THE HARDY GARDEN 83 



Another point in favor of the hardy garden. 

 There you see plants reach their full development, 

 as nature intended them to be. From the first 

 snowdrop to the last chrysanthemum, every plant 

 pursues its natural course of life; you may ob- 

 serve it mature and immature. On the other hand, 

 bedding plants, such as the geranium, heliotrope 

 and lantana, come into the garden in their youth 

 and are cut down by the frost before the end of it. 

 They are bedding plants at best. When one thinks 

 of the geranium in subtropical California, the helio- 

 trope in the Alameda of Gibraltar and the lantana 

 running wild in Bermuda, all in the greater glory 

 that nature meant to give them, their incomplete- 

 ness in our northern gardens seems really very 

 pitiful. 



Then there is the question of appropriateness, 

 speaking more particularly of temperate climates. 

 Hardy plants are natives of temperate zones, other- 

 wise they would not be hardy. There is accord- 

 ingly a certain fitness in their use. They seem 

 to fall in with any landscape scheme and look as 

 if they belonged there. A lily from Japan or a 

 bleeding heart from China has the appearance of 

 being at home in a Massachusetts garden, whereas 

 Cuban palms or Arizona cacti, bedded out for the 

 summer in pots, do not. This, of course, is going 

 to extremes to institute a comparison. The idea 

 is the fitness of hardy plants for the general note 

 of home gardens of temperate zones. 



Seldom is a hardy garden literally, that is to 



