A great deal is now done with simple, hardy flowers, which give just as good an effect as more elaborate and expensive bedding. Roses in the show beds will do well for two or even three years; with a few annuals between they make charming effects. In Finsbury Park, the dark red roses with Canterbury bells, and fuchsias with a ground of alyssum, were effective and simple. In some parks the spring plants will thrive all through the winter. Beds of white Arabis with pink tulips between; forget-me-nots with white tulips; mixed collections of auriculas, that dear old-fashioned "bear's ears," put in about the end of October, make a little show all the winter, and produce a mass of colour in spring. There is still room for improvement in the direction of the planting, but of late years the war waged against the monopoly of calceolarias, geraniums, and blue lobelias has, fortunately, had its effect in a marked degree on the London Parks, municipal as well as royal.
