184 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



border will not look beautiful unless it has that air 

 of prosperity which is attained without difficulty in 

 June, but not in August. 



Now many borders lose this air of prosperity too 

 early, just because their owners are too eager for a 

 profusion of bloom at the time when flowers are most 

 plentiful. They fill the border with the flowers they 

 like best, Larkspurs, Irises, Madonna Lilies, Poppies, 

 Pansies, Columbines, and so on, and do not consider 

 what is to happen when these are spent. Even if 

 they vary these with later-blooming plants, such as 

 Phloxes and Michaelmas Daisies, they forget the gaps 

 that will remain when their favourites go out of flower. 



There is a fashion just now for the herbaceous bor- 

 der; but that fashion will not last unless gardeners 

 arrive at a clear understanding of what can be done 

 with the herbaceous border and what cannot, and 

 unless they evolve sound principles for its treatment. 

 Otherwise, sooner or later there will be a reaction 

 in favour of bedding-out, with its long succession of 

 bloom and its persistent neatness and air of prosperity. 

 We are apt at present to think that there is no need 

 for a border to look neat; in fact, that the desire for 

 neatness is a proof of perverted taste. But that de- 

 sire is a natural one, and has always existed. It is 

 quite a modern idea that gardens should emulate the 

 wildness of nature, and one that could only arise 

 among a people to whom the wildness of nature is 

 becoming an unwonted luxury. It is, in fact, the 

 most artificial form of a nature worship that is itself 



