APPENDIX 225 



lowly plants to run to the margins, where the clipping 

 shears can cut them back from the path or lawn. A 

 formal edge is not considered in good taste, while a good 

 deal of work is necessary to keep it in order. The simple 

 way of planting alyssum, Iberis or the hardy candytuft, 

 forget-me-nots and musk, pansies and primulas, perennial 

 phlox or the conventional border of geraniums, letting 

 the inner line be broken by allowing plants to grow 

 irregularly and to mingle with other groups, is the best 

 method. 



Weedy plants running to foliage rather than to bloom 

 should be uprooted; it is not a kindness to nurse sickly 

 plants in a border. The whole aspect is spoiled and the 

 entire colony endangered by weedy plants ready for 

 parasites, and sickly ones which may spread a mold or 

 some other disease. 



A lily bed may have a straggling appearance unless the 

 tall lilies have been set in the center or at the back, and 

 the shorter at the front. This rule, like all others, should 

 not be observed so exactly in any border or bed that 

 stiffness is the result. A slight variation of a tall plant 

 breaking a line is pleasing, and an irregularity gives the 

 zest of novelty. Among the lilies the little dwarf ground 

 plants make a pretty carpet over the earth while setting 

 a background for the stately blossoms above them. 



The truly formal garden is so planned that its form 

 catches the eye first of all. It does not follow that 



