270 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August I, 1857. 
and are quickly trimmed by holding the shears in a 
slanting position. The one principle of action in all 
these gardens, however, lias been not so much a great 
blaze of level colour in summer as an interest ancl an 
elegance every day of the year. The flower-beds are 
laid out in groups, but not large, and are blended and 
surrounded with such plants as noble Araucarias, beau¬ 
tiful Schubertias, elegant Cypresses, and massive Rho¬ 
dodendrons. The blaze of mere colour in the beds can 
hardly ever dazzle and pain the eye, from the many- 
tinted green shrubs in their vicinity ; whilst these 
shrubs again reflect back the beauties of the flower¬ 
beds, a matter to which I have frequently alluded. 
The different heights of the shrubs, as also of the plants 
in the flower-beds, give a light, airy appearance to the 
whole, in unison with a great variety of tints and 
lights and shades. This effect is also added to by the 
mode of planting the beds in groups. Most of these 
are of one or two colours, after the mode usually 
adopted, but some are filled with a mixture of showy 
herbaceous plants of different heights and colours. 
Though practising the grouping system largely, it is 
well known that I am not insensible to its defects. The 
somewhat level, carpet-like appearance of the beds is 
one of these. The want of a various-tinted green back¬ 
ground is frequently another. The monotonous same¬ 
ness, from the level uniformity and want of light and 
shade, even though the beds have great variety as con¬ 
trasted with each other, is another defect. Hence large 
standard and pyramidal plants, contrasting with the 
colour of the bed, have been recommended for relieving 
the level monotony. Hence evergreens have been 
commended as stand-points and backgrounds. Hence 
vases and statuary have been spoken of as reliefs to 
the sameness produced by a level variety. But, as here 
at Basing Park, such artistic ornaments, and such 
more natural decorations in the way of fine shrubs, 
must stand out free, distinct, and unencumbered, from 
their base to their summits. Then the flower-bed and 
the shrub and vase will lend and receive additional 
attraction from each other. Surround a pedestal or a 
Deodar with a belt of flowers, and you mix and mingle 
to the confusion of the ideas of order and fitness. 
Place such objects apart, distinct, and yet sufficiently near 
each other to combine, and, whilst each is beautiful con¬ 
templated separately, they unitedly form an harmonious 
unity. Sorry should I be to witness the wreck of the 
gorgeousness of the bedding system. It will have a 
better chance to live if combined with fine evergreen 
specimens, and if the groups themselves are not over 
large. The outline of the small beds would, even if 
unfilled in winter, present an artistic appearance in 
contrast with the green shrubs. They would be more 
interesting still filled with early bulbs, Primroses, and 
Polyanthuses, as is done, I understand, at Basing Park. 
I have, at various times, somewhat timidly given utter¬ 
ance to such opinions; but I should have had less shrink¬ 
ing in moderating the overflowings of a popular current 
had I visited Basing Park earlier, or seen the unique, 
beautiful grounds of the venerable Dean of Winchester 
at Bishopstoke, which are arranged upon a somewhat 
similar principle, the chief difference being that, at 
Basing Park, the flower-beds are arranged in groups, 
whilst, with one or two exceptions, this has not been 
deemed necessary at Bishopstoke. 
Okchakd House. —At this place there is one of the 
largest and most successful orchard houses that has come 
to my knowledge. It would simplify matters much were 
the term orchard house confined entirely to those houses 
protected by glass, and without any means of artificial heat. 
When that is given it becomes a forcing and ripening 
house, which was not the primary idea of the orchard 
house. All new ideas are sure to be run to extremes. 
Hence glass has been used to inclose a few feet that 
would have been more serviceably employed in inclosing 
a double quantity of yards. With all the onslaughts 
made upon it, there is much of the economical implied 
in the old lean-to house. Conceive a good old- 
fashioned vinery or Peach house, and Mr. Duncan’s 
famed orchard house stands before you. So far as I 
recollect it is something like 300 feet in length, 15 feet 
in width, 12 feet high at back, and from 2 to 3 feet 
in front. The sloping roof, I believe, is fixed ; the front 
sashes open to their full extent if desired; there are large 
open ventilators at the top of the back wall; and what, 
perhaps, is more particularly worthy of notice, there are 
likewise large openings at the base of the wall, secured 
by wire grating to prevent the ingress of vermin. Mr. 
Duncan lays the greatest stress upon a thorough circula¬ 
tion of air through the whole house, and thinks that 
without these openings at the base of the wall a portion 
of the atmosphere would become stagnant and stationary 
there. Pie attributes the burning and spotting of leaves 
near the base of the north wall of a house chiefly to this 
cause, and very probably with great force of reasoning, 
though, in cases that have come under my observation, 
the mischief was abated when some obnoxious scored 
and spotted glass was sized or painted over. Be this 
as it may, there can be no question of the importance 
of a complete circulation of air under such circumstances. 
I recollect Mr. Duncan telling us, some time ago, that 
this house receives no protection whatever, even in the 
severest weather, except a net drawn across the open 
back ventilators. The simple old vinery-like construc¬ 
tion of the house, with these exceptions as to air giving, 
may be considered the first distinctive feature of this 
orchard house. 
The second feature is that the trees are trained to 
the bach wall and to a trellis in front, the back of the 
trellis being from three to four feet in height, thus re¬ 
ceiving itself full, unobstructed sunlight, and not to any 
extent shading even the base of the north wall. Mr. 
Duncan has found that no other plan of training or 
standarding can give the plants or fruit an equal and 
sufficient amount of sunlight. This is so far corrobo¬ 
rative of what has been advanced of late on growing 
standards in forcing houses. 
A third feature is that the great proportion of the 
trees are of the stone-fruit kinds — Apricots, Peaches, 
Plums, &c.—and are planted out in stiffish fresh loam, 
that seemed little burdened with manure of any kind. 
Owing to this and a judicious stopping the foliage had a 
fine healthy appearance, the wood was short-jointed, loaded 
with fruit-buds for next year, and with plenty of fruit 
swelling for the autumn. Mr. Duncan gets fine dishes of 
Coes Golden Drop Plum in December, and from my 
own observation I have no doubtthat, if deemed desirable, 
fine Peaches and Nectarines may be obtained in such 
an airy house after those on the open walls have been dis¬ 
posed of. In the same house fine crops of the tenderer 
Apples and Pears have been ripened in perfection, and 
so have Guavas, Pigs, Grapes, Strawberries, &c 
When some of our friends tell us they hope to 
succeed with Peaches on a back wall, with Grapes up 
the rafters from four to six feet apart, and with Apricots, 
Peaches, and Figs in pots in the centre of the house, 
we really do not like to throw cold water entirely over 
their aspirations, though we cannot avoid being candid 
enough to say that, in such a case, they must always 
make up their minds to sacrifice one thing a little 
for the welfare of the rest. Now, I presume the great 
golden rule in all such cases (applicable alike to orchard 
houses and forcing houses), when you want to grow 
different kinds of fruit, is, just to make your house into as 
many separate divisions, and grow one kind only in each 
division ; then even air giving will enable you to regulate 
the temperature and atmospheric moisture so as to suit 
the residents of each division. 
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