BORASSUS 



BORDER 



vtT\' hani and do not dcrminatc readily unless given 

 stronp bottom heat and ahiindant moisture. 



flabellCfer, Linn. (B. Jlnhtlliformis, Murr. B. .rilm)- 

 piiim. Miirt.1. Meelaix.\, a native name for young 

 plants: calKxlalso 1'.\i.myr.\ P.\i.Mt>vthe Hindoos. Fig. 

 593. 8t. l>l)-70 ft. high: Ivs. S-IO ft', long, broader than 

 long: If-segms. bifid at the aixw, lanceolate or sword- 

 shajwd in outline. — Widely cult. One of the most use- 

 ful Diilins of India. The frs. are very large. Many parts 

 of the pliint are utilized by the natives as food anil in 

 the art*. Wood black, very hard. This plant requires 

 rich soil and strong heat for its best de\elopment, and is 

 rather slow-growing under cult., especially while young. 



N. Taylor. t 



BORDER. In gardening practice, the term "border" 

 is eniploye<I to designate definite strip-planting on the 

 margins. The margin may be along the boundary of 

 a yard, park or other area; close about a residence or 

 other building; or a parallel of walks and drives. In all 

 these positions, the border becomes a part of the 

 artistic landscape plan. In .some cases borders are 

 designed separately as flower-garden or ornamental 

 features, as margins or boundaries of an avenue of sod 



594. Border planting about a residence. 



or of a formal walk. The border derives its value from 

 its relationship as well as from its intrinsic character. 

 It is a conception of boundaries and inclosures, and 

 consequently is part in a design of open centers and 

 good lawns. It develops mass effects rather than the 

 detached and spot effects of lawn beds and of single 

 planting; and it derives much of its pleasing re.sult 

 from its length, distance and perspective. The border 

 may be pennanent, comprised of hardy plants; or 

 it may be a bedding form of gardening, using tem- 

 porar>' subjects; or it may have a framework of hardy 

 material, with inter-planting of bulbs and annuals and 

 greenhouse plants. Korders are often designed to carrj' 

 and emphasize one idea, — the idea of larkspurs or of 

 hollyhocks, for example; and in such cases the domi- 

 nance is securefj by similarity, and repetition of one 

 plant-form. These borders, when well made, are most 

 cfTectiye; but they do not cover the entire season unless 

 expensive efforts are made to replant with other things 

 aa soon as the desired effects are passed. I''igs. .594- 

 59fi .show the placing of borders in recognized land- 

 scape plans; and Fig. '>'j7 suggests how a mixed hardy 

 border works itself out. Fig. 598 shows the emphasis 

 of a single .strong plant-form set against a border 

 rather than to be placed alone in the lawn without 

 background or 3up[>ort. L H B 



The hardy border. 



The hardy border has assumed a new relation to orna- 

 mental j)lanting within recent years in America. Once 

 only occasional, it now forms a dominant part of many 

 gardens previously given up almost entirely to the dis- 

 play- of greenhouse plants or tender annuals. Properly 

 designed for a specific purpose, it is capable of giving a 

 maximum of pleasure for a minimum of effort and 

 expense. Now that plants, especially American native 

 plants, are coming to be valued for their intrinsic beauty 

 and interest rather than for their rarity and cost, the 

 hardy bonier is a more personal and individual expres- 

 sion than some other forms of garden effort. 



The informal hardy border is often the most charm- 

 ing, and nature has provided us with many roadside 

 or meadow-corner examples of exquisite beauty. Such 

 a border may change not only with the day but almost 

 from morning until afternoon during the luxuriant 

 June weeks. It may follow the chromatic balance of 

 the season from the brightness of spring hues through 

 the cooler tones of summer until the rich tints of the 

 autumn asters and goldenrods blend into the warmer 

 colors of the aftermath that remains to enhance the 

 effectiveness of the winter's snow in making the border 

 a continuous pleasure. This informal planting can be 

 handled with individuality and changed to suit knowl- 

 edge, circumstance and surroundings without destroy- 

 ing its charm. The wild things that are picked up — 

 let us hope without ever exterminating a plant colony 

 anywhere — in a day's woodland ramble, belong in this 

 informal border. Often the border is built around or 

 with reference to some essential tree or larger shrub, 

 as a rugged old pine, or a picture.sque clump of lilac, 

 or a mass of rhododendrons. It may combine shrubby, 

 herbaceous and bulbous plants to advantage. 



The formal hardy border has been exemplified in 

 some notable New England gardens. It is usually 

 formed with masses of similar plants — as a long strip 

 of delphiniums, a great body of aquilegias, serried rows 

 of phloxes, or lupines, — and at times is efifectively com- 

 bined with architectural adjuncts in the so-called 

 "Italian" style, or with evergreen trees of formal or 

 clipped outline. But the "barbered" formal border is 

 passing, and even in the best American example of a 

 formal hardy garden, made up of various borders, the 

 edging of the daintily informal evergreen pachysandra 

 gives a note of variation that is significant and pleasing. 

 The hollyhocks, foxgloves and similar treasures of all 

 gardens are indispensable in the formal border to carry 

 line and give contour and mass. In one notable example, 

 the background of a succession of fine hardy borders 

 is a clambering mass of Crimson Rambler roses hang- 

 ing over a great wall. 



In the conventional hardy border, the shrubby plants 

 are used less freely than the herbaceous perennials, and 

 the bulbs still less freely, as yet. The shrubs, if selected 

 properly as to character, eventual height, color, time 

 of bloom and effect of foliage, may well form a frame- 

 work in which to set the higher colors of the composi- 

 tion supplied by the herbaceous plants — the peonies, 

 iris, gaillardias, veronicas, and the hke. Or it is prac- 

 ticable to build the border entirely without shrubs, 

 depending only on the masses and forms available in 

 the plants that die to the ground each winter. With 

 the increase in variety of herbaceous plants now com- 

 mercially available everywhere, a very delightful and 

 continuous succession of bloom may be had. 



The bulbous plants — of course as fully herbaceous 

 as any, but distinguished in trade parlance by their 

 "onions" instead of roots, and their different dormant 

 condition.s — should come to more importance in the 

 fiardy border. They give colors, forms, fragrance and 

 effects unique to the class. The popular conception of 

 "bulbs" has centered around tulips and hyacinths, the 

 so-called "Dutch" bulbs, but the various narcissi, the 



