THE FLOWER GARDEN 123 



CHAPTER VII 



THE FLOWER GARDEN 



The highest personal note in the art of landscape design is the 

 flower garden, and no scheme of landscape development is com- 

 plete, no matter how small the property, which does not provide 

 space for a garden. It is in the garden that our individual fancies 

 as to the choice and arrangement of flowers may be indulged. There 

 we may have a profusion of flowers, harmony of color, charm of ef- 

 fect and, above all, seclusion and restful quiet; for the growing of 

 flowers is indeed the simplest yet most satisfying of pleasures. 



We would emphasize again that fitness is the very foundation 

 of all artistic excellence and in none of the arts is this more appli- 

 cable than in garden design. The flower garden, although a separate 

 unit in the general landscape, and subject in itself to a greater free- 

 dom of treatment, must be in harmony with its surroundings. If 

 the house is of simple design simplicity must dominate the garden. 

 That the charming box-bordered gardens of Colonial days were so 

 in keeping with the residence was due largely to the simplicity of 

 design — gardens with not only unpretentious outlines, but the variety 

 of plants so limited that very simple color combinations resulted. 



It is most gratifying to witness, since more attention is being 

 given to the arrangement of the home surroundings, that the mis- 

 cellaneous beds, which in former years were scattered over the lawn 

 in a most heterogeneous fashion, are gradually being supplanted by 

 the more orderly arrangement of plantations confined to the boun- 

 dary lines of the property, bordered driveways or paths, or within 

 enclosed areas, as formal or informal gardens. 



CLASSIFICATION OF GARDENS 



Enclosed gardens are by no means of modern origin. Space 

 may not be given here to a full classification of various types of gar- 

 dens, but it will be well to consider briefly those which have had great 

 influence in the development of our present day garden. Of these, 

 the Italian, French and English gardens are most important. 



