THE GARDEN SEASON'S CLIMAX 



W. FRANK PURDY 



Transferred to the Autumn, the Roman Floralia At Last Reaches Us By Way of 

 the Old Cornish Towns of England Where Its Merrymaking Is An Annual Feature 



(Editors' Note: Herein a weighty responsibility is laid upon gardeners and garden lovers by Mr. Purdy, who, as President 

 of the Art Alliance of America is in a position to survey the situation impartially and advise impersonally, as it were. The possibil- 

 ities which open up along the lines of his suggestions are so great that they can scarcely fail to inspire to larger and finer effort.) 



IT not the truth that flower shows and garden 

 competitions as they generally occur, bore most 

 people to extinction and afford actual entertain- 

 ment only to a few prize winners among flower en- 

 thusiasts and advanced gardeners? One shrinks from saying 

 so; but one says it nevertheless, for truth may as well pre- 

 vail! Of course this few 

 would be quite enough to en- 

 tertain, no one will deny, if 

 gardening were not so cath- 

 olic an art. But it is so 

 catholic! — the art of the sim- 

 ple and ingenuous and of the 

 most highly sophisticated as 

 well. Therefore it seems 

 that the observation of its 

 fete should be characterized 

 by a breadth of concept that 

 will provide entertainment 

 for all the world and his wife 

 and his children, whether 

 these are flower enthusiasts 

 or not. They are, of course 

 — potentially if not already 

 and actually; but how shall 

 this enthusiasm better be 

 awakened and developed than 

 by bringing them all together 



for a merry time, in the presence of the flowers and fruits 

 arrayed in friendly competition, amid ideal surroundings 

 where all of the garden's allied arts contribute their portion 

 to the beauty of the ensemble? 



To develop a floral festival of this entertaining and merry 

 character, commensurate with the importance which garden- 

 ing and the garden arts have here attained, was the thought 

 underlyingthe inaugural presentation on Saturday, September 

 20th, at Hartsdale, N. Y., of the Westchester Floralia. And 

 the enthusiastic attendance from a wide countryside vindi- 

 cated the experiment, absolutely. Through these pages I have 

 been asked therefore, to tell something of the idea, and of 

 what some of us who believed in it from its inception, con- 

 fidently hope from it; and a little of what we also regard as 

 the garden-lover's and the garden-maker's responsibility. 



The idea is a very simple one, being only the bringing to- 

 gether of all those elements related in any way to the garden 

 which make up our outdoor summer life, instead of limiting 

 the affair to only one thing — and so highly specialized a 

 thing as flowers. The garden and its flowers and its allied 

 arts, suitably disposed in a garden environment, furnished 



IN DRAMATIC RELIEF AGAINST EVERGREENS 

 This winner of the first prize in sculpture, the "Orpheus" of John 

 Gregory, executed for the garden of Charles M. Schwab, Loretto, Pa., 

 and shown for the first time, is vibrant with the mystery of still music. 



the beginning and (of course) the heart and life of the whole af- 

 fair; and then there came the games, and sports, and dan- 

 cing, and show of pets; and luncheon and later, tea, to create 

 an interest as broad as the entire community, and to trans- 

 form the whole affair into a glorified village fete and holiday. 

 Of the garden and the garden's allied arts 1 speak with 



a confidence bred of knowing 

 what artists and artisans are 

 doing here in America right 

 now, for the garden. We are 

 fast growing rich, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, in a living, vital. 

 American decorative sculp- 

 ture that belongs in American 

 gardens precisely as the liv- 

 ing, vital work of the Greeks 

 belonged in its contemporary 

 Hellenic settings; and we are 

 fast building real American 

 gardens too, as well as dis- 

 tinctive American homes in 

 their midst. We are indeed 

 at the threshold of great 

 things; and no one can en- 

 vision the future without a 

 thrill that is almost as much 

 apprehension as pride — the 

 pride of course being quick- 

 ened at the great American art that we are inevitably one 

 day to have, the apprehension arising from the possibility of 

 this falling short of its glorious potentialities through some 

 fault in ourselves of indifference, or oversight, or neglect. 



BUT through just such brilliant festa as the Floralia we 

 have our opportunity to see that indifference is routed. 

 With garden sculpture in its proper garden setting, taking its 

 place with the other garden materials — flowers, trees, shrubs, 

 and so on — we have the motif for an annual function that 

 will awaken the widest interest in the beauty of the outdoors, 

 and in developing that beauty everywhere, by every possible 

 means. We have no other reason nor excuse for the Floralia 

 — nor for any flower show, indeed! — than first to attract, 

 then interest, and then to inspire love and reverence for 

 beauty in its highest and purest forms. This is perhaps a 

 bold attitude — but why not? There is an actual responsi- 

 bility here which escapes us, if we do not overcome the reluct- 

 ance to exalt the importance of pure beauty which we have 

 acquired during the long, intensive course of the purely 

 utilitarian through which we have just passed. And this 



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