280 THE GARDEN MAGAZINE June, 1908 
A bed of yuccas and another of Stokesia (both 
hardy plants) against shrubbery that is out of bloom. 
The kind of thing that should be done on every 
country place 
First, take the hardest case of all —the 
formal garden where neatness is supreme 
and plants must be constantly on dress 
parade. What better effect do you want 
than a bed of veronicas pictured on this page? 
Flowers that are borne in spikes are neces- 
sarily formal and, therefore, appropriate 
to formal gardens. Moreover they suggest 
aspiration and are, therefore, more desirable 
than flowers that merely suggest display. 
Their spires recall those of a church and the 
blue upward-pointing larkspurs or veronicas 
take one’s thoughts insensibly to the skies. 
There are two practical difficulties, how- 
ever, about such flowers in a formal garden. 
Some of them get unsightly at the base of the 
spike before the top buds open and others 
are not attractive when out of flower. Both 
these objections apply somewhat to fox- 
gloves, which have rather coarse, weedy 
leaves, drop their blossoms untidily and are 
unsightly when going to seed. Other flowers 
that fall by this standard are asphodels and 
the cardinal flower. But no such objection 
can be made to larkspurs, veronicas, torch 
lilies (wherever it is safe to leave them 
in the ground all winter), the obedient plant 
(Physostegia Virginica), or the snakeroots 
Cimicifuga racemosa and Japonica), all of 
which are spicate flowers breathing the 
very spirit of aspiration. For all of them 
possess that decorative quality when out 
of bloom which is so essential in a formal 
garden and all of them bloom a month 
or more, or else yield a fair second crop, 
if cut back after blooming and given plenty 
of food and water. 
I would not advocate using hardy plants 
exclusively in a formal garden, but in every 
home garden they ought to be dominant. 
It is right that we have some tender plants, 
because a formal garden must never be 
without at least one bed of flowers or brightly 
colored foliage. But there is no poetry or 
romance in begonias or cannas or scarlet 
sage or ageratum or any other tropical 
foreigner that is told off to a special job, 
like that of making a show. The object 
of a formal garden is to stir the heart in a 
way that no other kind of garden can do. 
It does this chiefly by its alternate suggestions 
of restriction and of freedom, its narrow 
walks and luxuriant growth. ‘Tender plants 
never (ook free. ‘The free, luxuriant flowers 
—the ones that most stimulate the imagi- 
nation are the ones that have their roots 
deepest in Anglo-Saxon history and life — 
the hollyhocks, bellflowers, columbines, 
peonies, German irises, primroses, violets, 
lily-of-the-valley, and clove pink. 
I haven’t the slightest doubt that the 
reason why a formal garden dominated by 
hardy flowers brings such thronging mem- 
A hardy perennial that meets 2]l the exacting requirements of a formal garden, Veronica longifolia, var. 
subsessilis. the best dark blue perennia) flower trom August to October 
Why isn’t this sort of thing cheaper, more per- 
manent and more appropriate for every city and 
suburban yard than geometrical beds of tender 
plants in the middle of the lawn? 
ories and even intimations of a previous 
existence is that these flowers have been 
loved longer by our ancestors than these 
upstart begonias and abutilons. And I 
know the reason why so many costly formal 
gardens let you down with such a sickening 
thud is that the show element is too much 
in evidence. They are ostentatious and 
cold because they do not have any home 
feeling. It takes hardy perennials to give 
the home feeling. 
So much for the formal garden. Now 
for the genuine landscape effects on great 
estates. Here, of course, all are agreed 
that tender plants are inappropriate. But 
there are many people who believe that when 
one is planting on a greater scale than that 
of the suburban or city yard, the ordinary 
mixed border is likely to have a weak and 
spotty effect, especially at a distance. Con- 
sequently, some have advocated using beds 
of annual flowers to brighten shrubberies 
after June, when the best part of the shrub 
bloom is over. I believe that’ perennials 
make more dignified and appropriate bed- 
ders than annuals, even in the case of fox- 
gloves, columbines, and other perennials 
which, for this purpose, are best sown 
every year and which may actually cost more 
to raise and take longer to bring into flower 
than annuals. The reason is that you can 
always tell annuals, because they are 
branched near the base, stand like single 
plants, or otherwise betray their temporary 
character, whereas perennials form glorious 
clumps and groups with many shoots up- 
rushing to a greater height or otherwise 
proclaim their yearly triumph over the 
winter. 
We need to take a lesson from Highland 
Park at Rochester, N. Y., which shows us 
how to make a shrubbery collection inter- 
esting when the shrubs are out of bloom. 
Here you find no mixed borders of perennials, 
but great beds of perennials like the fox- 
gloves on page 279 and the yuccas and 
Stokesias on this page — only one kind of 
flower in a place and enough of it to fill the 
eye. There is not a dull rod in the entire 
aS Ml lt 
