2) aie THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
A writer in “The Florists’ Exchange’ 
makes some capital suggestions upon lay- 
ing out a garden. 
. The Prosperous Florist—As in all 
other lines of trade, be it shoes, clothes, 
hardware, seeds, or groceries, the pros- 
perous merchant is the wideawake, pro- 
gressive. one, the one who leads his 
customers on by keeping the newest, most 
useful, and approved materials, and show- 
ing them in such an attractive way that. 
the public see their utility at once and. 
cannot help buying them. The dawdler 
will always get left. . It is the same in 
the florist business. 
Your Own~ Home.—First of ail, let 
everything about your own home be as 
spic and span as possible. Let the fence 
next the street bein perfect repair and 
painted, and the gate properly hung. Let 
the path leading from the street into your 
yard be even, unbroken by rut or rain, 
and dry and fit to walk on at all times. 
This costs nothing, and it gives an air of 
thrift and neatness that at once inspires 
confidence. 
If the bit of grass lawn in front of your 
hhouse is a rich green carpet, free from 
weeds and smoothly mown, the people will 
want a lawn at their own homes just like 
yours, and buy their grass seed from you, 
and maybe have you lay down the lawns 
fur them. Your lawn advertises your 
grass, be it good or bad. 
Climbers.—Up the pillars of your front 
porch you may have Crimson Rambler 
Roseg; enclosing the verandah screens of 
Japan Honteysuckle or Clematis pani- 
culata, or Chinese Wistaria trained around 
under the eaves and up the gable, each in 
itself of perfect form and appropriate in 
place. Some folks come in who want 
climbers but don’t know what they want, 
and don’t know the name of any climber, 
but right here on your porch they see 
exactly what they need, and buy it. 
As Seen from the Street—Let your 
place have a-mighty pretty, cosy, attrac- 
tive appearance from the street. <A 
naked place is always repugnant. Step 
out on to the street and look in and study 
the situation. Now you want to hide 
from the street everything that looks ugly 
and unkempt. You may need a long 
stretch of dwarf shrubs to hide the bare 
side walls of the greenhouse; a gentle 
kink in the road and some bushes there to 
shut out the sight of the dump pile ab 
the far end; some little trees or strong 
shrubs ‘to screen off the sight) of your 
neighbor’s cowyard at the back, and so on. 
Then study how to mold or accentuate its 
beauty. Don’t crowd up everything in 
front; that’s bad taste. Of course, you 
cannot afford to lay out your place as a 
pretentious landscape garden. Yours is a 
commercial place, and you have got to dis- 
play your wares to the best advantage and 
in the least space consistent with good 
taste, further, in such a way as to require. 
little expense in maintenance. 
What to Plant—In your front ground 
plant only such things as grow well and. 
look well at all times; never plant any- 
thing of a rough, rubbishy, miffy, or un- 
decided character. And I don’t like to 
see ordinary annuals in such a garden; 
there is a place for all uncertainties and 
ephemeral things in the nursery rows. 
In the front yard, even of bedding plants, 
have enough of each kind to make a de- 
cided impression, even if you limit the 
kinds. As every place has an indivi- 
duality of its own, no definite general plan 
can, be given. ; 
Some people buy tree peonies, and, not 
knowing anything about them, 
their plants to grow as big) as an oak or an 
elm, and then swear like thunder when 
they find the “trees” are only little bushes, 
and declare they have been swindled. 
But if these folks had seen the “tree” 
peonies in growth and bloom in the sam- 
ple ground before they bought them, 
there would be no apparent deception any: 
where, no dissatisfaction, and no kick 
coming. 
How to Plant.—For my own part I pre- 
fer a long curving undulating front line, 
even if the back be dead straight and up 
against the boundary fence. The: trees 
and taller shrubs at back, the lesser shrubs 
in front of them, and hardy perennials 
along the front margin. But don’t plant 
these with the slope of shingles on a roof, 
or the precision of cabbage plants in a 
truck garden. So arrange everything 
that all of the plants will have plenty of 
room for several years’ development, and 
each specimen will appear perfect, open 
and free in its individuality. 
To Cover all Seasons.—We should have 
shrubs in bloom or ornamental fruit the 
whole season round, and the same in the 
case of perennials. 
Trees.—There is room for only small 
growing trees and such as bloom early in 
life, as the Japan pyruses, dogwood, 
kelreuteria, white fringe, Betchel’s crab, 
red bud, double-flowered cherries, haiw- 
thorns, and the like. One of each is 
enough, and by judicious pruning they can. 
be kept in small bounds for years. 
Shrubs.—In arranging th'ese just one of 
‘a Kind, or a group of a kind, may be 
planted, but always keep all of the plants 
of a genus together. For instance, group 
all of the Spirzas together, the same with 
Lilacs, Magnolias, Azaleas, &c., no matter 
what’s their season of blooming. But 
they needn’t be bunched together; they 
may be in and out with neighboring 
shrubs. When first planted the shrubs 
will be small and not need a quarter of 
the room necessary for them in later years, 
but you can plant doubly thick to begin 
with and thin out in a year or two. Or, 
pending the filling up closely of the space 
allotted to the shrubs, you can plant a few 
choice Cannas or Japan Lilies between 
the shrubs. 
Hardy Perennials—In this show border 
have only a clump or sample of a kind, 
just enough’ to show decidedly what sort 
of a plant it is, but I prefer a small clump. 
For instance, one plant of Adonis, or one 
Liatris, or one Speciosum Lily, or one 
Columbine would have an impoverished 
look all alone by itself; on the other 
hand, a dozen Adonis, a bunch of Liatris, a 
trate my meaning. 
expect - 
May 2, 1904 
clump-of Lilies, a group of ‘Columbines, 
and so on would impress the glory and 
beauty of these gems on any tyro. Let 
all of these perennials be of a permanent, 
good-looking appearance, éven when not 
in flower. Iris, Peonies, Spireas, Ever- 
green Candytuft, Scabios, _Pyrethrum, 
Pentstemon, Veronica, and Funkiai illus- 
But there are several 
indispensable kinds that must find a-place 
here that are bare or rubbishy part of the 
year, such as Bleeding Heart, Delphinium, 
and Doronicum. Let these clumps occur 
between shrubs, or be fronted’ with other 
free-growing plants, so that wh'en they are 
cut down after blooming the plants in 
front of them will so fall around the 
empty space as to practically hide it. - 
A selection of plants .for this show 
border should cover the whole year im 
the matter of flowers. We can begin 
with the double-flowered~ Hepaticas, 
Adonis, Siberian Saxifrage, Golden Alys- 
sum, Moss Pink, White Rock Cress, Iris, 
and pass on through Columbines, Sea 
Thrift, Siberian and other Ponies, Bell- 
flowers, German Irises, Anthericum, 
Coreopsis, Gaillardia, the finer Speedwells, 
Pyrethrum, Newman’s Rudbeckia, Kemp- 
fer’s Irises, Delphiniums, Lilies, Yucca, 
Phloxes, Funkias, Scabios, low-growing 
Helianthus, Monkshood, Japan’ Anemone, 
Physostegia, Pink Sedum, Tritomas, 
Tricyrtis, and many more. 
In this border I would not have plants 
of a fast spreading growth, as Peark 
achillea, Coronilla varia, or Lysimachia 
clethroides; or plants that would have to 
be staked to look well, as Clematis recta ; 
or plants that would become a nuisance 
from self-sown seedlings, as Heliopsis 
Pitcheri or spider-worts; or plants of 
coarse appearance, as Symphitum or 
‘Cephalaria, or common back-yard plants, 
as Tawny Day, Lily, and Bocconia. There 
is a place for every one of these out mm 
your regular nursery patch. 
Extra Blossoms.—And as you introduce 
a few Cannas and Lilies between the 
shrubs to maintain and prolong the bright-~ 
ness and floral beauty of the border, you 
can do the same among the perennials by 
planting clumps of bulbs here and. there 
where they will do the most good and be 
the most appropriate. For instance, 
groups of Ismene, Tigridias, Tuberoses, 
Lilies, Tuberous Begonias, or ever 
Gladiolus. Never mind the foreign effect 
these auxiliaries may have. And there 
isn’t an amateur in the country who can- — 
not grow these bulbous plants just as well 
as youor Lean. Amateurs crave to know 
these things, and they will buy the bulbs 
and be glad to get them and plant them 
if you'll only show them what they are 
good for. In one minute’s glance at a 
border of this sort there is more indelible 
information to an amateur than you could 
give him in an hours talk, or an essay im 
print. 
And it is just as sure as preaching that 
the townspeople will go to the wideawake, 
progressive florist where they can see 
something and learn something as well as 
buy something, rather than be bothered 
