April 24. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
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plants, all these ought to he seen wherever Crocuses, 
Sweet Peas, or Mignonette are allowed ; good patches of 
them, too, and mixed, patch with patch, in any way one 
chooses, so there be plenty of them, some coming and 
some goiug all through till the frost. It is had 
management to see a garden chock full of flowers for 
six or eight weeks, such as Clarkias, Larkspurs, Candy¬ 
tufts, Navehvorts, Pinks, Cloves, E schsclioltzias , Picco- 
tees, Lupins, Veronicas, Campanulas, Everlasting Peas, 
Xemophilas, Ruse Campions, Catchflies, Foxgloves, For¬ 
get-me-nots, and ever so many more of such kinds—all 
very well in their ways; but, I say it is bad management 
to let them monopolise all one’s ground, because some run 
away with the idea that newer and more genteel plants 
require beds to grow them, and a bed for each sort—No 
such thing; but on the contrary, it is only in such places 
as Treutliam, or Shrubland Park, where “bedding” is 
followed to the highest perfection, that one sees the 
mixed system carried out on equal terms. Not, how¬ 
ever, all with herbaceous plants, for that is impossible; 
but with a mixture of herbaceous plants, from Crocus to 
Michaelmas Daisies (perennial Asters;), with bulbs,from 
Snowdrops to Lilium lancifolium; including all the hardy 
and halt-hardy Lilies, the numerous tribe of bulbous 
Irises, and Gladioluses , Tigrulias, Commelinas, Alstrce- 
merias, Marvel of Peru, Ipomopsis, Martynias, Mimulus, 
Oxalis, Argemones, Asphodels, and Aquilegias, with 
scores more, from pots and extras of the bedding stock; 
and after all is said, perhaps one-third of the whole in 
the mixed borders is made up with a selection of annuals 
and biennials ; because, without the help of these, nine- 
tenths of the mixed gardens, all over the country, are 
really worth very little, except for about one month at 
the end of spring, and nearly the first two months of 
the summer. The chief autumnal flowers being Phloxes, 
Hollyhocks, Dahlias, and German Asters, whereas, ten 
times as many flowers could be had on the same ground 
by a judicious system of sowings and transplantings, 
at the proper times and dates, as I shall continue to 
explain for a week or two. D. Beaton. 
TREATMENT AND PROTECTION OF BEDDING 
PLANTS IN THE SPRING MONTHS. 
With the grouping system of flower-gardening, the 
management of bedding-plants has been a growing 
difficulty during the spring months, when glass houses 
become either too hot or too full, and the reduction of 
labour, when almost everything requires doing at once, 
become matters of great importance. Many who can 
keep store pots of Geraniums, Calceolarias, &c., with 
each plant having an allowance of something like an- 
inclx-and-a-half square surface, or less than that, during 
the winter, are sadly nouplussed what to do with them 
as March and April come. If these store pots or boxes 
are let alone, the plants will become so thin and at¬ 
tenuated and wire-drawn as to do but little good when 
turned out in May. If they are honoured with separate 
potting, and thus grown to some size, there are three 
difficulties then staring you in the face,—the getting 
room for these pots to stand under protection of glass; 
the getting of pots themselves, which, in many country 
districts, is a serious matter, owing to expense alone; 
and the getting these pots duly attended to in watering, 
&c., which, if they are small, and March and April are 
sunny, are no little considerations, when many other 
things are demanding greater attention than at any 
other season of the year. 
Such rooted cuttings preserved through the winter, 
or even struck in spring, and occupying hut small space, 
maybe taken from under glass in March and April, 
ancl protected safely by various contrivances until the 
51 
middle of May, when they may he divided, and placed 1 
in the beds at once; but this system, when followed as 
a general rule, will present you with no striking feature 
in the flower-garden until the enci of July, at the 
soonest; the plants requiring to make growth upwards 
and downwards jJretty freely before they can reward 
you with their masses of bloom. 
The knowledge that plants so treated in proportion 
to the time they are kept so thickly in store pots, or 
even singly in small pots, has led to various modes of 
planting out in preparatory beds, with more or less 
satisfactory modes of protecting them. For many years 
I have been in the habit of thus treating plants for 
flower-beds that made root-fibres very freely, in pre¬ 
ference to potting them; and last season I found that 
even Scarlet Geraniums so treated, and lifted out of the 
ground with a small fork, and carried at once to the 
beds, did as well, and rather better, than those separately 
potted, with the advantage of ecouomising much labour 
in watering, &c. In the case of Geraniums, and other 
things that did not have abundance of fibry roots near 
home, I had largely followed the mossing system prac¬ 
tised so much by Mr. Ferguson, at Stowe; "but I found 
that if the roots had not freely progressed through 
the moss before planting-out time, the plants, as a whole, 
did not do so well as those planted out in light, sandy 
soil and rough vegetable mould. 
Our readers will recollect the process of mossing. A 
small quantity of moss is spread on the left hand, on 
that is placed a handful of light soil, in which leaf- 
mould forms a chief part, in this the tiny plant is laid 
and surrounded, the moss is brought over all, and 
secured round the earth and its occupant, with strings 
ot matting, or, what 1 find answers just as well, bruised 
straw, as found in the long dung that comes from the 
stable. These little halls are then dipped into water 
of about 70°, and, when dipped, are planted in a bed of 
prepared soil, or are merely set together and soil 
sprinkled among them, the object being to secure a hall 
at planting time to each plant. If a little artificial 
heat should be placed beneath them they will root freely 
and quickly. 1 find that success will greatly depend on 
the sweetness of the moss and the smallness of the 
quantity used, and, as before indicated, on the roots 
appearing all round the outside of the moss before 
planting time. If the latter is the case, these roots strike 
into the bed at once, and there is no difficulty. If they 
do not, success is less certain, and for these reasons;—if 
you dip the ball of moss in water previous to final 
planting, the moss is apt to get sour, and the roots 
dislike to pass through it. So long as the moss is damp, 
the few roots inside of it will not suffer from drought; 
but if hot, dry weather ensues, and there are no roots 
beyond the moss, it would be difficult, without great 
care, to moisten those within, as the water you apply 
will edge away from the dry moss, like rain drops from 
the wing of a duck. However valuable, therefore, the 
mossing system may he for nurserymen who have to 
send plants 1'or long distances, and at a cheap rate, we 
should rarely recommend it to gardeners, who can at 
once move their plants from their temporary pits and 
borders to the flowering-beds. 
Hence, in gardens where much bedding is accom¬ 
plished, it is now becoming very common to have tem¬ 
porary earth-pits, such as are dug out for a wide bed of 
Celery, the bottom of the bed is allowed to remain firm 
and hard, after shovelling out the crumbs of earth, and 
on this placing three or four inches of rotten leaves, 
burnt earth, and sandy drift, in which the plants arc 
turned out separately, and then protected with glass 
sashes, if come-at-able; but, as is more generally the 
case, with mats, straw, hurdles, &c.; of course, where 
there are plenty of glass lights, either for regular pits, 
or these makeshifts, there would be little difficulty. In 
