PLANTI NG DE SIGN 179 



mally. That is, in a small formal garden, if we use enough different 

 plants to give our client the variety that he wants, we are likely to 

 have the separate groups of plants contain at times not over ten 

 plants, and an informal arrangement of these is likely to be incon- 

 gruous if their separate form is noticeable at all ; for example, this 

 might be so with foxglove, but not with dwarf marigold closely planted. 



Plants which are dominant in shape need not also be dominant in Arrangement of 

 color ; indeed it is often better that they should not be so. The high ^^^^/^^^^ 

 plants, the dense plants, are thereby the better enframement for the Color 

 spaces between them, which spaces can therefore be properly occupied 

 by those plants which are most striking in color. Thus the sides of the 

 beds are likely to be the best locations for the greatest display of bloom. 



The flowering plants will normally be arranged in a formal bed 

 to make some pattern harmonious in color and properly related in its 

 shape to the shape of the bed. The shape and height and the color 

 and texture of the different flower masses must be studied together, so 

 that the pattern shall be consistent and recognizable, with its dominant 

 and its subordinate parts effectively arranged within the bed. Since 

 the different plants come to their full height at different times and bloom 

 at different times, the same bed will present a sequence of different 

 patterns during the season. Even the simplest bed, when planted with 

 perennials only, may be arranged to give at least two different studied 

 effects : the main flower display enframed by the taller plants and 

 the flowering of these tall plants when the lower plants are out of bloom. 



There are, then, a considerable number of characteristics of plants Grouping of 

 which must be taken into account in making a planting plan for a formal ^'■^p^ ^' 

 garden-bed, or any planting plan, for that matter. Principal among Character 

 these characteristics are : form, color, texture, time of bloom, species 

 of plant, and cultural requirements. These, together with the particular 

 associational flavor which many plants bear in our minds, give each 

 plant a character, and enable us to group plants according to these 

 characters, — we can have evergreen gardens, spring gardens, rose 

 gardens, alpine gardens, old-fashioned gardens, or parts of a garden 

 may be similarly unified. 



In the clothing and decoration of the surface of the ground, plants s^^J^^ ^ 

 of low growth find an important place in landscape design. They Decoration 



