JULY 391 



all I say or recommend, it is most important to remem- 

 ber that in stiff, heavy soils, everything that grows well 

 with me would do badly and require a perfectly different 

 cultivation. The amateur should always recognise that 

 when things do badly it is probably because of some 

 mistake in cultivation, and that it is always worthwhile 

 to try some other method. 



I went for the first time to the famous 'Palmen- 

 garten,' at Frankfort, which, in its way, is really 

 beautiful, and a very well-kept, interesting public 

 garden — half pleasure garden, half botanical. The 

 greenhouses are clean and orderly, and arranged in 

 much better taste than they would have been at home. 

 There is much more attempt at grouping foliage plants, 

 Mosses, Ferns, etc., than one generally sees. The same 

 with the outdoor planting ; though artificial and formal, 

 it was done with considerable thought and originality, 

 the beds being thoroughly carpeted to keep away weeds, 

 which in that style of gardening is the only possible 

 plan. The colour contrasts were good; a brighter, hotter 

 sun than ours, together with much watering, perfects 

 this kind of garden. I found planting of effective 

 groups in the grass was a distinct feature in gardens 

 about Cronberg, and better done than I have ever seen 

 in England, save in very exceptional cases. It is an art 

 that can rarely be understood by gardeners, as I think 

 it requires a certain amount of real art -training to be 

 able to imagine effects, both of form and colour. A well- 

 planted White Variegated Maple ought to be in every 

 garden, but it should not be allowed to get large and 

 coarse. A contrast should be planted near it in the 

 shape of broad -spreading leaves of some strong- 

 growing, dark-foliaged plant. 



A much more delicate mixture, is a small red -leaved 

 Japanese Maple and the Spircea Ulmaria, the common 



