NOVELTY AND GENERAL CATALOG 
27 
J he same class of plants can also be used for borders. It is preferable to have such 
borders in front of and backed by small trees or shrubbery to give it a good background, 
or some of the taller-growing plants can be used for planting between the shrubs, thus 
giving the shrubbery time to develop and grow together. Dwarf kinds can be used as an 
edging and border in front of the shrubbery. 
Formal or Erroneously Called Italian Gardens 
1 his class of gardening is advisable, especially in the immediate vicinity of the 
residence, and to form, so to say, a setting for the house, or where the location is suitable, 
then a Formal Garden might be considered as an improvement, but where it is placed 
without there being any need for such a garden, it is apt to look more like a plaster, and 
disfigures the landscape. 
It must be stated here that Formal Gardening is the most expensive and most difficult 
to keep in condition and proper beauty, as any failure of any part will mar the entire 
design and show it plainly, but, as above stated, as a setting to a house or in the proper 
section of the garden, screened by a hedge or a planting so as to form a surprise, a 
Formal Garden is advisable. 
Bulb Gardens or Bulb Borders 
With the proper selection of bulbs, a succession of bloom could be had from the early 
spring to the late fall, beginning with the Snowdrops and Crocus, and following up with 
the Hyacinths, Tulips and Lilies through the summer until the late fall. 
Bulbous plants, to a large extent, could also be used in planting the Old-Fashioned 
Formal Garden is advisable. 
Water and Bog Gardens 
Where the ground contains either running or still water, these gardens are highly 
recommended, but, would not advise where same are to be artificially built and water 
brought by artificial means, which, as a rule, is never successful and rather expensive. 
But where the ground is naturally wet and the water is abundant, one could produce 
the most pleasing feature by planting the submerged ground, having water from six to 
twenty inches in depth, with large varieties of Water Lilies, Egyptian Lotus and other 
water plants, while the edges could be planted with a wealth and array of the Iris, 
Lilies, Cardinal Flowers, I-Iardy Orchids, Insectivorous Plants and the ever-blooming 
Forget-Me-Not, and hosts of other plants that delight in water or wet situation and thus 
turn an unsightly spot into a beautiful feature. 
Rock Gardens 
These should not be attempted unless the grounds are naturally rocky and the material 
for making same easily procured. To be effective, such gardens should not be exposed, 
but have a banking of evergreens or flowering shrubbery, into which these should blend 
or disappear. 
The plants generally used in Rocky Gardens are not a showy class of plants, but very 
interesting, and in that way you can cultivate a great many little gems that otherwise 
would be lost in planting in a regular garden or herbaceous border. 
Care should also be taken not to plant any large or rank-grown plants which would 
tend to smother and suffocate the smaller and more delicate rock and alpine plants 
proper, which are the only class of plants that could be used for this special type of 
gardening. 
