244 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN, 



they might form dividing masses, so as to throw the unwieldy space 

 into parts, which would help to secure variety and contrast. 



The result of planting and placing rightly well chosen hardy 

 shrubs would be a good background here and there ; a smaller area 

 to plant with summer things ; less dependence on such feeble 

 examples of tropical plants as one can grow in Britain ; light and 

 shade, and a variety of surface as well as more variety of plants and 

 bushes ; in short, all the life of the garden, instead of a dead waste. 

 And not only would the winter effect be improved, but the summer 

 also. The objection that some shrubs do not flower long enough is 

 not serious, as we have their beauty of form and leaf, and delicate 

 green and other fine colour of foliage. Moreover, the tropical plants 

 put out to relieve the flowering plants do not, many of them, flower 

 at all, and do not give such good relief as hardy shrubs and choice 

 trees. 



This is not a question of town or public gardens only, as it arises 

 in many private places, and especially in large gardens, where much 

 of the surface is given to half-hardy summer flowers. As to the 

 common plan for getting rid of the winter bareness of such beds by 

 evergreens and conifers in pots, it is impossible on a large scale, and 

 sticking potted conifers in a flower-garden to drag them away in spring, 

 is at best a very inartistic and very costly business. Some permanent 

 way of breaking up the flatness is the best way ; and this way would 

 enable us to limit the excessive area of ground to be planted with 

 tender things, the real root of evil. 



KEEP THE STEMS OF HARDY PLANTS. The stems of all her- 

 baceous plants, reeds, and tall grasses in winter, are very good in 

 colour, and should always be allowed to stand through the winter 

 and not be cut down in the fidgety tidy way that is so common, 

 sweeping away the stems in autumn and leaving the surface as bare 

 and ugly as that round a besieged city. The same applies to the 

 stems of all waterside and herbaceous plants, stems of plants in 

 groups often giving beautiful brown colours in many fine shades. 

 Those who know the plants can in this way identify them in winter 

 as well as in summer a great gain in changing one's plantings and 

 in increasing or giving away plants. Moreover, the change to all 

 these lovely browns and greys is a distinct gain as a lesson in colour 

 to all who care for refined colour, and also in enabling us to get 

 light and shade, contrasts and harmonies in colour. If these plants 

 are grouped in a bold and at the same time picturesque way, the good 

 of letting the stems remain will be far more evident than in the 

 weak "dotty" way generally practised, the seed pods and dead 

 flowers of many plants helping the picture. There is no need to 

 remove any stem of an herbaceous plant until the spring comes and 



