THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, June 28, 1857. 
132 
I entered iny name, and in less than twenty years the 
system is all hut universal in these islands; and the 
last move , after a serious consultation with him, I shall 
now lay before you. In the progress ot this “ move¬ 
ment” we only met with two obstacles which were 
really serious: one was the carelessness of the old school, 
which did not desire improvement at the expense 
of so much bother, and the other lay in the prejudice 
against massing, or bedding, as we call it. Any 
thing, or plant, or seed, or subject, could not come 
amiss for this class of gardeners, provided it came in 
drops, as it were, and fell indifferently in different parts 
of a bed or border; but two or more drops of one kind 
hilling in any one place were like the dropsy itself for 
the skins of their “mixed systems” and “patch 
plantings;” so we could not get rid of them, nor did 
we desire it; and now we are in a position to plant the 
longest border in England, and the largest bed in either 
Ireland or Scotland, with mixed plants which will 
flower every day and night from the middle or end of 
May to the very end of October, and to as long beyond 
it as the frost keeps off, and all this out of one section 
of Geraniums. Many of them will do for masses in 
such places as Shrubland Park, where the soil and j 
system are in their favour; but they are submitted to 
your notice only as mixed border plants, to come in aid 
of your Larkspurs, Pseonies, and other principal border 
plants. Every spare inch between the “herbaceous” 
plants ought to be filled now-a-days with something 
more temporary to help out a summer’s bloom. One- 
third of these might very well be given up to Stocks 
and hardy annuals, one-third to pot Geraniums, and i 
the other third to pot plants of all kinds, as odds and 
ends from the bedding plants in large places, and half- 
hardy plants from seeds in the small gardens. The best 
Geraniums for the middle third are the following:— I 
Hunt's Seedling , in the strain of Lady Mary Fox, and ; 
one of the best winter bloomers; Ninon de I'Enclos, a j 
new French thing; Monte Christo ; Colei, after Mr. ) 
Cole, nurseryman, near Birmingham, another of the | 
“pupils;” Virgineim, the largest white; Townsends 
Seedling, very excellent; Gauntlet; Crimson King, the 
identical Crimson King which the Messrs. Wood and 
Ingram, of Huntingdon, recently advertised in The 
Cottage Gardener, and which seems to bloom all the 
year round like Gauntlet ; Extravaganza (Miellez), 
another of the new French race, which was noted last 
autumn as “ dark maroon, with an even margin of deep 
rose;” Don Juan, which is the nearest to the old purple 
kind called Daveyanum, and far superior to it (this 
also blooms all the winter if it is properly treated for 
that “work”); Fair Maid of Scotland, a sweet-leaved 
kind; Fair Rosamond, ditto; Citriodorum roseum, ditto; 
Conspicua, Defiance, Surprise, and Sidonia floribunda, 
all of which are new to my book; but I am as satisfied 
about them as if their character came out of my own 
mouth. 
The following I have proved last year in the Experi¬ 
mental Garden on a mixed border in front of the con¬ 
servatory, and opposite the drawing-room windows. 
They are all in this nursery according to our exchanged 
notes; but they were sent to the Experimental Garden 
by the Messrs. Henderson, of the Wellington Road 
Nursery; Low, of Clapton; Kinghorn, of Richmond; and 
Scott, ot the Marriott Nurseries, Crewkerne, Somerset: 
— Duchess of Sutherland, a fine light flower; Glaueum 
grandiflorum, another white ; Bridal Ring, a small white; 
Countess, nearly white; Orispum grandiflorum, a light 
flower; Sir 11 illiam Middleton, the best of the breed of 
Jehu; Wilmore’s Surprise; Alma (Denis’s); King Rufus, 
a dark red; all the Diadematums , Mrs. Standish, Pul- 
chellum; Lindleyanum, after King Rufus; Delicatum, the 
best for nosegays; Quercifolium and Q. superbum, Ig- 
nescens and I. superbum, Rouge et Noir, Zonale, and all 
the Uniques. The scarlet Unique is of the Quercifolium 
breed, not a true Unique. Isidoreanum, Touchstone, 
Floribunda, Pretty Polly, Morgana, Lady Mary Fox, 
Spleenii, Mrs. Jeffries, a sport from Spleenii, and 
Sidonia, belong to Diadematum. Every one of these 
will bloom in any garden most profusely the whole 
summer, and many of them would flower in winter 
from spring cuttings if they were divested of the flower- 
buds, and kept on growing from pot to pot till the 
end of August, and one plant of each kind would be 
enough to keep in winter to cut from in the Spring 
for a summer collection in the mixed borders; they 
are also much superior to the show Geraniums for 
mixing in flower-baskets on the lawn, or in lobbies, cor¬ 
ridors, and staircases, or anywhere about the house. 
You can buy them by the dozen or score, or by the 
piece, as cheap as the best bedding plants, and you 
would be gay the whole season without another pot 
plant in the garden. 
But there are other bedding plants which have been 
proved here, and which are being sold out this season 
for the first time, which will be hailed by all the bedding- 
out classes as real acquisitions. The first of them is a 
pure White Zelinda Dahlia , about two feet or two feet 
and a half high. I have very favourable notes on 
it from Mr. Foggo, of Shrubland Park; from Mr. 
Fleming, of Trentham; and others on whom I can 
rely, as being under the patronage of very influential 
ladies in the country. The others are two Tropceolums 
of the Lobbianum breed, of which we have Triovnphe de 
Gand as the best winter climber. One of these, called 
Beaudine , is crimson, and of the size of Lobbianum, 
flowers all the summer, and climbs to a great height, 
ripening abundance of seeds, but is kept from cuttings. 
The other is of the same breed, size, and habit, and is 
of a canary ground colour, with purple spots in all the 
petals. The name is Triomplie de Prado. They will 
make fine summer climbers; but they are already 
marked out for centres to very striking flower-beds; five 
or six plants of them are to form the centres of eight large 
circular beds in one of our best flower .gardens. They 
are to be planted in very poor, shallow soil, to be 
trained to stakes five or six feet high as a centre group, 
round which a row or double row of Delphinium Ren¬ 
der sonii will be planted, or one of D. Hendersonii and 
one of D. formosum in front of it; then one row of the 
new White Zelinda Dahlia; and on the outside a row or 
two of Tom Thumb Geraniums. These will be magnifi¬ 
cent and very novel beds, four on each side of a beau- ! 
tiful new terrace garden. They have been devised here, 
and sanctioned and approved of by all concerned, and 
no doubt thousands will strain a point to have them on 
knowing that they have been much approved of by The 
Cottage Gardener. 
There are a score of other sweet morsels to be named 
from this nursery, but nurserymen themselves have tied 
my hands in this matter, or rather my legs, and I can¬ 
not browse beyond the length of my tether, though the 
next bite might be of milk and honey. D. Beaton. 
STOPPING VINE SHOOTS. 
“In your No. 452 I find in your answer to ‘A Be¬ 
ginner’ a paragraph on the Vine which has not a little 
startled me. ‘ A Beginner’ is afraid that * by stopping the 
growing shoots of this season he will start the fruit-buds of 
next year; ’ and he is asked in answer if he does not know 
that the Vine bears fruit on the young wood of the current 
year. I will venture to say he knows it well, as the’veriest 
tyro must; but his fears are most legitimate, for if he did 
not judiciously stop the laterals, which he probably calls, 
though not correctly, the growing shoots, what I should 
persist in calling the ‘fruit-buds’ of next year would in- 
