GARDEN DESIGN 255 



informal garden has done a great deal to injure it 

 in the minds of those who believe that design has 

 some value. It is unfortunate that it should have 

 suffered in this way, for at its best it is altogether 

 a desirable type of planting. 



In characterizing the architectural garden one 

 might say that the planting materials are used 

 merely for form and color, but principally for 

 form, and that they may be considered almost as 

 architectural members. Wherever flowers ap- 

 pear in a formal garden it is not on account of the 

 individual beauty of the flower itself, but because 

 a color note is needed to relieve an otherwise som- 

 ber color scheme. In Figure 60 red geraniums 

 are used for that purpose. The vases on the bal- 

 ustrade at the Villa Lante are an ingenious means 

 of introducing plant form and color into very 

 strictly architectural surroundings (Fig. 61). 



The accent in the formal garden is generally a 

 piece of sculpture or an architectural feature, such 

 as a well-curb (Fig. 62), a fountainhead (Fig. 63), 

 a gate, stairs (Fig. 64), a bridge, a sundial, or a 

 retaining- wall (Fig. 65). 



Where accents occur in informal planting they 

 are as a rule horticultural, and rely upon some dif- 

 ference in the accent plants from their surround- 



