March, 19 21 
25 
garden, which is as at¬ 
tractive as if imported 
from distant lands. To 
this felicitous climate is 
added a kindly soil of 
powdered granite, shale 
and slate with plentiful 
humus from the falling 
leaves of succeeding au¬ 
tumns. 
And the result: note 
the meadow rue in the 
Farrand garden, which 
rises a good two feet 
above the gardener’s 
head; note the bluebells 
reaching almost to his 
shoulder, considerably 
over four feet; note in 
the Kennedy garden the 
larkspurs along the wall, 
about nine feet high. 
Everywhere a growth that 
would be rare in other 
gardens is in these the 
normal thing. Not only 
size, which is a good but 
not exclusive virtue; the 
number of flowers to 
each plant is here much 
larger than usual. The 
great pools of bloom in 
the Scott garden are not 
the result of many and 
large plants only, but 
also of the vigor of the 
individual plant. A 
noted gardener has re¬ 
marked that in Bar Har¬ 
bor plants thrive, where¬ 
as often in more southern 
gardens they merely grow. Surely he is right. 
But even the .most brilliant, most sumptu¬ 
ous blooms fail of their full effect when set 
in the midst of a naked waste. A background, 
a frame, a setting must be had, else something 
is lost. Mount Desert gardens always have 
this setting. The red spruce, which here 
reaches well toward its southern seaside limit, 
rears its almost black branches in great pro¬ 
fusion. Against such a black-green rampart 
wall veiling the romance of the garden, the 
(Continued'on page 70) 
Mrs. Scott’s garden has all the 
charm of complete seclusion with¬ 
in its wall of birches and spruce, 
as well as a fine amplitude of 
lawns, the colors of the flowers, 
and the friendly gables of the 
house showing above the trees 
Where the little stone bird bath, 
the bluebells, the meadow rue and 
other lesser plants unite to form a 
pleasant place of intimacy against 
the evergreens that surround the 
Farrand garden. Here bird life 
centers about the constant lure of 
water and seclusion 
The planting among the rocks that 
circle the Sieur de Mont’s spring 
is of native grasses and flowers 
like thoroughwort and hardback, a 
scheme of simplicity and great 
charm. The spirit of the North 
is apparent in all the surround¬ 
ings 
