164 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



that there would be. And we need not expect to 

 find one for another decade or more. By 1635-40, 

 however, they are beginning, here and there, in the 

 English Colonies both north and south; and of course 

 they are continuing as they had previously been begun, 

 in New Netherland. This sets the remotest limit of 

 our gardens therefore, with fair certainty, at two hun- 

 dred and seventy-five years ago. 



For the near line, before which all shall be regarded 

 as unfit to rank with the truly old, common consent 

 seems to have fixed the close of the Revolution. But 

 as General Washington did not lay out his gardens at 

 Mount Vernon until 1783, I do not see how we shall 

 accept only the Colonial era and exclude all that lies 

 this side of it. And the gardens of Jefferson at 

 Monticello were even later than this. So I shall place 

 the forward limit at one hundred years ago and include 

 these. Which gives us a period of one hundred and 

 seventy-five years for our old-fashioned gardens a 

 very respectable interval, considering that our country 

 is young. 



With this much definitely settled, we know at once 

 just what flowers may be admitted; and we know 

 that no thought in gardening which shaped itself since 

 Thomas Jefferson was Chief Executive, may intrude. 

 Many flowers and some ideas which have long been 

 held old-fashioned, will have to move out of the list; 



