2 



J. T. LOVETT, LITTLE SILVER, N. I. 



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Z *•> 



ding plants, that it 

 seems a waste of time 

 and words to make 

 any argument in favor 

 of one and against the 

 other ; but the argu- 

 ment is needed as 

 much as ever, for it is 

 an undeniable fact 

 that nine-tenths of the 

 ornamental gardening 

 in America is still 

 done with a few com- 

 monplace and uninter- 

 esting bedding plants. 

 Think of the pity of 

 it, that all this enor- 

 mous annual expendi- 

 ture should be Avasted 

 — an expenditure that 



border planted WITH HARDY perennials leaves our gardens in 



the fall exactly as it found them in the spring — bare earth, and nothing in it. 



" Is it because the people prefer bedding plants to hardy ones? You who know hardy 

 plants know that this is not so. Who would prefer, let us say, a bed of coleuses or geran- 

 iums to a fine group of rhododendrons, or azaleas, or Lilium auratum, or Japanese Anem- 

 ones, or to the hundreds of fine things to be had in hardy shrubs and plants? 



" Any one of these has a beauty incomparably greater than can be produced with the 

 most lavish use of bedding plants. Then the bedding plants are a yearly expense, while 

 an investment in hardy plants and shrubs returns the investor an annual dividend in "in- 

 creased size and loveliness. Every dollar spent for them secures a permanent addition to 

 the garden, and the time soon comes when the annual outlay can be devoted entirely to 

 care and culture. * * * * 



" The people do not prefer bedding plants to hardy ones. They have no choice in the 

 matter. They buy what the local florist offers and what they see in their neighbors' gar- 

 dens. They are not sufficiently interested to make inquiries. They do not read the gar- 

 dening papers ; an I, with few exceptions, the managers of the city parks, who should be 

 educators of the people in gardening, are content with what might be called an annual 

 pyrotechnical display of bedding plants, as it is of such short duration and little artistic value. 



" The popularity of bedding plants is happily on the wane. It occurs to almost every- 

 body after a time that 

 they do not get much 

 for their money when 

 they buy this sort of 

 material; but I cannot 

 say that hardy plants 

 are gaining much. 

 There is no consider- 

 able effort made to at- 

 tract the public atten- 

 tion to their merits ; 

 and when some man, 

 more enterprising 

 than his neighbors, do- 

 es take the trouble to 

 hunt them up and do 

 his gardening with 

 them the result is not 

 always happy. He is 

 very apt to use them 



as he would bedding 



8 BORDER PLANTED WITH HARDY PERENNIALS AND SHRUBS 



