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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1910 



GARDEN NOTES 



CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DOWNING LAY 



PLANTING IN THE FORMAL GARDEN 



HE landscape architect has few more uiter- 

 esting problems than planting the formal 

 garden, because a formal garden demands 

 the fulfillment of so many different con- 

 ditions. 



It should look well the year round, even 

 in winter it must not be utterly desolate 

 and the planting must help and accentuate the design of 

 the garden, not hide it or blur its strong outlines. The 

 flowers themselves must be beautiful and interesting — good 

 in the mass and with a long season of bloom. Further 

 than this they should be rugged in constitution and need 

 little coddling. 



The plan which is reproduced here is intended to fulfill 

 all these conditions as closely as possible. 



To begin with its spring appearance, to follow it through 

 the summer and fall to its winter rest will perhaps be the 

 easiest way to study the planting. 



The first flowers will be the tulips in the five middle 

 beds on each side of the pool, these with the green grass 

 of the paths will be brilliant and striking. Each bed should 

 be planted with a border of white tulips to give uniformity 

 to the whole scheme, but the colors used in the centers of 

 the different beds can be varied as one likes, though they 

 must not be mixed in a single bed. The garden will be 

 more gorgeous if they all bloom at one time, though there 

 is something to be said in favor of making the circular beds 

 a trifle later so that they will be just passing out of bloom 

 as the eight corner beds of single late tulips begin. 



One great diflUculty in a formal garden is to find a place 

 for all the annuals which one must have for cut flowers 

 and for the brilliancy of their effect in the garden. Some 

 of them have been used as borders for the tulip beds next 

 the gravel paths. These can be set quite early, soon after 

 the tulips begin to bloom, and they should last in good con- 

 dition throughout the summer. 



After the early tulips are past and their leaves withered, 

 they should be taken up and stored for replanting In the 

 autumn. In three years or less they will have to be re- 

 placed by new bulbs. The late tulips are better left in the 

 ground and they will Increase and grow better year by year. 

 While the tulips are blooming the perennials In the bor- 

 ders will begin. Alyssum, Arabis, Primula, Gypsophila 

 repens, cerastium, and Iberis blooming at the same time are 

 soon followed by dlcentra, iris, aquilegia allium, and 

 hesperls. 



The attempt has been made in the borders to have flow- 

 ers In generous masses and at the same time to separate 

 them so that there will be no clashing of colors and to mix 

 early and late things so that at any time there will be no 

 large part of the garden without flowers; at the left of the 

 tea-house, for instance, the border plants will bloom first 

 (except plumbago, which comes In September), followed 

 by two groups of German Iris, then the hesperls and 

 peonies. Campanula carpatica Is more or less continuous, 

 like the heuchera. After the peonies will come the statlce, 

 then the hollyhocks, phlox, Funkia, dahlias and golden 

 glow, which ends the season in October. 



At the right of the tea-house the material is almost the 



same and I think the effect of these beds as seen from the 

 house will be sufliciently brilliant at any time in the summer. 

 In some cases two plants which bloom at widely separated 

 seasons are planted close together so that one when In 

 bloom may hide the deficiencies of the other at that time. 

 Thus It is with Anemone del Japonica and Papaver Ori- 

 entale, and with the cottage tulips and chrysanthemum. 



In other cases it has been thought desirable to plant 

 things in proximity which bloom at the same time. Del- 

 phinum and Liliiim candidum is a classic combination of 

 colors which will be repeated here by Aconitum autiimnale 

 and phlox Miss Lingard. Another good arrangement Is 

 that of the yellow Iris pseudacorus and the blue Iris Siberia. 

 The colors of the tulip beds are surpassed later in the year 

 by the annuals which take their place and It Is in such a time 

 that the annuals are Indispensable because of their profu- 

 sion and the certainty of their blooming, their strong colors 

 and the fact that they are at their best In July and August 

 when other things begin to fail and because they can be 

 arranged in patterns to assist the layout of the garden. 



In this garden, unfortunately there Is no place to grow 

 cut flowers, so that the choice of annuals Is perhaps not 

 the same that it would be If the mignonette, heliotrope, 

 asters and verbena could be grown somewhere else, and 

 their places taken by less sprawling or more brilliant flow- 

 ers. But we cannot have a garden without these things any 

 more than we can have it without hyacinths and gladiolus 

 and, unsatisfactory as they are in the garden, such com- 

 promises as these make life exciting for the garden de- 



signer 



Roses do not look well In a garden, but we must have 

 them here and If the hybrid teas prove hardy, we shall not 

 regret their Inclusion because they are small and less wild 

 looking than the hybrid perpetuals, and bloom throughout 

 the season. The rose columns will, of course, have a 

 Dorothy Perkins! 



The shrubs are planted in the garden, not only because 

 they are beautiful In flower, but to relieve the monotony of 

 level and to give height and contrast to the whole planting 

 which Is too uniform in effect when herbaceous perennials 

 are planted In such large masses. In winter they will pro- 

 vide delicate color and relieve the bareness when all the 

 beds are covered with straws. 



The four big clipped hemlocks will after a season or 

 two have grim charm In winter as they stand, snow capped 

 and dark; watchers of the garden's long night. 



In summer their deep tone and hard outlines will make 

 the delicate flowers more beautiful by contrast. As a mat- 

 ter of design In planting they accentuate the lack of sym- 

 metry on the long axis of the garden, and make the side 

 where they are quite distinctly the back of the garden. 



It would be just as instructive to know why some plants 

 are left out of the garden as to know why these are In, 

 but It would be a much harder task. 



Personal Idiosyncrasy, sentiment and affection account 

 for the Inclusion of many of the flowers. There are many 

 more which we would have there If we could find room 

 for them or If we felt sure that they would succeed, or if 

 we knew that they could endure the winters in this garden 

 which is In northern Connecticut. 



