CHAPTER L 
FORMING THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
Whatever the dimensions, the position, and the purpose of a 
flower garden, whether for private enjoyment or public dis¬ 
play, perfect success in its formation and management cannot 
be insured, unless a few necessary conditions are complied 
with. We may find examples in abundance of good and bad 
gardens, and shall not be long in making the discovery that a 
great display of flowers is not alone sufficient to afford the 
pleasure which a cultivated taste will always expect as the 
proper reward for the expense and care that have been 
incurred in its production. During the past twenty years 
there has been a constantly-increasing tendency to superficial 
glare and glitter in garden embellishment, to the neglect of 
the more solid features that make a garden interesting and 
attractive, not only to-day and to-morrow, but “ all the year 
round.” The magnificent displays of bedding plants in our 
public parks and gardens have, without question, favoured a 
false estimate of the proper uses of gardens in general. We 
have seen the development of an idea which, in consequence, 
regards private gardens as exhibition grounds, and tender 
plants of the geranium, verbena, and petunia type as their only 
proper occupants. hTow, it will be our business in subsequent 
chapters to treat upon the bedding system, and the plants that 
constitute its primary material elements; but it is important 
here, with the question of forming the flower garden before 
us, to take note of the fact that the modern flower garden, as 
known to tens of thousands of persons, is a poor, ginger- 
bread-entity, ephemeral in respect of its best features, and 
while demanding but little talent for its production, offering 
an equally small return in the way of intellectual enjoyment. 
Before flowers are thought of, a garden should be provided 
for the sustenance of a suitable extent of shrubbery, grass- 
