THE PROBLEM OF THE HERBACEOUS 

 BORDER 



GARDENERS often write and talk as if it were 

 quite easy to keep a herbaceous border full of 

 flowers for six or seven months of the year. Now if 

 it were easy, the bedding-out system, with its obvious 

 disadvantages, would surely never have come into 

 vogue; and as a matter of fact it is not easy; indeed, 

 it is probably impossible; and gardeners of the greatest 

 skill and taste do not attempt it. The real problem 

 of the herbaceous border is not to keep it in full flower 

 from April to October, but to prevent it from looking 

 like a spent firework after the first flush of summer 

 bloom is over. Some of the noblest herbaceous plants, 

 such as Larkspurs and Oriental Poppies, have this 

 grave defect, that they become ugly and ragged as 

 soon as they go out of flower, and even with the best 

 cultivation remain ugly and ragged for some time. 

 During this period, since the better grown they are 

 the more space they occupy, they are an ugly blot 

 upon the border, and a border that is filled with plants 

 of this kind may be very splendid for a while, but 

 when half the summer is over it will begin to look 

 autumnal. It is easy enough to have some flowers 

 in blossom in the border so long as there is sun and 



warmth enough to bring flowers out at all; but a 



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