CHAPTER VII 
HERBACEOUS PLANTS 
Fashion in 
Gardens. 
No phase of gardening has obtained more consideration from plant- 
lovers in recent times than the cultivation of hardy herbaceous plants. 
In gardening, as in other things, fashion is apt to run 
a somewhat unreasonable, or even violent course. 
People are not satisfied to give the fashionable plants 
of the day their due, or even more than their due place in the garden. 
Something else has to be sacrificed on their behalf. And just as the 
“conifer rage” of the middle nineteenth century led to the banish- 
ment of many beautiful flowering trees and shrubs of a deciduous 
nature from parks and pleasaunces, so had the vogue for summer 
bedding about the same time a blighting effect on the cultivation 
of hardy herbaceous plants. All that, however, is past. The border 
of hardy plants is now a cherished feature of every garden. It is, 
indeed, a necessary one, for the supply of flowers in the outdoor 
garden during late summer and autumn is largely dependent on 
the herbaceous border. The vast majority of the flowering shrubs 
are over in England by mid- July. Another point in its favour is that, 
for the results obtained, it is one of the least expensive forms of 
gardening. 
The term “ herbaceous,” strictly interpreted, should apply to 
all plants which do not form woody tissue, but gardeners usually 
limit it to hardy flowering plants that die down to the ground each 
winter. In temperate climates by far the greatest proportion of 
the vegetation, so far as regards number of types, is of this character. 
Of the total number of plants cultivated at Kew it is estimated that 
one-fourth are hardy herbaceous. They constituted an even more 
important element in the botanic gardens of earlier times, before the 
advent of the glass-house so greatly widened the possibilities of culti- 
vating exotic plants. 
The collection of herbaceous plants occupies the north-eastern 
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