The Flowerless Garden 
SUGGESTIVE PLANTING FOR THE MAN WHO WISHES BEAUTIFUL EFFECTS ALL THE YEAR-WHAT 
CAN BE DONE IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE CONSTANT CARE NECESSITATED BY FLOWER GROWING 
by Arthur Herrington 
Photographs by Mary H. Northend, W. A. V., H. H. Saylor, and Others 
Editor’s Note. _ Most people have some peculiar prejudice in favor of a certain kind of garden. This may be influenced by personal tastes or by the exigencies o- loco- 
tion. But the fact remains that there are different kinds of gardens to choose from as well as there are different styles of architecture. The purpose of this scries is tc show 
what types arc available. Previous articles were The Utility Garden, The Garden of Annuals and The Formal Garden and The Wild Garden. Other types will follow in tub- 
sequent issues. 
flowerless garden may be a thing of joy 
and life and bright color and give us 
true beauty that stress of weather cannot 
mar nor storms deface. The thought of 
a flowerless garden may not at first com¬ 
mand much consideration. We think 
and talk and write of flowers and flower 
gardens, but we give insufficient thought 
to the fact that our gardens, to give us 
the fullest enjoyment, should be attract¬ 
ive the whole year round, and yet over 
a large area of our country teeming with 
population and abounding with beautiful 
homes no open air flowers are possible 
for at least five months of the year. 
The gay cohorts of spring and sum¬ 
mer flowers, coming and going in un¬ 
broken succession tell us the story of the 
year according to our interpretation of that story. But the beauty 
and interest of the garden need not and should not have its be¬ 
ginning and ending in the months when flowers bloom. It is 
right to emphasize flowers so appealing in their variety and 
fragrance, but we can add new charms to the garden and make 
it a complete epitome of the story of the year if we have eyes 
to see, hearts to appreciate, and skill to adapt in appropriate plant¬ 
ing many trees and shrubs that in their winter nakedness display 
beauty of a most distinctive character as well as variety. 
We can see this brought 
about by chance rather than de¬ 
sign in the woodlands. Why, 
then, in our gardens may we 
not express, amplify and de¬ 
velop features so permanently 
attractive? Look at the pine 
and cedar in winter when sil¬ 
houetted against a cold, clear 
sky, or the silvery birch glisten¬ 
ing upon the bare hillside; no¬ 
tice the silver gray shafts of 
the beech tree standing majes¬ 
tic and conspicuous among the 
forest trees, or the red birch 
and golden willow in rifts of 
warm color along the stream 
banks, and the whitened stems 
of certain Rubus often visible 
in the darkness and quaintly 
effective on a moonlight night. 
Only in winter are these 
things apparent. They are 
surely suggestive of the desir¬ 
ability of reproducing similar 
color effects and picturesque 
groupings in the garden and 
about the home where we can 
see and enjoy them. All those who have gardens and grounds 
about their homes whether of limited area or of broad acres can 
have bought features that will effectively enliven the entire flower¬ 
less period of the year. 
This much, too, can be claimed for the flowerless garden ; its. 
initial cost is small, and its permanency enduring, at a minimum 
cost for actual maintenance. Evergreens with their perennial 
verdure should be a solvent feature in such a garden and when 
brought into intimate association with berry bearing and bright 
barked trees and shrubs the picture possibilities would seem to 
be inexhaustible. Where scope and area permitted evergreen 
trees should be planted sufficiently close that they might lose their 
individuality as specimens and group themselves informally. By 
doing so we should get away from that austere severity of out¬ 
line and funereal somberness that has brought evergreens into, 
disrepute with those who only know, or have seen them as pro¬ 
miscuous specimens. 
In certain situations the isolated specimen tree is right, but 
the plumy white pine, the feathery hemlock spruce, and the col¬ 
umnar cedar grouped so that the individuality of the tree is sub¬ 
dued, compose themselves into picturesque mass with a materially 
softened effect in the landscape. 
The same is true of the smaller coniferous evergreens as- 
retinospora, thuja and juniper in green, golden and silvery foli¬ 
age effects, which rightly placed in groups or masses can be used' 
to blend perfectly into a harmonious picture, very different from 
the spotty, restless effects created by their indiscriminate use 
The garden of evergreens does not lose its beauty Beauty of form may well be substituted for beauty 
and attractiveness when snow covers the ground of color. Besides, it is permanent 
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