FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 161 



can be at the same time a reserve garden or nursery. 

 The modern tendency, and it is a good one, is to 

 keep down numerically the variety of material em- 

 ployed in garden pictures. For much, or all, of 

 what is rejected as picture material, though too 

 fondly liked to discard altogether, the reserve gar- 

 den is a convenience amounting to a necessity. 



It is just as well to isolate this garden, though 

 there is no occasion to do so if ordinary pains are 

 taken to keep it in good condition ; there are cutting 

 gardens that are really beautiful, even where the 

 beds are as simple as if the planting were lettuce 

 and there is little that is not in straight rows. 



Planting in straight rows is best for the sim- 

 ple reason that it lightens labor. No planning is 

 necessary for the planting and if sufficient space is 

 left between the rows most of the weeding and 

 cultivation can be done with a hoe. The work of 

 fertilizing and winter protection is also reduced to 

 a minimum. 



Grow a few shrubs in the cutting garden if there 

 is room; some of them are readily propagated by 

 cuttings. Shrubs elsewhere on the grounds may, of 

 course, supply enough cut flowers without injury. 

 But these should not be drawn on too heavily; 

 several, like rhododendrons and azaleas, not at all. 

 In the cutting garden plant forsythia, for branches 

 to force in the house in February; the pink-flower- 

 ing almond, or any good deutzia, weigela, 

 viburnum, spirea, hypericum or lilac. These may 

 be growing nursery stock or employed for an in- 



