If it should happen, as I remarked before in this chapter, that the glass accommodation is limited, it is of particular importance that the utmost use be made of what there is at hand for the storing and propagating of bedding plants, more especially if the requirements of the place are such as to make an autumn display of bloom one of the most important features in the garden. If such is the case, it will be necessary when the bedding season arrives, to be careful that only such plants are used as will be at their best in the autumn, more especially in the most important beds. No attempt whatever should be made at carpet bedding; it is a style of bedding that has very little to recommend it at any time and certainly none in the Topiary garden; for one reason it is much too stiff for a garden where there are a great many clipped yews. Of course in a new garden that has been recently laid out and where both the trees and the box edging are in a small state, the system of carpet bedding may be practised by those who wish to entirely discard Nature from their gardens. But if the garden is an old one, full of old specimen yews, the larger and taller growing the bedding plants are that are used for bedding out purposes, the better. I will name a few of the bedding plants that are extensively used in the gardens here at Levens; but of course, as is well known, the gardens here are among the oldest examples of Topiary work in England. There are some varieties of bedding plants that are far more effective than others when planted among yews, and among the most suitable, there is nothing that has more effect than the brilliant scarlet Lobelia cardinalis and its varieties. Some objection may perhaps be taken to the plant by some people, but when planted in large masses among the sombre yews in a Topiary garden, I have not the slightest hesitation in saying it has no equal: when growing in large masses with a background of green yew and the sun shining on the dark foliage and brilliant scarlet flowers, the effect is really beautiful. Perhaps the only drawback to the various varieties of Lobelia cardinalis is the difficulty experienced by some in keeping it over winter; but if instead of following the old system of partly drying it off in winter, directly it is lifted out of the beds, one places it in a frame or greenhouse with a gentle heat and gives it a fair amount of water, thus encouraging it to start into growth at once, the difficulty will to a very great extent be done away with. Another favourite plant here, and one that is greatly used for bedding out purposes in the Topiary garden, is the beautiful old-fashioned plant Salvia patens. Like the scarlet lobelias, Salvia patens should be largely grown in every garden where there are a lot of yews. The brilliant blue of the flowers against the dark green of the yew trees has a very striking effect indeed, either when planted in masses by itself or mixed in the beds along with the scarlet lobelia or the tall yellow Calceolarias amplexicaulis. But the foliage of the Salvia patens has not the same showy appearance as that of the Lobelia cardinalis, but this is a point that can be overlooked, as the brilliant blue of the flowers fully compensates one for the lack of beauty in the plant, and it rarely happens among the general stock of bedding plants that one can find plants with foliage and flowers equally effective. But in my opinion, if a fault is to be found with the Salvia patens as a bedding plant, it is its inability to withstand wet weather. Through that cause it is very often denuded of its flowers, but it very soon revives with a few bright days. Among other plants that are extremely useful for bedding purposes in the Topiary garden are the taller growing varieties of fuschias that are hardy enough to stand planting out in the flower garden, and more especially if the yews are old and large; fuschias planted either in clumps or massed alone in large beds with a groundwork of violas, or some other suitable plants, will give a very striking effect among yews, and they have the additional advantage of giving a good show of bloom during a mild autumn long after the majority of bedding plants have finished flowering, which is a quality that ought to recommend them in any garden as well as the Topiary one. In most gardens, variety of plants is considered a necessity in the work of bedding out, and space will not permit me to point out the special qualities of each and every different variety of plant that may be used in the embellishment of a Topiary garden, but I will give the names of a few that I have found most suitable and effective for bedding out in a garden where the yew tree is extensively grown.