262 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL* 
HINTS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
When we reflect that the Flower Garden is one of the prin¬ 
cipal sources of attraction in the pleasure-ground during the 
Summer months, and the most prominent and chief feature in 
all grounds of limited extent, we cannot but feel surprise at the 
very prevalent neglect of some of those things most essential 
to its perfect appearance, which are so conspicuously observable 
both in the formation and management. 
In the formation of flower-gardens people are too apt to be 
led away, by the mere contemplation of the general effect and 
arrangement, from bestowing the proper consideration and 
attention on adapting them for the objects intended to be cul¬ 
tivated in them; forgetting that on this depends, in a large 
measure, the capacity to accomplish the general design of the 
whole. In laying out a flower-garden, then, beyond the con¬ 
sideration and judgment required to preserve harmony with the 
general garden scene, and to render the ground most eligible 
for displaying its floral garnishments to the utmost advantage, 
it is in an equal degree essential to provide those conditions 
which most contribute to the health and fertility of the plants. 
It ought not to be expected, though it commonly is, that the 
gardener, who has all the evils of previous mismanagement in 
the construction of the flower-garden to contend with, should 
be able to compete, in the culture of plants, with those to whom 
every facility is furnished to remedy the natural defects of the 
situation. The question then naturally arises — what are the 
points to which attention is principally requisite? And, in 
order to answer this, we must glance at a few circumstances 
connected with the subject, and necessary to its elucidation. 
And first, by far the largest number of the plants used for the 
parterre at the present day are natives of a much warmer and 
more equable climate than we have in this country, and are 
correspondingly more liable to suffer injury from the sudden 
variations to which they are exposed in the open garden. 
Keeping this before us, it will be evident that the first thing to 
which it is necessary to direct attention is the nature of the 
ground, and the locality, in reference to warmth and humidity. 
It is well known that a wet soil is alw r ays a cold one: and on 
