FLORA 



AND SYLVA. 



Vol.1. No. 6.] SEPTEMBER, 190 3. [Monthly. 



SUMMERS LOST. 

 The weather of the present spring and 

 summer, and also that of 1902, might 

 well lead lovers of the flower garden 

 to reconsider its planting. Many have 

 done so already, but many of the more 

 important flower gardens in the country 

 do not look as if their owners had the 

 knowledge or the courage to do what 

 is best, in our climate, from an artistic 

 point of view. What is meant is well 

 shown in the London parks, at Kew, 

 and many other places where what is 

 commonly called " bedding-out " is 

 done on a large scale. Anything uglier 

 or more ridiculous than the aspect of 

 these places in the middle of summer 

 of this year can hardly be imagined in 

 the form of a garden made for pleasure. 

 We thought of sending to photograph 

 them, but it would be a waste of money 

 to picture bare earth and scattered 

 plants. Such folly is not only seen in 

 the public gardens but one can scarcely 

 visit a country place in which (what- 

 ever may be the case in the wild garden 

 and shrubbery) the flower garden in 

 front of the house is not still given up to 

 the ugliness of bedding, and in seasons 

 like this the best efforts in that way are 



sure to fail. It is a bad, costly, and in- 

 artistic system, and by the last word we 

 mean wrong in every way for our cli- 

 mate, for colour, or effect. This year 

 the weather has been such that, whilst 

 it suited many hardy plants, the half- 

 hardy ones have been knocked to pieces. 

 Heliotropes which were put out in the 

 best conditions have not, during the best 

 half of the summer, in some soils, made 

 more than an inch of growth. In light 

 warm soils, like those of Scotland and 

 Ireland and many parts of England, Pe- 

 largoniums and like plants suffer less, 

 but in heavy soils they are a failure ; 

 even the lightest Surrey soils have not 

 saved them this year. It is commonly 

 said, in large gardens that are devoted 

 to this bad system, that we cannot get 

 away from it; but this is a mistaken 

 view, because our fathers had very good 

 flower gardens before " bedding" was 

 invented, and mixed planting is better 

 in every way. It is not fair to denounce 

 a system unless we have something bet- 

 ter to offer, and a far better course is 

 not to sacrifice a garden to half-hardy 

 plants. In a cold northern country like 

 ours, in which frosts occur even in sum- 

 mer, it is folly to trust to tender plants 



