Ueckmbeu i). 1897 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



79 



A Pretty Wedding Decoration. 



Till within twenty or thirty years it was 

 seldom tliat our men of great wealth went 

 into the country, bought a few hundred 

 acres, buiU a country residence and embel- 

 lished the surrounding grounds. They did 

 not care, or could not afford, to be far 

 awa}' from tlieir business, so when they 

 found themselves the happy possessors of 

 superfluous wealth they bought the first 

 vacant lot to be had on the most fashion- 

 able street or avenue of a great city and 

 built a quarter of a million dollar house 

 on a forty thousand dollar lot, with not 

 enough room left for Bridget to hang the 

 linen or swing a cat by the tail without 

 hitting the neighbor's fence. But this is 

 changing fast. In every part of the 

 country our men of means are seeking 

 rest for themselves and family in some 

 beautiful rural retreat. They are employ- 

 ing the highest skill of the landscape 

 gardener, and to perpetuate the beauties 

 of the garden employ a skilled and edu- 

 cated gardener. They will take delight 

 in friendly rivalry, that theii- gardener 

 has the finest show of orchids, the largest 

 bunch of Muscat grapes, the best crop of 

 mushrooms, and the largest "mums" they 

 have seen anywhere, in fact, they are 

 nmch superior to their neighbor's, Mr. 

 Manhattan Van Stmckoil. 



I do not say that fine private gardens 



did not exist years ago. Some did, but 

 they were few and wide apart. Of those 

 that did exist I recall Jlr. Gordon's, of 

 Cleveland; Mr. Hunnewell's, of Welles- 

 ley. Mass., presided over by that prince of 

 gardeners, Mr. Harris. Then there is the 

 late Mr. Geo. W. Child's fine place, 

 Wootton, but this, and many places on 

 the Hudson, are quite modern and only 

 prove what I say, that they are coming, 

 and I believe, coming fast. The refined 

 and cultivated employer will demand, and 

 he will get, a refined, cultivated and skill- 

 ful gardener, whose services will be ap- 

 preciated, antl whose standing among his 

 fellowmen will be what his profession de- 

 serves, and very different from the "milk 

 a cow, set a hen" kind of a gardener that 

 has so long passed muster among so large 

 a class of our people, and whose concep- 

 tion of a gardener is taken from Dr. 

 Johnson's definition. The great lexicog- 

 rapher says: "Gardener, one who works 

 in a garden." 



It is well known that Europe is studded 

 thickly with these fine establishments 

 and it must be admitted that Great Britain 

 has her share. We will be sure to hear 

 some say: "More's the pit}-; these parks 

 and gardens should be turned into 

 wheat fields." I am not writing this 

 to extol or defend any kind of land 



system, but certain it is that on the pri- 

 vate estates with which I have been inti- 

 mately acquainted, there was more labor 

 employed and at better wages, in the care 

 of the gardens, the parks and the woods, 

 per acre, than there would have been had 

 the same area been devoted to wheat or 

 turnips. And is not the beautiful as es- 

 sential to the world as the useful, many- 

 times of more lasting value! For cen- 

 turies money and skill have been ex- 

 pended to make these parks and gardens 

 beautiful, and all that contemporary 

 knowledge could add to their embellish- 

 ment was given w-ith a free hand. 



In almost the midst of one of the most 

 beautiful gardens of England I first made 

 my step abroad. The roomy but old- 

 fashioned home with its thick covering of 

 straw- thatch, impervious to winter's cold 

 and proof against the solar rays, the 

 house that has entertained many of En- 

 gland's most illustrious nurserymen and 

 gardeners of the old school, the big yew 

 tree whose branches touched our bed- 

 room window, where countless sparrows 

 chirped their morning greeting, the long 

 porch whose pillars were wreathed w-ith 

 roses; all these I see now vividly, and 

 will as long as memory lasts. 



Now let me take j-ou for a stroll around 

 this garden and while admiring the fruits 



