8 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES 



masses, wherein the restraint in ground plan may be modified and 

 relaxed in elevation by using plants of only moderately restrained habit. 

 Here, again, the designer is governed by the style of architecture, 

 environment, and individual taste. This modified formality of plant- 

 ing is often desirable to achieve harmony with the "domestic" types 

 of architecture. French and Italian architecture call for the most rigid 

 forms of planting. Other styles lend themselves to various degrees of 

 modification or "softening". 



Informal planting follows smooth, flowing, irregular lines whose 

 curves are obviously studied and have a trim quality which stamps 

 them as artificial as compared to outlines in Nature. Plants of either 

 native or foreign origin are given equal preference, the main object 

 being to achieve a pleasing mass with enough variety of leaf, flower 

 and twig to avoid monotony. Variety is obtained by varying the 

 sections that make up the whole, but not by varying the individual 

 plants that compose any separate section. Emphasis at desired points 

 is obtained by masses of plants strongly contrasting with adjacent 

 masses or by individual specimens incorporated in the massed border 

 in effective contrast therewith. Many plants adapted to specimen use 

 in formal planting may be used en masse in informal planting, as their 

 individuality is thus obscured by numbers. 



Informal planting is possible, but wasteful of space and main- 

 tenance, on a small suburban or city place. It is difficult to plant a 

 small place informally and justify the resulting effect by any other 

 reason than that of individual fancy. On medium sized suburban or 

 country places informal planting may be quite effective after the or- 

 ganization of areas directly influenced by the house is attended to, and 

 it is not difficult to obtain transition from the formal planting about the 

 house to the informal planting to define the open spaces extending out 

 from the house and its immediate entourage. Parks and cemeteries 

 are very effectively planted in this style, which admits of, and, indeed, 

 requires maintenance in a degree of trimness approaching that of formal 

 planting, especially when the land allotted for the development has 

 little or no existing native growth to be emulated- In fact, the informal 

 style as here defined has been so universally followed in park planting 

 that it is commonly spoken of as "park-like" planting. 



The aim in informal planting is to define and separate the areas 

 blocked out in the general plan composition of the place so that the 

 eye meets no resistance in straight edges or sharp corners, but carries 

 along smoothly curving lines; the vistas, openings into adjoining areas 

 and other points of interest being emphasized by specimens or groups 

 of plants that attract the eye through contrast in form, color, or other 

 quality or combination of qualities. 



