PREFACE 
IX 
it be master or man, are ready to give the 
beginner a friendly hand. 
Of all hobbies, gardening is the least tainted 
with the jealousies one meets with in the 
pursuit of other hobbies and recreations. It 
seems to make for generosity and good-fellow- 
ship the world over ; and it is surprising how 
a total stranger will share his treasures with a 
kindred spirit, and to what trouble he will go 
to assist a fellow-gardener. 
An old adage says that the young live in 
the future, the middle-aged in the present, 
and the old in the past. If this is true, then 
gardening must keep one ever young, for there 
is always the future to look forward to, and 
indeed one must live in it. To be of any 
use one should have the vivid imagination 
that sees some glory-hole of the present 
“ blossoming as a rose ” in the immediate 
future ; and another useful thing to remember 
is, that the word “ can’t ” has no place in the 
true gardener’s vocabulary. 
I feel naturally great diffidence in approach- 
ing a subject which has been so ably treated 
in other books. At the same time, there 
seems to be room for a handbook on herba- 
ceous borders, which hitherto have been 
merely dealt with in books on gardening 
