298 The American Flower Garden 



and around that the remaining space should be divided off into 

 beds that can be easily reached at every point from a box-edged 

 path. The favourite parallelogram running north and south 

 need not have its subdivisions follow straight lines. Semi-circular 

 or crescent beds at its four corners imply the partial curves of all 

 other beds and the paths lying between them and the central 

 feature. Or the parallelogram may have curved ends or sides 

 to admit recessed garden seats set close against the evergreen 

 hedge. Geometric designs seem forbidding when talked about 

 or drawn on paper, but a well-balanced and thought-out rose gar- 

 den, so fully planted that its formal lines are nearly lost in the 

 verdure of rose bushes or softened by sprays of flowers, its paths 

 over-canopied by luscious vines at intersecting points, its arches 

 draped, its pillars or rustic lattices twined with roses, every vista 

 ending in a beautiful picture, can give pleasure beyond the dreams 

 of the unimaginative. To come upon such a garden unexpectedly, 

 through an entrance that gives no hint of what is hidden within, 

 is like suddenly entering Paradise. If a rose garden be forbidding, 

 it is because there is too much design in evidence, and not enough 

 luxuriance of growth to subordinate it. 



No rose garden should be situated in low ground that holds 

 water: perfect drainage is essential to its health. Yet, where 

 a house is perched on a bleak hill-top, the roses are happier a 

 little distance below. There are few lovelier sights from a terrace 

 than a thriving garden lying under the lee of a hill. But roses will 

 never be lovely if they have wet feet, and a low-lying garden may 

 require either tile draining, or an eight-inch layer of broken stone, 

 bricks, or gravel laid under the rose beds at a depth of three feet. 



If possible, prepare the soil for your rose beds that are to 

 be planted in the spring five or six months previous. Save at one 



