FORMAL GARDENS 15 



gardening, while the causes which we all urge to one another are 

 merely superficial and deceive no one but ourselves. 



One of the excuses we all make is that "the plants die," and 

 we blame this on climate. The chief reason why plants die is 

 that we buy "Dutch stuff," simply because it is "cheapest." 

 There is no fault of character here. Most Americans do not know 

 they are buying Dutch trees, shrubs, and evergreens. They 

 mean to buy hardy material, and are heart-broken when it dies 

 after a winter or two. The Dutch plants always look best, and 

 how shall an innocent investor be on his guard ? Apparently there 

 is no way. He must try and lose before he is willing to pay a 

 fair price for American-grown material. But the important 

 point is this: Our climate is not to blame. We can get 90 per 

 cent, of English luxuriance anywhere in America. Proof of this 

 will be found in every chapter of this book. 



But the final excuse we all make when driven into a corner 

 is age. Yet we can get 90 per cent, of all the mellowness that age 

 alone can give in four years or less, simply by planting a few big 

 trees, shrubs, and vines. This is costly, but it is the only satis- 

 factory method for people who "can't wait." The other method 

 planting fast-growing species is sure to be a sorrow in the 

 end. And there are age-effects particularly appropriate to formal 

 gardens that can be had the first year. For instance, look at plate 

 6 facing page 16. Can you detect any newness in that garden? 

 Yet the stone-work at the bottom of those steps is all new. If 

 I remember rightly it had not been made a year. In order to 

 make it look old the gardener deliberately planted those two bushes 

 in front of the stone posts. Has he not succeeded? He does this 

 sort of thing regularly whenever old masonry crumbles and repairs 

 are necessary. Any one can soften architecture in this way. 



