April 30, 1887. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
558 
BEDDING PLANTS FOR SMALL 
GARDENS. 
The custom of filling the flower beds with suitable 
plants, so as to provide an appropriate display up to 
the time when autumn comes with its disturbing in¬ 
fluences, is one that is not likely to die out among 
amateur gardeners. Still, there does not exist the rage 
for bedding out so noticeable fifteen or twenty years 
ago ; but as villa gardens multiply, and grass lawns 
are laid down with flower beds on them, it is necessary 
they be furnished with something during the summer, 
if not in the spring also. 
The good old useful things which can still be 
employed with the best effect in garnishing flower beds 
during the summer are Pelargoniums—or Geraniums, 
as they are more popularly termed—of varying colours, 
from purple-crimson to pure white; Calceolarias, 
yellow and dark; Verbenas of various colours, and 
dwarf blue Lobelias. With these alone good and 
effective displays can be made, and during the next 
month they can be bought very cheaply, as the adver¬ 
tising columns of The Gardening World show ; in 
fact, a judicious purchaser can obtain a goodly number 
at a comparatively small 
cost. Pelargoniums and 
Calceolarias must be in¬ 
creased by means of cut¬ 
tings, and it is found that 
certain varieties are best 
adapted for bedding out, 
so that these are grown 
largely by those nurserymen 
who make a speciality of 
bedding plants. 
I can name the following 
as good and reliable bedding 
Pelargoniums, viz., Henry 
Jacoby (crimson), Vesuvius 
(scarlet), Master Christine 
(pink) and Snowdrop (white). 
Supposing the amateur who 
grows these in his beds 
during the summer has a 
little greenhouse, he can 
begin to take cuttings at 
the end of July, and propa¬ 
gate a good many plants 
for his own use during the 
summer and autumn ; that 
is, provided he has his 
greenhouse artificially 
heated, and so is able to keep 
the young plants through 
the winter. He who has no 
such convenience for winter¬ 
ing plants, must in the 
spring either buy or beg. 
Happily, the varieties I have 
named can be bought cheaply, 
and so a few dozen plants 
do not cost a great sum. 
The same may be said of 
Lobelias and Verbenas, but he who has a little green¬ 
house can sow seeds in early spring and so supply him¬ 
self with plants. An outlay of a shilling or two will 
procure enough seed of Lobelia and Verbena to raise 
an abundance of plants, and if sown in pans of light 
rich soil and placed on a warm shelf of the greenhouse, 
or stood in a cold frame near the glass, pieces of glass 
being laid over the pans and the latter kept shaded 
from the sun when it is bright and warm, there need be 
no difficulty in raising seedlings ; but the amateur 
must be diligent and attentive to his seeds, keeping 
the surface moist so as to cause them to germinate 
freely. 
Then there is Phlox Drummondii, a good useful 
annual that can be raised from seeds in the same 
manner. How much we owe to Mr. Ernest Benary for 
his fine and improved large-flowered varieties of this 
popular annual ! A bed of well-grown Phlox Drum¬ 
mondii, and especially of that superb variety grandi- 
flora splendens, is better than the best Verbena I am 
acquainted with. This Phlox comes quickly from 
seed, it is also a strong grower, and when the plants 
send forth their leading shoots, as they do vigorously 
when well established, they should be pegged down 
over the beds, so as to fill any vacant space. One 
thing is necessary in the case of Phlox Drummondii— 
it is a plant that seeds freely, and in order to prolong 
the bloom, the decaying trasses of flower should be 
picked off to prevent seed pods being formed. 
Stocks and Asters scarcely make good bedding plants 
when used by themselves, because they do not last in 
bloom all the summer ; but the effectiveness of both 
may be prolonged by cutting away the flowers as they 
decay. Still every amateur should grow a few, because 
while they are in bloom they are so very useful for 
cutting from. Then there is a little dwarf Marigold 
that makes a good summer bed, viz., Tagetes signata 
pumila ; it is yellow-flowered, and lasts a long time in 
bloom. It can be raised from seed, treated in the 
same way as Verbena or Phlox Drummondii. 
Yellow is always a telling colour in a summer flower 
garden. Calceolarias best supply this colour ; but the 
plants are never very cheap, and they are apt to die 
from some cause when planted out, ugly gaps being 
thus formed in the beds. There is a very useful dwarf¬ 
growing Nasturtium, with yellow flowers, that makes 
a good bed. It is known as Tropteolum compactum, 
New Golden, and is very free of bloom ; but, like 
Phlox Drummondii, should not be allowed to go to 
seed. Dwarf Marigold, aurea floribunda, makes a 
good yellow bed also. 
One of the most popular and best known of summer 
bedding plants is the Golden Feather Pyretlirum, with 
its bright yellow foliage, which can be so easily raised 
from seed that if a few were sprinkled on the open 
ground they would socn spring up and make plants. 
Though it produces white flowers, it is best not to 
allow it to bloom, as its yellow foliage is much more 
effective, and it can be used as an edging to taller- 
growing plants, or a bed can be carpeted with it, 
having taller plants growing up out of it. The best 
subjects for summer bedding are those raised from seeds 
sown in March or April, because they do not bloom 
until late in autumn. If some seed be sown in the 
summer—say, in August—plants can be produced that 
will stand out of doors all the winter, and be highly 
effective and gay in the spring. 
Then there are double Zinnias, and Petunias, both 
single and double. Single Petunias especially make 
bright and showy bedding plants, and some hardy 
annuals are good enough to find a place in the flower 
garden. There is the fragrant Mignonette, which 
should be sown less thinly than is usually the ease ; 
Sweet Peas, because so free to flower and so useful for 
cutting from ; the Indian Pink (Diantlius cliinensis), 
with its fine variety Heddewigii, and others that have 
sprung from this last; the annual Chrysanthemums, 
and more especially the white and golden forms of 
C. coronarium ; the double Ranunculus Marigold, and 
its striped variety Meteor ; the white and crimson 
Candytufts, and especially the giant white variety 
named Empress ; the large crimson Malope grandiflora ; 
the pretty blue Nemophila insignis ; and Silene 
pendula compacta. Seeds of these sown thinly in 
the open ground, now that the rain has come, will 
soon grow and make a charming display during the 
summer. Sow thinly in good soil, and a floral treat 
will reward the labour of the sower.— R. D. 
-- 
WELDED AND CAST-IRON 
BOILERS. 
In looking through your valuable paper of Saturday, 
the 16th inst., I notice an illustration with description 
of “The Gunnersbury Boiler,” by Mr. J. Roberts. 
From the account which he gives, and the praises which 
he bestows upon it, one could almost be led to believe 
that there was not another boiler in the market to 
approach near to, much more 
equal it, for efficiency and 
durability. 
The boiler your corre¬ 
spondent describes is one of 
the welded class, and I cer¬ 
tainly am at a loss to know 
why he should claim for his 
boiler greater durability than 
is possessed by the Flue and 
Terminal-end Saddle, Gold 
Medal, Willey Court, or any 
other welded boiler. As to 
being able to get rid of the 
sediment more easily by 
adopting the waterway bot¬ 
tom, that is a small matter 
indeed when considering the 
extra cost of the boiler, 
seeing that the sediment can 
be got rid of in the ordinary 
saddle-form of boiler, by 
having a plug in. to 
in. diameter in each leg 
near the bottom. 
As a rule, the cause of the 
welded boilers giving out so 
soon is in consequence of 
the neglect to take out the 
plugs occasionall} 7 , and draw¬ 
ing out the sediment, which 
can easily be done by insert¬ 
ing a stout piece of wire or 
J-inch round iron, flattened 
at the end to form a small 
hoe. Seeing therefore that 
the accumulation of sedi¬ 
ment in the one boiler is the 
cause generally of its early 
failure, the same cause would apply in the case of the 
“Gunnersbury.” I do not deny that the “Gunners¬ 
bury ” is a powerful one, but not equal to the Improved 
Trentham Cornish with waterway bridge, when set 
with the upper and under flues, as is usual. But when 
there is a large quantity of piping to be heated—say, 
1,500 ft. to 3,000 ft. of 4-in.—I do not think it wise to 
rely upon one powerful boiler, because it is generally at 
a critical time that the boiler gives out, and the whole 
of the crops consequently are at the mercy of, perhaps, 
20° of frost. I would prefer two smaller boilers, set 
side by side, both working into the same main, with 
a screw-down valve on each flow and return from 
boiler, so that in the event of one of the boilers giving 
out at any time, the other one would be sufficient to 
keep up a moderate temperature throughout till the 
other boiler could be replaced, thus preventing serious 
loss, as well as relieving the gardener of much anxiety. 
While, however, I am writing on this subject, I am 
reminded that the plan is being largely adopted by 
nurserymen and other growers throughout the country ; 
but instead of welded boilers, the cast-iron saddle with 
waterway end is being used, and which, I understand, 
are being made and sold in large quantities by the 
Thames Bank Iron Company, of Upper Ground Street, 
S.E., from 20 ins. to 66 ins. long. From what I can 
1. Agaricus (Clitopilus) prunulus, one-third natural size. 2. Agarieus (Stropliaria) feruginosus, one-third natural size. 
3. Cortinarius (Phlegmacium) fulgens, one-third natural size. 4. Cortinarius (Myxacium) collinitus, one-fifth natural size. 
5. Hygrophorus pratensis, one-third nat. size. 6. Tremellodon gelatinosuin, one-third nat. size; detail of spines, twice nat. size, 
