SURPRISE GARDENS 



O we not all feel at times an almost childlike 

 excitement and pleasure when an unexpected 

 present arrives ? We wonder, as with trembling 

 fingers we untie the pale blue silk cord round it, what 

 this snow-white paper packet may contain ! So, too, the 

 true garden-lover feels when about to see a garden 

 hitherto unknown to him. 



What will it contain ? How has it been planted ? 

 Are there natural groups of trees and shrubs without 

 formality, or will there be only straight lines and 

 architectural features ? Will it be perhaps a purely 

 botanical garden, with rare and interesting, but not 

 necessarily beautiful, plants, or will it be a " grower's " 

 garden, one for profit, not for ornament ? 



So he meditates upon the way, and hardly knows 

 which kind he prefers, for he loves all. His ideal, the 

 perfect garden of dreams, would be so carefully designed 

 that all plants, all interests, all pursuits, would flourish 

 with ease within its boundaries, and the business of food 

 production would be encouraged quite as much as the 

 search after the beautiful. Certain he is, if he be a real 

 gardener, that something can be learnt from every 



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