3 i2 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



artificial water is best as far away from the house as the ground will 

 allow. If a spot does not invite water it is far better to devote it to 

 one of the many shrubs we have to give a home to. 



The pergola is the best way of showing the full beauty of many 



climbing plants, but, unless with some definite motive, such as shade 



to a walk or a ready way from one part of a place 



Pergolas. to another, it may be a wasteful mistake, especially 



if covered over with the mechanical trellising 



which is common abroad. The best kind of trellising is that made 



from the split Oak of our own country. The moment the pergola 



is designed for theatrical effect or from the builder's point of view its 



beauty is lost. Many well-covered pergolas in Italy and Southern 



France are made of the simplest material at hand, and are better so. 



The common British way of using " rustic " wood is a mistake. Give 



a pergola sound legs to stand on and the rest is easy. 



After the disfigurement of trees the next most fatal defect in modern 



gardens is the stereotyped flower garden. There was a time when 



the architect, impatient of the gardener's labours, 



Parterre gardening, attempted by means of coloured gravel, clipped 



trees, and various contrivances, to get a settled 



and permanent effect. That meant death in the flower garden, as 



may be seen in many old books where gardens were traceries made 



like panels in the house. There was no pleasure in this sort of 



garden, and people eventually tired of it and often put down Grass 



instead as we may see about some of our finest old houses. In a 



book lately published on garden ornament, we may see a number of 



such pattern gardens with as much thought of life as in designs for 



wall papers or carpets. One might as well attempt to stereotype the 



clouds of heaven as get a stamped arrangement of the flower garden. 



The flower garden should abound in life and beauty of form all 



through the summer and be the scene of the labours of men every 



fine day in the winter and spring. In my own flower garden of 



moderate size not a day passes for nine months of the year that does 



not reveal a new aspect of beauty of flower, leaf or effects. How 



stupid then to attempt to stamp all life and change out of a garden ! 



Occasionally one sees hardy trees put in tubs at heavy expense 



and labour. Our native trees stand in no need of tubs. In Wrest 



Park I once saw wooden boxes built round hardy 



Hardy trees in trees, the huge boxes covered with Moss. This 



tubs. was intended to carry out the idea of an Italian 



garden in a stupid way. In some old French 



gardens the culture of trees in large tubs is still carried on. I have 



seen six fine horses dragging a big tub to its winter quarters. It 



seems this tub culture is to be carried on at Hampton Court, 



