286 JANUARY 



in persuading myself that an herbaceous garden, once 

 planted, gives the maximum of good results with 

 the minimum of labour ; but there is no denying 

 that a few packets of annuals judiciously sown in 

 the borders in April, and a few clumps of late 

 things worked in among the early-flowering plants 

 in June, are needed to ensure a succession 

 throughout the summer. At the same time these 

 ought to be such as would be naturally expected 

 in an herbaceous border. I found myself once at 

 a garden-party given by a millionaire on the other 

 side of the county, and everyone was saying, "Have 

 you seen the herbaceous border? Be sure not to 

 miss the herbaceous border." In the course of 

 wanderings between alleys of chopped glass and 

 brick and beds of calceolarias and pelargoniums, 

 in the search for something that really seemed to 

 live a natural life, I came suddenly upon the herb- 

 aceous border. But what a border ! To be sure 

 it was a blaze of colour, such as, in unregenerate 

 moments, the keen gardener is apt to dream of as 

 ideal. But the first feeling of surprise became in 

 a moment a shock of pain, for the whole thing was 

 a cry of inharmonious distress. The perennial 

 things, phloxes, delphiniums, and the like were of 

 the best and the most expensive, but there was not 

 a plant visible that had gone out of bloom, or any 

 that might be expected to come into bloom later, 

 for the whole display was carefully arranged for the 

 one month that his lordship chose to inhabit this 

 particular house. There was a back row of dahlias 

 and other tall things mixed with the phloxes, a 

 middle row of cannas, tobaccos, zinnias, and 



