CRUSADE AGAINST TOPIARY 



"The Dutch Garden in front of Hampton Court Palace is unob- 

 jectionable, because it is in character with that part of the building 

 and as a royal garden it ought to remain as it is, were it only to 

 serve as an illustration of the style of gardening in the time of 

 William and Mary." Charles JVL'Intosh. 



WHENEVER a fashion runs to extremes its end is not 

 far to seek. On the one hand, a fashion becomes too 

 general for those who have a taste for novelty, and 

 especially for *those who can afford at almost any cost 

 to have something not available to the general public. 



On the other hand, a fashion carried to excess becomes 

 inconvenient and ridiculous, therefore it at once becomes 

 offensive to those who are regarded as having good 

 taste. And so it came about that when Topiary work 

 had spread itself over all the gardens of the time and 

 could hardly go further either in extent or design, there 

 came the inevitable reaction. The same sort of thing 

 has happened even in quite modern times. 



One need not be very old to have seen the famous 

 trained specimen plants that used to grace the highly 

 successful exhibitions at the Royal Botanic Society's 

 gardens, at the Crystal Palace, and elsewhere. Yet 

 these giants have passed away, and in their places we 

 have larger stocks of smaller and more easily grown 

 subjects in other words, the fashion has changed. 

 " Bedding-out" reached such a height of fashionable 

 popularity that it threatened to exclude the beautiful 

 hardy perennial flowers from many a garden ; it taxed 

 the patience and ingenuity of the gardener and the purse 



