90 
HENDERSON’S PICTURESQUE GARDENS 
HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS AND BORDERS 
Old-fashioned hardy gardens were usually composed largely 
of herbaceous perennials, which may be described as handsome 
flowering plants, the roots of which form large clumps and live 
year after year in the ground, while the tops die down each 
winter. The gardens usually contained such grand old plants as 
P^onias, Hollyhocks, Sweet Williams, Columbines, Delphiniums, 
Canterbury Bells, Day Lilies, Lilies- of -the -Valley, Phloxes, Fleur- 
de-lis, Japan Anemones, Pinks, etc.; including as well some of 
the bulbous - rooted types, as Daffodils, Madonna Lilies, Tiger 
Lilies, Tulips, Hyacinths, and hosts of other old favorites. These 
beds of old - fashioned flowers were usually edged with Box, 
Thrift, or Grass -Pinks, and when situated along the garden 
walk, a drive, or perhaps along the outer edges of the garden 
or lawn, such plantations were termed " borders,” or in the 
professional gardener’s parlance, " Herbaceous Borders.” 
This style of flower- gardening has for some years been largely 
supplanted by the more modern " bedding,” but borders of hardy 
plants are again becoming popular, being now considered an 
indispensable feature on up-to-date home grounds, although not 
to the exclusion of the annual fireworks of " bedding,” for people 
are beginning to realize that both styles have their uses and 
proper situations which do not in the least conflict, — in fact, the 
one accentuates the beauty of the other by contrast. Formal 
bedding is needed to ornament the lawn as an adjunct to archi- 
tecture, and we admire the plants collectively as a colored deco- 
rative pattern; while hardy plants, composed into borders or 
other arrangements, appeal to lovers of flowers for their indi- 
vidualities as well as for the brightness they give to the gar- 
den or landscape. 
Hardy herbaceous plants have many merits, their variety is 
limitless, and they are the easiest of all classes of plants to 
manage. They grow readily from seeds or by dividing the roots. 
If the plants are purchased, the standard sorts are reasonable 
in price, and once planted they give permanent and increasingly 
rich returns in flowers, the beauty, grace, variety and often fra- 
grance of which are not eclipsed by any other class of plants. 
They are suited to almost ev^ery sort of garden, thriving -as hap- 
pily in the city yard or village garden as in the elaborate 
grounds of a country estate. 
Many of these hardy plants are eminently adapted for form- 
ing isolated groups on the outskirts of the lawn, especially when 
located Avhere their masses of brilliantly colored flowers can illu- 
minate some somber backgrounds, such as shrubbery, trees or a 
wall. In such situations, nothing can be more strikingly effective 
than a large clump of crimson Psonias, orange Tiger Lilies, 
majestic white Yuccas, flame -colored Oriental Poppies, the silvery - 
plumed Pampas Grass, or the Golden Coreopsis. 
It is in the border, however, that hardy plants are most 
appreciated. There they form a real flower garden, a veritable 
paradise of flowers, glorious with color, during spring, summer 
and autumn, picturesquely varied with delightful surprises in store 
for every week, and best of all a place from which plenty of 
beautiful and fragrant flowers may be cut for home decoration. 
The location of a border, when a site can be chosen, should 
be in a sheltered situation, and for luxuriant results, the soil 
must be heavily manured and worked deeply. A background of 
trees or shrubbery, — not too close, as their roots are robbers, — 
greatly emphasizes the color effects, and similar results may be 
obtained in front of vine -clad Avails, or at the side of a house. 
Where space permits, borders should be of sufficient Avidth to 
allow the plants to be boldly grouped, and a very picturesque 
effect can be produced if the face of the border be irregularly 
broken AAfith swelling curA^es 6, 8 and lo feet Avide, and inden- 
tations decreasing the border to 3 feet AA'ide. 
