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THE 



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Gardeners' Monthly 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE, ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Volume XXV. 



FEBRUARY, 1883. 



Number 290. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Just now we note much being said against the 

 use of knife or shears on ornamental trees and 

 shrubs. There are some who would not cut a tree 

 under any circumstances. Everything should be 

 natural. There can be no greater advocate of 

 nature, or perhaps it would be best to say of natural 

 ways in gardening, than the Gardeners' Monthly. 

 What has been termed the topiary art — the trim- 

 ming of trees and bushes to resemble everj-thing 

 under the sun — was pushed to extremes. But 

 without great violence being done to true taste, 

 some such art may surely be permitted. We all 

 like a neatly trimmed box edging wherever it is 

 proper to have an edging of box at all, and the 

 neatly trimmed live fence or hedge is also agree- 

 able. If, now, we allow some of the trees of which 

 the hedge is composed to grow up and form a 

 neatly-trimmed arch over a gateway, we cannot 

 see wherein good taste is seriously violated.- In 

 the Tower Grove Park at St. Louis the music-stand 

 is surrounded by a grove of osage orange, which 

 is sheared so as to allow numerous gothic openings 

 through the walls. One might say if a wall is 

 wanted, why not make it of boards or stone at 

 once ? But nothing will equal the luxury of sitting 

 under a leafy bower, while the air is actually cooled 

 by passing through the foliage. To our mind, this 



foliage room, with its numerous window openings, 

 is one of the many successes of this pretty park. 

 Take, even, some gardens which have been criti- 

 cised ; as, for instance, the Italian garden at 

 Wellesley, where nearly everything is cut to some 

 form or other, while a whole garden served in this 

 way would be almost intolerable, as a contrast to 

 other parts it is peculiarly pleasurable, and it is 

 doubtful whether the many landscape pleasures 

 of these famous grounds would be half as enjoy- 

 able without the Italian garden. While the uni- 

 versal cropping and shearing which often takes 

 place at this season gives good excuse to those who 

 write down the entire use of the knife in this way, 

 the better course will probably be to use the knife 

 judiciously. The rule of good taste is expression. 

 If we were to find a tree or shrub growing entirely 

 naturally, and taking on some singular shape, there 

 is no doubt it would be as much an object of inter- 

 j est as profile rocks against mountain sides, or the 

 features of scenery in the great caves. Just how 

 far art may help these appearances good taste 

 must suggest. 



In like manner there is rebellion against carpet 

 bedding, and the formal arrangement of flowers in 

 masses, or in beds of formal shape. Of course 

 this is often pushed to the extreme, but when we 

 see hundreds of thousands enjoying them, it is evi- 

 dent there must be an underlying element of natu- 



