OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLOWER GARDEN. Previous to forming a Flower Garden, the ground should be made mellow and rich, by being well pulverised, manured, and prepared in every respect as if intended for a Kitchen Garden. A Flower Garden should be protected from cold cutting winds by close fences, or plantations of shrubs, forming a close and compact hedge, which should be neatly trimmed every year. Generally speaking, a Flower Garden should not be upon a large scale; the beds or borders should in no part of them be broader than the cultivater can reach to, without treading on them: the shape and number of the beds must be determined by the size of the ground, and the taste of the person laying out the garden. Much of the beauty of a pleasure garden depends on the manner in which it is laid out; a great variety of figures may be indulged in for the Flower bed. Some choose oval or circular forms, others squares, triangles, hearts, diamonds, &c., and intersected winding gravel walks. Neatness should be the prevailing characteristic of a Flower Garden, and it should be so situated as to form an ornamental appendage to the house; and where circumstances will admit, placed before windows exposed to a southern or south-eastern aspect. The principle on which it is laid out ought to be that of exhibiting a variety of colour and form, so blended as to present one beautiful whole. In a small Flower Garden, viewed from the windows of a house, this effect is best produced by beds, or borders formed on the side of each other, and parallel to the windows from whence they are seen, as by that position the colours show themselves to the best advantage. In a retired part of the garden, a rustic seat may be formed, over and around which honey-suckles and other sweet and ornamental creepers and climbers may be trained on trellises, so as to afford a pleasant retirement. Although the greatest display is produced by a general Flower Garden, that is, by cultivating such a variety of sorts in one bed or border, as may nearly insure a constant blooming, yet bulbous plants, while essential to the perfection of the Flower Garden, lose something of their peculiar beauty when not cultivated by themselves. The extensive variety of bulbous roots furnish means for the formation of a garden, the beauty of which arising from an intermixture of every variety of form and colour, would well repay the trouble of cultivation, particularly as by a judicious selection and management, a succession of bloom may be kept up for some length of time. As, however, bulbous flowers lose their richest tints about the time that annuals begin to display their beauty, there can be no well-founded objection to the latter being transplanted into the bulbous beds, so that the opening blossoms of the annuals may fill the place of those just withered, and continue to supply the flower beds with all the gaiety and splendour of the floral kingdom. But the taste of the florist will be exercised to little purpose, in his selection of flowers, if he does not pay strict attention to the general state of his garden. If there are lawns or grass walks, they should be frequently trimmed, and more frequently mowed and rolled, to prevent the grass from interfering with the flower beds, and to give the whole a neat regular carpet-like appearance. If there are gravel walks, they should be frequently cleaned, replenished with fresh gravel, and rolled.. Box and other edgings should be kept clear of weeds, and neatly trimmed every spring. Decayed plants should be removed, and replaced with vigorous ones from the nursery bed. Tall-flowering plants must be supported by neat poles or rods; and all dead stalks and leaves from decayed flowers must be frequently removed. In the summer season, all kinds of insects must be timely destroyed, and in the evenings of warm days, the flowers will require frequent watering. 12 "A CATALOGUE OF ANNUAL FLOWER SEEDS. GRAINES DE FLEURES ANNUELLES. Alkekengi, or Kite Flower, Alyssum Sweet, Amaranthus, three-coloured, Atropa physaloides. Alyssum maritium. Amaranthus tricolor. Amethystea cerulea. Amethyst, blue, Balsamines of various co- Bladder ketmia, Browallia (blue and white,) Centaurea, great American, China asters of various kinds and colours, Chinese mallow, red, Chrysanthemum, white, yellow and tri-eoloured, Cockscomb, crimson and yellow, * Convolvulus, dwarf, Coreopsis, Golden, Cuckold's Horn, (two stami ned,) Martynia diandria. Devil in a Bush, or love in a mist, in varieties, Dew Plant, * Evening Primrose, Eternal flower, yellow, Do. purple, Euphorbia, variegated. Nigella damascena. Messembryanthemum glabrum. Oenothera grandiflora. Xeranthemum lucidum. annum. Euphorbia variegata. Jacobea, or Groundsell, purple Job's Tears, Lavatera, European, * Lupins of various colours, *Marvel of Peru, (or 4 o'clock) * Poppy, officinal white, Pentapetes, scarlet, Sensitive plant, Strawberry Spinach, * Stock Ten Week, or gilli- Touch me not, Senecio elegans and alba. consolidum. Lavatera trimestris. Calendula stellata. Anagallis cerulea indica. Papaver somniferum. Centaurea, var. Cheiranthus annuus. |