66 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Max 1, I860. 
and eacli piece or quadrant lias its own sliare of the 
number of spokes, and each of the spokes is in three 
parts or beds, the centre part or bed being a circle, as if 
the centre of the spokes all round had been “turned” 
or carved in that -way ; the bed or part farthest from the 
axle is the largest to occupy the widest part of the quad¬ 
rant, and the bed nearest the axle is the narrowest, as it 
tends to the narrow end of the quadrant. There are five 
of these spokes in each quadrant, making twenty in all, 
besides the usual complement of promenade-beds along 
each side of the four walks, and a provision of smaller beds 
for cutting off the colours of the spoke-like rays from the 
colours in the promenades. Now, if you make a circle 
and divide it into four equal parts, and then draw out the 
parts asunder, as it were, there would be just four quad¬ 
rants, or quarters; stand them now four feet, or five feet, 
or six feet apart, and the number of feet will be the 
width of the walks. That would draw the four points, or 
narrow ends of the four quadrants, so far from the centre 
as to allow a circular bed to stand just where the axle 
ought to be, or where the flagstaff at Sydenham and the 
fountain at Shrubland Park stand at present. Now, that 
circular bed in the centre is four feet, or five feet, or six 
feet, or eight or ten feet in diameter, according to the 
size of the quadrants or flower garden. Bound the out¬ 
side of these there may be, or there may not be, a walk 
all round like the rim of a wheel according to the ground 
and to one’s fancy, the purpose or idea will be as complete 
without a rim or outer walk as with it. Now, divide each 
of the four divisions into five rows of beds in the direction 
of the way the spokes would rest or go. The width and 
the length of these beds will vary, of course, with the 
size of the centre or axle-circle, winch is the key-bed for 
designing tlii3 figure and for planting it, and for reading 
off from it the design of the planter. Each of the five 
spokes may be in two lengths, or of three lengths, or only 
of one length, but the three are the best for the present 
purpose. Making three beds of each of the five spokes, 
make fifteen beds in a quarter, and twenty rows of beds; 
representing twenty spokes in a wheel, will be the whole 
complement. 
Well, now mind what we are coming to, and recollect 
it is to be the pink of perfection as long as I live ; and 
when I am dead and gone the next teazer may turn it 
into a wheel within a wheel, with my free consent for his 
legacy. But you cannot mind how it is, or how it is to 
be, by merely reading it over once or twice ; and if it does 
not concern you, once will be quite enough. I do it this 
way on purpose to cause it to be remembered as long as 
one lives, because what comes as easy as an old shoe goes 
just as easily out of an easy memory ; but this will not, 
because it will take some trouble to learn it, and thou¬ 
sands and tens of thousands will be engaged on it, occa¬ 
sionally, as long as it lasts. The plan is a wheel in four 
parts, the twenty spokes of the wheel apart from the stock 
or box, and each spoke is divided into three parts, the axle- 
box is in the centre by itself, and the open spaces are the 
walks, and the whole is intended and will be used for a 
grand display of the Yerbena family—the most splendid 
thing that has ever yet been done or attempted. You 
recollect we had the Verbenas lately in twenty-two 
distinct sections, and there is a spoke or one ray in this 
arrangement for every section, except two sections, the 
muddled sections ; and as it happens, or rather as it is 
hereforth designed, these two will be necessary to 
complete the idea. A neutral bed, the centre circular 
bed, is the key-bed to read the whole from; therefore, it 
should by law be a neutral bed—that is, not giving any 
particular colour so as to interfere with the rest of the 
colours in the design. Mottled or muddled Verbenas, 
all white Verbenas, and many of the blush whites will 
come in for neutrals, in after years, to make a yearly 
change in the key-bed, and everybody will be allowed 
to plant all the spokes, or rays, of beds in her own way. 
“She” being everybody, of course; nobodies will have 
the same privileges ; and hes may plant it as they may ; 
but I shall plant it thus :— 
I shall take the centre spoke in each division first, and 
plant it; each spoke will be planted classically gramma¬ 
tically, bonus, melior, optimus, or in three degrees of com¬ 
parison of good, better, best. The first bed of each ray, 
or spoke, will be the good kind of that colour ; the second 
in the spoke, the bettermost sorts; and the third, of the 
very best of that colour; and so with the twenty rays 
all round ; and so also did I place them in that enumera¬ 
tion of them which took me seven years to learn; but 
this way of displaying them has occupied my thoughts 
for the last fourteen years, and nobody ever knew to this 
day that I had such a notion in my head. But you may 
now perceive that there was some foundation for the 
assertions about people who may be ignorant of all the 
plants for “ planting out,” are necessarily exempt from 
the duties of a flower-garden designer ; and that no man 
on earth can ever design a perfect flower garden until 
he is first master of all the plants that are bedded out 
at the time, and the colours which each kind gives to a 
mixed composition of colours, made either on the prin¬ 
ciple of contrast, or of combination, or of both combined, 
which is the more usual course. The centre spoke of 
one of the divisions is planted with good, better, and 
best kinds of the brightest or richest scarlet. The two 
rays next to the centre ray will be planted with the three 
darkest crimson kinds on one side, and the three lightest 
purples on the other side. Then there remain two side- 
rays ; one of them will be the best and nearest to blue, 
and the other the darkest purples from three sections. 
But this quarter being planted tells a tale, an awful fix. 
Why, the very dowdiest colours are in the rays next the 
walks, and just under one’s eye more than any of the 
lively colours. To get out of that fix explains a funda¬ 
mental law which should never be lost sight of at plant¬ 
ing-out time. That law is to plant white flowers only 
where they can throw more light on coloured flowers, so 
to speak. We want more light on the darkest Verbenas 
next to the walks in this arrangement; therefore, we 
shall be within the law if we make one more ray to each 
side of all the quarters, or to the sides next the walks, 
and plant them with white and blush-shaded Verbenas 
until we come to lavender-coloured kinds ; and thus the 
four quarters will include every kind of Verbena that 
is worth planting, and three shades of colour in each 
of the sections which have been enumerated. All the 
strongest colours will be in the centre ray of each 
quarter, and the next agreeing colours come right and 
left of the centre. Thus the whole family will come, as 
it were, under one roof, and each member of the family is 
just in that place where it tells best on the eye, and no¬ 
where else; and not to monopolise the positions of all 
the kinds, I shall leave the three other quarters of the 
wheel to be planted by others who may differ from my 
fancy in such things. All the sections and all the best in 
each section have been given, and now the ground is 
ready, plant and please the planter. Geraniums or Cal¬ 
ceolarias, or both together, might be planted in the very 
same beds in the same way, and so might Petunias. 
That way of planting colours in rays issuing out in all 
directions from a common centre is the most natural 
way that has yet been pointed out. I have seen many 
attempts and instances of that way forcing themselves, 
as it were, on designers whose plans have been sent for 
judgment; but none of them were without accessory 
beds, or so complete and yet so simple as this. 
But about the idea of the wheel pattern. One now 
lies before me, coloured, and done to Euclid. It is in 
the centre of a composition flower garden, and there are 
only eight spokes to the wheel in the shape of eight fan- 
beds, radiating from the centre box, and their narrow 
ends fixed to it. The axle-box is a large circle of the 
Golden Chain, which is raised one foot above the level 
of the fan-beds with Larch-stakes driven in the ground 
