84 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



used hole or pit from which gravel or chalk has 

 been dug which a little art may convert into a 

 very delightful bit of natural planting; though to 

 be successful it must be well thought out. 



There are numberless hardy plants of excep- 

 tional beauty when in flower which are, notwith- 

 standing, from some character peculiar to them- 

 selves, unsuited to a position in beds or borders 

 where orderliness is more or less essential. Take 

 the handsome Iberian cranesbill, for example, in 

 its best form (Geranium platypetallum). A single 

 plant forms a tuft of large circumference in the 

 course of a season or two. In spring the shapely, 

 netted leaves are fresh and good to look upon. 

 By and by the purple glory of the large flower 

 heads delights every beholder; but when that has 

 gone by, there comes a time, especially in a dry 

 season, when the whole effect of the plant is un- 

 pleasing. It falls away from its centre, and the 

 limp stems lop over neighbouring plants that are 

 yet in their prime in a provoking way. It would 

 be bad gardening, nevertheless, to cut them away 

 before their natural time. After all, it is merely 

 a case of wrong placing. Establish a clump of 

 it in an odd corner some thin hollow in a hedge- 

 row, some angle of a rough fence where it will 

 interfere with nothing else, and can be left to 

 itself. Then it will come as a glad surprise, year 

 after year, and the sprawling of the fading stems 

 and leaves, if noticed at all, will only call atten- 

 tion to the beauty of their dying autumn tints. 



In wild gardening one axiom should always be 

 kept well in mind the planting should be essen- 



