April 25, 1908. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
287 
Useful plower Garden Beds. 
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HINTS ON PLANTING. 
(See also -pages 281 and 282; also the Gardening World for April 18th .) 
A Four-Pointed Bed. 
This may be regarded as a variant from 
the square bed, and is most suitable for 
dwarf plants, as it may be of small size 
and the long points cannot be of any 
great width, unless, indeed, the bed is a 
large one. Those who would like to try 
their hand at carpet bedding could em¬ 
ploy some plants of dwarf habit that are 
easy to raise and grow. The centre 
could have an American Aloe of a size to 
suit the bed, or an Echeveria gibiflora 
m'etallica. This could be surrounded by 
a circle of Dell’s Black Beet or Iresine 
Lindeni with dark purple leaves. The 
body of the bed could then be filled with 
seedling plants of Tagetes signata 
pumila pinched at intervals, so as to keep 
it down to a height of 2 in. or 3 in. The 
finely-cut, light green leaves are very 
pretty. An edging of Echeveria secunda 
glauca would finish off the bed. 
- A*A - 
A Circular Bed. 
The circular bed is rather too common 
a type, but it has its uses and often fits in 
conveniently in designs. They may be 
made in any size to suit the convenience 
of the garden, and in this case we would 
call the attention of our readers to the 
plan of laying out the beds before they 
commence planting. The lines are, of 
course, first drawn at the proper width 
for the plants intended to be grown. The 
space for each plant should be measured 
off with a measuring rod. The owner can 
then tell what number of plants are re¬ 
quired to be taken from the frames or 
elsewhere, so that only the requisite num¬ 
ber need be brought out. This system of 
marking also induces the grower to pro¬ 
ceed systematically and arrange the 
plants with regularity, so that the bed 
may have a well regulated appearance 
when planting is finished. A trowel 
should be used for planting as being most 
convenient and not likely to undo the 
markings. 
The central area may have a Castor 
Oil plant to break the monotony of, a flat 
bed. A healthy specimen should be em¬ 
ployed, and it will completely fill the area 
represented. This might, "be made a 
Pelargonium bed. The dark line round 
the Castor Oil plant could be filled with 
the largest plants of some white-flowered 
Pelargonium. Old plants lifted from the 
beds in the previous autumn would suit 
this, the object being to ^make the bed 
highest in the centre. This may be fol¬ 
lowed by a line of some pink Pelar¬ 
gonium. The third line may be planted 
with some salmon-flowered Pelargonium, 
such as Surprise. The fourth line may 
be planted with the scarlet Pelargonium 
Paul Crampel. It will thus be seen that 
the darkest colour is kept on the outside 
• of the bed, gradually becoming paler to¬ 
wards the centre. 
A well-balanced finish to this bed would 
be a double edging, the inner one being 
Pelargonium Crystal Palace Gem, which 
has yellow foliage. The flowers are of no 
importance, and usually are kept off 
foliage varieties. The outer dotted line 
could be planted with Pelargonium Mme. 
Salleroi, a very dwarf, compact growing 
variety with white edges to the leaves, 
and which has never been known to 
flower. 
A Circular Bed, marked out for the 
plants. 
An Oblong Bed. 
In most cases we are in favour of simple 
designs, and to indicate what we mean by 
some-simple combination of plants and 
contrast of colours, we select this oblong 
bed for the.purpose. After raking it per¬ 
fectly level the lines should be drawn for 
the subjects to be planted. In this case, 
we should employ Pelargonium Mangle’s 
Variegated, which has broad white edges 
to the leaves and is only of moderate 
height, seeing that the branches are in¬ 
clined to spread rather than stand up. 
Every alternate marking of the-bed could 
be planted with this variety with an equal 
number of some blue Viola between, as 
the blue contrasts- beautifully with the 
silver-white edging of the Pelargonium. 
The Violas spread about and fill all the 
bare spaces on the ground, and their 
flowers, just show amongst the leaves of 
the Pelargoniums. Such varieties as 
Bluebell, True Blue, Admiral of the 
Blue, or Archibald Grant might be em¬ 
ployed. If the cultivator’s taste is for 
.some light colour, then the mauve Maggie 
Mott or the lavender Kitty Bel 1 might be 
employed. A simple edge of blue Lobelia 
would make a suitable finish for this bed. 
An Oblong Bed, marked out for the 
plants. 
- AA¥ - 
A Four-Coned Bed. 
This may be regarded as a variation 
upon a square bed, lightening up what 
would otherwise be very formal. The 
body of the bed in the centre could be 
planted with some white variety of tuber¬ 
ous-rooted Begonia. Two of the angles 
or points could be planted with the 
fibrous-rooted Begonia Crimson Gem and 
the other two with Cor-al Pink, a variety 
belonging to the same class. If the 
planter had a sufficient number of fibrous- 
rooted Begonias he could, indeed, plant 
the whole bed of Crimson Gem, which 
flowers freely, but is most notable for the 
bronzy Crimson colour of the foliage, 
which is always telling whether we get 
a good season or not. 
—AAA - 
School Teachers’ Examination. 
The Royal Horticultural Society will 
hold an examination in cottage and allot¬ 
ment gardening on April 29th in as many 
different places in Great.Britain and Ire¬ 
land as circumstances may demand. 
This examination is intended for and will 
be confined to elementary and technical 
school teachers. 
