July 2S, 1906 



HORTICULTURE 



Flower Garden Arrangement 



When we look back to the time when pattern bedding 

 was fashionable in puVilie and private gardening we 

 cannot help feeling glad that it is all but gone. Tt still 

 lingers in the public parks and gardens of some of the 

 larger cities, where least it shoidd exist. We cannot 

 believe it is kept up in thi'se places for the love of it, 

 for it is a disagreeable and monotonous task and tre- 

 mendously expensive. Among park managers — or shall 

 we say ptdilie gardens — there appears to be a notion 

 that nothing else will please the jjublic fancy so well. 

 It is, however, very misleading to the public, among 

 whom are a large number of amateurs with small gar- 

 dens. We are most of us carried away with novel and 

 startling effects in gardening — whether it be in design 

 or color, it makes little difference; and people who see 

 these things in private and public gardens whose tastes 

 are undeveloped, are liable to think this style of gi^rden- 

 ing the height of perfection. 



Bold and pleasing color effects will never cease to de- 

 light us. even though, as surely happens, if we should 

 see the same thing every day it would pall on us. And 

 still, in another jdace we should go through the same 

 mental process, if the design or color were different, 

 especially if we should come upon the thing tmcxpect- 

 edly. A mass of Oriental poppies, German iris, or 

 Japanese iris, is something that stays in what we may 

 call one's eye-memory. Places thousands of miles away, 

 and years agone, will come back to us by just Such 

 sights as these. 



We often think we do not make the most of flower 

 garden effects. By indiscriminate planting, which is lit- 

 tle better as practiced in most flower gardens today — 

 •or rather shall we say herbaceous gardens — we get a 



succession of bloom from spring until autumn, and 

 there is always "something interesting" in bloom. We 

 are not satisfied ourselves with wliat we have done, and 

 we feel ashamed sometimes when compliments aiV; paid 

 us. We have asked visitors, especially ladies, ior sug- 

 gestions on color harmony, and only too often get for a 

 reply that "it could not be better than it is," which 

 shows, unfortunately, that their tastes are no further 

 developed than our own. 



It is not always that the situation affords the oppor- 

 tunity to carry out any color scheme in flower garden- 

 ing, but where it does it should be attempted. Phloxes 

 planted in groups of a dozen or more, of one color, are 

 more effective than mixed groups. The same with 

 delphiniums, rudbeckias, gypsophilas, lychnis, mon- 

 ardas, and many others. We think even in mixed 

 planting, such as we generally see in herbaceous bor- 

 ders, large masses of color are most effective. There is 

 also a chance for harmonious color blending. This 

 would mean that we arrange corresponding colors of 

 various-habited plants, especially with regard to heights, 

 for effective grouping and such as bloom about the same 

 time. 



Thus we are led to the idea, sometimes suggested, of 

 seasonal gardening. I do not say that I indorse it, but 

 it may be examined and the possibilities opened out. 

 The seasons may be divided into early spring — April; 

 spring — May; early summer — June; summer — July- 

 August; early autumn — September; autumn — October 

 and Xovember, if we include berried and foliaged 

 plants. There is material enough to make a success of 

 the plan, as far as each section goes, but the undertak- 

 ing as a whole would not be. It could not be done verv 



