30G 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND C OXJNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 17,1858. 
surely cannot be the original kind. There is not a 
j more perfect bed in the kingdom, and there is not a 
sun-burnt petal in the bed, although it stands on a 
south declivity, which has been most trying to many 
kinds of Verbenas this hot season. The pink Nosegay 
G-eranium is now, for the first time, bedded out here, 
and is a great acquisition; Cerise Unique being their 
only other pink Geranium. Of Scarlets, they have 
only three kinds now, and two of them are my seed¬ 
lings, Punch and Shrub land Queen, which is here 
called Cottage Maid : it is sixteen years old this season, 
and some one else reproduced it lately. It is the best 
scarlet bedder that has been got from Frost's Compac- 
tum ; Commander-in-Chief is the next nearest to it 
in looks. But let us take the more difficult part to 
plant first. There is no garden more easy to plant than 
this, or more susceptible of a change every year,— 
which is a great point in gardening,—except the two 
chains in the sunk panels on each side of the centre 
arrangement. 
I said, last August, that they could never improve 
on the design in planting, and that the only possible 
improvement must be an improved race of plants, or 
something that way. One of the chains, the north side 
one, is improved from last year, by an improved 
edging plant. The Cerastium tomentosum is a more trim, 
a more architectural plant, as it were, than Mangles' 
Variegated Geranium, which was used last year. The 
setting of the circles, oblong beds, and the heart-like 
beds in three corners, is all in silvery Cerastium, and 
also the connecting links between all the beds. The 
effect gives perfection itself. I hope they will never 
depart from that arrangement, or, at all events, 
never return to the “ haybancls,” which this very chain 
represented two years since, when all the connecting 
links were hid by being planted with Tom Thumbs, 
like the beds themselves. The south-side chain is 
different from last year, in the setting ; the variegated 
Alyssum being the connecting plant, instead of the 
Cerastium, as on the other side, or like Mangles' 
variegated, as last year. Mangles’, in this way, is pre¬ 
ferable to the Alyssum, as it is allowed to grow 
naturally, while Mangles' is, and was, trained to per¬ 
fection in that style of edging. They manage to train 
and regulate beds of Mangles' Variegated Geranium 
better here than in most places: not a leaf of their 
largest masses of it seems out of place. One of the 
chief beauties of a flower-bed, on the terrace, or 
geometric plan, is to look as if it were cast in a mould ; 
and that is the reason, no doubt, why Tom Thumb 
Geraniums are so much used everywhere. No Gera¬ 
nium grows more regular than Tom. All the circular 
beds, in both chains, are filled with Tom Thumbs, 
edged with white ; and all the oblong beds, and a 
couple of heart-shaped beds, in each of the three corners 
of the chain, have yellow Calceolarias in the centre 
of the Scarlet Geraniums. The three large circular 
Rhododendron beds, in these three angles, shows more 
clearly, year by year, the original fault of placing 
a circle in an angle. The four angular beds in each 
of the end panels of this terrace, are of the right kind 
of shape; but make them circles, like those Rhodo¬ 
dendron beds, and their meaning is destroyed. Let 
the critics say all they can advance to the contrary; 
but no one can prove, by the rules of the art which 
j created the whole garden, that there is another bed 
wrongly placed within its boundary. A friend of 
mine, fresh from Scotland, was so bewildered in 
the centre of this terrace, that he insisted on its being 
on a wrong plan, as the beds did not correspond on 
each side ot the walk. But that is not the rule by 
which to prove a geometric figure at all. The way to 
test the accuracy of a geometric garden, and also to 
pioie it it is properly planted is this—Suppose it cut 
across through the centre, and capable of being folded 
up like a book, one page, or one half, over the other 
page, or half. Then, if the figure is true, every bed 
on the one half will fall on the one just like it on the 
other half; and if a single bed, or the least part of a 
bed, will not fit on its fellow, the place is said to be 
like a pig with one ear; so that it is as easy to prove 
a thousand acres as a few square yards, and quite as 
easy to shut as a book. 
t [The planting is proved exactly in the same way. Cut 
the garden across the middle, and fold the two parts ; 
and if a blue bed, or a yellow bed, or any other coloured 
bed, does not fall on its fellow, the planting is faulty. 
There is not a fraction to be altered in either, and 
both are absolute in the rules of art; but one of them, 
that is, one side of this rule has been violated, in the 
planting of this central part of the terrace this season ; 
fold it up, and the beds in each half of the outer circle 
will fall on each other, tops and bottoms. The very 
same mistake occurred three or four years back, in 
front of the large conservatory at Kew, I have not 
the slightest knowledge to whom either mistake can be 
referred; but having fallen, more than once, into the 
same error, I know perfectly well how and why it was 
done; a rule which is applicable to a different style of 
planting was adopted, instead of the right one. Plant¬ 
ing cross-cornerwise is a rule in grouping beds. But 
there is none of the grouping system at the Crystal 
Palace at all, nor at Hampton Court, nor in the garden 
of the Horticultural Society. But the Italian terrace 
garden in front of the large conservatory at Kew is on 
the true grouping system ; each half has a separate 
centre to itself, and round that centre you may plant 
the beds cross-cornerwise or not, as fancy dictates, the 
rule being optional. But if the one-half is planted cross- 
cornerwise, and the other half not cornerwise, the ugly 
pig with the one ear stares you in the face,—the two 
ends will not match when doubled up, as it were. The 
centre pait of the great terrace at the Crystal Palace is 
also m two parts, like the letter D if cut down across 
the page ? but, being on the promenade plan, the beds 
must follow the walks, and cannot be in groups, nor 
have centres. Consequently, there can be no crossing 
m planting them, and each half of the D is but a reflect 
on the other half. It is very easy to mistake the one 
style i 01 the other, and the one looks just as well as 
the other, although it is not proof against the rules of 
criticism on planting. 
It is the novelty and the strictness of the different 
rules, for the different styles of planting a flower 
garden, which baffle so many good men, and makes 
them look ridiculous in the eyes of their betters, when 
they disclaim against what they are not taught to 
comprehend. All they say against us is not their 
fault, by any means, only their misfortune; but we 
cannot ail know all things. And as to such of the de¬ 
tails ^ of planting as depend on opinion, one man’s 
opinion may be as good as that of another, and he 
who pays for the planting should have his opinion 
represented as he wishes. Personally, I differ from 
the style of planting every one of the circular beds 
round the Rose mount this season. But, as there are 
no rules for taste, I cannot point out a rule that is 
violated there ; and thousands may like them all the 
better as they are, than as I would have them. I 
took down ” every one of these beds, and the crop in 
it. I he mere mentioning of the plants, as they stand, 
and succeed each other, will do more good to be¬ 
ginners, than to say they are in this or that style 
or taste. What I objected to was copied from the 
beds m the garden of the Horticultural Society, two 
or three years back. But where the Society’s people 
took their notion from it is impossible for me to tell. 
All that I can guess is, that it was not from any of 
