174 COME INTO THE GARDEN 



rhododendrons for use about a building, and 

 there are so much better uses of the rhodo- 

 dendron, that there is no valid reason for this 

 misuse of it. Leave it to its wild, sweet will; 

 naturalize it under trees and you will find noth- 

 ing in the world lovelier. Is it worth while to 

 sacrifice its beauty when treated thus, to gratify 

 the (mistaken) desire for it beside the door or 

 against the house foundations, because it is 

 evergreen? Decidedly it is not — for its beauty 

 in the natural environment of woods is startling 

 beyond everything else and one of the choicest 

 dramatic elements available to the landscape 

 architect. 



By which you will gather that the small gar- 

 den is not the place for it, no doubt; let me go 

 further and say that nothing but the wilderness 

 is the place for it. Where we can naturalize it 

 in its beloved woods as we do any other wild 

 flower in its favorite haunt, there let us use it 

 in as great quantity as possible; or where we 

 can mass it in rich banks and billows under the 

 shade of great trees to form lovely glades in an 

 estate park, let us do so; but not otherwise. 

 For other situations we have other and better 

 material, no more beautiful intrinsically^ to be 

 sure, but more suitable. 



Bear in mind invariably that the garden ideal 



