FLOWER-GARDENS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



259 



decurrens, Thuja occidentalis, Rdinospora squar- 

 rosa, and other Conifers of columnar habit of 

 growth. The use of formal clipped specimens 

 of evergreen shrubs is admissible; but it may 

 be pointed out that these should either form a 

 leading characteristic of the garden, or else be 

 very sparingly employed. It is well for the 

 planter to bear in mind, in selecting the more 

 permanent plants of a garden, that these must 

 perforce remain in all probability for many 

 years, whilst the evanescent varieties of flowers, 

 and even the shapes of the beds which they are 

 used to fill, may be changed at comparatively 

 short intervals of time, according to the fancy 

 or taste of the owner or his gardener. 



Shrubs of larger growth than those usually 

 found suitable in the flower-garden itself may 

 be used, as it were to enshrine it; also to afford 

 wind-breaks, as sheltering for promenades, and 

 as foils and contrasts to the flowering plants. 

 Usually evergreen plants have been solely 

 employed for this purpose, the more beautiful 

 flowering deciduous shrubs being excluded. A 

 better plan is to employ both, one or the other 

 predominating as taste may dictate. 



Although, as regards this country, the flower- 

 garden may be said to have come into existence 

 towards the end of the first half of the present 

 century, it has during that time gone through 

 several phases; the more simple arrangements 

 and combinations of the earlier examples being 

 followed by the period of hard straight lines, 

 intricate geometrical figures, and strong con- 

 trasts of masses of glaring colours; these in 

 turn being succeeded by a more refined and 

 natural arrangement consequent upon the em- 

 ployment of plants possessing noble form and 

 graceful foliage, and the combination of these 

 with others of more subdued colouring than were 

 in vogue in bygone years. 



Position. — Before proceeding further it may be 

 well to note a few of the mistakes as to position, 

 construction, and the use of plants, that have 

 done much to bring discredit upon this style of 

 gardening. In the first place, a flower-garden, in 

 common with anything else, may be a beautiful 

 object in itself, and still be so far out of char- 

 acter with the situation in which it has been 

 placed as to injure the effect derived from 

 something of far greater importance. This is 

 a mistake we see exemplified in old gardens, as 

 well as in some new ones, where the flower- 

 garden has been placed in a very prominent 

 position, adjacent to the mansion, and occupy- 

 ing the foreground of perhaps an extensive 

 view. In such a position it frequently forms a 



blot in the picture offensive to the eye of those 

 persons who are gifted with taste and judgment 

 in regard to landscape effect; but if, instead of 

 being placed in such a prominent position, a 

 situation had been chosen where the view was 

 not thus objectionably interfered with, by the 

 introduction of colour betwixt the eye and dis- 

 tant objects, this fault would have been avoided. 

 The introduction of a mass of colour, although 

 it be small in amount, in front of a mansion, 

 where the windows command views over a 

 broad open landscape or park scene of moderate 

 extent, is a glaring mistake. This objection 

 does not carry so much weight if the flower- 

 beds are placed so that the eye is carried over 

 them; or where the beds are hidden wholly, or 

 partially, by a terrace ; or are placed, as is some- 

 times necessary, on rapidly falling ground. 

 There are, indeed, few places in which the 

 desire for a flower-garden cannot be gratified 

 without placing it in a spot where this objection 

 will apply; for there generally exists, or may 

 easily be found, a suitable site, more or less 

 confined by shrubs and trees without being over- 

 shadowed, in which a flower-garden may be con- 

 structed without interfering with anything else, 

 and where it can be fully enjoyed. In places of 

 small extent, where even from the best point of 

 view there may exist something in the distance 

 that is objectionable, and from which it is desir- 

 able to divert the eye, then the introduction of 

 a flower-garden, instead of being out of place, 

 will be one of the best possible means of effect- 

 ing the desired end. 



Extent. — This is a very important considera- 

 tion, not only as affecting the flower-garden 

 itself, but every other department in the estab- 

 lishment. In many places the extent to which 

 the bedding-out of masses of tender exotics is 

 even now indulged in becomes inimical to good 

 gardening in every other department, by reason 

 of the labour and resources of the place at the 

 disposal of the gardener being inadequate to 

 cope with the yearly propagation and continuous 

 attention required by the immense number of 

 plants employed. This evil has been much 

 increased by the introduction of spring bedding, 

 which has become indispensable where the full 

 measure of floral effect is to be produced during 

 two-thirds of the year, and is especially enjoyable 

 in the early spring months, before the summer 

 bedders have been planted out. In fact, the 

 spring occupants of the beds are by many persons 

 looked upon with even more favour than those 

 which follow them. The labour attending 

 flower-gardening is also much increased by the 



