3 6 
HERBACEOUS GARDEN 
surrounded by a tangle of beautiful perennial 
plants, many of which are old favourites long 
forgotten ; and it has an old-world character 
all its own, enhanced perhaps by the trim neat- 
ness of the adjacent and beautifully kept-up 
pleasure-grounds. 
In closing this chapter one would like once 
again to impress “ the importance of being 
earnest ” on the would-be garden designer. 
Make up your mind what you want to grow. 
Have some definite object in view. You may 
be a collector of as many different varieties 
of a plant as you can get (there are ninety 
varieties of Salvia and eighty at least of primu- 
las), or you may be merely an accumulator (a 
great difference between this and a collector !). 
You may prefer to go in for some distinct 
scheme of colour, or you may be satisfied with 
a heterogeneous mass which is only interesting 
to yourself. But if you want to have a dis- 
tinctive garden, it is well to specialize, either 
in beauty, in interest, or in rarity. A garden 
has been recently planted where the owner 
frankly admits she knows nothing about gar- 
dening. “ But,” she says, “ I have always 
remembered a garden I once played in as a 
child, and I have always intended to have one 
like it at the first opportunity.” Her oppor- 
