Flowers and Gardens 



do not say that every show-bed is wrong ; 

 but, generally speaking, it is wrong to 

 gather all beauty into one particular 

 time or place ; and, above all, the spring 

 flowers, as a whole, should be well 

 scattered and intermixed with the summer 

 plants, or we can never learn to love them 

 as we ought. As to general effect, I 

 would not have it neglected, but sought 

 after in its noblest possible kind. I am 

 only contending that justice to the whole 

 effect of a bed or garden, instead of being 

 incompatible with, is absolutely insepar- 

 able from, justice to the individual flowers. 

 The third fault of gardening — the too 

 obvious use of mechanical contrivances, 

 and other artificial interferences with the 

 free development of the plant — is less the 

 characteristic danger of our day. In many 

 cases artificial helps are indispensable. It 

 is unquestionably right to try to make 

 flowers assume the best possible shapes, 

 and if these are unattainable without such 

 helps, the helps cannot always be objected 

 to. A certain degree of constraint in the 

 appearance of our gardens is absolutely 

 necessary from the sort of plants we de- 

 light in — the half-hardies and evergreens. 

 The freedom and apparent carelessness, 

 which would be good in better-assorted 

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