225 
PARK AND CEMETERY.. 
THE CHICAGO FLOWER SHOW A UNIQUE EXHIBIT 
The Chicago Flower Show of 1907 
marked a new departure in Flower 
Show ensembles. Its distinctly unique 
arrangement was based upon a broad 
artistic idea. 
Seven designs for a general plan of 
the show were submitted in competition, 
and the one chosen by the management 
was that of Mr. Jens Jensen, superin- 
tendent of the West Side Park system 
of Chicago, and Mr. C. H. Stockman, 
his assistant. 
The scheme, broadly outlined, divided 
which also served to appropriately merge 
or blend the two sections of the exhi- 
bition. Here gay masses of flowering 
plants set in the grassy hillside lawns 
produced a pretty little landscape. Other 
features of this exhibit contributed to 
the illusion of a suburban or rural cot- 
tage garden. 
Looking through broad doorways, be- 
yond this sylvan setting, a winter scene 
filled the view. 
Here brown roadways passed between 
snow-covered gardens filled with shrubs, 
of shrubs from Klehm’s Nursery; and 
an extensive collection of good things 
from the Swain Nelson & Son’s Nur- 
sery, whose snow-clad exhibit of two 
years ago rather set the pace for, and 
might have inspired, this year’s general 
design for the nursery exhibit. 
The Nelscms also showed large draw- 
ings, giving striking examples of cor- 
rect and incorrect pruning. 
Some remarkably comfortable and at- 
tractive garden and porch seats of a 
new design, somewhat on the Mission 
HILLSIDE GARDEN AT CHICAGO FLOWER SHOW; EXHIBIT OF VAUGHAN’S SEED STORE 
the show in two parts. First, the main 
hall of the Coliseum represented a gar- 
den effect in summer. Second, the ad- 
joining room, known as the annex, 
showed a garden effect in winter. 
This admirable plan gave opportuni- 
ties for the consistent display of the va- 
ried component parts of a comprehen- 
sive show — one far more useful and 
educational than any preceding exhibi- 
tion given in this city. 
No previous show has been systemat- 
ically designed to do justice to garden- 
ing as a whole. 
The body of the main hall was turfed 
so that flowering plants were seen in 
their natural environment of green 
grass. This not only showed the plants 
and flowers to the best advantage, but 
suggested the use of such plants and 
flowers in gardens. Heretofore practi- 
cally nothing has been suggested by 
Flower Shows but the use of cut flow- 
ers and pot plants in rooms. 
Both the effect and the suggestion 
were further emphasized by the intro- 
duction of an informal hillside garden, 
some brilliant with autumn leaves or 
persistent ornamental fruits, others 
showing the delicate tracery of bare 
branches ; a few broad-leaved evergreens 
were in full leaf, and all thrown into 
relief by a background of leafless trees 
and a little forest of handsome ever- 
greens ascending and crowning a hill. 
The general effect of this part of the 
show was real country, although on a 
scale suggesting the possibility of re- 
producing similar scenes in gardens. 
The value of an adequate design 
for the entire exhibition space was no- 
where more pronounced than in the 
nursery section, where the variety, yet 
unity, demanded by landscape art was 
well exemplified. 
The nursery exhibits included one by 
the J. C. Vaughan Co., made up of 
strictly hardy material ; that of the 
Peterson Nursery, containing some par- 
ticularly good individual hardy shrubs, 
which are a feature with this firm ; a 
plantation of fine specimen needle ever- 
greens from the widely-known Douglas 
Nurseries of Waukegan; a good display 
order, from the Forest Furniture Com- 
pany, were distributed throughout the 
landscape section. 
An exhibit from the Mount Auburn 
Cemetery, occupying one of the side 
booths, in line with those of retail flor- 
ists, furniture dealers, etc., was the first 
of its kind to be seen in the Chicago 
Show, if not in any similar exhibiton. 
It impressed one as being entirely ap- 
propriate as well as likely to prove help- 
ful in forwarding the movement for a 
more beautiful America. 
It comprised a small topographical 
model (perhaps four feet in length) of 
the grounds, a few photographs and 
colored views, and a nice collection of 
hardy shrubs suitable for cemetery pur- 
poses from the Maywood Nurseries. 
Perhaps Mr. O. C. Simonds, who de- 
signed this cemetery, will be interested in 
the remark of a small boy who, on see- 
ing the model with its green expanse, 
drives and miniature trees, exclaimed : 
“Oh, mother, that’s the prettiest back 
yard I ever saw !” 
Frances Copley Seavey. 
