376 



HOKTICULTUEE 



March 15, 1913 



CARPET BEDDING 



The editor of "Moener's. Deutsche 

 Gaertner-Zeitung." Mr. W. Dambardt 

 recently sent to the leading landscape 

 gardeners and park superintendents 

 the following question: 



tistic ^esurrecuon .'• published 



The answers whicn are uuw f""' 

 i^thir Germany's first horticultural 

 JLner are so intlresting to everybody 

 en^agedin Outdoor gardening that we 

 ^avfhad them translated m Ur«r es^ 

 sential paragraphs by Mi. G. ^'eicKen 

 and they are here presented for the 

 benefit of our readers. 



*" Theo^Goeeke, Professor of Architecture 

 «f Rp?iiTi — Tbe carpet bed had become a 

 Ufelesfrmltltion? a'^toy thing without ar- 

 tistic merit : therefore it was rejected It 



Sij^e%n^i^ror^fantrr7S 



I™P Grossmann. Landscape Architect of 

 Berlln.-The carpet bed correct yued is a 



(2) compo^sition of for™. EspeciaUy is the 



Kf „^o°'"pl?r ifa"'n^-> laSd^s^^^e! ^ 

 only"n i^ form„l garden. It is the ground 

 line in a given garden or court, and it 

 must never have height except where height 

 be made through plants, vases or st.atuary, 

 etc The main reason tor failures can be trac- 

 ed to the habit of drawing out a carpet-bed 

 design on paper and believing it will look 

 Uke^the drJwTng in reality "getting that 

 the perspective shortens all surfaces, i ney 

 must be'^ drawn so as to ^'^iJ^^^'Xcfm^ 

 '«?^''nlv°msmct';ng 'f^w ?nd nSietl^el 

 Tre C brrecommended. The composition 

 of color Is pure individual .art; hut^one 

 leading color should occur, and pure co^rs 

 are efsential. Time and tradition will 

 bring back to us the carpet bed. 



G Hannig. Supt. of Cemetery of Stettin. 

 -The carpet bed as it was a dPCJide or so 

 ago should not be mourned; it only showed 

 SI the technical skill of the earaener. In 

 all ornamentation one must take into ac 

 ?ount the material; this we call style. 

 There was no style in carpet beds any 

 more Any figure pnt on paper was aH 

 right for a carpet bed., and Plants had to 

 be clipped to fit certain lines of the de- 

 sign Such things are always wrong and 

 violate the verv fundamental laws of art 

 7„ lfin„tinB- designs A short time ago an 

 Lrti'^t "n f?unUn?e-maklng had exhibited a 

 flower garden design, which was patterned 

 aftlr a real carpet. Such things must be 

 wrong because the weaving of the mate- 

 Hal for a carpet is a different question 

 from the planting of live plants, and 

 phi^ts themselves are different from wool 



or cotton or other weaving material. Yet 

 I would not say that a sort of transformed 

 carpet design could not give a good carpet- 

 bed design. The famous beautiful Doges 

 palace in Venice, one of the most beautiful 

 buildings on earth, is without doubt built 

 after the design of an old oneiual rug; 

 nevertheless the facade of the palace is 

 not a "carpet of stone," because a master 

 artist designed the Venetian palace and he 

 took onlv his motive from an oriental rug. 

 On the whole. I should say beware of car- 

 pet bedding, as we have as yet not even 

 good designs in carpets themselves. 



E Hardt. Landscape Architect in Dues- 

 seldort.— Carpet beds must have in them 

 low growing flowering plants, and the de- 

 sign must harmonize with its location. No 

 objections could be made to it if the col- 

 ors and the form are chosen correctly; 

 low tunes in harmony with the light in 

 our northern skies, instead of the lawn 

 carpets and the affected flowering greens— 

 the carpet bed. 



A. Lichtwark. Director of Art Museum 

 in Hamburg.— The carpet bed has had no 

 place in the modern landscape park. In a 

 formal garden it may have its place, that 

 is If the maker of it is an artist. Theory 

 will be of no avail; all depends on the 

 designer, 



Henry Maas, Lubeck.— The carpet was a 

 sort of indicator of a gardener's .ability 

 as a plant grower, but no work of art. 

 The carpet bed of the gardener was the 

 stucco ornament of the architect of old 

 But I see no reason why a carpet bed in 

 Its proper place will not come back In 

 some future time. 



Liebrest Migge.— The qiiestion Is of 

 great importance. We wanted flowers In- 

 stead of rigid leaves, and we nave them 

 now; and inslc.d of carpets we got walls 

 of flowers in our big flowering beds. I 

 am going to make some carpet lirfls at 

 the next international exhibition nt Lelp- 

 sig this coming summer. The territory 

 lies in a low plain there. If one avoids 

 the rock of ornamentation in carpet bed- 

 ding I believe one can today summon bsck 

 to life the old profitable art of carpet bed- 

 ding. 



J F. Muller. Landscape Architect. Geisen- 

 heim-a-Ehein.— Carpet bedding is an art of 

 planting in level surfaces, not of plantirig 

 into space. The distribution of carpet beds 

 has been done wrongly in many cases also. 

 Modern ornament shows a certain compact- 

 ness of forms. I have had success in using 

 for foundations of designs, the circle, the 

 plipse and the sniral. Echeveria nietal- 

 lica and dumeliana are good plants for 

 such work. Attention to the level char- 

 acter of carpet beds and to a similarity in 

 the plants employed, will give better re- 

 sults. 



Franz Wirth. Landscape Architect, Frank- 

 furt-on-JIain.- Nothing changes more than 

 does opinion in art. I believe carpet bed- 

 ding will come back soon. As edging for 

 flowering beds or in place of small Inwns 

 it can be used with good taste. All plastic 

 treatment of carpet bedding is wrong art. 

 F Zahn. Landscape Gardener. Steglitz. 

 —The modern tendency for formal gardens 

 will lead again to carpet bedding, but 

 plastic carpet bedding is a self-evident con- 

 tradiction ; a carpet is always only a sur- 

 face. No copving of old designs, but sim- 

 ple ornamental divisions, will bring back 

 new modern carpet beds of taste — as en- 

 closure for small lawns, for Instance. 



Baron W, v. Engelhardt, Supt. of Publ. 

 Parks Diisseldorf.— As long as there ex- 

 ists sr, little knowledge of the relations of 

 garden parts, devoted to some special pur- 

 pose, to the garden as a whole organism 

 or to a park; carpet beds had better be 

 restricted to the formal garden only. 



Willv Lange. Landscape Architect, Dah- 

 \pm. — When the public has become tired 

 of the glaring masses of salvias and scar- 

 let pelargoniums, they will call back the 

 carpet bed. Many people enjoy the fine 

 pretty workmanship of the small scale in 

 the carpet beds. 



W P Tnckermann. Sharlottenburg.— 

 Carpet beds should be planted in variation 

 with solid flower beds of fuchias. cannas. 

 dahlias, etc. We have not yet had good 

 results with large masses of flowering 

 plants, neither in solid colors nor in the 

 herbaceous garden. This is because masses 

 of greens, as lawn grass for Instance. look 



different from masses of solid red or yel- 

 low or blue colors; they look often too 

 small for masses, and then again if very 

 large they remind us of the commercial 

 nursery. Certain flower borders and cer- 

 tain centre pieces will always be neces- 

 sary, but they must be put in their proper 

 locations. But we must learn more about 

 effect of colors: for instance, sunny loca- 

 tions are more beautiful by different colors 

 than are shady sites. 



OF INTEREST TO EASTER PLANT 

 BUYERS. 



Nineteen hundred and thirteen prom- 

 ises, from all we can learn, to be an 

 exception to the run of seasons for 

 many years past. Heretofore we have 

 had an abundance of everything sea- 

 sonable, and buyers could get their 

 supplies at prices very much in their 

 own favor. This year it looks as if 

 there would be quite some scarcity 

 among the staple plant lines — espe- 

 cially in lilies and azaleas. In lilies 

 the trouble seems to come from two 

 pcints: One being "Junk" bulbs used 

 to fill orders at the last minute; the 

 other, the difficulty to get good bulbs 

 in flower for so early an Easter. As 

 to the azalea, the large increase in 

 price in Europe owing to scarcity, and 

 the small profits to growers here, in 

 past years — owing to competition and 

 losses — has curtailed planting to a 

 considerable extent, and buyers will 

 find this year, that if they are to get 

 anything like their quota of good aza- 

 leas, they will have to get busy very 

 quick. 



On the other hand it seems as if the 

 supply of some other plants would to 

 a certain extent make up for this short- 

 age in these two great Easter staples. 

 Among these we think the most impor- 

 tant is the spirea. We have never 

 seen this fine Easter plant in greater 

 abundance or better done or in bet- 

 ter form. Dollar for dollar and in 

 style and elegance it tops the list. The 

 favorite varieties are Gladstone and 

 Queen Alexandra. Next to the spirea 

 comes the rhododendron. We have 

 seen some fine blocks of this in re- 

 markably well done shape for Easter. 

 Another good old standby which more 

 than holds its own is the hydrangea — 

 especially the new French varieties 

 such as Gaillard, Avalanche and oth- 

 ers in white, pink and lavender. Some 

 of them have florets big as a silver 

 dollar, beautifully fringed and with 

 trusses of great size and abundance. 

 The Rambler roses are, of course, a 

 feature, one of the flnest this year be- 

 ing "Baby" Tausendschon. Phyllis 

 and Orleans "Baby" are also in the 

 running as well as the old form. 

 Magnas, Kaiserins and Richmonds are 

 also favorites in the hybrid class. Lily 

 of the valley in pots and marguerites 

 are to be had in abundance. In the 

 latter the Queen Alexandra holds a 

 conspicuous place. 



The foregoing notes have been gath- 

 ered and digested from our study of 

 conditions this year in and around 

 Philadelphia where many growers 

 make a specialty of Easter plants. Per- 

 haps the largest and most comprehen- 

 sive of all these growers, with the big- 

 gest stocks and the largest variety of 

 subjects, is the establishment of the 

 Robert Craig Co., at Market and 49th 

 streets and at Norwood. We are in- 

 debted to them for courteous explana- 

 tion of the general situation this year 

 to a large extent and commend them 

 to our readers who may feel like call- 

 ing on this market tor their supplies. 



