September 6, 1913 



HORTICULTURE 



337 



ABOUT THE HARDY FLOWER GARDEN 



This is about the time when planning is in order for 

 replanting or new planting of herbaceous beds and bor- 

 ders. My experience and observations in this work may 

 be of some interest to other gardeners at this time. 

 For eight years I have been trying to solve the problem 

 of color and form in herbaceous plantings. Feeling and 

 lielieving almost from the first, that the promiscuous 

 mixing of hardy herbaceous plants violates principles 

 of harmony and balance, I have tried to analyze the prin- 

 ciples of art in carpet bedding and to apply the same in 

 lierbaceous plantations, as far as possible. Whatever ob- 

 jection one may have to carpet bedding, especially in 

 unsuited locations on the lawns and in park secenecy, one 

 cannot deny that good principles of form and color 

 selection were successfully practiced by most gardeners 

 twenty-five and thirty years ago in the carpet bedding of 

 that time. 



I find, that the charm of restfulness and calmness in 

 form and gayety in color was due mostly to simplicity of 

 arrangement — certain repetitions of lines — and a re- 

 straint in choice of material. Too much variety in plant 

 species and too many varieties in colors within the 

 species are to blame, when we have only good looking 

 groups or beds of plants for our labor, but not a "gar- 

 den." And when we have not a whole garden with a 

 real garden spirit in it, the artistic excellence in details 

 is of no lasting merit. It would be positively ruinous 

 to the artistic value of a garden 60 by 100 feet to grow 

 in it most of the catalogued species of herbaceous plants. 

 Besides, the practical work of taking care of sncli a 

 garden would far exceed the results obtained. 



The beds described below furnish, I believe, a good 

 example of linear forms in leaves and growth, with 

 yellows and blues and their secondaries for colors. The 

 four beds are about 16 by 16 feet each and grouped, 



as shown in the diagram, around a smaller circular bed 



of tritomas or yuccas with yellow daffodils for spring 

 bloom. 



The list of plants in these four beds is as follows: 

 Fritillarias and snowdrops alternating with some very 

 low herbaceous plant of yellow or blue color or between 

 pansies for a border to join the beds to the grass walks 



around them. These joining borders should vary in 

 width from one to two or three feet, those making irreg- 

 ular outlines against the bed itself, but a straight line 

 against the walks. A few clumps of early tulips, yellow 

 or brownish in color, followed by larger clumps of Dar- 

 vin tulips of similar colors; then early German iris, 

 hemerocallis, Spanish iris, Japanese iris, Hyacinthus, 

 candicans and fuukias, all in groups and clumps, yet so 

 distributed as to give bloom of each species and variety 

 over the beds. The distributing must always be left to 

 the individual taste and feeling of the gardener. Leaves 

 and colors vary of course in these beds, but not enough to 

 disturb the sensation of a distinct "motiv" in the pic- 

 ture, carried out through the whole season. The 

 •■motiv" for these beds is taken from scenery in low 

 moist grass lands, in the vicinity of a pond or river. 



[I borrow tlie word "motiv" from C. Schneider's (Germauy) 

 book on Lands.-iipe Gardening and use it in the same sense as 

 it is uted in this booli.] 



Here is another combination, which I believe does not 

 mix form and colors inbarmoniously. English daisies 

 for border, then sweet williams in reds, crimson, white, 

 scarlet and pink. Scarlet and red phloxes divided by 

 Achillea The Pearl, and a few white asters for later 

 autumn. Colors would vary from white and pink to 

 red, scarlet and crimson, excluding all yellows, blues, 

 purples, etc. 



There are many other good combinations as monardas 

 and gaillardias with helianthus, coreopsis and other 

 Cdinpositae; perhaps blue asters in late fall, or hibiscus 

 with hollyhocks and foxgloves with other large-leaved 

 plants of colors mauve pink and red. Or thalictrums 

 with aquilegias, delphiniums, spireas, etc. 



These and many more can be used without giving one 

 tlie impression of cramming a lot of uncongenial plants 

 into one particular place for the sole purpose of having 

 something in full flower all the time. These groupings 

 are not to be understood as essential but are suggested 

 only to illustrate what I maintained in the beginning in 

 regard to greater harmony and simplicity of both form 

 and color in our use of herbaceous plants. If such beds 

 are not always in full flower I think it is also interesting 

 and pleasing to see a lied of plants just budding and to 

 watch the unfolding of a garden picture from day to day. 



I take it for granted that all gardeners know and 

 practice to make all herbaceous beds very fertile with a 

 soil depth of at least 11/-. feet. The close growing to- 

 gether of so many plants in one bed makes a deep rich 

 soil an absolute necessity to thriftv growtk 



Plymouth, Mass. 



IMPORTATIONS OF TREES AND 

 TREE SEEDS. 



Figures gathered by the federal 

 quarantine board ot the Department 

 of Agriculture show that during the 

 past fiscal year 3,779,041 growing trees 

 and 15,040 pounds of tree seeds were 

 imported into the United States. The 

 trees include, say the members of the 

 board, valuable species that do not 

 grow in the United States and stock 

 which can at present be bought more 

 cheaply abroad. The tree seeds im- 

 ported are largely for the purpose of 



reforesting land, though in a number 

 of cases they are used in ornamental 

 planting on individual estates. 



France leads in the number of grow- 

 ing trees sent here, with a total ot 1,- 

 782.25.5. Germany is second with 849, 

 245, and Holland third with 690,632. 

 Imports are made from thirteen other 

 countries, including India, Japan and 

 Australia. The trees and shrubs im- 

 ported are chiefly evergreens, such as 

 pines, spruces, and firs, and broadleaf 

 plants — oaks, maples, etc. The major- 

 ity is stock of foreign origin, though 



in a few cases cultivators abroad 

 through a special selection of attrac- 

 tive forms of our native trees have de- 

 veloped them to such an extent as to 

 make them desirable to purchasers 

 here. 



Besides more than seven tons of 

 tree seeds, many thousands of pounds 

 of seed of perennial and annual plants, 

 bulbs, and fruit stock, as well as orna- 

 mental shrubs, are imported. The 

 greater part of the tree seeds, or more 

 than 7000 pounds, come from Ger- 

 many. 



