June 13.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
15i) 
when many gardeners were well nigh through this part 
of their education; but my lot has been another than 
that of many of my brethren during this time; lor I 
entered on this part of gardening almost without any 
prepossessions of my own; got under an indulgent 
| instructor, and one of the highest artistes in flower- 
I gardening in this country, and with all this and my own 
1 mistakes, I have learned just enough to see faintly what 
flower-gardening will be a few years hence on a large 
scale. But, as I said before, I can find no instructions, 
or rules, or plans, which go beyond a mere section ol 
the art, and principally in this style of S. N. V’.s—that 
is, a group of figures arranged round a central one, and 
chiefly planted with flowers of distinct colours ; and the 
best example of this style that i ever saw, is in the last 
May number of the Gardeners' Magazine of Botany 
that is, the best formed beds, the easiest to walk amongst, 
and the best way of planting them. 
A gentleman with a lady on his arm walking amongst 
flower-beds full of sharp points, is one of the most 
unenviable positions one can imagine. The lady s 
attention is so taken up with the flowers, that she is in 
danger of treading on these sharp points at every turn; 
and he, poor man, must keep his eye on these “ points 
to save the lady from, perhaps, a tumble down. 
Now, about X. Y. Z. (volume 3, page 332); I also fear 
he will be angry with me for not giving the sizes and 
shapes of his flower-beds, and with S. N. V. for calling 
them “ rmion flag-like,” without seeing them. The 
ground-plan of the garden of X. Y. Z. is only given, 
without any feeds; that ground is divided into triangles, 
and I know full well that is one of the worst shapes to 
get a set of beds into, and be free from sharp points; 
but the beds were so well managed that there was not 
a sharp point in any of them, and yet the sides ol them 
next the walks had straight lines; and, moreover, there 
were thirty-two of them, not one of which had a single 
fault, as far as the outline is concerned; and that ol 
S. N. V. has only one bed out of nine free from fault— 
the middle circle. All the rest have starry points, the 
worst of all faults, and one which every writer on 
gardening, from Dr. Lindley to D. Beaton, has con¬ 
demned years ago; and if this letter will do no more 
good, 1 hope it will warn young artists against making 
sharp pointed figures for such beds. Cornor figures, or 
beds in a square piece of ground, like 1, 3, 7, 9, in this 
plan, seems to bo the most difficult for designers to 
manage, for in nine cases out of ten they either have 
sharp points and deep narrow recesses, as in this plan, 
or their sides next the walks do not correspond with the 
lines of the walks themselves. These two errors are 
self-evident, and cannot admit of a dispute. Taste, 
fashion, and principle, I care little about; they are words 
which only weaken any argument; taste and fashion 
turn about like weather-cocks, and what one man calls a 
principle, another, whose judgment has equal weight, 
says is no principle at all, or is the most unprincipled 
thing in the world. Mr. Loudon had three ways of 
managing the outlines of such corner figures bettor than 
any one I recollect, but I have no time to refer to the 
figures. I quite agree with S. N. V. that this geometric 
stylo is the best for small gardens; and for the largest I 
would prefer it, and not only so, feut unless I am very 
much deceived, a flower-garden to exhibit the whole 
force of flower-gardening plants, cannot be arranged 
well but on the geometric plan; and, I repeat it, that the 
smallest of this kind of flower-garden cannot be complete 
under eighteen beds, and these beds to be in three 
different sizes. But I disagree entirely from S. N. V. in 
considering it a point of excellence to be able to see the 
outlines of a given figure in winter, or at any other time ; 
and vet that may be a matter of taste, and one man is as 
much entitled to his taste as another; and, as I said be¬ 
fore, I can see no good in following the subject in this way 
any further. And now I regret the offer I made to assist 
S. N. V. until the subject is better understood among 
designers and planters, myself among the rest; and 1 
hope no one will be displeased at what has been said by 
either of us. lean afford to sail comfortably under the 
“ union flag plan,” assigned to me by S. N. V.; and I 
hope he will excuse my apprehension about the ladies 
walking amongst sharp angled flower-beds.* 
Brugmansias. —Here is a subject on which all of us 
will agree—a new flower-bed fit lor an emperor. It had 
been the practice for many years amongst gardeners, to 
plant out half-hardy plants in sheltered places, and to 
keeqi them alive there as long as they could, by covering 
them in winter ; but the system, agreeable as it is, had 
given rise to an extraordinary delusion, which took hold 
of our minds, and from which some of us are not quite 
free yet. This delusion supposed a power in the art ol 
gardening that could change the nature which was 
stamped on the vegetable kingdom at the creation so 
that a plant from a hot climate could be wrought upon 
in such a way as would enable it to bear up against the 
rigours of a hard winter in our latitude, and this art was 
and is called acclimatizing, —but we have no such powei. 
One of the coral-trees, Erythrina crista galii, was an 
early favourite with acclimatizers ; and if they had suc¬ 
ceeded in converting it to a “ hardy shrub, we should 
not now think so much about it as we do, although it is 
one of the finest things that can be shown in the flower- 
garden when it is in lull flower. But, unfortunately foi 
the flower-gardener, it will not answer his purpose better 
than a good annual of the month or six flowering class; 
and when the flowers are gone he cannot move it with 
safety to make way for a succession ; not so the Brug- 
mansias, white, red, and yellow'—they will flower on like 
the scarlet geraniums till cut oft by the frost; and then 
may be cut down to the surface of the bed like fuchsias, 
and if the wet and frost is kept lrom them till the 
return of the next summer, they will push up again 
“ stronger than ever.” and flower most gorgeously foi, 
no doubt, many years. I said this is not to be proved 
now, for it is, beyond a doubt, already. The thing has 
been done most effectually, and I have groat pleasure m 
recommending others to do likewise. I hose who do not 
know the nature of these Brugmansias, or old Daturas, 
must be told that no soil is too rich for them, nor can 
well be made so; a great depth of bed is also essential 
to their doing well; a yard or so of the same compost 
as Mr. Errington would use for a grape-vine is about the 
right thing for them. Like all half-hardy plants, a diy 
bottom they must have, for damp is more hurtful to them 
than cold; but, of course, frost must not reach them. 
It will be said, why not have heard of this while the 
garden “ was in litter,” last winter, that one might make 
a bed on purpose for them ? The first reason is this. 
the oldest plants in the country ought to be selected to 
begin with; and old Brugmansias are turned into dark 
sheds and under stages in winter, and look so besinutted, 
that no one could find halt heart enough to give the 
nurserymen a reasonable price for them ; and the next 
reason is, that many people are so extravgant as to make 
a very large bed at once, so as to get rid ot the trouble 
of renewing it for some years to come, and that would 
not suit the Brugmansias half so well as to enlarge then- 
beds by degrees, as they filled, or exhausted, the old soil, 
and now, when the gardens are in full order, is just the 
right time to make, or begin to make, up their beds loi 
them, as no more will be done than one can help, only 
just enough to serve for this season. Then, take tlnee 
* Here the subject had better terminate, for our pages are too bnuted j 
in number to afford room for controversy of any kind. Our two trienas 
have each good-humouredly advocated their peculiar opinions , ace 
hope to hear from them both very often for many years to come; but m 
future they will oblige us by advocating their own ideas and stating their 
own experiences without reference to each other. We say this because wo 
are well-pleased with the controversy as it now stands. Ed. g. g. 
