36 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 



tion of plants for a garden should therefore comprise all the best 

 and most showy sorts that can be procured, or for which there is 

 proper room and a suitable situation. And these should be well 

 mixed together, though not to the exclusion of the practice of 

 grouping particular kinds. To throw the various tribes of plants 

 into masses, according to their natural affinities, as is sometimes 

 recommended for arboretums, while it is destructive of all variety 

 under the most favorable conditions, is quite out of the question 

 in small gardens." This was written in 1850 and whatever was 

 beautiful then is beautiful today and will be in a thousand years 

 from now, yes, forever. 



Nature continually produces the most violent discords of 

 color. We find in any considerable collection of plants those 

 whose blossoms and foliage are in decided discord and if we were 

 to combine these colors in art they would be hideous, but nature 

 can combine them and they look all right. In a fine sunset we 

 see nearly every color and the same is true in the rainbow or an 

 autumn forest yet no one finds fault with any of these. 



Why should we not condemn all plants with showy flowers or 

 striking leaves, the gorgeous beds of annuals, the Chinese Hibis- 

 cus or the palms? It is well to be careful when we set plants 

 close to buildings or walls for in that case we are mingling art 

 and nature, and the same is true when planting a formal garden, 

 the latter being more a work of art than of nature. I do not 

 want to defy the laws of good taste but I would, in most cases, 

 subordinate them to those of nature. In writing what I have 

 done on this most important subject I have registered the solemn 

 convictions of an old man who has loved all these dear things 

 with a deep devotion since he was old enough to know his right 

 hand from his left. 



There are some plants which will not do well in the full sun- 

 light, for example, Thunbergia erecta, Dracaena godseffiana and 

 many of the palms, and I have specified these in the catalogue. 



One may produce excellent effects by planting palms or other 

 plants with striking foliage against a background of hammock or 

 other tall trees and the bamboos look well in such situations. 

 Bamboos or palms look well when planted as isolated specimens 

 where they can have plenty of room, and when they get up so 

 that they cut the sky line the effect is indescribably beautiful. 



