8 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



July 15, 1909. 



^ 



!'.^<^.^^.'<^.'»H.'i»^.''#^.<*^.'^r»)'fe^'4;.'»>'^f»>'' 



DECORATING THE 



GREENSWARD 



SUMMER BEDDING. 



[A p«per by Edwin Lonsdale, of Glrard Col- 

 lege, Pblladelpbia, read before the Philadelphia 

 IlorlBts' Club, July Q. 1909.] 



When your committee invited your 

 humble servant by letter to write some- 

 thing about the latest iu outdoor flywer 

 bedding, I hesitated so long before reply- 

 ing that the chairman of the committee, 

 Bobert Kift, paid a personal visit, and 

 his pleading was so effective and irre- 

 sistible that all I can now say is, "Here 

 I am." 



Lawn adornment opens up a wide field, 

 altogether too wide to be considered at all 

 satisfactorily in the brief space that may 

 be allotted to its consideration this even- 

 ing, so the best that can be done with so 

 important a subject under existing condi- 

 tions is to give it a " touch and go ' ' 

 treatment. 



The first thing that naturally suggests 

 itself when considering the embellish- 

 ment of a lawn is to produce an inviting 

 and restful effect, and the best material 

 to make use of is shrubbery and shade 

 trees judiciously planted, and what is of 

 equal importance is a seat here and 

 there; let these be as informal or as rus- 

 tic, yet as comfortable for the purpose 

 intended, as it is possible to have them. 

 Let shrubs, both the deciduous flowering 

 and the ornamental evergreens, be dis- 

 posed as nearly with natural effects as 

 possible. Many of the strong growing 

 grasses add a grace to any plantation 

 that nothing else can give. 



Do not dot plants on a lawn unless they 

 are made to appear to have naturally es- 

 caped from a near-by group. I once saw 

 a lawn planted with such regularity that 

 in the distance the bushes had the ap- 

 pearance of cocks of hay. 



Arrangement of the Shrubbery. 



Let the shrubs occupy spaces on the 

 extreme outside of the lawn, avoiding 

 straight lines in the planting in all cases, 

 allowing sufficient space between each 

 plant for the future development. For 

 the first few years after planting, what 

 may seem too much room may be occupied 

 with suqh flowering annuals as may sug- 

 gest themselves to those who have the 

 work in charge, and the more lasting 

 hardy perennials could to advantage be 

 interspersed between. 



Great care must be exercised, in the 

 association of the varicolored annuals 

 and the perennial flowering plants, to 

 avoid clashes in coloring. It is far easier 

 to avoid color clashes in the tender bed- 

 ding plant combinations than it is with 

 the hardy outdoor flowering plants, al- 

 though too often we do see the scarlet 

 zonal pelargoniums and the magenta-pink 

 colored varieties of the same in too close 

 proximity with each other to be har- 

 monious. 



Vases judiciously placed — which means 

 never in the center of a plot or lawn, and 

 where water is of easy access so as to 

 give it in abundance when requisite, 

 which is generally once a day and fre- 

 quently twice — are often very effective, 



especially on the edge of a pond or lake, 

 but by all means refrain from planting 

 purple petunias in the same vase with 

 scarlet geraniums or any other colors with 

 which they may produce discord. 



Some Differences of Opinion. 



Many of my hearers will remember 

 that strong paper read at a convention 

 in the early history of the Society of 

 American Florists, held in Buffalo, N. Y., 

 in which the essayist advocated the omis- 

 sion of all flowering plants from lawns 

 and pleasure grounds, and the use of 

 nothing but grass, trees and shrubbery, 

 and you will also remember what an up- 

 roar went up all over the country in vig- 

 orous protest. 



And only last summer a lady visitor at 

 Girard College, on entering the lodge 



Harry Turner. 



gate, stood, and in no unmistakable terms 

 exclaimed, ' ' What a pity to cut up the 

 lawn and plant thereon those horrid gera- 

 niums ! ' ' And so it goes. It is impos- 

 sible to please everyone. 



The cactus bed which we have in Girard 

 College grounds attracts more attention 

 than all the croton, geranium, or miscel- 

 laneous beds combined. 



The president of Girard College only a 

 short time ago said, with much apparent 

 gratification, that the "front" never 

 looked better. While the too plentiful 

 use of the scarlet geranium (zonal pelar- 

 gonium) may not be considered in the 

 best of taste as we have it this year, I 

 believe its very brilliancy in coloring in 

 the past has attracted many persons' at- 

 tention to the gardening, and when once 

 a person's interest has become aroused in 

 gardening, the rest is easy. The end has 

 justified the means. It has served as a 

 means to an end, and has acted as a 



primer, as it were, or rather as the kin- 

 dergarten to aid floriculture. 



Appealing to Popular Taste. 



In a public garden, as well as in any 

 other, the geranium appeals to the pop- 

 ular fancy, and for that purpose I believe 

 it will hold its own for a long time to 

 come. 



Personally, I have no use for the pink 

 varieties, for the most part, because they 

 do not harmonize with the brighter reds 

 or scarlets. At one time I did not like 

 the salmon tinted varieties of geranium, 

 but now I welcome them, because they 

 harmonize with the brighter reds and 

 scarlets. There is no color clash with 

 these brighter colors, provided the blue 

 combination is kept in due subjection. 



It should be understood in this connec- 

 tion that the landscape gardener has pre- 

 viously completed his work, though one 

 suggestion I will venture to propose, and 

 that is that when space permits I would 

 advise that a triangular tree plantation 

 be made, not too far away from the resi- 

 dence, and that the trees used Se the pin 

 oak, Quercus palustris, where these trees 

 render a good account of themselves or 

 when no better tree for a given locality 

 suggests itself. Let these be planted at 

 least sixteen feet apart, in triangular 

 form, and those of my hearers who con- 

 template such a planting will be surprised 

 to find how amenable they will be to the 

 prescribed landscape effects. And, what 

 is of equal importance, after the trees 

 have had a few years' growth, they may 

 be brought into requisition as hammock 

 supports. Three trees, properly disposed, 

 will support or rather furnish supports 

 for three hammocks, which will undoubt- 

 edly furnish another point in the restful 

 effect so much desired in all lawn adorn- 

 ments. 



The Girard College Grounds. 



The planting of flower and foliage beds 

 in lawn adornment is considered to be 

 worthy of our best thoughts. Especially 

 does this apply in public and semi-public 

 gardens connected with our popular in- 

 stitutions. In the Girard College grounds, 

 with which yours truly is connected, the 

 idea is to make as much display with the 

 plants we have on hand as is possible, 

 and we proceed as follows: In the spring 

 we plant pansies, forget-me-nots, Alyssum 

 saxatile and Arabis alpina between and 

 associated with tulips, hyacinths, etc., 

 which had been planted during the late 

 October and early in the November pre- 

 vious. This combination for spring flow- 

 ering is very effective. 



Wallflowers are also found to be good 

 for spring bedding when planted as above 

 indicated, between bulbs of last fall's 

 planting, or for independent planting in 

 spaces unoccupied. Wallflowers sown late 

 in June or early in July, if transplanted 

 once or twice, will make effective plant- 

 ing for spring work. For summer bloom- 

 ing there is nothing superior to gera- 

 niums, and, when we desire foliage plants 

 nothing is comparable to crotons. • The 

 surprise is, judging from how well these 

 showy leaved plants cover themselves with 

 glory in and around Philadelphia, that 

 more of them are not used elsewhere. 

 Cannas, as large flowering plants for dis- 

 tant effect, are most satisfactory. As 

 edging plants, nothing is superior to Abu- 

 tilon Savitzi, which gives the "white 

 line" more effectively than any other 

 plant that I know of. Echeveria and al- 

 ternanthera are much used where formal 

 designs are desired, but these are being 

 used less and less as truly artistic in- 

 stincts are developed, and the time is 



