DISPOSITION OF FLOWERS IN PARKS 



Annual flowers, known as bedding plants, cannot be combined 

 happily with shrub masses. They are too temporal in character, and 

 always appear to be substituted for some more permanent growing 

 plant. They should be planted in beds by themselves, — and here we 

 are back at the round flower-bed again. Oxie almost wants to cheer 

 as at sight of the national flag after a long time away. 



THE FORM OF FLOWER-BEDS 



If not circular, what form of flower-beds should we have? The 

 answer is that flowery beds should not be disposed in arbitrary form. 

 They should not take form, but conform. In the triangular area left by 

 three intersecting walks, the consistent form for a flower-bed is a 

 triangle; in a long rectangular space between two parallel walks, the 

 flower-bed naturally becomes a rectangular panel ; in an approximately 

 square place, a square bed or some simple knot or straight line parterre 

 is appropriate. The odd-shaped areas left between curving walks may 

 sometimes, as in Spanish work, be entirely converted into flower plant- 

 ings, giving the effect of a floral carpet instead of a planting for display. 



The surest recourse in laying out flower-beds is to repeat or parallel 

 some dominant line in the design of the park, or to accentuate some 

 existing feature. A continuous bed of flowers along each side of a 

 driveway, as shown in the illustration of Riverside Park, Jacksonville, 

 is a harmonious arrangement. The grass strip frequently left between 

 a water basin and the encircling walk can often be converted into a 

 flower display. Flower-beds can be made to follow lines of balus- 

 trades as at the entrance to the Berlin Tiergarten shown in the illus- 

 tration. Almost any straight line walk can be accompanied on one or 

 both sides by a series of beds paralleling its general direction. Also, a 

 well-defined central or axial line of a park will permit and become 

 agreeably emphasised by symmetrical flanking beds of flowers. The- 

 usual mistake is to locate flower-beds on the axis line. The attention 



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