78 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



highest of garden lessons, it has a direct 

 bearing upon the special difficulty with which 

 in much present-day gardening we have to 

 do battle. Here were herbaceous borders, not 

 to be excelled for wealth of colour and variety 

 of form, entirely free from any blot of un- 

 kemptness or unsightly remnants of any kind, yet 

 without a suspicion of stiffness or formality. It 

 has always been somewhat of a problem to find 

 out how it was accomplished. For, on the one 

 hand, in the nature of things flowers fade, and 

 only too quickly put on the garments of decay ; 

 on the other, the life, even of a plant, demands 

 that the period of old age shall be respected. 

 Annuals can be removed as soon as their beauty 

 is over, for, as far as their immediate purpose is 

 concerned, their life's work is done ; but, with 

 bulbs or perennial plants, the functions of stems 

 and leaves must not be interfered with before their 

 set time, for upon the due ripening of these depends 

 the well-doing of the year to come. Nevertheless, 

 when these functions have been fulfilled there re- 

 mains no reason why withering stems and foliage 

 should not be cut away at once ; and herein very 

 many gardeners fail, especially of the amateur 

 class. As a rule all this useless rubbish is left 

 long after it need be ; nay, more, it is often recom- 

 mended that dead stems should be retained as long 

 as possible, as a ready-made rampart against frost, 

 when a few handfuls of leaf mould worked in about 

 the crowns of the plants that require it would 

 protect as well, if not better, both roots and buds 

 that are springing beneath the surface. 



