OF HERBACEOUS BORDERS 73 



It is more than possible that, at the back of 

 our minds, there lurked a secret hope that hence- 

 forth, if we returned to the old allegiance and 

 planting were once accomplished, the herbaceous 

 plants would take care of themselves, if they were 

 indeed perennial and worthy of the name, and 

 half the labour of the year would thus be saved. 

 Was it so ? Alas, that hope, born of inexperi- 

 ence, soon proved to be a fallacy. Herbaceous 

 borders, properly managed, entail more fore- 

 thought and greater labour, because less mechani- 

 cal, than the bedding-out system ever cost. But in 

 the first place, the old plan was to die hard. The 

 gardeners had grown accustomed to the routine 

 and would have none of the new-fangled notions 

 if by any means they could be nipped in the bud. 

 Bedding-out might, and did, involve a consider- 

 able amount of work, but it was, in no sense, 

 working in the dark. Initial principles once mas- 

 tered, all was plain and straightforward. The 

 veriest tyro could be set to make and put in cut- 

 tings of all ordinary bedding plants ; while Nature, 

 prodigal of her riches, did the rest. The chief 

 trouble lay in devising the colour scheme. When 

 the arduous undertaking of making a change from 

 last year's arrangement was successfully thought 

 out, the originator, whether master or man, folded 

 his arms and contemplated the anticipation or 

 surveyed the result of his work with supreme 

 satisfaction, and recognised neither flaw nor imper- 

 fection. Gardeners of an earlier date, again, had 

 been men both of brain and skill. A very cursory 

 dip into garden literature of the middle of the 



