GARDENS OF FEW FLOWERS 



Many of the old-fashioned gardens of America 

 harbored few flowers in comparison with those of to-day; 

 and there came also a time when they went completely 

 out of bloom. This, however, was not through any 

 desire on the part of their owners. The illustration on 

 plate Ixvii. is of an old garden noted along the Massa- 

 chusetts coast, and is one most charming. At the 

 time that the photograph was taken of this one section, 

 there was not a flower to be seen in it. The day had 

 passed when the peonies in the center of the circles 

 were gloriously crowned with blooms. Nothing had 

 been planted to take their places, and the garden had 

 simply become a spot where pleasure was gained 

 from the symmetry of the box edgings and the beauty 

 of other forms of greenness. Still, there was about 

 it the true garden feeling. It was a place of seclusion; 

 a place where one might care to linger. 



Naturally, the abolition of flowers is not necessary 

 to a peaceful garden. This particular one had infinitely 

 more charm when the peonies upheld their bloom 

 than after it had perished. The peculiar beauty of 

 the period of repose into which it entered later points, 

 nevertheless, to the fact that the majority of gardens 

 in America, and often those near the sea, are sadly 

 overplanted. 



I have walked through seaside gardens that were 

 so bewildering in their profusion of varied bloom that 

 I knew not which way to look. This was not because 

 they held too many plants, but because they held too 

 many different kinds which jarred with each other 

 in color and expression. In a garden of specialized 



[247] 



