:J64 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 20, 1859. 
the last twenty years. The one the most scientific head 
in Europe, the other the most practical head in Her 
Majesty’s dominions. But the turn of a die, and another 
head would have been at Kew, the very shake of which 
would wither the very leaves off the trees, and all the 
“ grants ” in this world would never make Kew popular 
under that head. 
My day was Monday ; and to show how popular Kew 
has become, I may mention that eight thousand visitors 
were in the Gardens the previous Sunday afternoon, en¬ 
joying the glorious provision made by the Author of our 
being for the gratification of us, His erring creatures, in 
the world of flowers. How flowers can give the greatest 
degree of pleasure, be, therefore, the subject of my 
theme. But, first of all, let me explain the reason why I 
never pass over any seeming fault which appears to me in a 
flower garden. Every one in the peerage, down from 
Her Majesty, who is fond of a garden, and has one, 
spends part of every Sunday afternoon in it like the eight 
thousand aforesaid; and thousands upon thousands can 
see and judge of garden faults just as well as any 
gardener whatever. They also read all our garden books, 
and put faith in our writings according to the degree with 
which we hold to the letter of the law, and whoever leans 
to the right hand, or to the left, is soon found out and 
despised. “ He is no authority: he may classify a plant 
or grow a Melon, be a pleasant writer, an honest man, 
and all the rest of it, but he is no judge in the flower- 
garden, else he would see as others do.” Well, “ others” 
do see as well as the best of us now-a-days, and “ others ” 
do like the truth, and dislike untruth. Hence it is that 
I must tell “ the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the 
truth,” as far as I know, and may be expected of me. And 
the truth is, that the flower gardens at Kew are better 
planted this year than they ever have been, and that no 
error of principle can be detected in one of the beds, or 
in the groups of beds. Of course, like other first-rate 
flower gardens, they will have changes, year by year, 
also improvements by improved seedlings as they come 
on the stage; but so long as they hold on to the prin¬ 
ciples on which they mix and arrange their colours now, 
I do not care much who will review and criticise them 
after me. The wonder is, that scientific attainment does 
not always qualify a man or woman to judge properly of 
the fundamental principles of flower gardening. 
The greatest fault I ever found with the laying out of 
the terrace garden in front of the Palm-house was that a 
bare grass plot, in the very centre of each of the two 
divisions, was designed to stand a vase—a flower-vase— 
on. This was the very contrary to the principle on which 
such terrace gardens are now planted; and there are two 
distinct reasons why it was the contrary. The first 
reason is, that statuary is only the accessory of compo¬ 
sition-planting, not part or parcel of the design itself for 
planting a given figure. The second reason is the very 
same which drove the scarlets and yellows out of the 
centre beds : in such compositions they attracted the eye 
to the centre, and caused an optical delusion—made the 
place apparently less than it really was. Those central 
grass plots are now made into neutral beds ; and each 
part or end balances the colours from its centre, like 
Justice holding the scales. But change to the old system, 
and balance as is now done; put a scarlet bed in that 
centre, and the four corner scarlets as at present—how 
would that look? Ten times worse than the old plan. 
There is no balance, or a point to balance from: it is just 
like taking the nose off the face. Again: apply the vase, 
place it on the balance-point, as was intended by some 
one when the garden was formed, and you commit a 
double fault, each of which would be more outrageous on 
principle than displacing the nose. You make statuary, 
not an accessory, but an actual part of the planting ; and 
the optical delusion would be fourfold—even a squinting 
eye could no more escape resting on that vase, to the 
prejudice of the rest of the composition, than it could 
look straight. But, fortunately for the thousands who 
will take their lessons from Kew Gardens, we have escaped 
both horns of that dilemma ; and the neutral centres will 
never cease there until a newer principle is adopted in 
the planting of composition figures and terrace gardens. 
How, let us read this same composition as it stands. 
Flower of the Day Geranium in the centre of that bed, 
and all the flowers picked off; the margin a broad band of 
Gerastium tomentosum. The bed is not quite a circle, but 
in the form of two of the figure 8, the one 8 placed across 
the other 8—the “ Lover’s-knot,” in fact. Between the 
body of the bed and the Cerastium runs a single row of 
Baron Hugel Geranium, for a green to mark tue bound¬ 
aries of the two whites—a most capital idea, but it was 
carried too far, the Baron following the lines of the 8s 
across the white centre instead of marking where the 
Cerastium ended and the Flotoer of the Day began. The 
error was discovered long before I saw it, but a new 
power was thus found out—that power is, that green has 
the same effect as white in “ cutting ” two colours of the 
same cast. The Baron was not allowed to bloom—it only 
made a subdued green on the white ground. If Punch 
had been on one side of it, and Judy on the other, it 
would look a purple-brown, owing to the horseshoe mark 
—a pleasant ground colour for all manner of cut flowers, 
and answered just as well as a row of variegated, or of 
any white flowers, to “ cut ” the red of Punch from the 
pink of Judy. Perilla has the selfsame power. A scarlet 
row on each side of a Perilla row would not prejudice the 
effect on a ribbon-border more than if it were a row of 
Flower of the Day. The two end corners on each side of 
this bed were of Tom Thumb. The next pair of beds, 
right and left of the centre were yellow— Calceolaria 
amplexicaulis trained down. Then blue, purple, and pink ; 
the weaker colours nearer the centre, and in the line of 
the centre, or between the corners. The quantity of each 
colour, the position of it, and the style of growth of the 
plants were all to my fancy, and on the approved prin¬ 
ciple. Four of the beds at equal distances from the 
centre ; and near it were circles filled with Perilla, every 
leaf of which was cut or trained to the same height, and 
the four beds might have been out of one mould. 
Thus symmetry, although it will never supplant colour 
in the flower garden, as some say it ought, is, like 
statuary, itself a form of symmetry—a grand accessory 
and a wonderful help to the effect of masses of different 
colours put together. Therefore, whichever way you 
appoint your colours, recollect the grand secret is to keep 
the plants in such trim as to make each bed look as if 
it came out of a mould that morning. But recollect at 
the same time, that all the symmetry on earth will not 
authorise one to push his way of placing colours before 
the world if they are different to the acknowledged rules 
by 'which ladies plant and paint. 
There are two oblong beds, sixteen feet or so long, at 
each end of this terrace, and so placed that their longest 
side runs across the line of the terrace. One looks across 
any of the four beds from the terrace; and to suit this 
view, on the same level the beds are planted “across,” in 
stripes, five stripes in each, scarlet Verbena the centre 
stripe, white Verbena on each side, and two Purple King 
stripes outside,—a telling idea, the principle being the 
same as true ribbon style. 
Dahlias are not trained, but all their beds, and the beds 
for Hollyhocks, are deeply edged with the Gardener’s 
Garter, or the common Silver-striped Grass. The Holly¬ 
hock-beds, in addition, are now placed in appropriate 
positions, just outside the Yew fence which bounds the 
terrace gardens. The fence hides their bare stems from 
those on the terraces, and the Silver Grass from those on 
the other side; and early and late, these Hollyhock-beds 
make no blanks, as then they are hidden by the hedge— 
a very judicious arrangement under the circumstances. 
The north-west terrace includes the American garden, 
and a long line of promenade running through the centre 
