A large number of perfectly good plants have fallen into disrepute through their use in these relics of the past—the isolated circular bed 
Is There Any Merit in Bedding Plants? 
THE RELIC OF BARBARISM THAT HAS COME DOWN TO US IN GEOMETRICAL ISOLATED 
BEDS, BY WHICH A SERIES OF WHOLLY MERITORIOUS PLANTS HAS FALLEN INTO DISREPUTE 
by Frederic de Rochville 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves and others 
I N time of peace prepare for war” is a proverb having its 
application to even so gentle and serene a subject as gar¬ 
dening. Now, when your flower garden and lawn and hardy 
border are at the height of summer beauty, and the rush and 
trouble of spring work are far away —now is the time to make 
your plans for next year. Do not wait until the hurry of next 
spring’s planning is here, with its avalanche of novelty-lauding 
catalogues to disconcert and mislead your better tastes. Take 
your pencil and pad, and make your plan, with notes for color, 
height, variety, etc. Do it now. 
Time was, and not so long ago, when the more insufferably 
stiff and formal a garden could be made, the greater art and 
skill it was supposed to prove 
on the part of the “designer.” 
Most fortunately this order 
of things is changing. The 
atrocities of “carpet,” “rib¬ 
bon” and “design” bedding 
are happily becoming night¬ 
mares of the past. Cart¬ 
wheels with multi - colored 
spokes, large Tulip pies with 
sharply contrasted segments, 
gigantic harps and sharp¬ 
angled geometrical executions 
sprawled upon the helpless 
front lawn, are less frequently 
inflicted upon us by well meaning but tasteless persons. But the 
plants which, through no fault of their own, were seized to be 
sacrificed upon these beds of barbarity, have unfortunately 
fallen into disrepute. 
The beauty of the Tulip, and the fact that it blooms so early, 
have saved it its place in public favor — though we are just be¬ 
ginning to learn how, or rather how not, to use it. 
But many of the other bedding bulbs and plants have been 
less fortunate. Achyranthes, Coleus, Cannas, “bedding” Bego¬ 
nias, the variegated-leaved and bronze-leaved Geraniums, and 
many others, have come to be more or less despised by those 
who have graduated from the “formal” grade in gardening. But 
this is all a serious mistake, 
for with these common flowers 
some of the most beautiful and 
lasting effects can be produced, 
if they are properly handled. 
Your flower taste may have 
been developed beyond the 
round bed with three or four 
alternating circles of green 
and bronze Cannas, forming 
the centre of circles of red, 
pink and white Geraniums, bor¬ 
dered with flaming Salvia, or 
white-and-green Mme. Salleroi 
— but do not for that reason dis- 
Fortunately the day of “whirligig” flower-bed designs is almost 
behind us 
( 152 ) 
