December, 1909 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



229 



to see over, but it keeps out chickens, dogs, 

 cats, children, and to some extent, thieves. 



These may seem intangible characters, 

 but by means of broad contrasts you will 

 see that they are real. For instance, 

 southern Italy has such a hot summer that 

 flowers are only an incident in the Italian 

 style of gardening, while in England they 

 are the main thing. Again, the San Jose 

 scale discourages the American cottager 

 from growing fruit, but this insect has not 

 yet reached England. Finally, the English- 

 man's passion for privacy is unique and it 

 shows even in the cottager's low hedge. 



OUR NATIONAL STYLE 



The American style of cottage gardening 

 must grow out of the fact that our laborers 

 do not have as much time for gardening 

 as the English. We have about two hours 

 less sunlight every day than the English 

 people enjoy. That long English twilight 

 would be worth billions of dollars to us. 

 Possibly a seven-hour working day would 

 about put us on a par with them. 



This means that our laborers must settle 

 down to growing plants which require less 

 time and skill than the English cottagers 

 have. Our men must grow less fruit, 

 for there are more and worse insects to 

 fight. English cottage gardens often have 

 more flowers than lawn; ours must often 

 be content with having more lawn than 

 flowers. 



OUR COTTAGE GARDEN MATERIAL 



From the nature of things the cottager can 

 grow few trees or none. He hasn't enough 

 space for tall trees, and they would rob his 

 lawn and trees. He can hardly afford ever- 

 greens or magnolias. When all cottages 

 are built of permanent material cottagers 

 will get sick of the fast growing trees like 

 boxelder and poplars, because they are 

 short-lived. Flowering dogwood may 

 prove to be his best tree. 



The English cottager has few shrubs 

 or none. They take a good deal of room 

 and do not bloom long as a rule. But the 

 lawn-and-shrub garden may become the 

 commonest in America, because it is easier 

 to care for than a flower garden. The 

 American cottager will go in for long 

 blooming shrubs, like hydrangeas. He can- 

 not afford azaleas, Japanese maples, white 

 fringe, dwarf horse chestnut. Rarely will 

 he have good roses or lilacs. Let him have 

 Van Houtte's spirea, golden bells, mock 

 orange, Morrow's honeysuckle, and fragrant 

 sumach, hardy hydrangea, cranberry bush, 

 Rosa muUijlora and rugosa, and plenty of 

 Japanese barberry. Then his yard will 

 be attractive the year round. 



Our cottages should be nearly covered 

 with climbers. Everyone will want roses 

 and Clematis Jackmani, but successes with 

 these will be few. The fittest to survive are 

 Virginia creeper, Japan ivy, Hall's honey- 

 suckle, trumpet creeper, wistaria, bittersweet 

 and wild clematis. The ideal thing would 

 be to have every north and west wall covered 

 with English ivy or climbing euonymus. 



The American cottager will eventually 



The English cottager generally has more flowers than lawn but this one has more lawn than flowers. 

 This plan is best for a large and growing family 



desire a hedge. A good time will come 

 when board fences will be unknown. Our 

 national hedge plant will be the Japanese 

 barberry. The cottager will tire of privet, 

 because it is open at the base and lets the 

 dogs into his flower beds. He will have 

 barberry around four sides of his lot because 

 it is practically "pig tight, bull strong 

 and horse high," or at least horse broad. 

 He will love it for its autumn colors and its 

 red berries that last all winter. 



Will American cottage gardens be less 

 beautiful than the English? Not after a 

 century or two and that is a short time in 

 the historv of humanity. A good time is 



coming when the cottages will all be built 

 of fire-proof material in an American style. 

 They will be surrounded by neat and beauti- 

 ful gardens. No two will be alike. One 

 will be glorious when the dogwood blooms, 

 another when the Virginia creeper colors; 

 this will be fragrant with honeysuckle and 

 trumpet creeper, that will be gay with bed- 

 ding plants; some will have shrubbery 

 borders, some will have old-fashioned 

 flowers. All the homes will be healthful and 

 happy. They will be as neat and attractive 

 as the English but they will be different. 

 They will be American. And then our 

 country will have found herself. 



Every cottage garden in England is likely to have its specialty. Our cottagers cannot have roses like 



this all summer 



