Introduction to the
Victorian Flower Garden (5)

From the 'Handy Book of the Flower-Garden' (1868) by David Thomson

>  First page of Introduction to the Victorian Flower Garden

It is not by any means vain to hope that there are yet much grace and elegance - we have no lack of colour - to be added to our parterres. Already something that is at least suggestive has been attempted in a very few favoured localities. Some plants which thrive best when strictly confined to our stoves and warm green-houses have been grouped outdoors. To such efforts we owe much, and the observant cannot fail to profit from whatever measure of success has attended them. There are, however, few places in the United Kingdom where it would be anything short of hopeless to attempt outdoor decoration with such plants as are most at home in a tropical climate.

Notwithstanding the insurmountable obstacle which climate throws in the way of introducing sub-tropical decorations into our flower-gardens, I consider it very desirable, and surely not beyond ultimate attainment, to work into a hardier class of plants, resembling, in grace and elegance, those tender plants which can only be seen in real health and beauty in plant-stoves. Hardy plants, such as I have referred to - or rather the multiplication and use of them - are one of the greatest desiderata of the modern flower-garden. A most desirable and attractive feature is being added to the arrangement of beds and borders by the introduction of the order of plants that I have indicated, and very similar effects to those that can be produced by subtropical plants are attainable by a liberal use of many half-hardy and nearly hardy plants already enumerated in the nurseryman's list.

Greenhouse Dracaenas, Yuccas, Aloes, Cordylines, Agaves, Grevilleas, Cycads, Araucarias, etc. etc., may be mentioned as a few among many indicative of the order of plants for which I am pleading, and which I hope will one day become popular for this purpose. As centres, starting-points, panels, vase plants, etc., surely it is not hopeless to recruit from such ranks. A dozen, a score, forty, fifty, or a hundred such plants, according to the capabilities and extent of the place, would add greatly to the beauty of many a garden. The annual housing and plunging of these would not require much more space nor labour than those plants which they are designed to displace. And there cannot be a question as to the wisdom of curtailing, in a measure, the prevailing weight of colour to make way for plants with graceful foliage. The selection of such plants need not be confined to such as require protection of any sort in winter. Many of our perfectly hardy shrubs and trees can be used in a young state with very striking effect, and I hope the training of such in special ways for this purpose will one day be well worth the attention of nurserymen. With the introduction of more graceful and ornamental foliaged plants, a striking improvement may be expected on the present brilliant order of flower-gardening.

There are other considerations which are especially calculated to work improvement. The first of these consists of a more intimate and widely diffused knowledge on the part of those who are the proprietors of gardens, of the vast increase of labour which has arisen in consequence of preparing and cultivating so many tender plants as are demanded by modern summer flower-gardening, and all without anything like corresponding resources in the way of houses and pits for propagating and growing such numbers of plants. The extent to which this is the case is but little thought of by proprietors, and the energy and resources of the present generation of gardeners are wonderfully exemplified in the production of tens of thousands of plants, with the most unsuitable amount of accommodation.

>  More about the Victorian Flower Garden

>  Page 1   >  2   >  3   >  4   >  5   >  6