210 



GARDE!^ERS' CHRONICLE 



Making Pictures of Landscapes 



THE troiiljle with the appearance of many home 

 grounds is not so much that there is too little plant- 

 ing of trees and shrubs, but that this planting is 

 meaningless. Every yard should be a picture. That is. 

 the area should be set off from every other area andjt 

 should have such a character that the observer catches its 

 entire eiifect and purpose without stopping to analyze 

 its parts. 



Bushes and trees scattered promiscuously n\er the 

 area, has no purpose, no central idea. Its only merit 

 is in the fact that trees and shrubs have been planted, 

 and this, to most minds, comprises the essence and 

 sum of the ornamentation of grounds. Every tree 

 and bush is an individual, alone, unattended. Such a 

 yard is only a nursery. 



Tlie better plan is a picture. The central idea is 

 the residence with a warm and open greensward in 

 front of it. The trees and bushes are massed into a 

 framework to give effectiveness to the picture of home 

 and comfort. This style of planting makes a land- 

 scape, even though the area be no larger than a parlor. 

 The other style is simply a collection of curious plants. 

 The one has an instant and abiding pictorial effect 

 which is restful and satisfying, the other simply 

 arouses the curiosity, obscures the residence and 

 divides and distracts the attention. 



If one catches the full meaning of these contrasts. 

 he has acquired the first and most important conce])- 

 tion in landscape gardening. The conception will 

 grow upon him day by day, and if he is of an observing 

 turn of mind' he will find that this simple lesson will 

 revolutionize his habit of thought respecting the plant- 

 ing of grounds and the beauty of landscapes. He will 

 see that a bush or flower bed which is no part of any 

 general purpose or design — that is, which does not con- 

 tribute to the making of a picture — might lietter ne\er 

 have been planted. A liare and open pasture were 

 better even though it contained the choicest plants of 

 every land. 



Reduced to a single ex|)ression, all this means that 

 the greatest artistic value in shrubljery lies in the 

 efifect of the masses, and not in the individual shrub. 

 A mass has the greater value because it presents a 

 much greater range and variety of forms, colors, shades 

 and textures, because it has sufficient extent or dimen- 

 sions to add structural character to a place and because 

 its features are so continuous and so well Ijlended that 

 the mind is not distracted by incidental and irrelevant 

 ideas. 



If a landscape is a picture it must ha\e a canvas. 

 This canvas is the greensward. Upon this the artist 

 paints with tree and bush and flower the same as the 

 painter does upon his canvas with brush and pigments. 

 The opportunity for artistic composition and structure 

 is nowhere so great as in the landscape garden, be- 

 cause no other art has such a limitless field for the ex- 

 pression of its emotions. There can be no rules for 

 landscape gardening an}- more than there can be for 

 painting or sculpture.' The operator may be taught 

 how to hold the brush or strike the chisel or plant the 

 tree, but he remains an operator: the art is intellectual 

 and emotional and will not confine itself in ]irecepts. 



The making of a good and capacious lawn, then, is 

 the very first practical consideration in a landscape 

 garden for a country home. This, provided, one con- 

 ceives what is the dominant and central feature in the 

 place, and then throws the entire premises into sub- 

 ordination with this feature. In home grounds this 



central feattn-e is the house. To scatter trees and 

 bushes over the area defeats the fundamental purpose 

 of the place — the purpose to make every part of the 

 grounds lead up to the home and to accentuate its 

 homelikeness. Keep the center of the place open. Plant 

 the borders. Avoid all disconnected, cheap, patchy 

 and curious effects. It is not enough that the bushes 

 be planted in masses. They should be kept in masses 

 li}- letting them grow freely in a natural manner. The 

 pruning-knife is the most inveterate enemy of shrub- 

 bery. 



The use of flowers and bright foliage and striking 

 forms of vegetation is not discouraged, but these things 

 are never primary considerations in a good place. The 

 structural elements of the place are designed first. 

 The flanking and bordering masses are made the same 

 way that a house is painted after it is built. Flowers 

 api^ear to best advantage when seen against a back- 

 ground of foliage, and they are then also an integral 

 I)art of the pictin-e. The flow^er garden, as such, 

 should be at the rear or side cif a place, the same as all 

 other strictly jiersonal appurtenances are; but flowers 

 and bright leaves may be freely scattered along the 

 borders and near the foliage masses. 



What kind of shrubs and flowers shall be planted 

 is a wholly secondary and largely personal considera- 

 tion. Be sure that the main plantings are made up of 

 hardy and vigorous species and have lots of them. 

 Then get the things liked best. There is endless merit 

 in the choice of species, but the point to emphasize is 

 that the arrangement or disposition of the plants is far 

 more important than the kinds. 



It should be said that the appreciation of foliage 

 effects in the landscape is a higher type of feeling than 

 the desire for mere color. Flowers are transitorv, but 

 foliage and plant forms are abiding. The common 

 roses have very little value for landscape planting, be- 

 cause the foliage and habit of the rose bush are not 

 attractive, and the blossoms are fleeting. Some of the 

 wild roses and the Japanese Rosa nigosa. however, 

 have distinct merit for mass effects. 



\'ery soon one finds himself deeply interested in 

 these random and detached pictures. He soon comes 

 to feel that flowers are most expressive of the best 

 emotions when they are daintily dropped in here and 

 there against a background of foliage. Presentlv he 

 rebels at the bold, harsh and impudent designs of 

 some gardeners, and grows into pure and subdued love 

 of [jlant forms and verdure. He may still like the 

 weeping and cut-leaved and parti-colored trees of the 

 horticulturist, but he sees that their best effects are to 

 Ix" liad when they are planted sparingly, as flowers 

 are, as borders or ])romontories of the structural 

 masses. 



It all amounts to this, that the best planting, like 

 the best painting and the best music, is possible only 

 with the best and tenderest feeling and the closest 

 living with Xatuie. C ine's place grows to be a reflec- 

 tion of himself, changing as he changes, and express- 

 ing his life and sympathies to the last. — The Coiintr\iuan. 



Give a man the necessities of life, and he wants the 

 conveniences : and he craves for the luxuries, and sighs 

 for the elegances. Let him have the elegances, and he 

 yearns for the follies. Give him all, and he complains 

 that he has been cheated both in price and qualily of the 

 articles. 



