12 LANDSCAPE GARDEN SERIES 



achievement that gives them their individuality is their independence of 

 decorative horticulture. 



No line can be drawn between the design and the horticultural 

 elements of a landscape scheme. The planting must have, as the 

 basis of its arrangement, good design; and the design must have good 

 planting, so that in each lies the pattern of good landscape architecture. 

 The landscape architect must have a working knowledge of the basic 

 principles of design and an understanding of plant forms. While a 

 detailed knowledge of horticulture as listed in an encyclopedia is not 

 necessary, he must understand plant forms and local plant conditions. 

 Although a good gardener, horticulturist, or nature lover, may under- 

 stand plants from his own interest as to methods of growing, varieties, 

 and kinds or natural habits of growth, it is the basic principle of design 

 that governs their fundamental arrangement as regards the organization 

 of the plan that is the final test of good landscape design. 



While flowers and decorative plant material must always be the 

 feature of a garden, the garden should never exist for its flowers alone, 

 but should have, in addition to its horticultural value, a studied color 

 plan and gracious lines of design and be in harmony with the entire 

 scheme. The real permanent features that are the basis of a successful 

 country place plan or composition, are to keep the open country atmos- 

 phere, to make the plan and house a part of the landscape and then 

 to combine and blend the two by the use of plant material that will not 

 become of itself the controlling element of the whole place. 



"Creation of landscape" in order to make an excuse for the intro- 

 duction of exotic and gardenesque plant material was at one time the 

 fashion in America. The American country home, in which the 

 "natural" effect was produced by the winding road, mounds, iron 

 deer and other figures , a weeping mulberry , weeping elms, with 

 formal beds of cannas and geraniums, or elaborate "carpet beds" of 

 intricate pattern, was at one time extensively developed in the Eastern 

 States. The more modern adaptation of the architectural part of the 

 country place to the natural landscape has given us open country 

 estates in which the house group, orchard, garden, recreation features, 

 and the big sweep of open fields and forests, are all fused in one. In 

 much of this early gardening of America, as regards country places, 



