BEDDING PLANTS
BY bedding plants we mean those plants that are raised in great
quantities under glass, and are put out into our gardens in May. To
be sure, you hear of ‘spring’ and ‘summer’ bedding, because in the
autumn, when you take up your summer plants, you can fill your bed
with bulbs and spring flowers, such as Stocks, Wallflowers, Primroses,
and Forget-me-nots. The principal of ‘bedding’ is, you see, to plant
your piece of ground, so as to have a good display twice a year. Every
autumn you throw away your summer plants, and every summer you throw
away your spring ones. This, at any rate, is what thousands of people
with small town gardens do, and it is the form of gardening beloved of
the jobbing gardener and the local florist. We recommend it to people
who have money, but take no interest in their gardens, and to small
children who will find it the easiest form of gardening, and even to
children who live in or near great cities where some plants will lead a
merry life, but where none will lead a long one. But it is not a high
form of gardening, and cannot teach you much as long as you buy every
six months and throw away. Of course, when you raise and increase your
bedders, either spring or summer ones, you are gardening in the true
sense of the word. But most of the flowers you see in town gardens from
May till October are raised in heat from seeds and cuttings, and we
think the appliances and the skill required would be beyond you.
However, even from the throw-away-twice-a-year plan you can learn the
gardening virtues of order and method, and you can get great pleasure
from the flowers. Besides, you may be able to adopt it partly, and have
some plants that go on from year to year, some annuals, and some you
cherish for a season and then cast out. We will assume that in October
someone gave you enough bulbs to make a fine show all through March and
April, but that now in May their flowers are gone and their leaves
looking shabby. If you are going to have bedders you must harden your
heart, dig up all the bulbs, and throw them away. Then you must prepare
the soil by turning it well over and raking it fine. If someone will
fork in a little well-rotted stable manure, so much the better; if that
is not possible, you can add a small quantity of Clay’s Fertilizer.
Before you buy your bedders you must consider the aspect of your garden
and the state and nature of your soil. Geraniums and Marguerite Daisies
will stand rather poor soil, but Calceolarias, Begonias, and Heliotrope
want good treatment if they are to flourish. If you have a wall at the
back of your garden that is only partly covered, you should put nails
a foot apart on either side and stretch string or wire across. Wire is
more lasting than string, but more difficult to manage. The next thing
to decide will be what colour effects you want, and for how many plants
you have room. Geraniums need about a foot square each, Marguerites
eighteen inches, Dwarf Marigolds nine inches. If you possibly can,
buy your Geraniums, Calceolarias, Heliotropes, and Marguerites in
little pots, and not in boxes, or, worse still, in dried-up, rootless
cuttings sent by post. It is an elementary piece of gardening knowledge
that, provided you keep off slugs and give a little shade and water
at first, you can put anything out of a pot at any time. But if you
are going to have many bedders, you will save yourself a great deal of
trouble by putting them out in showery weather towards the end of May.
Some of the best bedders for a small garden are:
Dark red and salmon-pink Geraniums;
Scented oak-leaved Geraniums;
White and yellow Marguerite Daisies;
Heliotropes;
Calceolarias.
All these can be bought in pots for 3s. a dozen. Dark red French
Marigolds, Pansies, Violas, Petunias, Musk, and Lobelias can be bought
in boxes holding from eighteen to twenty-four for 1s. or 1s. 6d.
Begonias, which may be had in all colours and look charming in front of
a border, can be had for 2s. 6d. to 3s. a dozen.
In buying your plants always choose short, sturdy ones, with plenty
of leaves, and not the tall, weak ones that have been drawn up under
glass. If you have a wall, buy three or four ivy-leaved pink Geraniums
and a penny packet of blue Convolvulus Major seed. The Geranium will
climb four feet in a season and the Convolvulus from four to six feet,
and they will look well together. Do not be tempted to put in your
Convolvulus seed till the May frosts are over, as you only lose by
being in a hurry with this delicate annual.
Never take a plant out of a pot by pulling at it right side up. Always
turn the pot upside down, with your hand covering the earth, but not
the plant; then tap the bottom of the pot sharply with your trowel, and
usually the plant will come out. Sometimes it is necessary to give the
edge of the pot (still holding it upside down) a sharp knock on the top
of a wall, or some other hard surface. You must, of course, be most
careful not to knock the plant as you do this. If even then it will not
come out, you must break the pot. When you have to do this you usually
find that the plant has been pot-bound, and is a mass of fibrous
roots. Before you put the plant in your border remove the little pieces
of broken pot at its roots, sink it slightly deeper than its own earth,
and make the soil gently firm about it. If the weather is not showery,
you must give your bedding plants a good soak when you have put them
in. Soft water (rain-water is always soft) is much better for plants
than hard water from a tap; but if you cannot get this try to keep some
hard water in a tub, so that it is exposed to the sun and air before
you use it. The general rule is never to water plants when the sun is
on them, but if we saw a plant flagging badly in the sun we should not
wait till evening, but give it water at its roots, and, if possible,
shade it. We should be careful not to let any water touch its leaves.
When once your plants are well established do not water at all, except
in a long drought. Then, if you begin, you must go on every evening
till the rain comes. Geraniums and Marguerites do not like much water.
Musk is very thirsty, and so are Petunias and Tobacco plants.
[Illustration: A CORNISH COTTAGE.]
Be careful not to mix your colours in the ugly way often seen in London
and suburban gardens. You might have a row of white Tobacco plants
at the back of your border, then one of yellow Marguerites, then
Heliotrope, then Calceolarias and dark French Marigolds, then mauve
Violas, and in front yellow Musk. Or if you want red and white, or red,
white, and blue, you could try dark red Geraniums, then oak-leaved
Geraniums, then white Marguerites, then dark red Begonias, and in front
either blue Lobelias or the scarlet Alonsoa Warscewiczii, grown from
seeds. Alonsoas are half-hardy, and should be sown in May. We think
they might not do well in town gardens.
We must warn you that some people will be very angry with us for
advising you to grow anything in lines. Lines are out of fashion, and
they certainly have been made to give hideous effects by the ignorant
gardener. But we make bold to think that a child who wants a blaze of
colour all the summer in its small patch will get what he wants if he
grows his garden as contrary Mary did, ‘all in a row.’ We will tell
you now about a charming little garden belonging to two children in
a London suburb. It is twelve feet square, and has a gravel path up
the centre, with a tiled edge. At the back there is a seven-wall,
with a yellow Jasmine on one side and a white one on the other. Both
kinds do well in town air, and the Yellow Jasmine comes early in
the spring, when flowers are scarce and most welcome. The garden is
shared by a brother and sister, and the boy, who is eleven, has made
a seat against the wall of a four-foot plank, supported by two logs,
each eighteen inches high. All through the summer the winter Jasmine
is covered by a perennial pink Bellbine, that dies in autumn and
comes up each spring. A pink ivy-leaved Geranium and the blue Giant
Convolvulus climb up the wall too, and mix with the summer (white)
Jasmine, which flowers in masses. At the side of each plot farthest
from the path the children grow white and pink Foxgloves from seed, and
the dwarf Sunflower Stella. In front of these they have a pink monthly
Rose, with a Lavender bush on either side, and a bush of Lad’s Love
(Southernwood) on either side of the Lavender. In May they put in a
row of white Marguerite Daisies; in front of these, clumps of dark red
Carnations (flowers that thrive in town air), pink Geraniums, and pink
Begonias, planted in clumps of three. In the foreground they have an
edging of blue Lobelia. All through the spring this little garden is
gay with Narcissi and Daffodils, on which the children spend about ten
shillings. The bedding plants cost about eight shillings, and make the
garden bright throughout the summer.