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THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



erable development. The little Congress Park 

 is indeed beautiful, and there is some good work 

 especially in vases, more immediately con- 

 nected with the Congress and United States Ho- 

 tels, but extremely meagre in comparison with 

 what one might expect from the architectural 

 character and social pretensions of these gigan- 

 tic establishments. It was rather painful to notice 

 the many beautiful houses with expensive fences 

 having nothing to do but shut off from the public 

 a mass of weeds ! The trees planted exhibited an 

 utter ignorance of garden material, for though 

 there might now and then be something else 

 besides Arbor Vitpes, Balsam Fir, Norway 

 Spruce and Sugar Maple, these constitute the 

 great bulk of everything planted there in the 

 way of ornamental trees. Of course there are 

 some few exceptions, especially on the road 

 leading to Mount McGrigor ; but this is the gene- 

 ral character as it strikes the stranger in his 

 wanderings through the place. This neglect of 

 gardening is not confined to Saratoga, but is 

 common to many other fashionable watering 

 places ; but some are waking up to a better ap- 

 preciation of garden art, and just now are going 

 far ahead of Saratoga. Even Atlantic City, 

 sandy waste as it is by nature, has much more 

 appreciation of garden art distributed among the 

 people generally than is exhibited at Saratoga. 

 There seemed to be no nurseries of any conse- 

 quence near ; but two excellent florists, Messrs. 

 Ralph and Terwilliger, have greenhouse estab- 

 lishments of considerable size, and in the main 

 support what little floral taste is found here. 



But if art has done little, nature has not ne- 

 glected Saratoga. The Hudson River, the 

 Adirondacks, many lakes, and other beautiful 

 natural features are not very far away ; and the 

 drives to and from these attractions are through 

 scenery that for diversity of surface and floral 

 attractions have few superiors. In August, 

 when I was there, the Asters and Golden Rods 

 of the autumn season were crowding in on the 

 flowers of the summer season, and made pictures 

 of loveliness I shall not soon forget. The Red 

 Maples, Sumacs, Cinnamon Fern, and sedge 

 grasses were already putting on their autumn 

 brown amid the Balsams and Polygonums, which 

 keep their green tints to a later season ; while 

 patches of the Comptonia lined the banks along 

 the drives in immense heaps, and one need not 

 wonder in the luxuriant form it takes here that 

 the common people regard it as a " sweet fern." 



In striking contrast with the want of garden- 



ing taste about Saratoga is that of Rochester, 

 which city I visited a few weeks later. People 

 may say, when they see how universally the 

 houses have tasteful gardens and an immense 

 variety in the trees, shrubs, fruits and flowers 

 about them, that it is only what one might ex- 

 pect to see in a city of nurseries. But the expe- 

 rience of other places shows that this is not the 

 rule. There are many places where nurseries 

 are as numerous in proportion to population as 

 here, but without similar results. It must be 

 the genuine love of art — garden art, and the 

 spirit of intellectual refinement, or we should not 

 have as many pretty gardens as we see. There 

 are not many large gardens. Mr. Hiram Sib- 

 ley has very neat and somewhat extensive 

 grounds ; but he is more proud of his farm, as 

 he owns one in the "West which embraces 40,000 

 acres, and is perhaps the largest actually under 

 culture in the world. Like many good men Mr. 

 S. has been the architect of his own fortune, and 

 loves to tell of the time when he could beat his 

 employer in making a good shoe. His success 

 is just what many young men might achieve if 

 they followed his plan, which was always to 

 take a loving interest in his employment, and 

 as far as possible, regard his employer's interest 

 as his own. One of the attractions of Mr. Sib- 

 ley's place was an English Yew tree, which 

 though only about eight feet high is full of 

 branches, and paced thirteen yards around. On 

 the same grounds was a beautiful tree of the 

 Japan Sophora, loaded with its white locust-like 

 clusters of flowers. 



Though the great beauty of garden art in 

 Rochester may not be merely from the preva- 

 lence of nurseries, the intelligence of the nur- 

 serymen may have a great deal to do with it ; 

 for it would not be easy to find in any commu- 

 nity of nurserymen such an assemblage of culti- 

 vated men as we find in EUwanger, Barry, 

 Hooker, Glen, Little, Gould, Vick, Chase, Stone, 

 Chorlton, and perhaps a dozen others that might 

 be named, — and I mention these particularly, 

 only because it was my good fortune to meet 

 with these when there. Indeed a very pleasant 

 experience was a ride to the seed farm of James 

 Yick, which is some half-a-dozen miles out from 

 the heart of the city. The trial grounds, and 

 seed blocks of huge establishments like this are 

 always worth any one's taking a little trouble to 

 see. Among the novelties, then apparently the 

 especial favorites of Mr. Yick, were new styles 

 of Phlox Drummondi. It is strange that these 



