CHAPTER VIII 
HERBACEOUS BORDERS AND GROUPS 
The most important piece of herbaceous gardening in Kew — apart 
from the Herb Garden, which is only designed to show the raw 
material — is carried out on a wide border skirting 
Back^ounds wes * ern s ^ e t ^ ie T-Range of glasshouses. This 
s ’ border is 350 feet long and about 24 feet wide. The 
position is open and sunny, and it has also the advantage of being 
in one of the most frequented parts of the gardens, whereby its edu- 
cational value is enhanced. But a range of glasshouses is not a 
good or artistic background, although shrubs are planted to break 
the hard lines of the building. An old wall with its stone or 
brick mellowed by the sun and rain of many years, and partially 
covered with flowering climbers, makes a charming background. But 
such walls are not always available or suitably placed. An irregular 
belt of evergreen shrubs, planted so as to form bays and recesses, 
is a background easily made and always effective. It has the one 
disadvantage that the roots of the shrubs are apt to encroach upon 
the ground allotted to the herbaceous plants, for which reason the 
finer-rooted shrubs should be selected. 
The planting and arrangement of such borders is a problem whose 
proper solution demands knowledge and experience. One way of 
gaining these is to visit some such border as this several 
et od and times during the season, making notes of the names, 
anagemen . j^gj^ co i ourj e tc., of the plants used. The leading 
idea is to secure an uninterrupted succession of flowers, and to avoid 
the occurrence of bare patches of ground. Close planting is essential, 
and early things should be planted beside late ones, so that when 
the one has grown and flowered the other may take its place. It 
is well also to have a reserve ground from which fresh supplies can 
be brought to fill up vacant spots as they occur. 
The intensive cropping implied in the best system of herbaceous 
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