8 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 3, 1860. 
castles are to be converted to the fashion of the day without any 
alteration in the old plans—the very thing I should do if I were 
first horn to a dukedom. I would endeavour to stamp the cha¬ 
racter of the age in which I lived on everything, inside and out, 
to which my birthright had entitled me; but the things them¬ 
selves I would scrupulously retain to the last form of bed in the 
flower garden, if it were of ancient standing ; and I would even 
obliterate anything of recent invention if it did not associate 
with the character of the place. 
Well, I made several plans of planting before I satisfied 
myself, and being rather jealous of the character of The 
Cottage Gardener, I showed the way to two or three critics 
whose judgment is better than my own. They differed slightly 
from each other and from me, and, to tell the truth, I did 
not put so much faith in them this time as I often do; but 
having an interest in their opinions, I suggested to submit 
the whole to a third party, a practical flower-gardener, whose 
beds are constantly before the public. Well, last January the 
plan was sent to Mr. Craig, the flower-gardener at Kew, with 
a request to plant it in first-rate style in any way he thought best. 
He was not told to whom the plan belonged, or that it was 
determined to have it published, only that he would oblige me 
by doing it. He soon returned two very good plans, and this is 
the best of them. Then, they said, he “ took the feather out of 
my cap,” and I rather think he did ; but as he did not take the 
cap itself, I wrote to him to say, that was a feather for his bonnet; 
and for allowing him to wear it without a tilt, I told him, plainly, 
he must allow me to tell how he got that feather, and rather than 
enter the lists he did allow it, but said I must stand the con¬ 
sequences, and T suppose I roust. 
Conservatory 90 feet lonsj. 
07. 
CT 
Well, with only one feather lost, I do say that this is a’very 
instructive plan for young people to learn by. The key bed, 
No. 1, is not so large as we often see them in that centre part, 
which is an improvement, since all such beds are now planted in 
weak colours, or in neutrals. The Golden Chain is the richest 
of all our neutrals, and the edging to it, Lobelia ramosa, is the 
best and most appropriate for the harmony of contrast. 
The beds 2, 3, 4, and 5, next to the centre are small also, with 
a white edging of Cerastium tomentosum , and gay centres, but 
not dazzling colour ; Cuphea, ignea being what was known first 
as strigilosa. 8, 9, 10, and 11, are bacUy-shaped beds, and are 
so placed in relation to the beds nearest them as to make them 
very difficult to plant, each of them having part of its side j 
opposite four other beds planted in four different colours. 6 and 
7 are exceedingly well placed, and planted for effect—I am 
reading it from a coloured drawing; and the w y ay 17 and 18 
embrace them with Floirer of the Lay, deeply edged with Purple 
King, is as rich as one can conceive. Then the light blue, 20, 
21, 22, and 23, on each side of them, and the same colours as 
6 and 7 repeated farther to the right and left, and wider from the 
centre line, or axis, is one of the very best dispositions of the 
master colours that I have yet seen in this style of planting. 
All the rest show the colours well balanced. There is a secret in 
planting the seven beds from 36 to 42, to cause an apparent 
agreement between their own plain outsides or figures, and the 
intricacy of the beds in the original design. Happily these beds 
are seven in number, which allows of the centre one being made 
a key bed different from the rest, and from which the rest can be 
read in match pairs right and left of it. 39 is the key bed for 
that part, and it is planted in three stripes parallel to the axis of 
