6 THE GARDEN BLUEBOOK 



ception, execution, and maintenance depend almost wholly on the ideas 

 and abilities of architects, builders, plumbers, paperers, and a whole world 

 of necessary outsiders. But unless we are proven artists of great abihty 

 we will do well to guide these tastes and fancies of ours by certain rules 

 which the professional artists have proclaimed, and we will do well also to 

 remember that experience often teaches ways of attacking problems which 

 are much easier, though often quite different, from the instinctive ways. 



In all forms of artistic composition this is the first and greatest rule: 

 Consider the composition as a whole to begin with, and do not concern 

 yourself with details, until the large masses have been completely and sat- 

 isfactorily arranged. In gardening this rule runs counter to most natural 

 tendencies; we are much more apt to be interested in some particular 

 flower that we love, than in questions of mass and grouping; some of us 

 even go so far as to be more interested in the literary associations of the 

 names than in the actual flowers. But if we are to achieve a really artistic 

 result, we must sternly suppress these natural tendencies until the serious 

 business of large composition is settled. 



This applies to any border larger than the very smallest, for if it be 

 too small for anything over four feet high it may still be large enough for 

 Azaleas and Peonies, and even the difference in mass between Gypsophila 

 and Platycodon is important, if the latter be the most massive plant of 

 our assortment. If, therefore, we were laying out grounds of considerable 

 size, I would say, first, plant the trees, then the shrubs, then the perennials, 

 and lastly, bulbs, bedding plants, and annuals. Do not merely plan all 

 these and then start by planting perennials, but actually plant them in the 

 given order. If funds will not warrant putting in trees and perennials the 

 same year, do without the perennials. For, in the first place, the trees grow 

 so much more slowly that they need the head start; in the second place, 

 if they are not put in at the beginning, one thing and another may delay 

 their planting from year to year, the composition all this while suffering 

 for lack of what should have been its dominant note; and in the third 

 place, every plan will require certain changes as it is developed, and if the 

 perennials are planted first the location of the trees will probably be 

 changed to suit the flowers, instead of the other way around; with a final 

 result quite different, and probably very much inferior, to what was orig- 

 inally intended. 



A SAMPLE PLAN 



To exemplify these principles in detail, suppose we have a garden to be 

 planted. We will leave aside all consideration of trees, assuming that part 



