COMBINATIONS FOR THE SUMMER 
FLOWER GARDEN 
WILLIAM ROBINSON 
Of Gravetye Manor in Sussex; author of “The English Flower Garden,” 
“ Home Landscapes,” “The Wild Garden,” " Parks and Gardens of Paris,” and 
other books; founder and long editor of The Garden and Gardening Illustrated 
Editors’ Note: Tinctured with the strong tastes and distastes that mark the truly creative spirit 
which rejects the mediocre and the unsuitable, Mr. Robinson's notes ring with authenticity. We like 
a man who knows his own mind, particularly when that mind has spent itself during three decades in 
making visible the loveliness in which it believes. Simplicity and courage mark the gardening of 
William Robinson, who broke through the artificialities of his own era into a fine freedom of expression 
still eloquent in the gardens of to-day. 
Mr. Robinson needs no introduction—gardeners on both sides of the sea know and revere him, and our own readers have profited by his terse and understanding 
articles from time to time (October and July of 1922; March, 1920, etc.), but we are always glad to welcome fresh comment by this distinguished doyen of modern 
horticulturists. 
c * eai t ^ iat t * iere 
is no reason what- 
ever in uprooting a 
tiilOsi flower garden twice 
a year and that the best spring 
flowers may be grown in 
lawn, copse, lane, or orchard 
grass. The coarse plants that 
often encumber the flower 
garden, like the hardy Sun¬ 
flowers, are best in the wild 
garden where they are not in 
the gardener’s way and in due 
season give beauty among 
the most vigorous plants and 
with little care after planting. 
The following tells the results of more than thirty years work 
to get a more natural and artistic garden in a northern land. 
The beds were all planted by the end of December, 1922, and it 
may be noted there are no spring flowers in the garden, save 
for some edgings of Snow-glories and Crocus planted deep; and 
these are followed by rock plants like the Wall Flairbell (Cam¬ 
panula muralis) which cover the ground in the summer. The 
beautiful annuals of the California flora (Collinsia and Nemo- 
phila) are hardy here and, sown in September, give a charming 
bloom. They last into rose time and are not a tenth of the 
trouble that the tropical weeds in the hothouse entail. 
To get the full beauty of the flower garden in our northern 
summer it is essential that we should reject certain plants, showy 
but poor in color, and all devouring as to soil. Of such are the 
North American hardy Sunflowers—all well in their right place, 
the copse or the wild garden; Asters, best apart; Cannas, that 
never flower well in our country; standard Roses, always un¬ 
graceful and, in our country, killed in hard winters. 
Tiring in late years of Heliotrope and other tender plants, and 
feeling sure that a garden ought to be in full beauty long before 
June, 1 resolved to give up all midsummer planting. It is a 
gain to exclude any flower which for any reason one does not 
enjoy in close view of the house. Plants that demand shade, 
like our beautiful Wake-robin (Trillium), will perish in the 
sun, so we’ve planted them beneath the Magnolias. My 
garden is for summer flowers only and the spring flowers are 
given to the fields around. The only spring flowers admitted 
to the garden are the Crocus and Snow-glory and these are 
planted rather deep—10 inches—so that they may be followed 
by annual or other plants that flower in summer days. 
Roses Flourishing on Their Own Roots 
A FLOWER garden without Roses seemed to me some¬ 
thing like a body without a heart, and one of my first 
tasks was to get the Rose back to the flower garden. For 
several generations past the rule in these islands has been to 
put the rose garden away 
from the flower garden and 
house. How this came about 
was in part owing to the 
short blooming time of the 
old summer Rose. In any 
case, and even to the present 
day, landscape gardeners 
have practised this fatal mis¬ 
take. 
1 began with all the best 
kinds of Roses — several 
thousand plants in all and 
planted for the most part in 
bold groups, so as to test 
the value and endurance of 
each. Broadly, the result of that trial was that quite one half 
of the plants died back on the Briar upon which they were 
grafted in the nurseries. It being impossible to buy own-root 
plants in our country, the best one can do is to put up with 
plants as they come in and scrape the stems above and around 
the graft, so as to encourage the plant to emit its own roots. 
The best Roses 1 have had—such as Marie van Houtte were 
so treated. We strike cuttings of Roses every September; and 
usually with good results, in the open in ordinary soil, and as 
far as may be on the highest ground near. The only excuse for 
grafting on the Dog-briar is that it is easy to handle the stock; 
the plant on its natural root is more fragile than Dog-briar. 
That being so, it is a wise plan to put the cuttings where the 
plant is to grow. For example, if ' e desire a favorite Rose— 
such as Mine. Leon Pain or Bouquet d’Or—we put the cuttings 
in at the foot of a wall on the north side and they will grow and 
keep in health for a life time. 
Grafting the Tea or China Rose is a purblind and fatal 
practice if our aim is the endurance of the plants. We have 
here the hardiest China Rose known in Europe—Fallenberg. It 
has bloomed more than thirty years in the same place in perfect 
health in poorish, cool soil. A grafted plant must have died 
four times over and we should have had infinite trouble with 
the suckers in the meantime. The same has happened with 
my favorite China Rose—the tall Cramoisie, which climbs 
up Hollies on its natural root. But so banded is the trade 
against supplying Chinese Roses on their natural roots that it 
is only possible to get this line Rose in that state from one 
nursery in Ireland. 
There is some variety in the way Roses grow when grafted 
on the Briar. Of two such Roses planted in the same bed, one 
will perish in a few years time and another will linger on happily 
for several more years, but in the end the grafted Rose is over¬ 
come by the Dog-briar (Rosa canina). 
The beds were dug in a cool shady soil to a depth of three feet. 
They were not manured. With three feet of good soil below, the 
My Object! 
To get rid of the cost , labor, and bad effect of the system of 
carpet-bedding gardening, mosiaculture, etc., in vogue for several 
generations because it: 
1. Excludes the presence of the most admired plants— 
Rose, Lily, Clematis, and many others of beauty. 
2. Encourages growth of tender plants of the tropics 
which must not be planted until early summer. 
3. Leaves the garden desolate and ugly in winter. 
4. Drives the flower garden work into a very short period 
at a season when other work presses, and prevents 
good work being done at all seasons as it should 
be in the flower garden. 
341 
