the white 
varieties of fuchsias, as far as I could make out, are not 
much improved in looks against bricks, either red or 
white. After these, all the best scarlet and pink ver¬ 
benas are the next class of plants that I should pride 
myself in being the means of getting introduced as 
training plants against low and cheap-made fences, to 
be secured from frosts, and go on growing from year to 
year. 
Now I hope all this will suffice to convince the reader 
that the thing is not a fanciful theory, but founded on 
actual practice, and a good deal of consideration, to¬ 
gether with the opinions of hundreds who had seen all 
this. We have now four families of the most popular 
flower-garden plants to choose from, and it will be 
strange if we do not raise a spirit through the country 
which will not rest at ease until a fair trial is given to 
my hohby. There is a fifth family, the shrubby cal¬ 
ceolaria, which I am quite sure would pay, well treated 
after the same manner, but not having tried them with 
my own hands that way, I shall not urge their merits 
too confidently. I recollect, many years since, having 
seen a very fine specimen of the Calceolaria viscosis- 
sima trained against a wall, in the Botanic Garden at 
Birmingham, and I believe the plant made its first ap¬ 
pearance in that garden with my much valued friend, 
Mr. Cameron, the late Curator. If we admit the 
Calceolaria, among our trainers, this viscosissima must 
be the first of them to plant, and the next bicolor ,— 
not the bicolors of the florists, for they have made 
a mess of them, by running them all into one strain, 
but the true wild bicolor of botanists. The third best 
is an English seedling, called Corymbosa, the best of 
all for very large beds, and, perhaps, the second best 
for a wall, but that is a matter of taste; the fourth 
would probably be the Kentish Hero, and this perhaps 
the very first with some. Those who have only seen 
this Calceolaria in beds, and not much higher than two 
feet or so, may doubt the possibility of getting it up 
to seven or eight feet high, but if the Ibrahim Pacha 
Geranium can be got up to five or six feet in two or 
three years, which I know it can, for I have seen it so, 
i surely it will not be thought beyond our art and mystery 
, to get up the Kentish Hero to ten feet, if needs be; but 
i seven feet is the highest point I would aim at with any 
I of those I have named, indeed, I do not think they 
would look any the better for being farther from the 
eye; besides, my plan contemplates the border for all 
these things to be raised one foot above the surrounding 
surface, and that helps them away from the eye. Now, 
if I could suppose that one reader out of the forty thou¬ 
sand who peruse this Cottage Gardener, would object 
to seeing any of the families treated as I propose, I 
would cancel the whole story at once, and yet I would 
have a six or seven feet high wall or fence, and a raised 
border, and plant the whole with a selection of tea- 
scented roses, and nothing else, and over them a glass 
covering, after the manner of Mr. Rivers’ orchard houses. 
Here, then, I am on a level ground with Mr. Rivers at 
last, and I must say that his pamphlet on these orchard 
houses is the best idea on gardening in my time— 
of course, this idea of mine is the next best, and if 
I do but succeed with it half so well as he has already 
done, I shall be satisfied; although it is very likely 
he will not thank me for this letter, for it is ten 
to one if he is not now engaged on another pamphlet 
about rose-houses, and if so, my rose walls and borders 
will beat him out-and-out, for I would clear away all 
the glass, or other covering, by the end of May, and 
put them by till the end of October; then summer 
visitors would be put off the scent, as to the mode by 
which I had succeeded in managing the Tea-roses, better 
than all the gardeners put together. Geraniums, Petu¬ 
nias, Fuchsias, Verbenas, Calceolarias, and Tea-scented 
Roses, without anything besides, would make a very gay 
scene all the season through ; and when they come to be 
established pennanently on a low wall, few can form an 
idea, now, of the character they would assume after two 
or three years of growth in a good and suitable border. 
The whole of them, fortunately, will succeed in the same 
kind of soil, or border, only that the Tea-roses would 
need more dung, or, at least, some dung, for I would 
allow no dung for the other plants, if I could get a good 
light turfy loam, with a sixth part of rotten leaves. 
Indeed, Mr. Emugton would be my guide in this part 
of the plan: such a border as he would make for a house 
of Muscat grapes would be the very thing for the new 
borders, drainage and all ; every one of our readers 
knows liis depth and compost, and that will do for me. 
Four feet is my width for the border, but it may be a 
little more or less, according to circumstances; and, un¬ 
less the bottom is naturally very dry, such as over chalk, 
gravel, or very sandy soil, the surface ought to be a foot 
or so above the general level; and for an edging to keep 
up the soil, slate is the best and cheapest in the long 
run; but any wood that will stand the weather would 
do, painted stone-colour, and dusted with white sand 
while the paint was wet—this would look like a stone 
border. Then, to cover the border, we must borrow a 
leaf out of Mr. Rivers’ book on orchard-houses ; but 
there will be no cause for borrowing it, for I believe 
every one wbo loves a garden has read it already, and 
that saves mo some writing. Any one who has seen a 
cold pit covered will be at no loss to know how this part 
is managed : the back of a cold pit represents my walls; 
the inside of the pit answers for the border; rafters and 
lights in the usual way will do, with or without a little 
glass in the upright front. For the last eight winters I 
have kept from ten to twelve thousand geraniums safe 
from frost in cold pits, without a particle of artificial 
heat, or any means of applying it; but I am quite cer¬ 
tain that a double row of two-inch pipes along the front 
of the pits, and a little common back-house boiler at one 
end, would be a great deal the cheapest, and that is the 
way I would serve these new walls and borders—the 
pipes and boiler would be removeable of course. 
D. Beaton. 
