The Garden and the Flower 



In ofifering practical advice to owners of villa 

 gardens, I have endeavoured to demonstrate 

 the value of a well-considered plan to start 

 with, as an aid to realising a consistent and 

 artistic effect in the garden ; and incidentally 

 I have made it apparent that I consider the 

 garden, before all things, as a home for the 

 flower ; wherefore I must insist that the garden, 

 in plan and detail, should stand in relation to 

 the flower, as the house to its inmates, a rela- 

 tion that is best described as subordinate. 



To overdo the plan and to over-elaborate 

 the accessories, is to detract from the flower. 



The artistic garden is the one in which the 

 flower has full scope to grow in all its beauty, 

 without having to compete with paint and 

 tawdry ornament. In fact the flower must 

 be a complete autocrat if the full purpose 

 of the garden is to be realised, and who could 

 wish for a more charming despot. Why 



