RHS New Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers

The Flower Expert

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

>  First page of Introduction to the Victorian Flower Garden

The promiscuous or mixed style of Flower-Gardening.
- The promiscuous or mixed style of flower-gardening which preceded the present, might be characterized as an attempt at spring and summer display combined; but the effects that are now produced by what are distinctly known as spring and summer and autumn flower-gardening, were not approached at any given time. The mixed style was carried out with less regard to any definite expression or effect, and certainly with little or no regard to the laws of colour. Notwithstanding, it must be said of it that a general interest was maintained for a good part of the year. Hardy herbaceous and Alpine plants, and in many cases a mixture of roses and dwarf flowering shrubs, were generally planted with more regard to their various heights than to their time of flowering, or to the harmony or contrast that might exist among them. In fact, a good mixture was the chief object attained, if not the one kept in view; and as the spring-flowering fraternity either died down or went out of flower, their places were filled up with annuals till perhaps the beginning of June. In this way a very considerable amount of bloom was kept up from the latter part of spring all through the summer, but, it must be admitted, without any striking design or effect.

Much could, no doubt, be and is said in favour of this promiscuous style, and probably the most weighty argument in its favour lies in the fact, that it was less expensive and far less laborious than that which is more the fashion now. It is no wish of mine to depreciate in any way this order of gardening, but the reverse. But it must be admitted that many of the plants which occupied prominent positions were anything but graceful objects, lashed tightly to stakes like sheaves of corn; and the unsightly appearances and unmeaning aspect of such borders in autumn, to say nothing of the barrenness - which somewhat unfairly has been charged to the massing system - that prevailed for a considerable period of the year, formed a very serious objection against it. That this mixed system has been greatly improved by making selections instead of collections of plants, and by paying more regard to colour in arrangement, is beyond a doubt; and that mixed borders, in which a limited selection of very effective hardy plants is now used in combination with Dahlias, Salvias, Phloxes, Antirrhinums, Stocks, Asters, Marigolds, and several other Annuals, as well as Geraniums, Calceolarias, and other plants properly termed bedding-plants, can be made very effective and showy, and most desirable for certain positions, as well as for the sake of variety, requires no proof. The very best proof and example of this style that I know of has been carried out for years at Bothwell Castle, in the long border which forms one of the boundaries of the flower-garden there, and which, under skilful management, maintains its interest to the last. The position selected for the mixed system here referred to is very suitable, and the way in which it is executed unsurpassed by anything I have seen.

To recommend such a border is a very different thing from holding it up as adapted for pure parterre-work in certain positions, or for many designs. There can be no doubt that to produce the most effective display of bloom in groups of beds for the largest possible time, it must be done by a distinct set of hardy plants for spring show, to be replaced early in June by the class of half-hardy and hardy plants, all of which are treated of in this work, and which, for effect in summer, autumn, and spring, cannot be excelled.

Remarks suggestive of Improvement. - Flower-gardening has made very considerable progress within the last few years. The improvement is prominent in two distinct features. The plants at the command of the gardener, generally speaking, are much improved both in extent of variety, and brilliancy and variety of colour, and the art of arrangement has made equal progress. Indeed it has been hinted that some of the sections of plants are scarcely susceptible of much further improvement; and as to arrangement, it might almost be said that the plants at our service have already been used in every conceivable arrangement and relationship to each other, and that there cannot be much to achieve within the limits of good taste in this direction. If this be near the truth, and the rate of progress is to be maintained, and the interest in flower-gardens freshened, we must necessarily look to a new order of plants more than to fresh designs executed with those we already possess. I am sanguine enough to hopefully anticipate the former, and the latter will of necessity accompany it.

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Good Gardens by Design: The Principles of Classic Planning and Plant Selection