October, 1908 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



215 



quantity of plants, they think that is 

 about all that is required of them, mak- 

 -ing no effort whatever to arrange them 

 [to show to the greatest advantage, and 

 jroduce the finest general effect. Red, 

 yellow, pink, blue, purple, and every 

 jther conceivable color, without so much 

 tas a piece of green to relieve them, are 

 pndiscriminately mixed, with sublime in- 

 difference as to the effect each has upon 

 |the other, or the whole has upon- the eye 

 af the visitor. 



It may be argued that this matters lit- 

 tle so long as those most immediately con- 

 cerned are satisfied. Perhaps not. But 

 [it must not be forgotten that many peo- 

 ple keep greenhouses quite as much for 

 the pleasure they give to friends or visi- 

 tors, as to themselves, and they are 

 prone to rely more upon the opinions of 

 others as to the merits of the place, than 

 upon their own judgment. Many peo- 

 ple who cannot tell one flower from an- 

 other have the true artistic eye for color 

 and effect. To such, a well arranged 

 conservatory particularly appeals. They 

 will, of course, admire any extra fine 

 plants the house may contain, however 

 badly arranged they may be, but they 

 are usually more interested in the gen- 

 eral appearance of the place. If the ef- 

 fect of the whole is striking and pleasing 

 to the eye, they will carry the impres- 

 sion produced, long after the beauty of 

 the most superb specimen has been for- 

 ^_ gotten. 



^m Apart from this, the man who studies 



^•effective arrangement has a decided ad- 



^B vantage over the one who does not, 



^Bin that he can make use of a lot of ma- 



^Kterial which to the other would be use- 



^^Bless. Plants which are naturally of a 



^Kloose and straggling habit are invaluable 



^K to a good decorator, while they would be 



^K practically worthless to the man who is 



^P forever trying to grow every plant intc 



a formal specimen. 



For the conservatory or show house, n 

 set and formal style of decoration should 



I be avoided, a loose, somewhat careless 

 style being much to be preferred. Houses 

 vary much in size, style, and in the readi- 

 ness to which they lend themselves to 

 artistic arrangement. Here, again, no 

 hard and fast rules can be laid down as 

 to the way this work should be done. 

 Even if they could, it would hardly be 

 advisable, for the one thing to avoid 

 above all others, is a slavish imitation 

 of another's s'yie. Something can al- 

 ways be learned from every source, but 

 the man who is content to be a mere 

 imitator, wi'l seldom get out of the rut. 

 It is better to study originality, and in- 

 .stead of ;opying, make a point of im- 

 proving upon the methods of others. 



Most h-)uses of whatever size or style 

 contain a number of specimen palms and 

 ferns. These can be arranged to form a 



suitable background for the flowering 

 material. Their positions seldom need to 

 be changed, the operator relying upon 

 such foliage or flowering plants as may 

 be available, to make any necessary 

 changes and to keep the house effective 

 in appearance. 



The features of the house should be 

 changed as often as possible, to prevent 

 it getting monotonous. If this work is 

 carried out properly, a rearrangement of 

 the whole house will seldom be neces- 

 sary. Continually removing such plants 

 as are past, or that have been in the 

 house for some time, and replacing them 

 with fresh ones, is all that will be re- 

 quired. If at any time no fresh material 

 is at hand, changing the position of a 

 few plants so as to alter the effect, will 

 do equally well. It helps considerably 

 to keep people interested in a place if 

 they get to know that on no two consecu- 

 tive days will it look exactly the same. 



Many plants, such as cyclamens, prim- 

 ulas, calceolarias, and so forth, show to 

 the best advantage when arranged in a 

 mass. These had better be bunched in a 

 separate house, where they will display 

 their particular style of beauty to better 

 advantage, than when mixed among 

 ferns, palms, or large flowering plants. 

 They will also last longer, and keep in 

 better shape for use as table plants, or 

 any decorative work demanding the use 

 of small, well-formed specimen plants. 

 Moreover there is another advantage to 



a much better opinion of them if they 

 come across something interesting in 

 every house they inspect. 



VARIETY 



Apart from every other consideration, 

 it will repay the gardener to introduce as 

 much variety into his stock as possible. 

 Nothing causes him to become stale, 

 and lose interest in his work, so much 

 as growing the same sort of things over 

 and over again, and seeing the same old 

 plants in the same old places year after 

 year. To the true gardener, few things 

 are more interesting than studying the 

 development of a plant with which he is 

 unfamiliar, watching for the first flowers 

 of some new species or variety, or the 

 unfolding of the petals of an orchid fresh 

 from its native habitat. 



Of course, it would not be advisable to 

 grow just one or two plants of every pos- 

 sible variety. What is needed as much 

 as anything is a change, and that as of- 

 ten as possible, consistent with the main- 

 tenance of good quality. Most places 

 have, of necessity, to maintain a certain 

 number of plants of a more or less per- 

 manent character. But change and var- 

 iety can be obtained by occasionally sub- 

 stituting foliage for flowering plants, 

 by revising the seed list, bulb list, 

 hardy greenhouse shrubs and roses, 

 through, many things grown annually 

 from cuttings, fresh imported orchids, 

 testing so-called novelties, exchanging 

 stock with other gardeners, and many 



An Effective Planting Near a Range of Private Ureenhouset 



Consorvatorics of Sir H. M. I'ollatt, Toronto-Mr. T. McVittio, Gardener 



be gained by doing this. It makes the 

 whole place more attractive. Over-load- 

 ing one house at the expense of all the 

 others, at best is a bad practice. Most 

 people, when on a visit to greenhouses, 

 like to see the "whole show," and form 



other ways which will suggest them- 

 selves. 



CLEANLINESS 



Although cleanliness has been placed 

 last on the list it is by no means the 

 least important point to be considered. 



