THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Ai>kil 12, 1859. 
20 
liberality of spirit which are, in all matters, at the present day, 
necessary to success—to grapple boldly with their difficulties— 
to forget all their former grandeur and stereotyped notions— 
and to accommodate themselves to the requirements of the age 
and their own altered circumstances. We say, if we could but 
get them to act thus, as we have frequently pointed out to them 
they should do, their position might have been very different to 
what it is, and there would be every probability of success. 
Still, “ it is never too late to mend and it gives us a certain 
degree of pleasure to see symptoms of divergence to a course 
that may yet raise the Society to that position of usefulness 
which it once enjoyed. We have been informed that the in¬ 
tention is to lop off whatever tends to unremuuerative expendi¬ 
ture, and to confine the operations of all the departments to 
what will alone be practical and useful. The apartments that 
have been secured in St. Marlin’s Place are ample for all the 
purposes of a town office; and the expenses attending them will 
be infinitely less than were incurred in keeping up the house in 
Regent Street. The Garden is to be retained, and very properly 
so ; but whether it is to be preserved in its present condition is 
a question yet to be decided. What the Horticultural Society 
wants is an experimental garden—a garden of instruction— 
where the scientific, the amateur, and the practical gardener 
can go and be benefited by the visit. It is not broad gravel 
walks and stuccoed vases, closely-croppcd lawns and landscape 
efi'ects, that induce country gentlemen and their gardeners to 
visit Chiswick. They have as good, and, many of them, far 
better and more extensive at home of their own. It is for in¬ 
formation and instruction they go—for seeing the newest and 
best modes of training and cultivating their fruit trees—for 
ascertaining the merits and characters of culinary and decorative 
plants—and for deciding on the most approved garden struc¬ 
tures, and the modes for heating and ventilating them. These 
are the inducements that are to attract the Fellows and the 
public to Chiswick. 
It is, therefore, a hopeful symptom to hear that the Council 
have taken into consideration the desirableness of appointing to 
the Garden a Superintendent of Experiments, who shall apply 
himself to carrying out the objects which we have just mentioned. 
If such a person be appointed, who has the confidence of the 
gardening community—one already possessed of a familiar 
acquaintance with the garden plants and fruits already in culti¬ 
vation ; endowed with the faculty of observation and discrimi¬ 
nation, and with the ability to prepare creditable reports on the 
results of the experiments entrusted to him ;—if such a man be 
appointed, we entertain no fear for the future of the Horticul¬ 
tural Society. 
HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS AND THEIR 
NEGLECT. 
Few things have more excited the regret of the aged cultivator 
of llow r evs, than the neglect to which he often sees the fine class 
of herbaceous plants subjected. Some obscure place amongst 
shrubs, or where nothing else will grow, is alas ! thought a place 
good enough for these once-highly-prized ornaments of the 
garden. The arbitrary dictates of fashion, which exercise so 
much influence on society, whether in the article of human dress, 
or a dress garden, and too often, it is feared, regardless of good 
taste in both cases, has, nevertheless, consigned the many garden 
favourites of bygone times to an unworthy neglect. The fashion¬ 
able gardening of the present day being more the sudden creation 
of an artificial picture, which, when once realised, is not expected 
to change any more during the season ; although it must be ad¬ 
mitted, that one half the season is over before anything what¬ 
ever is effected. In plainer forms, a set of fiower-beds in 
accordance with the prevailing custom of using them, remains 
empty, or neavly so, all the winter and spring ; and up to the 
middle or end of June there is but little show of flower on them. 
After that time flowers become more plentiful; but the first 
bloom foreshadows the rest, there being no change—the appearance 
in September is the same as in July. Now, I do not find 
fault with this—on the contrary, I admire it ; but I cannot bring 
myself to the conclusion, that it ought to usurp to itself the 
whole of the floriculture of the present day. And I claim a 
greater share of attention for the much-despised herbaceous 
plants than they often receive ; for, at all times of the year, they 
have something to present us with. 
The Christmas Rose ushers in the year, followed quickly by the 
Winter Aconite, and bulbs of various kinds ; while in March we 
have the various famili.s of Primula, Hepatica, Iberis, Arabia, and 
many' others ; which arc followed, in quick succession, by others 
still more showy. In fact, the flower garden would present but a 
dull aspect, were it not for herbaceous flowering plants during the 
cheering months of April, May, and June; and, even in the after¬ 
summer months, the herbaceous border supplies many a useful 
appendage to the bouquet maker, which might be looked for in 
vain amongst the more delicate occupants of the more fashionable 
fiower-beds. Spikes of Delphiniums, and other blue flowers, have 
few substitutes in the parterre; while, for variety and character, 
many of them are wholly unapproachable by their more delicato 
brethren. But, I believe, this is so well known, as to require no 
further comment on my side. What I want is, to see more room 
given to this interesting section ; and, by a careful selection of the 
various species our gardens are now furnished with, a greater show 
may be made with these than many ai-e aware of. Besides which, 
an herbaceous border has the important advantage of changing its 
character as the season advances; and, not like a bed ofYerbenas 
or Geraniums, remaining the same in October as they were in 
June—thereby giving the cultivator or master no variety. On 
the contrary, there is always something fresh appearing amongst 
herbaceous plants—flowers of one hue dying off, on being suc¬ 
ceeded by others of a different tint, until the season is over; 
and, by general consent, all parties agree to a suspension of floral 
display in December, in order to give more zest to the first 
blooms of the new year. That these are not slow in forthcoming 
has already been shown, and others are quickly in their wake. 
I am led to make the above remarks in consequence of the total 
neglect to which hardy herbaceous flowering plants, as a class, have 
fallen. Gardens of large extent, where bedding plants are put out 
by the thousand, seem not to have a spare corner for their older 
and equally legitimate occupants of the flower garden. Once last 
summer I visited one of the largest private flower gardens in the 
kingdom ; where, amongst other things done on an extensive scale, 
I was told they had turned out seven thousand Golden Chain 
Geraniums,—a fact I had every reason to believe,—as well as 
other kinds still greater in numerical strength. I did not see 
a single bed or border devoted to this much-neglected class; 
although the grounds, which were mostly interspersed with 
flower-beds of one kind or other, extended over some sixty or 
seventy acres. I merely mention this as an example how far the 
prevailing fashion of treating flower-beds has been carried to the 
extreme. That a re-action will take place I have no doubt, and 
our old friends will be, to some extent, reinstated in favour. But 
what I now ask for them is, more attention than they now re¬ 
ceive ; and, what is equally important, a place to themselves. I 
do not ask this to be the most conspicuous in all the grounds; 
but one not overhung by trees or shrubs, and one w'here the soil 
is good and deep. 
One of the best herbaceous borders I ever remember seeing 
was in Herts. The proprietor and his gardener were amongst 
the most successful cultivators of the Rose. On the lawn, 
facing two sides of the mansion, large beds of that popular flower 
were scattered about; while a series of smaller beds nearer the 
house were, in the summer, gay with Yerbcnas, and other 
flowers of that kind. The lawn extended over several acres, and 
on one side receded from the mansion; at the bottom of this 
side an herbaceous border was formed, facing the mansion, and 
running parallel with the boundary of the lawn ; a belt of shrubs 
and trees concealing some object behind. This border, if I re¬ 
member right, was several hundred feet long, and about twenty- 
five feet wide. A wire trellis about six feet high forming tlio 
back, against which climbing Roses were trained; and a back 
border, six feet wide, and a wall were behind this. So that the 
herbaceous border, so called, was quite clear of the shrubbery- 
belt behind; and it being, as I say, at the bottom of a gentle 
declivity, it is needless to say the soil was of the best description ; 
and the plants, being allowed sufficient room apart, grew and 
flowered with a luxuriance not often witnessed elsewhere. The 
appearance this border usually presented from the high ground, 
a little way off, was good in the extreme—there being always 
something showy in flower ; and care had been taken to allow only 
a proportionate number of each species, so as to keep up the 
succession : but there was always a greater number of the more 
showy of each kind. In fact, much discretion was used in that 
respect; and the healthful appearance they presented proved that 
their treatment was all that could be desired. And even in the 
gay summer months, when Geraniums, Calceolarias, and such like, 
were at ilieir best, t lie more varied forms of the Delphiniums, 
Aconilums, Phloxes, Catchflys, Lupinuses, Malice latifolia , and 
other plants, threw a charm over the herbaceous border which 
