BEAUTIFUL GARDENS IN AMERICA 



other localities, spring opening from one to two weeks 

 later than inland. The difference in time of spring bloom 

 on this shore and near New York City is only about a 

 week. The climate on the lake front is especially variable. 

 The country is a flat upland broken with wooded ravines. 



Out in central Illinois, in Piatt County, there are fif- 

 teen thousand acres belonging to a famous estate beyond 

 Monticello. The Farms contains delightful gardens on 

 an extensive scale, quite English in design, and as far as 

 possible in keeping with the Georgian architecture of the 

 house. Juniper Hibernica is freely used over the main 

 garden, enriching with its deep evergreen tones the broad 

 expanse of flower-bordered beds. The walls are covered 

 with Chinese Wistarias, Japanese Honeysuckle, trained 

 peach trees, nectarines, pears, and plums. 



Monticello is in the latitude of Philadelphia; the 

 blooming dates almost correspond, but frost destroys a 

 trifle earlier. The highest summer thermometer rarely 

 reaches one hundred degrees, sometimes dropping in win- 

 ter to twenty-seven degrees below. Tender annuals can 

 usually be planted out after May 15. Mulching and 

 watering is necessary to preserve the summer bloomers. 



Famous in the annals of southern Indiana is the large 

 estate at Lexington known as Englishton Park, and for 

 six generations the property of the English family. 



Problems of insufficient rain, poor soil, and rocky 

 ground have been overcome by most scientific measures, 

 and now a pool filled with Lilies and bordered with water- 



267 



