48 TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
SPRING FLOWER-BEDS AND MIXED 
BORDERS. 
(Continued from page 33.) 
On seeing a “ quarter ” of Forsythia viridissima in 
bloom it struck me that it would “pay” to have this 
shrub grown in large quantities for the winter garden, 
| that is, for filling up flower-beds along with evergreens 
i and Wallflowers. Dwarf, bushy plants pruned on pur¬ 
pose for this work, so as not to be much higher than 
eighteen inches or two feet, might easily be prepared in 
quantities by the trade. The w r ay to do it would be to 
cut down the plants in April, after they were out ol 
flower, as if they were R-ed or White Currants, and the 
young wood of the following summer would make the 
| flowering wood for next spring; and, as it blooms with¬ 
out leaves, it seems to require a back of evergreen leaves 
j to “ bring it out” properly. Forsythia viridissima may, 
i therefore, be set down in the climate of London as a fit 
and proper subject for helping out the spring garden in 
masses among evergreens. 
The old favourite Mezereon is in every respect equally 
suited for the same purpose; and the two kinds of the 
little spring Heath called herbacea make the best edging 
to these temporary beds, and, with a sprinkling of Wall- 
flowers among these shrubbery plants, would be a better 
kind of finish and be more in character than any 
system of helps from herbaceous or border flowers. To 
be in character and to be on some regular system seem 
the grand secrets of flower gardening either in winter or 
summer, no matter what kind of character or what 
the system ; but without both a world of flowers may 
j be grown with little or no effect. 
For some time past I have been thinking of what 
! would be the best method for introducing the pretty 
little pet bulbs called Scillas into the spring garden. I 
went again yesterday on purpose to see them at the 
Kingston Nursery, where a bed of Scilla pracox was 
one of the prettiest blue masses I have ever seen, the 
flowers not more than three inches out of the ground ; 
Scilla bifolia the same, but not so rich a blue; and 
bifolia alba was then (30th of March) just gone out of 
blossom. Scilla Italica is the next earliest kind in Mr. 
Jackson’s collection. It will be in flower by the 10th of 
April, and will hold on a long while. S. cernuci , a little 
Spanish bulb, comes next, and there are several others 
which will be in bloom by the end of April. All of 
them are as hardy as the Crocus, and as easy to keep. 
I had a collection of them five years since from Mr. j 
Sim, of Foot’s Cray, Kent, and from them and my other 
experience and researches I have come to the conclusion 
that it is not desirable or wise to use them in the 
flower-beds, because they are so easily overlooked when 
not in leaf that few could help destroying them unawares. 
But in almost every garden there is a tit bit of a narrow 
border, or rather, a good aspect and shelter to make a 
choice border for tit bits like these and such things. 
A foot deep of black or brown sandy loam on a dry or 
drained bottom will suit all these little bulbs to per¬ 
fection, and when once they are planted in patches they 
are done with for the next five or six years. All bulbs 
and every annual which one cannot bring into a system 
of bedding should be planted or sown in patches, for 
this leason that pot plants, or any kind of summer 
plants, can be got in between the patches to succeed the 
patchwork. Every one of such bulb patches ought to 
have a durable tally, that is, not easily broken, with the 
name, or a number corresponding with that of the kind 
ol bulb in the garden book; but the best way would be 
to use upright 32-sized pots without bottoms, or with the 
bottoms knocked out with a hammer, and to sink the 
rims just half an inch below the surface of the border 
I he pot thus placed to be filled with the nicest compost 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, Aram 28, 1857. 
one can make, say leaf mould, rotten peat, and fresh 
sandy loam from a hedge bank, common, or roadside in 
equal proportions, to press it firmly in the pot, to put 
the bulbs or the patch of bulbs just one inch below the 
rim of the pot, and to fill up with the soil of the border. 
Hyacinthus amethystinus, a nice dwarf Scilla-like bulb 
and flower, should always go in with the Scillas. Mr. 
Jackson has a double kind of this bulb, which will not 
be in bloom till the end of April, and the single and 
double Wood Anemone are now coming through the 
ground to succeed the bulbs in May; but we must keep 
to April now till we can register and put every plant 
that blooms in its proper place and character. 
To March belongs the Dog’s-tooth Violet ( Erythronium 
dens-canis). There was a large bed of it in bloom in 
front of the plant houses, which will keep so till the 
middle of April; but the best way to have it in a private 
garden is just like the Scillas. They are getting up a 
stock of a most elegant little edging plant, a variegated 
Arabis alpina ; also Teucrium fruticans, a frame plant, 
with hoary leaves, which are as silvery underneath as 
those of any plant in the catalogue. It is as old as the 
oldest rafter in the kingdom, and used to be among the 
greenhouse plants to plant out of pots when I was a 
boy, and is now to be re-introduced, as it were, to make 
edgings of it, like the Frosted Silver plant. 
Ranunculus amplexicaulis is the last of all that I have 
seen in flower in March—a very old herbaceous plant 
of upright growth and pure white blossoms. What a 
pity we could not have it by the thousand for mass beds 
during six weeks of early spring, while the double yellow 
Crowsfoot ( Ranunculus repens pleno) may be considered 
the last and the best of all the spring flowers. We have 
four vases of it at the Experimental Garden, which are 
edged with the Doronicum, and before the latter is done 
flowering the double Crowsfoot Ranunculus will not need 
an edging, for its own shoots will run over the sides of 
vases or beds. D. Beaton. 
WINDOW GARDENING FOR SPRING. 
(Continued from page 35.) 
Having discussed together the operations necessary for 
keeping our plants vigorous and healthy, we will next con¬ 
verse upon raising plants for ourselves from seeds and cut¬ 
tings, as involving the most pleasing of all operations in 
gardening. 
Raising Plants from Seeds. —Our space will not permit 
us to enter into the minutiae and the scientific rationale of 
the processes that take place before the seed is parent of 
a beautiful tiny plant, though few subjects of investigation 
could be more interesting. Most of our readers know some¬ 
thing of malt and its products in the shape of double X and 
triple X, if not something more stimulating, and whoever 
has watched the changing of the barley into malt will see 
the whole process of germination at a glance. The grain or 
seed of barley is composed chiefly of concentrated car¬ 
bonaceous matter in the shape of starch. It is exposed to 
warmth, to moisture, comparative darkness, and within 
reach of air. The grain absorbs the moisture and swells, 
the starchy matter is changed into sugar for the nourishment 
of the embryo, and the root is protruded.at one end, and the 
little stem at the other. 
Warmth, moisture, comparative darkness, access to atmo¬ 
spheric air, and a soil so constituted as to be suitable for 
the plants, and for securing the presence of these conditions, 
are therefore what are essential for practical purposes. 
Warmth. —For window plants the seeds will not vegetate 
freely under 45° to 50°, and they should seldom, especially 
after germination has taken place, be above 60°, or they will 
become weak. 
Moisture, though present, must not be in excess, or the 
seed will rot, and more especially if at all covered deeper 
than it ought to be. It is safest for all seeds to allow them 
to absorb moisture gradually. It is especially necessary for 
