IRISH GARDENING. 



DECEMBER 



yearly panorama of beauty and delight is a 

 special exception made in our favour to Nature's 

 law that death and decay is sad, and forbidding, 

 and repellant. 



It might have been ordained that the fair 

 summer's green should droop, and hang, and 

 rot, and moulder, and swing in lank repulsive- 

 ness to the autumn winds. What a splendidly 

 gracious idea it was — I say it with all reverence — 

 to turn this great fading and death into the 

 crowning beauty of the year ! 



I think we Irish do appreciate looking at 

 beautiful things, but too generally and vaguely, 

 it gives us pleasure, so we like it, but think 

 no more about it ; but to him whose heart 

 is open to seek after and try to comprehend 

 the myriad marvellous provisions of the 

 All-wise Creator, who, when He had made 

 the grass, and herbs, and trees bearing fruit 

 after their kind, saw that it was good; to him is 

 opened pleasures and possibilities that I am 

 afraid tar too many of us live and die without 

 realising. 



The Distribution of Plants in 

 the Garden. 



By F. O. Wells, Author of The Garden Decomtive. 



IN the planting of a garden there are many 

 considerations worth bearing in mind if 

 we would have our gardens as beautiful 

 as we may. The distribution of the plants is 

 an important matter, and can do much to make 

 or mar the beauty and the interest of the 

 garden generally. One of the great points in 

 good gardening is to achieve character and to 

 escape monotony. I have seen a garden that 

 was once a charming small garden ; but it was 

 enlarged by a good many extra beds and 

 borders. These were, for the most part, stocked 

 from the superfluous plants obtained by lifting 

 and dividing the subjects in the original portion. 

 The result was, that these were taken and put 

 in wherever space for them could be found, 

 here, there, and everywhere, so that certain 

 familiar plants were to be seen wherever one 

 turned. This spelt the direst monotony, and 

 the garden soon came to lack any individual or 

 distinct interest. To my mind it is the greatest 

 mistake thus to scatter plants throughout the 

 whole garden, and it seems to me that a far 

 g^reater decorativeness is secured by taking, let 



us say, the campanulas and letting them appear 

 to advantage in not more than one or two 

 borders, but in these they may become a pro- 

 minent feature, and can be represented by 

 several varieties. Then, again, the perennial 

 sunflowers — if these be used for all they are 

 worth in one portion of the garden, they will 

 not have the same interest if they reappear in 

 all the remaining portions also — and it is the 

 same with other subjects. I never mind how 

 many times a plant is repeated in the same 

 border, either in clumps or lines, or in some 

 cases, single plants — in fact I often like the 

 emphasis this gives, but that is a very diff"erent 

 thing from repeating a subject all over the 

 garden. If this be done, as I have seen it done 

 repeatedly, one knows, practically speaking, the 

 contents of each border after seeing a simple 

 one. A second important point in the distribu- 

 tion of plants in a garden is the securing and 

 placing of plants that by reason of the character 

 of their foliage, or habit of growth, or of the 

 striking appearance of their blossoms, naturally 

 stand out with greater prominence than the 

 generality of other subjects. Most plants with 

 straight sword-blade foliage might be included 

 under this category, especially plants so hand- 

 some as phormiums Wherever they are placed, 

 so long as they are not crowded and half- 

 hidden, they are bound to be prominent subjects. 

 Well, let us make the most of them, let us give 

 them a prominent position, and even, perhaps, 

 make other subjects subservient to enhance 

 their character. It is the same with Pampas 

 grass, so decorative, so striking, so full of 

 graceful character, it is worth placing it, that 

 all these facts may be taken full advantage of 

 for all they are worth. Let us decide where the 

 vantage points in our gardens lie, and then 

 study what will best emphasise them. 



Mr. E. F. Hawes, in an address to the British 

 Gardeners' .\ssociation on the iith of last month, advo- 

 cated a fuller recognition of horticulture by the State, 

 and suggested the establishment of a " Commission of 

 Horticulture, " with the appointment of permanent ex- 

 pert horticultural commissioners to the Board of Agri- 

 culture with the view among other functions of uniting 

 the whole of the present existing horticulture societies 

 and organisations into a central chamber of horticulture 

 so as to secure co-operation, direction, and unity of 

 control over the various horticultural activities in the 



