74 The American Flower Garden 



of obliterating them altogether or the undesirable task of smothering 

 the house with verdure. If a few fine old trees should happily be 

 growing near his building site he already possesses the most recon- 

 ciling features he could have. One very charming house I know 

 has a gnarled, picturesque old apple tree to shade a porch that 

 would have covered and killed it had not a deep brick well been 

 built around the trunk to let air, light and moisture down to its 

 roots. The treatment gave it a new lease of life. A rocky part 

 of the land on another side of this unconventional house was 

 chiseled to form the very natural looking steps of approach to it. 

 Wistaria blossoms festoon the largest rocks in May after white 

 and lavender mats of creeping phlox have carpeted them with 

 bloom. Columbines dance on airy stems along the rocky ledges 

 and stately white spikes of Spanish bayonets shoot up from 

 crowns of blade-like leaves that seem to grow out of the rocks 

 themselves. The fiery poker plants set the slopes ablaze in Sep- 

 tember. A surging mass of fine shrubs -- Japanese barberry, 

 mahonia, deutzias, spireas, white rugosa roses, and dwarf ever- 

 greens, break in waves against the foundation of that house 

 which rises as if by a natural right from their midst. It is the 

 foundation line which, in almost every case, should be planted 

 out, no matter how much of the remainder of the house may be 

 permitted to go bare. 



What are the special claims for the naturalistic treatment of 

 our home grounds? 



\ It accords with our racial temperament; therefore it is destined 

 to become the dominant style of gardening here, for the same 

 reason that the English language prevails on this continent over 

 every other tongue. People of Latin blood have carried art to 

 the very highest perfection, but our strong Teutonic strain 



