HARDY HERBACEOUS PERENNIALS. 
PART II. 
Their Arrangement in Mixed Borders. 
It is impossible to suggest any plan in the arrange¬ 
ment of the flower garden that can be generally adopted, 
as so much depends upon the size, form and situation 
of the plot to be ornamented, and its natural advantages, 
that it is not easy, if it is even possible, to put on paper 
iustructions for planting a mixed border on a definite 
plan, as too many details are involved in the matter 
to admit of its being made intelligible. To a great 
extent the selection and arrangement of plants is a 
matter of individual taste. Our best gardens are filled 
with plants selected with the one object only, the gra¬ 
tification of the owner’s taste; and'where flowers are 
grown to gratify the eye, there will be as many tastes 
to please as there are gardens to plant, but in planting 
there are some general principles to be understood, the 
application of which, can be universally practiced. 
The first, and most important point is, that the border 
should be so arranged and composed of such materials 
as to be more or less replete with interest at all points 
and at all times, if not with flowers, at least in foliage 
and in diversity of individual aspect. In order to be 
able to bring about this result, the planter must know 
the plants, their height, color, habit, their general ap¬ 
pearance at all seasons, and the time of their flowering, 
and the duration of the flowers, of the different vari¬ 
eties. Skill and taste in grouping must do the rest. It 
should be remembered that plants must be graceful to 
be beautiful, and that a graceful form is a perfect one. 
An object to look graceful must look natural; it must 
not be tied out of shape, on the contrary, let every plant 
in the border have sufficient room for its natural develop¬ 
ment, and see that there is no impertinent interference 
of art in its growth. Don’t make a trailing- plant climb, 
or a climbing-plant trail; neither trim up a shrub to 
assume a tree form, nor cripple a tree by “cutting 
back ” until it becomes a shrub. No more plants should 
be selected than will be sufficient to fill the border 
without crowding, even, after they have attained their 
stature. Harmony of color and harmony of form, and 
agreeable contrasts of both, are of the greatest import¬ 
ance in the arrangement of plants in the herbaceous 
border. Without these harmonies there will be no 
pleasing effects. Although our writing is to encourage 
an acquaintance with hardy perennial plants, yet we 
would not recommend their exclusive use in the mixed 
border, their appropriate home. It might not be possi¬ 
ble in many localities to make a selection of hardy 
perennials, alone capable of keeping up a lively interest 
in the garden from March until December. Neither can 
that interest be kept up without them. They are the 
essential groundworks of a good garden, and are the 
only plants that give flowers in early spring, and for 
many weeks in autumn, after the frost has killed the 
more tender forms. Good annuals and bedding-plants 
are invaluable materials in the arrangement of the 
mixed border for summer flowers, and their use cannot 
be dispensed with. They should, however, be regarded 
as aids, not chiefs, and be allotted their position in the 
garden according to rank. Annuals are particularly 
useful to take the place of spring-flowering bulbs, 
when started in the hot-bed or in the house, they will 
be nearly ready to flower by the time the weather is 
warm enough for them to be transferred to the border, 
which is about the same time the Tulips and Hyacinths 
have lost their beauty, thus keeping up a succession of 
bloom the entire season. 
Spring-flowering plants, owing to their usually low 
stature, should, as a rule, be planted at the front of the 
mixed border; and in so far as concerns many of the 
fibrous-rooted evergreen and deciduous species, the 
practice should be the same. But with regard to spring¬ 
flowering bulbs, there does not appear to be any reason 
why they should be crowded to the front of borders in 
the same way, notwithstanding they are, in most cases 
of a dwarf habit. Their foliage is in the way for only 
a short period of the season, and may often be removed 
earlier than it is without injury to the plants. The 
advantages that would be obtained, therefore, by 
planting them in the spaces between the summer¬ 
flowering plants all over the border are very obvious; 
the fringy and irregular appearance in spring that re¬ 
sults from the practice of crowding flowers of that 
period to the front of the border would be done away 
with, and every part of the surface unoccupied with 
dormant plants might be as richly varied and beautiful 
then as at any other period. 
To sum up the arrangement of the herbaceous border 
in a few words, we would say—so arrange the hardy 
plants that there will be at-all times a happy blending 
of form and color—so that there will be a continuous 
change of bloom without effecting the harmony of 
color. In this arrangement there will not be found 
large masses of color, rather, pleasant clumps of flowers 
constantly changing form and position, yet, ever pre¬ 
senting the most perfect harmony. The annuals and 
bedding-plants should be so intermixed as to produce 
the same effect. 
CULTURE OF HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
It seems almost impossible to convince those who 
most earnestly desire to grow flowering-plants, that 
their culture does not differ materially from that of any 
other vegetable form, or that they require any differ¬ 
ent soil for their development. We can only state what 
we have repeatedly stated before, that any soil or situ¬ 
ation that will yield good crops of vegetables or grains, 
will do equally well for flowering-plants. Depth and 
the mechanical condition of the soil is of much more 
impoi’tance than the chemical composition to the great 
majority of the hardy perennials, and it is to those two 
points that attention should be mainly directed when 
preparations are being entered upon for their culture. 
The ground should be dug deeply if it will admit of it, 
and if not, as much should be done as is possible under 
the circumstances to add to the depth. If the ground 
is thin and gravelly—and these two conditions very 
generally accompany each other—good loam or clay 
should be added to the fullest extent practicable, incor¬ 
porating carefully the new with the old soil in the pro- 
