HARDY PLANTS AND SHRUBS. 45 



entirely to flowers ; hardy plants should predominate, but there 

 should be liberal spaces reserved for summer-blooming bulbs and 

 annuals. In the hardy plants each variety should be grouped and 

 as many sorts used as thought desirable, but in making a selection 

 flowers suitable for cutting as well as for making a garden effect 

 should be preferred. Such bold and striking plants as single 

 Hollyhocks and Foxgloves should be planted in decided masses, 

 iind a border with eastern or southern exposure should be used for 

 hybrid perpetual Roses. 



A vegetable garden, arranged as described and properly cared 

 for, in addition to being an interesting and pleasant place to visit, 

 would furnish an abundant supply of cut flowers for the house, 

 for the church, for the hospital, and for friends, and I think one of 

 the keenest pleasui'es a garden can afford is the ability to give 

 away flowers without stint, and the garden of hardy flowers 

 enables one to give away plants as well as flowers, for the natural 

 increase soon makes a surplus. 



In large grounds there are often opportunities for using hardy 

 plants and shrubs in a freer and more picturesque way than any I 

 have suggested ; that is, the planting of them in groups and masses 

 to produce the same effects as if they were growing wild. Indeed, ■ 

 after the first careful planting, they should be allowed to grow 

 wild without culture and uncontrolled. The naturalizing of 

 hardy material does not mean that we should attempt to imitate 

 the thickets, woods, or meadows, on our lawns. It does mean the 

 taking advantage of a brookside for groups and colonies of 

 Irises, Narcissuses, hardy Ferns, the splendid Superbum lilies, 

 and the scores of beautiful things that will thrive in the grass if it 

 is not to be cut with the lawn mower. It means the planting an 

 irregular group of Foxgloves on the edge of a wood, or the 

 covering a rough bank with a mass of Kalmias or native Azaleas 

 or native Rhododendrons or with all of these shrubs together. 

 It means the increasing the beauty and interest of the wild and 

 rough parts of a place an hundred-fold, but considerable taste and 

 knowledge of materials are needed to produce good results. 



We must not overlook the claims of climbing shrubs and plants 

 to our consideration. Nogai'dening scheme, large or small, should 

 ignore them. We can imagine a most delightful garden where 

 they, in connection with trees and shrubbery, alone are used ; 

 And, if we consider their decorative effect, foliage, gracefulness of 



