Gardens and a Few Flowers g.l. 



MAY 



With a Few Casual Peeps into Some Other Peoples' Places From Which We May Take Inspiration to Go and Do Likewise 



HIS garden is the 

 primal, necessary 

 expression of the 

 best that is in 

 man, and after he has 

 achieved success in poetry, 

 painting, sculpture, archi- 

 tecture, or music, he turns 

 and subordinates them to 

 his passion for gardening. 



Though each race has de- 

 veloped and built up a gar- 

 den style of its own the 

 American garden, as such, 

 is still in the making. What 

 it will be depends on what 

 we become, but just at pre- 

 sent it is the "Old-fashioned 

 Garden " that comes nearest 

 to the American ideal: prim 

 walks that run in straight 

 lines, tiled, cobbled, or grass 

 trimmed — the stern recti- 

 tude of New England as our 

 grandmothers held it up to 

 us in their day; quaint, 

 practical sun-dials to mark 

 the hours of eternity, and 



the fleeting, evanescent beauties of a season that 

 bloom and fade only too quickly. That is the 

 combination that speaks for American character 

 as our forefathers made it. 



There is something about the Old-fashioned 

 Garden, too, that other gardens do not seem to 

 have — the suggestion of permanence, of length 

 of days and generations of men. Hardy peren- 

 nials are suitable to the permanent character 

 of the Old-fashioned Garden, but the annuals 

 that our grandmothers loved, belong there too. 



The Informal Garden is much easier of achieve- 

 ment and allows a greater latitude of treatment 

 than does the Period Garden no matter what 

 period it is taken from. One delightful arrange- 

 ment is to mass the flowers around the sides of the 

 lawn leaving a smooth greensward as a centre. 

 Make a background of shrubs and trees or hedge, 

 and, against this, lay in your colors: tall Holly- 

 hocks and Larkspur, masses of rosy Phlox and 

 Peonies, Lilies, Roses, bushed or trellised over a 

 rustic tea house, the delicate climbing old pink 

 Rose or the hardy Crimson Rambler that will 

 make a good showing the first year. Select 



Id any suggestion for you? Combination of outdoor 

 living and the intimate friendship of the rock garden 



In this garden of formal geometric plan great masses of perennial plants give color in wide sheets. The sundial at one 



end is well placed in the composition 



your flowers with an eye to obtaining a succes- 

 sion of blossom during the entire season from Li- 

 lac and Snowball time to the autumn of the 

 native shrubby Asters and heavy-headed gor- 

 geous Dahlias. 



Elaboration of detail, well kept walks and 

 trimmed hedges outlining flower beds of geo- 

 metric design mark the Formal Garden. Ar- 

 borvitae cut in quaint designs, a pergola covered 

 with Clematis, Wistaria, Crimson Rambler 

 Rose, or, maybe, Grape vines whose purple 

 clusters will be beautiful in the fall and follow 

 fittingly the tender green of the leaves, such a 

 pergola, flanked by a row of Lombardy Poplars, 

 carries out the Italian idea charmingly. Ar- 

 borvitae and dwarf Mugho Pine will simulate 

 admirably the topiary work so much in vogue 

 when English, French, and Italian gardens 

 reached the acme of their conventionality, and 

 lend themselves well to the sharp trimming so 

 necessary to develop these odd shapes. 



The Sunken Garden partakes of all the beauties 

 of the formal style and is extremely effective 

 and delightful. Its peculiarity consists in the 

 fact that it is planted about two feet below the 

 level of the surrounding landscape and lies spread 

 out before one like a carpet or picture to be ad- 

 mired in its entirety at a glance. 



The Japanese Garden brings with it the orien- 

 tal suggestion and its happiest setting is a 

 rockery where the green of conifers con- 

 trasts markedly with the gray background. 

 Specimen plantings of all kinds of evergreens 

 and flowering shrubs are delightful here: Dwarf 

 Barberry (Berberis Thunbergii), Weigela, Sy- 

 ringa, and especially Rosa rugosa give an excel- 

 lent effect. Peonies, Irises, Japanese Day 

 Lilies, Shasta Daisies, Asters, Dahlias, Japanese 

 Bell-flower, Poppies massed in beds, are the 

 flowers that will best carry out the oriental idea. 

 The vines that could be suggested for covering 

 tea houses and trellises are Wistaria, purple and 

 white, Japan Golden-leaved Honeysuckle, Kudzu 

 Vine, Rambler Rose, and Clematis paniculata 

 and Jackmanni. Japanese stone lanterns are 

 easily procurable and are a great addition to the 

 architecture of the garden. 



A ND now about perennials. These old- 

 ■*""*• fashioned favorites that come up year after 

 year and greet the spring with their bright, 

 familiar faces, like old friends seen again, are 

 not even yet appreciated at their full worth by 

 many gardeners. But it is the "old reliables" 



68 



that make the foundation 

 of the garden, the special- 

 ties are often as ornamental 

 but one cannot be as sure 

 of them, their qualities are 

 problematical. The ever-re- 

 curring harvest of beauty 

 that one is sure to cull from 

 a garden of perennials is a 

 satisfaction not to be de- 

 spised in the gardener's cat- 

 egory of delights. 



To secure a continuation 

 of bloom throughout the 

 season, from the time when 

 the last snows are melting in 

 the hollows until the first 

 snow glistens like jewels on 

 grass not yet turned brown, 

 is an ambition worthy the 

 gardener of perennials and 

 one that it is quite possible 

 for him to realize. The Epi- 

 gaea or Trailing Arbutus, 

 in some climates, is syn- 

 chronous with melting snow, 

 and the Trillium (perhaps 

 better known as Wake Robin 

 or Wood Lily) is apt to peep out between 

 the coverings of last year's leaves. The Ane- 

 mone or Windflower is reputed to be above 

 ground in April but does not blossom until well 

 on into May. Lilies-of-the-valley send up their 

 slender bells in late May and early June and the 

 Irises, German and Japanese, more lovely than 

 Orchids with the richness and beauty of their 

 bloom, come out about the same time. Modern 

 Irises are indeed all that the most enthusiastic 

 dealer claims them to be. They are not only 

 hardy and easy to grow, but for opulence and 

 freedom of blossom are unexcelled. The curi- 

 ously curled and waved petals, the deep strong 

 shades of their coloring, purple, lavender and 

 blue, yellow and brown, or white, make them 

 wonderfully beautiful, while their dainty frag- 

 rance appeals to the olfactory sense and renders 

 their presence delightful. The character of 

 their growth is particularly adaptable to aquatic 

 situations, as outlining a pond or fountain. 



Periwinkles and Pyrethrum come about that 

 time and then June is readv to break forth in her 





If we would only learn to live inside our gardens and not meruy 

 regard them as things apart to be merely looked at'. 



