1. A show garden composed largely of rhododendrons grouped naturally. From 
the best American example of a well balanced estate 
Gardens for Special Purposes—By Wilhelm Miller, 
2. A show garden which is not ostentatious but enjoys privacy, and is organ- 
ically connected with the house and looks livable 
New 
York 
AN ASTONISHING LIST OF THE PARTICULAR AIMS FOR WHICH AMERICAN GARDENS EXIST—HOW 
TO GUARD AGAINST OUR NATIONAL WEAKNESS—A NEW WAY TO GET HELP IN PLANNING GARDENS 
DBREArS the most astonishing phase 
of flower gardening is the immense 
number of types represented. I estimate 
that there are at least two thousand kinds 
of flower gardens—each distinct enough to 
make totally different impressions upon the 
mind of a casual visitor. A hundred of 
them from America alone have already been 
pictured in THE GarpDEN Macazinge, and if 
you will glance at the list of them on page 
94 you will see that their differences are 
not confined to the realm of feeling, but are 
easily expressed in simple English. 
If this genius for specializing, which is 
characteristic of our age, be studied, we shall 
find why most American gardens are un- 
interesting and how to make them better. 
E 
3. A modest little formal garden in a corner of a 
house. Embowered in green 
The chief reason why cultured European 
visitors find our home grounds unattractive 
asa rule is that our people of moderate means 
do not spend enough time or money on 
gardening to develop a fondness for any 
special class of plants or type of garden. 
And it will not do to say that our poor peo- 
ple can’t afford good gardens, for a packet 
of seed costs only five cents and neighbors 
can exchange plants with one another. What 
our national self-esteem most needs is a bump, 
and you have only to contrast any pictures 
you have seen of English cottage gardens 
with laborers’ home grounds in America 
to realize that we need a great awakening. 
The trouble is that when we plan a garden 
we do not commune with ourselves and 
dwell upon this question, ““What do I want a 
garden for, anyhow? Do I want it chiefly 
for show, for repose, for utility, or to make 
a collection of my favorite flowers?” In the 
last analysis, all of the hundred gardens for 
special purposes which are listed on page 
94 can be explained by these four simple 
motives. I will show that each of these 
calls for a different type of garden more or 
less incompatible with the others. 
First. The show garden is to a certain 
extent incompatible with cutting armfuls 
of flowers. Flowers for display generally 
look best when organically connected with 
the house—not scattered over the lawn. If 
you have a big house they will be most bril- 
liant in a formal garden. If your place is 
not large, the most appropriate way to have 
a big show of flowers is to have irregular 
borders of shrubs and perennials. 
Second. A garden for repose is to a certain 
extent incompatible with a brilliant show 
of flowers, because you cannot have repose 
without shade and privacy, which generally 
imply trees, and these, of course, must 
66 
detract somewhat from the abundance of 
flowers. 
Third. The flower garden for utility is 
the one which exists only to supply cut flowers 
for a house, and the woman is to be pitied 
who wants no other kind of garden than 
this. Obviously this kind of garden should 
be combined with vegetables, for the cheapest 
way to raise the most and largest flowers 
is to put them in straight rows and cultivate 
them with a wheel hoe. 
Fourth. A collector’s garden is to a cer- 
tain extent incompatible with the three 
other types. A rose garden usually makes 
a poor show, or only a brief one. You don’t 
want to rest in a collector’s garden; you wish 
to go about with color chart, catalogue 
4. A Southern garden famed for its azalea show, 
but obviously it has repose too 
