160 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



relief in the summer ; they often flower beautifully ; and here and 

 there they might form dividing masses, so as to throw the un- 

 wieldy space into parts, which would help to secure variety- and 

 contrast. 



The result of planting and placing rightly well-chosen hardy 

 shrubs would be a good background here and there ; a smaller area 

 to plant with summer things ; less dependence on such feeble 

 examples of tropical plants as one can grow in Britain ; light and 

 shade, and a variety of surface as well as more variety of plants and 

 bushes ; in short all the life of the garden instead of a dead waste. 

 Not only would the winter effect be improved, but the summer 

 also. The objection that some shrubs do not flower long enough is 

 not serious, as we have their beauty of form and leaf, and delicate 

 green and other fine colour of foliage. The tropical plants put out 

 to relieve the flowering plants do not, many of them, flower at all, 

 and do not give such good relief as hardy shrubs and choice trees. 



This is not a question of town or public gardens only, as it arises 

 in many private places, and especially in large gardens, where much 

 of the surface is given to half-hardy summer flowers. As to the 

 common plan for getting rid of the winter bareness of such beds by 

 evergreens and conifers in pots, it is impossible on a large scale, and 

 sticking potted conifers in a flower garden to drag them away in 

 spring is at best a very costly business. 



The stems of all herbaceous plants, reeds, and tall grasses in 

 winter, are very good in colour, and should always be allowed to 

 stand through the winter and not be cut down in 

 Keep the stems, the fidgety-tidy way that is so common, sweeping 

 away the stems in autumn and leaving the surface 

 as bare and ugly as that round a besieged city. The same applies to 

 the stems of all waterside and herbaceous plants, stems of plants in 

 groups often giving beautiful brown colours in many fine shades. 

 Those who know the plants can in this way identify them in winter 

 as well as in summer a great gain in changing one's plantings and 

 in increasing or giving away plants. Moreover, the change to all 

 these lovely browns and greys is a distinct gain as a lesson in colour 

 to all whe> care for refined colour, and also in enabling us to get 

 light and shade, contrasts and harmonies in colour. If these plants 

 are grouped in a bold and at the same time picturesque way, the 

 good of letting the stems remain will be far more evident than in 

 the weak " dotty " way generally practised, the seed pods and dead 

 flowers of many plants helping the picture. There is no need to 

 remove any stem of an herbaceous plant until the spring comes and 

 the growing shoots are ready to take the place of the brown and 

 dead ones, which then may be cleared away. 



