CHAPTER VII 

 SINCERITY IN PLANTING 



IN planting design, as in all other artistic professions, or in fact in 

 all trades and crafts, there are persons who through lack of scruple 

 or understanding in regard to truly satisfying composition, execute 

 work that is palpably insincere or stupid in the eyes of anyone capable 

 of perception of aesthetic merit, not to speak of practical errors. 



Some errors may be excused by virtue of the well-known human 

 capacity for error. In view of the manifold qualifications or limita- 

 tions of plant species for various purposes, it may reasonably be ex- 

 pected that errors will be committed. Sometimes the errors result in 

 a better effect than the designer has visualized, and he receives 

 applause that he knows he has not earned. On the other hand, people 

 are quick to censure the unhappy accidents in no uncertain terms. 



Sincerity in planting specifies the use of plants consistent with the 

 highest standards possible of attainment in aesthetic perfection and 

 practical efficiency in whatever problem the designer has before him. 

 Harmony must be maintained between plant colors and forms, and 

 architectural colors and forms. In any certain type of planting, as 

 formal, informal or naturalistic, the plants used must be "in character". 



Probably the greatest crime committed against sincerity in plant 

 composition is the indiscriminate use of vivid colors in leaf or flower, 

 and forms that are abnormal or in abrupt opposition to their environ- 

 ment. Two notorious human fallibilities make such misdemeanors 

 possible dull color perception, and a passion for the unusual. No 

 other explanation can excuse bright red geraniums in round or crescent- 

 shaped beds, or vivid Blue Spruces or Weeping Mulberries, 

 placed in the center of a "front yard" which was all' too small in the 

 beginning, before being choked up or shattered by such disrupting 

 objects. 



It should be understood that there is no quarrel with the various 

 bright red, yellow, blue or purple leaves and flowers in themselves. 

 No man can consider himself qualified to criticize Nature. Even the 

 distorted forms produced by horticultural ingenuity are justly a source 

 of pride in human achievement. For many years nurserymen sold plants 

 of this nature in tremendous quantities- They merely catered to public 



