FLOWER GARDENS, BEDS AND BORDERS. 



Flower beds 

 in formal 

 and 



informal 

 schemes. 



Form and 

 shape of 

 beds. 



gardener to become the most pronounced formalist. This only proves that every man 

 who approaches the subject of garden design intelligently, comes to recognize the value of 

 contrast, colour and rhythmic order, as not only characteristic of, but essential to, every 

 well-planned scheme. 



There is this difference, however, that while in the formal scheme the flower beds 

 are usually grouped round the house as the decorative accompaniments of the residence, 

 in the landscape garden they are treated as " places apart," except, perhaps, for a 

 narrow border round the house and a few beds along the main walk. This is quite a 

 logical outcome of the positions of the two schools of garden design, the first of which 

 aims at a geometrical composition softened by Nature, while the latter produces one based 

 on natural landscape, but with parts emphasized by art. 



Nevertheless both schools have much in common, one of the most important points 

 being the correct proportioning of colour spaces, together with the tone of the colouring 

 and the question as to the season when each bed or portion of the composition should 

 be at its best. If, for instance, there are large groups of rhododendrons which provide 

 sheets of vivid and alternating colour in late Spring, but are masses of monotonous green 

 in summer, the flower beds and borders should be at their best in July, August and 

 September, for rhododendrons in full bloom in June will not brook competition. 



Other important points common to all flower gardens, are the formation of the borders 

 themselves and their size and shape. With regard to the former, it is of the utmost im- 

 portance that both the preparation of the soil and drainage should be thoroughly well 

 done in the first instance, as the success of the garden depends entirely upon this. 

 As to the methods to be employed, all that is said in Chapter XV on this subject applies 

 equally to the flower garden, and it is only necessary to add that the object should be 

 to form a soil neither too light nor too heavy, but lighter in a naturally moist situation 

 and vice versa, except in the rose garden, where a heavy clayey soil is demanded, as rose- 

 trees prefer this. In any case, too, flower beds should not be formed round shrubberies, 

 or near large trees or shrubs, which unduly rob the bed or borders of their nutriment. 



The adoption of simple forms of flower beds and the avoidance of purile and ridiculous 

 shapes would seem a matter which would need no urging, yet a visit to almost any garden 

 will show how necessary a word of caution on this subject is. It is not that attention 

 has not been drawn to the matter by writers on gardening, for even a hundred years 

 ago, Nichol, who styled himself " the Horticultural Architect," wrote : " A variety of 

 forms (of beds) may be indulged in, without incurring censure, provided the figures be 

 graceful, and not in any one place too complicated. An oval is a figure that generally 

 pleases, on account of the continuity of its outline ; next, if extensive, a circle. Next, 

 perhaps, a segment in form, of a half moon, or the larger segment of an oval. But hearts, 

 diamonds, triangles, or squares, if small, seldom please. A simple parallelogram, divided 

 into beds running lengthwise, or the larger segment of an oval, with beds running parallel 

 to its outer margin, will always please." By "half moons" no doubt the writer meant semi- 

 circles as crescent shapes are not only difficult to fit in with a design, but are the worst of 

 all forms for effective planting. 



The shape and size will, of course, be largely influenced by the size of the par- 

 terre and the nature of the flowering plants to be used, but in any case, fancy patterns 

 are to be avoided, the simpler the design of the beds the better. Compare the number 

 of flowers which can be grown in an oblong, say, twelve feet long and five broad, with 

 the amount grown in beds of the same superficial area divided up into curves and acute 

 angles. In the latter instances, although the same quantity of soil surface is provided 

 and more room is monopolised, the beds are not available for plants in the same way as 

 in the simple oblong, because in the oblong every inch can be planted, while in the others 

 there are long narrow points to each bed which are more or less useless. Quite apart 



108 



