August 191 1 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTUEIST 



189 



\ 



Landscape Gardening 



Linai Woalrerton, Grimsbr, Ont. 



Landscape gardening is a compara- 

 tively new profession in Canada. Quite 

 recently the teaching of the main princi- 

 ples of the art have been undertaken .\t 

 the Ontario Agricultural College at 

 Guelph, and two experts have arisen, one 

 in Ontario and another in Quebec, but 

 these have appeared almost before th^ 

 public were prepared for them. The 

 beautiful parks of Great Britain, of Ger- 

 many, and of France, speak volumes in 

 praise of the landscape gardeners who 

 have made them famous, and the charm- 

 ing gardens, parks and boulevards of 

 Boston, Massachusetts are an everlasting 

 credit to the memory of Frederick Law 

 Olvestead. 



Prof. Sargeant of Boston, speaks very 

 decidedly regarding the important field 

 of study which is covered by this inter- 

 esting art. "Parks and city squares," 

 he says, "cemeteries and large country 

 places, must be laid out and planted by 

 one who has studied design, and the ef- 

 fects and needs of trees, shrubs and flow- 

 ers. Small country places and even villa 

 plots, if they are to be made the most of, 

 must be entrusted, too, to competent 

 hands." 



THE FIRST TO CONSULT 



Professor Sargeant further asserts that 

 the landscape architect should be con- 

 sulted even before the house architect for 

 the selection of the most effective site, 

 and for suggestions regarding the archi- 

 tectural design best suited to the locali- 

 ity. "Send for him," he says, "first of 

 all, even though it is a villa on an acre 

 of ground that you mean to build ; ask 

 him where your house had better stand, 

 where is the best place for the main en- 

 trance, the piazzas, the stable, the gates, 

 the dog-house, even ; if the grounds are 

 larger, ask him what architectural style 

 seems to him most fitting, where on the 

 plan the chief rooms should stand, what 

 views their windows should command ; 

 then send for your architect, let them de- 

 vise and decide together and work to- 

 gether until the work is done. In this 

 way you will run a far better chance 

 of getting a good house and a good place 

 than if they had worked separately — 

 the architect building his house without 

 knowing where it might best be placed, 

 or how best surrounded ; and the land- 

 .scape gardener coming in afterwards to 

 find, perhaps, that no chance was left 

 him to assist the house, or to do his own 

 work well." 



I commend to the readers of The Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist these remarks of Prof. 

 Sargeant ; they are particularly apropos 

 just now in Canada, when so much in- 

 terest in the beautifying of towns, vil- 

 lages and home grounds is being taken 

 by our local horticultural societies. 





11 ii j<i 



.%.^^**^ 



A Geranium Bed on the Grounds of the Presbyterian Church, Goderich, Ont. 



Many churches might greatly Improve their grounds by planting more flowers. The bed 

 here shown is composed of scarlet geraniums in the centre bordered by silver-leafed geran- 

 iums, with an outer border of the carpet plant. This bed was planted by Mr. D. S. Stoddart. 

 who states that he has found geraniums most successful plants tor such beds owing to their 

 well-known hardiness and their prolonged season. 



Old Country Flower Beds 



E. F. CoUiot, Toronto 



Last summer the writer saw many 

 beautiful color combinations in Hamp- 

 ton Court Palace Gardens, not that the 

 plants used were costly or rare, but the 

 effect was gained by the coloring (knd 

 point of view from which the visitors 

 could see them. There were two beds 

 which were beautiful beyond anything 

 like the idea that I can convey in writ- 

 ing. First, a square shaped bed with the 

 ends concaved, filled with a groundwork 

 of equal numbers of plants of sweet 

 alyssum and dwarf blue lobelia, with 

 dot plants about twenty inches each 

 way of a white and pink tinted tuberous 

 begonia, and above that a few dot plants 

 of eulalia Jiaponica variegata, standing 

 up two feet high, the effect was, as I 

 said, truly beautiful. 



The second bed, which was placed away 

 back from the nearest point of view, and 

 had a background of trees and shrubs and 

 extensive buildings above that, was a 

 combination of salvia Zurich, with tbll 

 dot plants of Gnaphalium, tied loosely 

 to one centre stake, and the bed edged 

 with the golden fuchsia, Sunray, rich 

 and gorgeous in the position where it 

 was, but if pBaced close under the eye or 

 near brick walls, it would have looked 

 crude and vulgar. Other beds were form- 

 ed of blue violas, with dot plants of helio- 

 trope, soft and pleasing to the eye, while 

 the angles of walls and terraces were oc- 



cupied with medium sized carpet beds in 

 simple design, and the flatness relieved 

 by the liberal use of various grasses. I 

 consider that color arrangement and posi- 

 tion ,are the two most important subjects 

 to be considered by gardeners. Much 

 can be done with poor material, if these 

 two important points are considered. 



"Sweet Lavender" 



A. H Ewini, Woodstock, Oat. 



Everyone from the Old Country, 

 whether horticulturally inclined or not, 

 knows the Lavender. Even Londoners 

 remember the "Sweet Lavender" cry of 

 the peddlers, and have probably indulged 

 their olfactory organs by buying a "pen'- 

 orth." Every garden here might have 

 a plant of this sweetest smelling herb by 

 planting it in some situation where it 

 would be well covered with snow dur- 

 ing the winter and protected from the 

 strong rays during the earliest days of 

 spring. For the last four years the writer 

 has grown some outdoors which have 

 pulled through the winter with more or 

 less success and it is safe to say that no 

 plants in the garden have given so much 

 pleasure or brought up so many pleasant 

 remembrances of days gone by to the 

 many visitors who frequent the place. 



The Lavender flowers have the most 

 refined scent in the garden and the leaves, 

 too, have a very refreshing perfume. Al- 

 together it is the sweetest, quietest and 

 most grand-motherly plant that grows. 



