CHAPTER X 



URNS, VASES, TUBS, ETC. 



THE use of portable receptacles for containing shrubs and 

 flowering plants has much to commend it, and com- 

 paratively uninteresting gardens may be much improved 

 by their judicious employment. Unfortunately, as with 

 many other forms of garden furniture, this style of 

 decoration is often carried to excess, and instead of 

 adding to the attractions of the garden scheme, either 

 wearies by monotonous repetition, or else disfigures by 

 reason of its unsuitability or the lack of taste displayed in 

 its arrangement. Highly decorated vases are only suited 

 to gardens where some architectural feature is introduced, 

 either in the form of terracing or cut stonework of some 

 description. Quite plain vases may be introduced with 

 comparative safety, except in the wilder or natural 

 portions, where cultivation, in the accepted sense, is 

 but little practised. Tubs and boxes, if constructed of 

 good materials simply put together, are, as a rule, 

 unobtrusive, and consequently suited to most gardens 

 of varying styles, but even these require considerable 

 care in arrangement, if they are to be made effective. 

 Urns, which differ from vases, in that they are provided 

 with a cover, are useless for containing plants, but are 

 often employed for purely ornamental purposes. Though 

 quite out of place, save in connection with a somewhat 

 formal style of gardening, urns occasionally look fairly 

 well when surmounting an old wall, the ivy or creepers 



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