4 —— 
A WELL LAID-OUT GARDEN.* 
The following description of a well laid 
out garden contains most of the informa- 
tion that a gardener will look for to guide 
him in his operations this month. The 
garden is too large for the average cottager, 
but the beds can be formed in number and 
size to suit the ground to be operated upon. 
It is written by M. Hawthorne for the 
“Gardener,” and will bear careful study. 
A. well laid out garden is undoubtedly. 
what the poet called “a thing of beauty” 
and a “joy for ever.” In summer it is glo- 
rious with color and sweet with perfume, 
of course, but even in the depths of winter 
its formation’ is attractive. ; 
Such a well laid out garden. is the one 
that I shall now describe. It is an elabo- 
rate combination of lawns, and quite an 
unusual number of flower beds. The chief 
walk is very wide; from its sides rise thin. 
iron pillars, painted white to match the 
stone walls that divide the principal lawns 
from the broad path which, in its turn, is 
flanked by scalloped ‘borders, in one of 
which grow the climbing Roses that adorn 
the house. These thin iron pillars are con- 
nected by chains that droop gracefully, and 
are garlanded with many Clematises. The 
two paths farther on are ornamented at 
their ends by similar chains, pillars, and 
Clematises. 
The chief walk conducts the visitor to a 
rockery of circular form, in which rare 
Alpines flourish, the rocky wall forming the 
outside to'a marble basin and fountain. 
Around the principal lawns are diamond 
shaped beds; each. small one contains a 
Standard Rose tree, with different carpet- 
ing plants in each, representing all the ex- 
cellent varieties of Pinks, Alpine Phloxes, 
Myosotis, Silenes, Violas, and others too 
numerous to mention. The two longer beds 
(with diamond pointed ends) are spanned 
by wire hoops, upon which Clematises are 
trained. The larger diamond beds are re- 
served for bedding out effeots of the best 
possible deseription; Hyacinths are suc- 
ceeded by Ivy-leaved Geraniums and. Be- 
gonias, and tiny evergreen shrubs keep the 
plaices between the Hyacinth bulbs pretty 
all winter, the Crocus, Snowdrop, and yel- 
low Aconite borderings beginning early to 
be -gay.. / Ce taee 
Ten beds are never without their Pan- 
sies, of giant sorts, the best named Fanctes ; 
when a plant fails in summer it is-cun- 
ningly replaced by a younger one, so that 
the succession of blossom is maintained. 
Beds in the lawn’s rounded corners are fill- 
ed with dwarf Tea Roses, as are also the 
large beds down the side walks, the inter- 
vening diamonds being Tulip -beds in 
spring, and yielding displays of Fuchsias, 
Heliotropes, Verbenas, Geraniums, Lilies, 
and Carnations in summer. Each, during 
winter, has one or more ornamental ever- 
preen shrubs for centrepieces. ‘ 
The stonewalls are*made so that they 
have five stone baskets as summits along 
each; from these baskets are Ivy-leaved 
Geraniums, Lobelias, Fuchsias, and many 
lovely flowers hang down, a small kind of 
Palm being the centre of each. The bor- 
ders beneath are also well cared for, being 
under the house windows. Wallfi6wers 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER, 
and Myosotis, Anemones fulgens, pulsatilla, 
blanda, arid Hepatica, Daffodils, Narcissi, 
Tulips, and -Crocuses are to be seen here 
before Cannas, Nicotianas, Calceolarias, 
and Begonias. The borders nearest the 
house are terminated at the steps by lar- 
ger stone baskets or pedestals. — 
Continuing the chief walk ‘we come to 
two scroll shaped borders, which aire 
closely planted with Hybrid Perpetual, 
Tea, H. Tea, Moss, Polyantha, and Fairy 
Roses, Teas pegged down covering the earth 
most satisfactorily. This same Rose mass- 
ing is carried out in the large bed in the 
furthest centre lawn; the four round beds 
have Standard Rose trees only, above 
Violas, the Roses being pink, the Violas 
golden, while ‘the lesser rounds, with scal- 
loped edges, hold three Standard yellow 
Roses each, above purple Violas. 
In the side lawns are five beds of Carna- 
tions, with four diamonds of Pinks. A 
bed in which early flowering Chrysanthe- 
mums are alternated with Phloxes and 
Madonna Lilies, with a bordering of 
Violettas; a bed on each side lawn for 
dwarf Gaillardias; four beds on each serve 
to show how lovely are the tints of Tom 
Thumb Nasturtiums, after Crocuses are 
over. ; 
There are two white painted iron seats 
in front of the Herbaceous border, this be- 
ing chiefly representative of Delphiniums, 
Tritonias, and Starworts in great variety, 
Michaelmas Daisies being, of course, in- 
cluded. The waved border, on the right- 
hand side, is wide enough to show flower- 
ing shrubs as well as perennial plants. The 
border on the opposite side of the garden 
has more flowering shrubs, surrounded by 
biennials—Canterbury Bells, Scabiouses, 
and Sweet Williams. All the beds in gravel 
are box edged, and so are the borders. 
Behind the borders on the two sides rise 
white “painted, 6-ft. trellises, over which 
Roses, Clematises, and other climbers 
ramble; at the end of the garden is a 6-ft. 
wall, against which some fan trained fruit 
trees prove that they can beautify the 
flower garden. 
ANNUALS. 
In a paper upon “Annuals,” Mr. A. Mc- 
Donald gives some interesting information. 
Annuals are generally <understood to be 
plants that grow up, yield their seed, and 
perish the same season in which they are 
sown. The term annual, though popular, 
is not by any means correct as applied to 
plants. Applied) to many things it is simple 
and clear, but when you apply it to plants 
you get out of a clear atmosphere into a 
thick fog.” It is quite possible to get two or 
three cropsof what are called annuals in one 
year, and on the other hand individuals of 
these same’sorts of plants may live under 
slightly altered conditions any number of 
years. Plants are living things having no 
fixed period of life whatever only what the 
conditions bring about. What is an annual 
in one place is a perennial in another place, 
or even in the. same place under altered con- 
ditions. Take, for example, the well-known 
plant the Mignonette. In all the catalo- 
gues—Colomiai, English, French, and Ger- 
man—the plant is put down ag a hardy 
SEPTEMBER ,7, 1904: 
annual. Now, you may get two-or three 
crops of it in one year; and on the other 
band Engtish—and I should say Continen- 
tal gardeners as  well—grow plants. of it 
into nice bushes, and some of thém: live 
over several years by keeping them under 
artificial conditions. In North Africa, 
where the plant is, I believe, native, it 
grows into woody shrubs. 
The more you . 
try to-get a clear idea of what an. annual” 
plant really is the more foggy the wholé 
thing becomes. 
and fast line can be drawn 
nuals and perennials. 
Mankind cultivates plants because they 
are useful to him, and in the front -rank » 
for usefulness, far ahead of -all. the other 
cultivated piants, stand the few annuals 
which form the chief food of man; and 
it is remarkable that out of the immense 
number of plants in the vegetable kingdom. 
there should be so few found capable of tak- © 
ing even a secondary place against the old - 
ones handed down to us from remote times. 
Our present high civilization, great in 
many things, perhaps, cannot boast of in- 
troducing into any good food plant like 
wheat or rice. It is highly probable, I 
think, that the first plants that ever were 
cultivated by primitive man were annuals, 
as their cultivation is of the easiest and 
simplest kind. To sow seed, and reap a crop 
in a jew months, does not require a very 
large amount of intelligence, although it is 
evident it could only be done by man, there 
is no evidence that the apes do anything of 
the kind, as far as I know. But if our civi- 
lization has not introduced into cultivation 
any good new food plant, it cannot be said 
that it has tailed in introducing numbers 
cultivated for pleasure. In our times it hag 
grown up to be almost a necessity that 
people should have flowers in their gardens, 
and even in their houses, and to supply 
these wants tnere has been at least a good 
try; and in this line I don’t think that 
annuals take the place they do in the food. 
producing plants, what are called peren- 
nials seem to assert their claim to conside- 
ration. Although there have been a veny 
great many introductions, there is not such 
a very great number of whait are really well 
known popular flowers, which mostly every- 
body knows, and everybody wants to see in 
their season.. Amongst these are a lot of 
perennials which flower the first season ; 
and iv has become the almost universal. 
practice to grow these as annuals. Where . 
that is practicable, it is the most satisfac- 
tory for various reasons. Seedling plants 
generally crow away freer and better than. 
offsets or cuttings. Seedlings give a better 
chance of improvement or variation, in any 
particular direction. While young they do 
not take up much room, as a good number 
can be raised up to a certain size in a small 
place, and when done flowering they can. be 
put away out of the way at once, as all 
that is wanted is a bit of seed to begin 
again. I refer at present to plants cul- 
tivated a good deal in pots—Chinese Pri- 
mulas, Cinerarias, Calceolarias, Mimulus— 
these seem to keep their place against all 
comers. They are popular mostly every- 
where, and they do remarkably well 
in our climates, 
especially Primulas . 
Tt is the conditions which’ * 
seem to determine the issue, and-no hard ° 
between an-: ' 
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