THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
1.42 
too, our Tulip bed giving more promise than ever before, 
notwithstanding it was a Petunia bed, and one of the 
gayest of the gay, for four months of the past summer. 
Thus a double purpose was effected. First, a. gorgeous 
display of the most beautiful of all annuals, the Petu¬ 
nia. Second, the protection the Petunia gave the 
Tulips from the summer sun, affording the bulbs a 
natural and needed rest. This summer we shall use 
the same bed for our Gaillardias, which will shade the 
ground as^completely, and be quite as useful flower¬ 
ing plants, not only for garden display, but as cut- 
flowers for the decoration of the house—a purpose for 
which we know of nothing more appropriate'. . 
In arranging our gardens, let us re-iterate the state¬ 
ments often made before, viz.: Do not plant too great a 
variety, either in one bed, or in the same garden. If 
there is but room for one small bed, fill it with the 
plants you most [admire. If you have room for six 
beds, choose six varieties, the colors of which will best 
harmonize. We should, in most cases, especially where 
but little money is to be spent, recommend the use of 
the more delicate annuals ; they give a greater abund¬ 
ance of flowers, and of the kinds most desirable for 
bouquets and vases, and their forms and colors harmon¬ 
ize better than the more popular bedding-out plants. 
In our plea for annuals we would not neglect bedding 
plants, and we would also urge hardy perennials, herba¬ 
ceous plants, including bulbs of all denominations and 
the Gladiolus in particular, which is our favorite 
flower, and one particularly well adapted to the shrub¬ 
bery border, or to be mixed with hardy plants. We 
find they do better in such positions than when planted 
in the open border, where they have the direct influ¬ 
ence of the sun. We prefer a border about half filled 
with hardy plants, and the remaining spaces filled 
with annuals, bulbs or bedding-plants, so arranged, 
that while there is a great variety, there is a perfect 
harmony of color. By such an intermixture, a great 
deal of pleasure is secured, without much labor or 
expense. 
The disposition of flowers, with a view of producing 
a good effect when in blossom, or when the plants are 
grown simply for the beauty of their foliage, is a matter 
of individual taste, and, with the means now at hand, 
there is ample opportunity for variety. It is difficult, 
indeed, to produce other than a good effect with such 
beautiful material. Set patterns in gardening we do 
not admire, unless the work is on a very large scale and 
well done, which makes it an expensive, operation. In 
arranging our flower-beds or borders, we should always 
be guided by a regard to the relative positions which 
their colors occupy in forming harmonious combi¬ 
nations, so that they may, when in perfection, resemble 
a well-arranged bouquet or disii of flowers. By familiar 
observation of their colors in beds, both the eye and the 
taste may be cultivated till we learn to love and appre¬ 
ciate color, and instinctively, as it were, to combine 
them with the pleasantest effect. A bouquet or dish of 
flowers so arranged that all their colors show to the best 
advantage is rarely seen. Flowers are too often mixed 
confusedly, so that there is no distinct character ob¬ 
tained, and the eye gets no healthy excitement. Ar¬ 
range your flowers always so that one decided color 
shall predominate in the whole, and also be massed in 
one particular place; then contrast with the principal 
mass of color those colors best calculated to relieve and 
•show it to the best advantage. 
This may seem more like bouquet-making than gar¬ 
dening, but the same rule applies to both, for what is a 
garden but an immense bouquet, one where the flowers 
are constantly changing, first one color, then another, 
yet, ever in the most perfect harmony. 
We often think that no arrangement in the border is the 
best arrangement, one where hardy plants have been pro¬ 
vided with places, as they came to hand. At first they 
were widely scattered, but later on our dear friends are 
near friends, living so closely together that they can 
extol each other’s virtues and sympathize with each 
other when suffering from drought or neglect—so close 
that it is difficult to tell where one belongs, so kindly do 
they sustain each other and mingle their various forms 
and colors. We like these mixed, irregular borders, 
mostly filled with hardy plants, for where a careful 
selection is made, there is a continual feastjfor the eye 
from the time the first Crocus smilesjipon us in March, 
until the fringed Gentian is seen peeping out of its 
snow-covered bed. 
A border of this kind will not take care of itself, any 
more than will any other flower bed; in fact, it requires 
more attention, as nothing suffers so much from neglect 
as beauty. The more beautiful the object, the more beau¬ 
tiful should be its surroundings, and greater will be the 
care and labor required to have all harmonize. Beauty 
in all its forms, to be beautiful, must be clean and well- 
dressed, and nowhere more than in the flower-garden, 
where every object is subject to the will of its owner. 
Where flowers are indigenous they take'care of them¬ 
selves, and are always ten times more beautiful than 
when introduced or incorporated into soils and situa¬ 
tions uncongenial to their natures. Therefore in the 
mixed border constant care will be required to keep 
each plant in its place, to prevent it from crowding its • 
neighbor; the weak must be protected and encouraged, 
and the strong shorn of its strength, that it may respect 
the rights of the more humble and lowly. 
The matter of laying out a garden is of but little im¬ 
portance when compared with the work that is to be 
bestowed upon it. The first should show a delicacy of 
taste, which will lead every arrangement aright. Then 
comes the labor of love—the care—for if plants are not 
watched and tended by some person that loves the work, 
it were better the garden were never made: in which 
case there would have been no deaths from neglect—the 
saddest of all the causes of death. 
THE OXALIS. 
This interesting genus comprises a great number of growth. Some are annuals, some herbaceous peren- 
species, differing widely in the habits and manner of nials, some greenhouse shrubs. Many of the species 
