24 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



October, 



tin u3i-t3Ue3, anil mantelpieces with stained 

 grasses, or add a new scent to a bouquet with 

 drug store perfumery. 



That the taste is corrupt, which approves or 

 applauds the prevalent practices of gardeners in 

 this line, is sufficiently shown by the ob\ious 

 tendency of the fashion. The motive is not to 

 encourage an intimate acijuaintance with flowers 

 or plants, but simply to show what brilliant or 

 bizarre effects can be produced by ingenious 

 combinations of strange colors. Hence the de- 

 mand for novelty and intricacy increases from 

 year to year, and the strain aftereffect continues 

 till the laborious effort becomes grotesque or 

 burlesque. The first designs in ribbons, bands, 

 diamonds, stars, crescents, crosses, crowns, 

 heai'ts, anchors, and such like no longer sufiBce. 

 In like manner simple figures of the geometric [ 

 pattern are only of use while novel. They must 

 gradually grow in elaborate intricacy till simple 

 wheels and dials become a blind maze of scrolls and 

 convolutions. Then imitations of animals begin • 

 and advance from elephants and camels to zebras, 

 giraffes, swans, peacocks, butterflies, snakes and 

 sea serpents. Inscriptions in the grass are also 

 tried, giving perhaps the name of the place, the 

 year or month, or date, the last of course to be 

 changed daily, and so on with labored variations 

 till every possible device be exhausted. The same 

 designs give little satisfaction if simply renewed 

 yearly, for such things once seen have lost the 

 novelty which is their chief claim to attention. 

 The fashion must surely soon run its coui-se be- 

 cause of sheer inability to produce startling 

 effects. If it were the plants under natural con- 

 ditions that were visited, their seasonal changes 

 might satisfy the eye. But we look at them 

 only in bulk to follow the design, and that is 

 always the same throughout the season. When 

 invention flags or fails, the popular surprise and 

 admiration is drawn out by making larger beds 

 or a greater and more elaborate assortment of 

 them. This has led onward and downward till 

 collections of several hundred thousand plants 

 have been set out in some private gardens and 

 public grounds 



The absurdity of the leading motive in carpet 

 bedding may be found in listening to the kind of 

 talk we often hear from ardent enthusiasts of 

 the practice. A shallow amateur in such work 

 who has not before seen the highest art in this 

 line visits some notable display on some fine 

 private estate or large public ground, and on his 

 return regales his gaping friends with some such 

 description as this: " You can form no idea of 

 the immense quantity of plants in such a gar- 

 den. A 10-acre lot would be well filled if all 

 were put together. The edgings and rib- 

 bons if strung out on end would measure over 

 a mile. They were of nearly every imaginable 

 color you can find in the stores. The ring- 

 streaked, speckled and spotted plants, and those 

 with aU shades of bronze and gold were legion. 

 They were set out with the most wonderful in- 

 genuity into so many patterns that carpet bed- 

 ding was no name for it. There were Turkish 

 rugs, church windows, wheels within wheels, 

 figures of animals, statuary, fancy penmanship 

 and plain print, and elegant figures of aU 

 kinds in geometry,trigonometry and astronomy." 



What? Astronomy! " Why certainly." 



"The first thing that struck my eye was a 

 bright bed of fire-red Colons, a circular mound 

 raised high up in the form of a half globe. That 

 was a sunset when there is a thick haze on the 

 hoiizon. Near by was a crescent in variegated 

 Alyssum. That was the silver moon. I could 

 not tell whether she was in the last quarter or 

 the first; the horns pointed to the north, and 

 were equally correct for either phase Next 

 came a bed that seemed a combination of both 

 the others. Two-thirds of it was filled with the 

 darkest-leaved Coleus, the other third was a 

 crescent of variegated Stevia in bloom. This 

 was an eclipse. I could not at first tell whether 

 it was the sun or the moon that was eclipsed. 

 After a little study I ' got on ti> ' the gardener's 

 trick. It was either or both, according to your 

 pleasure or fancy All around were lots of little 

 stars and one or two small disks curiously belted 

 and girdled. Ha\ing seen pictures of the tele- 

 scopic appearance of Jupiter and Saturn I at 

 once divnieil the meaning. 



"There wiis any number of figures of men and 

 beasts and birds and fishes. A military officer in 

 full uniform was very imposing A base ball 

 player with club drawn, and two prize fighters in 

 full tilt looked dangerous. A boat race of two 

 boats and two rowers in each pulling the oars 

 was quite e-vciting. In statuary the finest design 



I saw was a cc ipy of St. George killing the dragon 

 It was full of spirit and action. A little puff of 

 wind now and again crossing the dragon's head 

 made his Jaws seem to open and shut (luickly. 

 The feathery stuff used for the tail of the steed 

 actually whisked gently in the breeze. 



" The brightest spot of all had a display of 

 flags of all the leading nations. The tricolor the 

 union jack and even the stars and stripes were 

 easily imitated, but some of. the others tried the 

 highest art of the gardener. In the geometry 

 section I was for a long while puzzled by a most 

 intricate figure, the meaning of which I could 

 not make out. At last I detected a faint outline 

 of an arch spanning the whole; that gave me the 

 clew. It was the tough jiroblem in Euclid called 

 the asses' bridge. I remember how it puzzled me 

 when at school, and it is just as hard to see 

 through it in a flower bed." 



_ MAN HOLE 



UNDERGROUND ROOT-CELLAR. See pOflie 22. 



This " traveler's tale," like the plants he saw 

 was perhaps rather high-colored, but it is in the 

 same line with the general run of such talk. He 

 may have followed the wrong cue at times, but 

 he did not stray far from the right track A 

 lively imagination may have seen some figures 

 and emblems not intended by the designer. But 

 worse things than any here described have been 

 actually done. Butterflies have been attempted in 

 a combination of leaves and flowers, living and 

 dead, trained to a frame and set in high relief that 

 they may seem merely to touch mother earth. For 

 special gala occasions models of swans have been 

 covered with newly detached petals of Water 

 Lilies and set afloat on artificial ponds. Calen- 

 dars, sun dials and weather vanes have been 

 tricked out in living plants, with painstaking 

 care to furnish daily some useful information, 

 in no other way obtainable, about the weather, 

 the date of the month, and time of day (if the sun 

 shine). These ridiculous conceits and all other 

 monstrous creations of this kind are strictly 

 in accord with the ruling motive of the simplest 

 work in the same line. It is either folly or false, 

 hood from beginning to end, because so at vari- 

 ance with the " eternal fitness of things." 



The many odd and whimsical patterns into 

 which foliage plants are woven, are in degree 

 only (not in kind), more objectionable than the 

 mere grouping together of large masses of 

 strong color of every hue. Were this display 

 confined to flowers only, it would not perhaps be 

 so glaringly offensive as in foliage, because in 

 flowers brightness and endless varictyof color are 

 natural. But to collect together, even in flowers, 

 all the strongest colors we can flnd. and to mass 

 them into strongly contrasted bands and figures 

 in the present bedding out style, would surely 

 not be considered in good taste. Should we not 

 seek for rich shades rather than glaring contrasts 

 for quality rather than quantityV As a lady of 

 fashion once wittily said, "Do we measure beauty 

 by the square yard 1 " Strange though it may 

 seem, there are some persons who would prefer 

 one sweet Violet to one acre of Coleus. But in 

 carpet bedding it is the broadest carpets and the 

 boldest patterns that draw the biggest crowds. 

 To the commercial florist that is a better " trade 

 mark " than the " government stamp." Whether 

 it elevates or degrades the public taste seems of 

 less consequence. 



But Fashion is a fickle minded Queen, especially 

 to subjects of her own sex. When a fancy notion 

 of no intrinsic value has literally been run into 

 the ground, as this one has been, a slight hint 

 from the Throne would quickly change the vogue. 

 Florists now-a-days arc like millinci-s in their 

 abject dependence on the lattst whim of her 

 Majesty. It may therefore be more profitable in 

 the long run to give timely regard to the more 

 general cultivation of such bedding plants as 



will attract attentii>u by some admirable cjuality 

 inherent in each individual plant, whether it be 

 in flower, fragrance, fruit, foliage or form. To 

 embellish a garden with such plants, however 

 uninviting at first it may be to the ignorant, will 

 give more real enjoyment to the true lover of 

 flowers than to emblazon it with merely so much 

 high color cleverly arranged. 



In other things a fondness for loud colors is 

 not considered in good taste or a sign of refine- 

 ment. Take dress for instance. The phrase, 

 " barbaric pearl and gold " is as applicable to the 

 color as to the richness of the apparel. The 

 fashions in dress of the Chinaman, the Arab, 

 and the Turk are not copied by civilized nations, 

 or if imitated at all it is done only by ignorant 

 and foolish people. Aunt Dinah may go to her 

 work in the cotton field in a yellow skirt, blue 

 wrap and red bandanna. (Jiddy girls may wear 

 " dolly varden " calicoes, and silly dudes loud 

 tartans, only to be laughed at by sensible people. 

 The circus clown is true to his assumed character 

 in his suit of strongly marked stripes and bars, 

 and Shakespeare's fool quite consistently ex- 

 claims, "Motley is the only weai'." When we 

 dress up a garden after the same fashion it 

 ought to seem equally barbaric and foolish, ex- 

 cept to ignorant or foolish people. True refine- 

 ment in either case avoids the cheap and con- 

 spicuous, and selects for the richest adornment 

 the choicest material and the softest harmony 

 of tints. 



Some of you perhaps may say that " as gardens 

 are made expressly for show and ornament why 

 J^DRAiNuot bedeck them with anything and everything 

 v • [" \' that is bright and beautifulV" But what is the 

 beautiful 'I "Aye there's the rub." No satisfac- 

 tor.v answer can be given to that question. It is 

 a common saying "there is no accounting for 

 tastes." Beauty appeals maiul.v to the eye, but 

 in some subtle way we become sensible of it 

 through other senses. We may not touch it but 

 it touches us. In a double sense we judge it by 

 taste as well as by sight. A ripe pei-simmon has 

 a brighter color than the finest apple, but after 

 you try to eat it, the bloom on the apple cheek 

 will probably have to your eye the more inviting 

 look. There are some persons who doubt if to 

 them " a Kose by any other name would smell as 

 sweet," or if with its delicious fragrance gone it 

 would look as sweet. On a warm summer day, 

 when a gentle breeze fans the foUage of the 

 Birch or Poplar, the rhythmical patter struck up 

 by the dancing motion of the joyous leaves, will 

 trill sweet music in the ear, and thus reveal a new 

 glimpse of beauty to the eye of any one loving- 

 ly familiar with these trees, and in sjmpathy 

 with their merry mood at such a time. This 

 phenomenon may not be audible norvisibie to 

 other people, because however intently we may 

 listen or look, the strain wUl not be heai-d nor the 

 vision seen, unless our ears be attuned to the 

 right key, and our eyes be opened to receive the 

 light. Our sensibility to the beautiful in na- 

 ture thus varies with each individual, as so much 

 depends not only on the relative acuteness of our 

 senses, but also on constitutional temperament, 

 mental faculty and personal culture. 



Beauty of color esiwcially depends largely upon 

 the light in which it is seen. For illustration, 

 take these opposing views regarding foliage 

 plants. To you as florists your exotic plants look 

 so beautiful on the greenhouse bench among 

 their own kith and kin, that to your eyes an illu- 

 sive haio maj' surround them when you see them 

 set out amid the grass and gravel and shrubbery. 

 When you look at the landscape from the inside 

 of your glasshouses your plants are in the fore- 

 ground, and all else is dim, distant and diminu- 

 tive, as if seen through the small end of a field 

 glass. I, on the other hand, standing out amid the 

 native vegetation, see only the " foreign look " of 

 the strange foliage. Because it is " not to the 

 manor born" I may look at it through jaundiced 

 eyes. The point of view being so different, the 

 objects seen must have an equally different per- 

 spective 



It will seem to you therefore, that I have got 

 hold of the wrong end of the telescope. This 

 may all be. Mi>st people see as you do else such 

 woi-k would not be so popular. But here and 

 there I have met a few whose vision seemed as 

 strangely affected as mine. We may be color 

 blind to the beauty without knowing it, or we 

 look at these things by camilc light while you are 

 in the sunshine. My standpoint may be a wrong 

 one, but I simply report things as I see them, 

 and say frankly why I don't like them. To both 

 sides, perhaps, the aphorisms may be applicable: 

 "things are not what they seem," 



