Bedding pleasures

Depending on whether you are a housewife, Lothario or a gardener, ‘bedding’ can mean a number of different things.

Depending on whether you are a housewife, Lothario or a gardener, ‘bedding’ can mean a number of different things. As a horticultural term, it dates from the early decades of the 19th century, when adventurous Victorian head gardeners, especially those working on large private estates, began to use large numbers of low-growing tender plants to create a colourful, exuberant display on terraces and parterres.

These tender perennials and annuals (mainly from the frost-free regions of South America and South Africa) — calceolarias, pelargoniums, lobelias, salvias, petunias, African marigolds and the like — were grown from seed in heated glasshouses and ‘bedded out’ in late May or early June. They did not survive the frosts in October, so the custom grew up of replacing them then with hardy biennial flowers and bulbs for display in spring.