32 
A FEW FLOWERS 
The showy beds of bulbs which are to be seen in our public and other gardens, and which come so largely into our 
spring gardens, are familiar to all. The kind of beds suggested here are of a higher and more permanent nature and 
are to be placed in positions where they may be let alone. In visiting the very interesting gardens at Moulton Grange 
last year I saw a bed of Tiger Lilies on a piece of quiet grass, with no other flowers near to mar its beauty. The bed 
was a large oval one, and the color of the finely-grown Lilies was brilliant and effective, seen through the trees and glades. 
In point of color alone, indeed, nothing could be better ; the plants 
were about (> feet high, and told well in the garden landscape, 
while the mass of bloom was profuse. The plants had greatly the 
advantage in habit and form over the usual dwarf type in point of 
color, which, it is claimed, is the strong one in the case of bedding 
plants. Many hardy flowers of the highest beauty have as good 
qualities as regards color if we take the same pains with them. Color 
on a six-foot plant must, in all ordinarily-varied gardens, be more 
effective than on a plant 6 or 12 inches high. Hut this is 
putting the thing in the lowest way, perhaps, for after all flowers 
will be judged of for other reasons, and however strict our judg¬ 
ment or rigid our selection the stronger and finer varieties of the 
Tiger Lily must find a place with us. The bed, it may be remarked, 
was within a few yards of a walk, and one of those little bits of turf 
which occur by most shrubberies, so that it could be easily examined 
near at hand. It is, perhaps, better so placed, because other plants 
of varying height and character were not brought near to confuse 
or weary the eye. There, in a large circular or oval bed, it can 
get exactly the culture good for it, and should the plant become 
tired of the spot, removing it to another home and replacing it with 
some plant of wholly different character is easy and simple. Among 
the most lovely beds it is possible to imagine are those of the nobler 
Lilies in quiet, sheltered spots. The plan admits of splendid variety, 
too — of the great hardy kinds alone; of the varieties of one 
species, say of the Lancifolium Lily, grouped together ; or of the 
finer species mixed. Then, another series of good combinations 
arise from intermingling Lilies with the finer Irises, surfacing and acositum. (monk’s hood.) 
edging the beds with spring flowers. Among Irises, Iris reticulata 
is, I reiterate, one of the loveliest of spring flowers, with its gold and purple violet-scented blossoms as brave as 
Snowdrops. 
Bulbs in the Shrubbery. —Here the opportunities may be large for the use of the hardier and handsomer bulbs. 
The present overcrowded mode of forming a shrubbery should be given up by all who care for the beauty of shrubs 
and low trees. The many fine things among our hardy shrubs, and the good climate we enjoy in which to grow them, 
should make us care more about these. Grow them better, let each form a specimen, or a group, under the conditions 
best for it, the plants not mutilated, but well grown and furnished to the ground. Under such conditions they can never 
touch each other, because merely to enjoy the beauty of their form and allow each to assume its natural shape it would 
be necessary to have spaces between, such as do not occur in what I call the “choke-muddle shrubbery.” Those spaces 
may be alive with bulbous flowers, carefully chosen, hardy, and beautiful. Any wide belt of shrubbery might be made 
into the most delightful type of garden, varied, broken, and not dug on the edge ; not stiff in any part ; full of flowering 
things as well as beautiful evergreens ; the turf spreading in among them here and there, and shade loving, or shelter loving, 
with many kinds of bulbs happy among them, and all the better for their companionship and mutual occupation of the same 
soil. 
Flowers in the Grass. —Look, for instance, at the wide and bare belts of grass that wind in and around the 
shrubberies in nearly every country place ; frequently they never betray a particle of plant beauty and are merely places to 
be roughly mown now and then. But if planted here and there with the Snowdrop, the Japan Anemone, the Crocus, 
Scillas and Narcissi, they would in spring surpass in attractiveness the gayest of spring gardens. Cushioned among the 
grass, these would have a more congenial medium to unfold than is offered by the beaten, sticky earth of a border ; in the 
grass of spring, their natural bed, they would look far better than ever they do when arranged on the bare earth of a 
garden. Once carefully planted, they — while an annual source of the greatest interest — occasion no trouble whatever. 
1 heir leaves die down so early in the spring that they would scarcely interfere with the mowing of the grass, if that were 
desired, but I would not attempt to mow the grass until the season of vernal beauty had quite passed by. Surely it is 
enough to have a portion of lawn as smooth as a carpet at all times without sending the mower to shave the “ long and 
pleasant grass of the other parts of the grounds. It would indeed be worth while to leave many parts of the grass 
unmown for the sake of growing many beautiful plants in it. Here every flower is relieved by grass blades and green 
leaves, the whole devoid of any trace of man or his exceeding weakness for tracing wall-paper patterns where everything 
should be varied, indefinite and changeful. 1 he prettiest results are only obtainable where the grass need not be mown 
till nearly the time the meadows are mown. Then we may have gardens of Narcissi, such as man never dared to dream 
