The Garden Magazine, August, 1920 
361 
or shrubs in just the right spot will give the desired effects; a few 
more will jar harshly, while yet a few more will clutter the spot 
and render the whole work meaningless. This kind of image 
making is in the actual, of course, and only a first step toward 
the conveying of thoughts and principles. But it is a step. 
On the other hand in the placing of certain plants in reference 
to certain soils or sites we are merely going nature one better. 
Rock and water gardens owe a large part of their appeal to the 
obvious relation of plants to situation. And this is supposed 
to be the essence of wild gardening; but many “wild'’ gardens 
are crazy rather than wild. It behooves us, indeed, always to 
remember that, by restricting some plants to special places or 
uses, the garden will be no less “ natural ” and have more purpose 
(when understood) than the nursery-like gathering of well- 
grown plants that may make good eye pictures, but lack all other 
values. Nature practises very rigid selection (ecology) in her 
planting groups; she does not put everything everywhere. 
N OW a word more as to further direct values. Certain plants, 
perhaps of little beauty in themselves, can be used to em- 
phasize the basic principles of a design ; they strengthen or temper 
the purpose of structural features, as rounded bushes by a turn 
in the path; horizontal Hawthorns by a small quiet pool; purple- 
leaved shrubs to deepen shadows of a bay in the shrubbery; 
trees with small or much-divided foliage to give indefinite dis- 
tance to a vista. Here the plant is more than an object of na- 
ture, but a natural object still. 
If the garden is art, and art is expression, then the combina- 
tion of flowers, trees, grass, walks, seats, sky, and sunshine must 
suggest universal truths — and my personality, assuming I am 
the designer. This sounds difficult, yet it must be true. There 
can be art expression in a flower border as well as flowers; but 
there is no denying it is very rare these days! 
WHERE A GREAT TREE DOMINATES AND INVITES TO REST 
Of wood, first painted the color of the Pine-needles beneath and then of 
those overhead, thus arriving at full harmony of color with its environment, 
this seat in the Parrish garden at Cornish, N. H., is rich in quiet suggestion 
The garden planting in other words should be individual, 
may be symbolic, and yet must be in strict conformity to garden 
expression. The very restrictions thus imposed indeed have 
value — as a sonnet triumphs over a jingle. And this is the 
phase of garden-storv making that can be builded as rapidly as 
we will, drawing upon what has been done in the past, using the 
fundamental principles of the art to build upon, expressing the 
highest in ourselves through the art to-dav — and to-morrow. 
FILLED WITH THE TENSE QUALITY OF THE MYSTERIOUS EAST 
Opulence of tropic vegetation and dominant Palm form, obviously inspiring the form of the fountain 
spray, embody an Arabian Nights tale in the Palm garden at Millpond Plantation, Thomasville, Ga. 
