September 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
407 
damp, low grounds such things are impossible. Geraniums 
will get just as leafy and gross at Shrubland Park as 
they do elsewhere, if they are planted in deep beds of 
new or very rich soil. I care not how deep the bed is 
made for a Geranium ; I would make the soil poor enough 
to starve a Poppy, on a damp bottom, with only two or 
three inches on the top of very good compost to set them 
off at first planting. D. Beaton. 
STANDARDS IN THE FLOWER-BEDS AT 
COURTEEN HALT, 
A friend has lately informed me, that much as I 
praised the effect of these, in giving apparent space and i 
dignity to flower-beds, that yet, upon the whole, my j 
description did not give an adequate idea ot their 
beauty. As confirmatory of this, and also enabling j 
those who cannot make a personal inspection, owing to 
their distance from the scene, to form, notwithstanding, j 
a correct opinion on the subject, the following measure¬ 
ments were handed to me, as they appeared some 
weeks ago:— 
Cassia corymbosa. —Circumference of stem, three j 
inches; height, from five to six feet; diameter ol head, ; 
four feet, showing forty-three large spikes, or corymbs, j 
ranging from a foot and upwards in length, the lower 
ones drooping gracefully. I find I also made a mistake ; 
in supposing, that when raised and potted in autumn 
it would be kept in the warmest end of the greenhouso, 
as, instead of that, it is kept, during winter, in the coldest 
end of a cool house. Shortly after taking up, and 
placing in a large pot, the foliage all drops, but the 
blooms remain persistent, affording means for cut 
flowers during the first months of winter. This plant 
may therefore now be regarded as a regular cosmopolite, 
thriving out-of-doors, with protection, in winter, in 
greenhouses and plant-stoves. Not long ago, I saw a 
fine noble shrub in the stove conservatory, at Woburn, 
covered with bloom, but from age, and standing long in 
one place, the foliage was not so large, nor the bunches j 
of flowers individually so fine, as in the specimen 
planted out-of-doors in summer. There is no doubt it 
would also make a handsome conservative wall plant. 
Salvia fulgens. —Two fine plants, five feet high, and 
each containing above thirty spikes of bloom. 
It will be recollected that at Panslianger, the S. spilen- , 
dens was used in a similar manner. 
Scarlet Geraniums. —Twelve giant plants, nine j 
feet high. Stems, three inches round, and each having j 
from eighteen to twenty large trusses of bloom. 
Fuchsia. —Such kinds as cylindrica, conlata, Corolina, j 
four feet in height; diameter of heads, four feet, and 
smothered with bloom. One plant ol Gorymbiflora, j 
about four feet in height, head trained flat, four feet in 
diameter, and having thirty large bunches of flowers, , 
hanging in a pendant position. 
Pelargoniums.— Vulcan, Nosegay, &c., from four to 
six feet high, and diameter of head in proportion. 
Brugmansia i.utea. —Trained flat headed. Stem, five 
feet in height; diameter of head, six feet; and with more 
than 150 flowers fully expanded. 
ARRANGING FLOWER-BEDS. 
Our friends may now judge for themselves. There is 
no doubt that there is rather more than an incipiency of 
discontent budding respecting the grouping system as 
commonly practised. Certain colours are run upon; and 
these are placed down in level masses, ot a yard or a pole 
in size, as the case may be. Even here, the regulating 
the height of the plant becomes an important object. I, 
sometime ago, saw a flower-garden, the individual beds 
of which were beautiful and well filled; and yet the 
group, as a whole, was very unsatisfactory, looked 
higgledy-piggledy, because the relative heights of the 
plants had formed no feature in the arrangement. But, 
grant that everything here were as it should be, the 
eye soon tires looking upon so many feet of level blazing 
colour. These standards will alike give variety and 
repose; but we question if ever they will long satisfy 
the craving for variety and novelty. Hence, though 
reverting to the old mixed system may not be likely 
to take, yet there can be no question, that from the 
favour given to beds with broad edgings of a different 
colour, and the pleasure seemingly derived in looking 
at beds mixed with two or more colours, that the taste¬ 
ful in blending two or more tints in a lied, and yet 
having every bed in a group prominently distinct from 
its next door neighbour, will, ere long, be another puzzler 
for the already fairly-worked brains of the gardener, if 
the ladies do not take this trouble, and the consequent 
responsibility attending it, off his hands. I throw in the 
latter clause not without due consideration. Inatten¬ 
tion to it has constituted a fruitful source of disagree¬ 
ables between gardeners and their employers. No 
doubt, it is very pleasant to have a little or even a 
good deal of our own way; but, as servants, though when 
called upon, we may respectfully state our views, if 
these do not convince, the duty is plain, namely, honestly 
to carry out the ideas and commands of our employers. 
A worthy nurseryman once asked mo what 1 would 
do if my employer requested me to plant a tree with its 
roots in the air! “The half of you would throw down 
the tree, and throw up a good place too, and think you 
were doing a magnanimous act, though, in my judgment, 
added he, a very foolish one.” This, of course, was an 
extreme case, but it exemplified a great principle—the 
connection between serving and obeying. On the other 
hand, failures are such disagreeable things that no¬ 
body cares to own them. The responsibility of them 
should honourably be placed on the right person. 
But to resume. Mr. Beaton, a,nd others, have already 
done something to advance the mixing of beds in a tasteful 
manner; and what is applicable to the bed is equally 
applicable to the basket, vase, and balcony plot. With 
leisure to note and observe much that is done in this 
way, he and Mr. Appleby may help us to many an idea. 
Among others I have tried, I would mention and re 
commend one that has been admired here for seimral 
years—namely, a mixture of Mangles' Variegated Gera¬ 
nium and the blue Lobelia sgieciosa. In a dry, mild 
autumn this keeps good to the last. In cold, wet 
seasons it will wane by the middle of September. As the 
blooms of the Geranium will not be thick enough to 
counterbalance the free growth of the Lobelia, I should 
consider either plant rather poor for a bed by itself, 
though the Geranium is rather pretty when thickly 
studded with its small flowers. Many even place it in 
their estimation far before Flower of the Day, Mountain 
of Light, &c.; but one feature of the Flower of the Day 
is, that though its blooms are produced rather sparingly, 
they stand the wet and weather remarkably well. Some 
of our best gardeners, after running it down, are now 
as loud in its praise. I have never done great things 
with it as a pot plant—the flower-stalks are too short, 
and the flower trusses not numerous enough; it also 
looks best when seen from a distance. I found this out 
in a very simple way. A gentleman was sitting within 
four or five yards of a bed. “ How beautiful the foliage 
of that Geranium ! How much prettier it would have 
been with the scarlet blossoms of the Improved Frog- 
more. Even that other bed (some twenty yards farther 
off) is a decided improvement in colour. I would have 
rung the changes, and had that nearest the main walk.” 
And the gentleman had to go and stand beside the other 
bed to be convinced that they were identically the same. 
There was no mistake about it. Here, as in other mat¬ 
ters, “ distance lent enchantment to the view.” 
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