74 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



last century makes that fact abundantly clear ; and 

 there is very little doubt that the art sank al- 

 together to a lower level during the bedding-out 

 craze. Poverty of thought and of expression is 

 the penalty exacted for too great a dependence on 

 mechanical means. In many directions, however, 

 we are beginning to return to better ways, and 

 may yet live to see mechanical skill, not, indeed, 

 displaced, but more evenly balanced by the high 

 joy, so nearly lost, of creative art. May we not 

 say that, in a sense, this has been one outcome 

 of the new departure in gardening ? In making 

 the change, nevertheless, we were confronted with 

 this very real obstacle, and one difficult to over- 

 come, for if an intelligent spirit, eager in pursuit 

 of the new knowledge and practice, were here and 

 there to be found amongst the gardening craft, it 

 was the exception, and not the rule. The majority 

 of working gardeners hung back or rebelled al- 

 together. 



Another drawback followed hard on the heels 

 of the first difficulty, though it did not at once 

 reveal itself. With the revival of the quest for 

 hardy plants, there entered a vast number of poor 

 introductions from other lands which proved little 

 better than weeds, and bid fair, at one time, not 

 only to overrun our gardens, but to choke our 

 new-born aspirations and smother them with ridi- 

 cule. It took years to root out the worthless plants. 

 It has taken much longer still to collect and to 

 hybridise and to test and produce the best forms 

 of those that are worth growing; and it is work 

 that is apparently inexhaustible. We have only 



