GARDENERS 



THE relation between gardener and employer is 

 not an easy one, especially if the employer is a 

 gardener himself. There is apt to be a conflict of 

 tastes; and the better the gardener the more acute 

 that conflict is likely to be. Every good gardener is 

 sure to have his own taste in flowers and their arrange- 

 ment, and in these days it is not often the taste of his 

 employer. The amateur in gardening is a revolu- 

 tionary, the professional a conservative. He has 

 learnt the mid- Victorian routine when he was a boy; 

 and if he has learnt it well it has brought him triumphs 

 plain for every one to see. His ribbon borders have 

 been the talk of the place, and he has won many 

 prizes at the local flower show, the certificates of 

 which he nails up in his conservatory. Naturally he 

 wishes to persist in his ribbon borders and his prize 

 winning. But his employer, if he is a gardener him- 

 self, has other ideas which to the professional seem 

 merely the result of ignorance. The consequence of 

 this conflict in tastes may be some real unhappiness 

 to the gardener. He has his duty to his employer, 

 of course, and he can only keep his place by doing it. 

 But he has also his artistic conscience. This he can- 

 not satisfy on herbaceous borders or bulbs in the 

 grass or rock gardens. Other gardeners have been 



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