20 FORMAL GARDENS 



tender flowers may be justifiable, if there is no better way to be 

 sure of having some flowers every day, but to let tropical foreigners 

 dominate a garden is to sacrifice sentiment to show. 



Shall evergreens be dominant? Yes, if you want a garden 

 that will last through the centuries and symbolize immortality. 

 No, if the nurseryman tempts you to make a collection of blue 

 and golden conifers. There is no abiding dignity in abnormal 

 colours and fantastic forms like those of the retinisporas. There 

 is a wonderful dignity in a garden dominated by box, rhododen- 

 dron, mountain laurel, yuccas, trailing myrtle, and American 

 holly. It will be a solemn and even monotonous garden at times, 

 but it will also have its times of gorgeousness. Posterity will be 

 inspired by it, for it will be fragrant of immortality. 



Shall comfort be dominant? Yes, if we really love to live 

 outdoors. But let us not have a summer house if we take tea 

 there but once a year and never go there to read or rest. A 

 pergola is not always a good thing. Isolated, it looks pretentious. 

 Let it go from somewhere to somewhere, e. g., from the house 

 to a resting-place with a good roof. Or let it go around three 

 sides of the garden, as at Mr. Breese's place at Southampton, 

 L. I. But if what we really need is a children's playground, and 

 we can afford only one garden, let us give up the idea of a 

 formal garden and make a really good playground with all the 

 paraphernalia that children need. 



Shall flowers be dominant? (See plate II.) Yes, if they are 

 chiefly hardy and perennial. No, if they are chiefly annuals and 

 bedding plants, for the latter speak of ceaseless vigilance and 

 expense where the only suggestion should be gayety or repose. 

 I used to think perfection of detail desirable. Now I know that 

 it makes many American gardens restless. After seeing the 





