MODERN GARDENS 



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naturalize exotics in places where they will take care 

 of themselves and gradually grow wild. This practice 

 results from a reaction against 

 the troublesome and expensive 

 custom of bedding out green- 

 house plants to the exclusion 

 of the hardy old-fashioned an- 

 nuals and perennials. The 

 art of the naturalistic garden 

 is an attempt to conceal art 

 and to give nature free play. 

 The wild garden owes much 

 to its able advocate, Mr. W. 

 Robinson, who is singularly in touch with many 

 phases of nature and has vigorously protested against 

 bedding out and all elaborate mosaic culture. He says The wild 



garden . 



that what he terms the wild garden has no connec- 

 tion with the wilderness, though it may happen to be 

 carried out there ; and that it does not necessarily mean 

 the picturesque garden, for picturesqueness may exist 

 on a cultivated plot of ground. The main object is to 

 make the plantation look natural and at the same time 

 to group the plants gracefully. Unfortunately, this 

 is by no means easy, especially for gardeners who 

 have seen nothing outside England. Their conception 

 of an Alpine garden is about as incongruous with the 

 given surroundings as would be an English park on 



