478 



HORTICULTUEE 



Marcli 28, 1914 



FARQUHAR'S EVERGREEN LAWN GRASS SEED 



In making or renovating a lawn, much depends on the Grass Seed Mixture used. 

 Why not have the best ? 



Our Lawn Grass Mixtures are all composed of the finest quality seeds, and under 

 normal conditions, should produce the best results. The formulas used are the 

 result of a lifelong experience with grasses adapted to lawn making in this country. 



Special Mixtures for— Shady Places, Putting Greens, Fair Greens, Sea Shore, Tennis Courts, Terraces 



Catalogue on application 



R. & J. FARQUHAR & CO., Boston, Mass. 



be very convenient to the house 

 for the "picking of flowers and fruit. In 

 this garden may also be placed a low 

 fruit house or two, and forcing pits or 

 low houses for vegetables. Such facili- 

 ties for providing early fruits and 

 vegetables are, I think, desirable and 

 even necessary, in view of the long 

 winter season; but 1 am or the opinion 

 that the erection of ranges of houses 

 for the growth of ornamental plants, 

 or cut flowers for use in the house, is 

 an expensive mistake. Can we not 

 have an abundance of flowers from the 

 garden? Commencing early in spring 

 with snow drops, and ending with the 

 hardy asters and chrysanthemums 

 with the fall frosts, what a succession 

 of beautiful flowers we have. Thence 

 on, until spring again, we have our 

 myriads of fruits and berries to carry 

 on beauty's procession, than which 

 nothing can be more appropriate for 

 the season. 



Behind the background near the 

 vegetable garden can be placed the 

 stables and any other necessary build- 

 ing or house convenience. The whole 

 can then be screened by a heavy 

 plantation of trees or shrubbery of 

 varying outline. 



From at least two points of advan- 

 tage within the house, long vistas of 

 simple open turf, stretching away into 

 the distance could be made. The 

 boundary lines of these views should 

 be broken up into deep bays and bold 

 points of foliage, the lines of which 

 again could be opened for lateral 

 views. 



Judicious planting of vines should 

 be made against the house: for ex- 

 ample, wisterias or bignonias at the 

 corners, or at the porches or other 

 projections, and ampelopsis and 

 evonymus against flat' portions of 

 the facade, but all sparingly. The ef- 

 fect should be that the house sup- 

 ports the vines, which in turn soften 

 the architectural lines; not that the 

 vines are a support to the house or 

 that the architecture needs to be hid- 

 den — breathe it not — sometimes that 

 were better. Procumbent shrubs, too, 

 planted along the base line at intervals 

 will tend to soften the junction of turf 

 and the walls. This shrubbery line 

 may be of varying width. In front of, 

 and under the edges of the shrubbery, 

 spring-flowering bulbs could be plant- 

 ed; such as, crocus, snow-drops, nar- 

 cissus, etc. 



As far back as gardening history 

 can inform us there have been flower 

 gardens round the house. In the old 



times they were even made within the 

 lines of the moat, for their protection. 

 After civil wars ceased to troiible the 

 land, or in the Elizabethian period, 

 gardens took a place in the open lawn, 

 which occupied the space formerly 

 taken up by the moat. The old gardens 

 were planted with home-like and 

 familiar friends of humble type such 

 as roses, artemesia, monkshood, arge- 

 mone, marigold, foxglove, hollyhock, 

 etc. — plants famous in song and story. 

 Before the middle of the last century, 

 the fashion changed, the old-fashioned 

 flowers w'cre banished from all gardens 

 of any pretensions, and the florid 

 "bedding out" style adcpted. This 

 comprised lines as in the ribbon bor- 

 der, of one color, sometimes hundreds 

 of feet long, also beds in the designs 

 of animals, flags, carpet and rug woi'k, 

 planted with exotic material. Flowers 

 were never prostituted to such base 

 uses as they were during the period 

 of this craze. At its height it seemed 

 as though a gardener's ability could 

 only be measured by his dexterity 

 with the sheep shears, in clipping the 

 various plants into the desired shapes. 

 As in former years, the test would 

 be a hammer, cast iron nails, list- 

 ing, and an inhospitably cold gar- 

 den wall. While the old formal style 

 still lingers in places, the tendency in 

 ornamental gardening now is to use 

 tropical plants in beds and borders, 

 with a ground cover of smaller plants. 

 To return to the house, the flower 

 garden should be on "the lawn in front. 

 The ground being level or nearly so, 

 terrace walls are not needed; there is 

 no interruption in the foreground to 

 the view down the vistas of tree- 

 bordered turf. Off at either of the 

 vistas are irregular groups of trees, 

 bordered by rather widely-set shrub- 

 bery. Among and in front of this 

 shrubbery the flower garden should be 

 made not in a clearly defined border, 

 but with tall herbaceous plants, such as 

 delphiniums, foxglove, holly-hocks, 

 lilies, etc., planted among the taller 

 growing shrubs at the back. Then down 

 to the front, among shrubs of dwarf 

 growth, let us have phloxes, salvias, 

 hardy asters, pyrethrums, roses, lilies, 

 heleniums, solidago; and in front 

 periwinkle, dwarf asters, iberis. ver- 

 onicas, and many others almost too 

 numerous to mention. 



It is not intended to be understood 

 that a grading down of shrubs or 

 plants from tall at the back to dwarf 

 in front is intended, rather let dwarf 

 run back occasionally in short vistas. 



as It were, and let tall plants come to 

 the front; the smug insipidity of 

 graded planting can thus be broken up 

 and a more natural tone imparted. 

 Nor should the lines of the border be 

 too clearly defined, let it in a natural 

 manner project itself boldly into the 

 lawn, and again retreat back nearly 

 to the tree line. 



It is important in our garden to have 

 space enough between the shnibs to 

 give plenty of room for root growth 

 of the shrubs, and leave sufficient for 

 the needs of the herbaceous plants too. 

 The shrubs will, if carefully selected 

 for their berried effects in winter, or 

 for the coloration of their branches, 

 go far to cover the deficiencies of the 

 bare herbaceous plants at that sea- 

 son. 



The planting of a country home 

 grounds opens up a large field for en- 

 thusiastic gardeners. On the tree bor- 

 ders of the turfy glades what a field 

 there is for the development of a 

 fringe of beautiful things! Thorns, 

 flowering dogwoods, witch hazel, june- 

 berries and red buds would frame the 

 vistas with a succession of bloom, 

 during a great part of the spring and 

 early summer. And what opportunity 

 for the planting of spring flowering 

 bulbs by the thousand, sprinkling 

 them partly under the branches of the 

 shrubbery and having waves of them 

 spread out over the turf in front. 

 Narcissi, crocuses, snowdrops, scillas, 

 grape hyacinths and fall blooming 

 crocuses would be the kinds suitable. 

 In the herbaceous border May-flower- 

 ing and Darwin tulips might be added. 



A piece of damp woodland bordering 

 a creek could be planted with many 

 beautiful plants including ferns, which 

 love moist and shady conditions, while 

 the borders of the creek would give 

 a home to the Irises, the nelsias, 

 senecios, swamp azaleas, andromedas, 

 rhododendrons, loosestrifes and sagit- 

 tarias. 



A pond in the low ground, fully ex- 

 posed to the sun would give opportu- 

 nity for the planting of Latour Mar- 

 liacs' beautiful hybrid water lilies, 

 as well as our own handsome ones. A 

 great w-ealth of material, besides, is at 

 the service of the water gardener. 

 Then a ravine of rocky dell, possessing 

 a good cover of leafy mulch, suggests 

 the absorbing delight of planting a 

 collection of native ferns. 



A bank under partial shade suggests 

 a mass of primroses, while another 

 bank reminds one of the beautiful little 

 Canadian cornel, and how well it would 



