1 30 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



yet been given to the question of effect in open gardens. In our 

 own day this question has been forced upon us in very unpleasant 

 ways by masses of crudely arranged, and not always pretty flowers. 



Over a very large area of the United Kingdom Carnation culture 

 may be carried out well, and perhaps most successfully near the sea. 

 The gentler warmth of the shore in some way influences this, and in 

 any case the best results I have seen from out-door culture have been 

 in places like Scarborough, Edinburgh, Anglesey, the shores of 

 Dublin Bay, and in sea-shore gardens generally where the soil is warm 

 and good. It is wonderful what one may do in such places as 

 compared with what is possible, say, in the Weald of Kent. At 

 Scarborough we may see Carnations almost forming a bush ; near 

 Edinburgh tufts of the Clove Carnation 5 feet in diameter, whereas 

 in the Weald we have to plant annually. In our island the area 

 for shore gardens being very large, we may see how important the 

 flower in gardens in sea-shore districts may be. 



The Lily had to go too from the flower garden of our own day ; 



it was too tall, and no doubt had other faults, but like the Rose 



it must come back, and one of the gains of a free 



Lily and Iris. way of flower gardening is that we are able to put 

 Lilies or any other flowers in it at any season that 

 suits their planting, and that their bloom is welcome whenever it 

 comes, and leaves us content with brown stems when it goes. If in 

 the large flower garden we get some diversity of surface through 

 groups of the rarer flowering evergreen shrubs, we have for these the 

 very soil that our Lilies thrive in, and we break up in pretty ways 

 these groups by planting Lilies among them, gaining thereby two 

 seasons of bloom, light and shade in the masses, and diversity of 

 form. 



The Iris, too, with its Orchid-like beauty and flower, and with a 

 higher value of leaf than either Lily or Orchid, is in summer-flowering 

 kinds fit to grace the flower garden with some permanent beds. Some 

 will tell us that we may not do these things in the set flower garden 

 under the windows, but from an artistic point of view this is not true 

 and very harmful. There is no flower garden, however arid or 

 formal in its plan, which may not be planted in picturesque ways 

 and without robbing it of fine colour either. But to do that in the 

 face of ugly plans we must be free to choose among all beautiful 

 things of the open air, not forgetting the best of the half-hardy 

 plants that enjoy our summer Heliotrope, great Blue Salvia,^ not 

 forgetting Scarlet Geranium no more than Cardinal Flower ; annual 

 summer flowers, too, from Sweet Pea to Stocks, Mignonette, and 

 Pansy. A true flower garden is one which has a place for every 

 flower its owner cares for. 



