FLOWER GARDENS, BEDS AND BORDERS. 



Dutchman, and I would have my beds of hyacinths distinct, my tulips distinct, my 

 anemones, my ranunculuses, my pinks, my carnations distinct, and even my beds of 

 double-blue hollyhocks, violets and dwarf larkspurs distinct, to say nothing of hedge- 

 rows of different kinds of roses. Independent of the less trouble you have in cultivating 

 them when kept separate, you have, as I said before, beauty in masses, and you have 

 likewise their fragrance and perfume so concentrated that they are not lost in the air, 

 but powerfully inhaled when you approach them." 



Rose Of all the flowers which repay the provision of a separate garden and individual treat- 



gardens. ment, the rose by popular consent has first and unquestioned claims to special consideration 



and choice of position. No other flower provides such a number of varieties with such 

 a wide range of effects and, at the same time, an extensive flowering season. The 

 compact bedding varieties, standard pillars and rampant climbers for training over 

 the high ugly wall, clothing the pergola or draping the summer-house, each have their 

 distinctive habit, so that, in a representative collection, monotony is impossible. 



Though such gardens are usually placed 

 near the residence or in direct communication 

 with it, this is not always so. For instance, 

 where a house is built in a position of 

 great natural beauty, it may be desirable to 

 leave the surroundings as far as possible in 

 a state of nature. This is often wisely decided 

 upon, though it needs infinite skill and 

 patience to harmonize the distinctly artificial 

 with the obviously natural. The transition 

 between them is often supplied by means of 

 close-shaven undulating lawns, interspersed 

 with groups of ornamental trees, conifers or 

 rhododendrons. The transition thus attained 

 is not always quite successful, and could 

 have been managed better by gardens, which 

 whilst distinctly geometrical in design, would 

 not be assisted by any architectural accessories. 

 In many such cases the situation will be too 

 barren and bleak for roses, and thus the 

 garden will be placed elsewhere, but, in those 

 cases where they would succeed, no class of 

 flower is so well adapted to producing the 



right note as the briars and single hybrids which would harmonize with the natural 

 scenery, while, nearer the house, pillars, arches or festoons of some of the innumerable 

 climbing varieties would provide a suitable setting for the architecture and would enclose 

 the formal garden. Within the garden itself each bed might be filled with its own 

 variety of choice hybrid tea roses, the beds as a whole forming a perfect symphony of 

 soft colouring. 



Gardens The garden devoted to one class of plant or flower may also be placed away from 



devoted to the house to obtain the necessary soil and aspect. The transition from rock or dry 



one class of arid tracts to bog, which will be found in many gardens in hilly districts, may make 



plant this necessary, and provides unlimited scope for the arrangement of gardens of different 



sorts, for roses in one part, and rhododendrons or azaleas in another, and so on. These 



are the opportunities which, if seized and adequately used, secure individual expression 



to a garden. 



The allotment of several gardens to distinct classes of flowers is a very good and 



FIG. 



TREATMENT OF OLD WALLS. 



no 



