THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
: 
 
- 
 
COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
COMMON SENSE 
 GARDENS 
 
 HOW TO PLAN AND PLANT THEM 
 By 
 
 CORNELIUS V V SEWELL 
 
 NEW-YORK 
 
 '^K MDCCCCVI 
 
 THE GRAFTON PRESS 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, 190G, 
 BY THE GRAFTOX PRESS. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE history of the 
 world was begun in a 
 garden, and to judge 
 by the temper and 
 sentiment of the rising genera- 
 tion it is likely to end in one. 
 Every year more and more people 
 seek the country, not only in 
 Summertime when the lanes and 
 byways are aglow with flowers 
 and merry with the songs of 
 birds, but also in Winter when Nature has "wrapped 
 the draperies of her couch about her and laid down 
 to pleasant dreams." As our forefathers knew, we 
 are beginning to learn that the lasting pleasures of 
 life are not to be found in the teeming cities, but 
 in the fields and woods within sound of the voice 
 of Nature who is forever calling her children home. 
 When an Englishman accumulates a small 
 fortune he retires to the country to live before 
 his youth is spent and his health broken, for he 
 knows that in the open a man need never grow 
 old; his great ambition in life is to leave the city 
 
Vlll 
 
 behind him. What better friends can a man make 
 for his declining years than the trees and flowers; 
 what fairer heritage can he leave to his children 
 than a garden? But if one persistently snubs 
 Nature at forty, she may return the compliment 
 at three-score-years-and-ten. 
 
 When a man buys a place in the country the 
 first thing his wife thinks of is a garden, and it is 
 generally the last thing that he makes. If he is 
 chided for his lack of interest in the gentle art of 
 horticulture, he will probably reply that he has 
 become discouraged since strolling through the 
 grounds of his rich neighbour who has laid out 
 some of his surplus millions in glass houses, oran- 
 geries, vineries, velvet lawns, statues of Pan, foun- 
 tains, sylvan lakes, nymph.ean groves and grots 
 (with nymphs) and many other outward and visi- 
 ble signs of modern opulence. And discourage- 
 ment would no doubt be natural unless he possessed 
 modest tastes and a well-defined idea of the gen- 
 eral fitness of things. 
 
 The following chapters were designed to point 
 out to the owners of small and unostentatious 
 places a way to plant their grounds and make their 
 gardens with small expense; to use the best known 
 indigenous trees and the shrubs and plants that 
 have been identified for so long with American 
 gardens that they have become American by 
 
PREFACE IX 
 
 adoption; and, to obtain with these, good and last- 
 ing effects that will be the means of ever-increasing 
 enjoyment, yet will not entail the cares and 
 worries that inevitably accompany elaborateness 
 and display. 
 
 In the course of time the furniture of our fore- 
 fathers went out of fashion and was superseded 
 by many different styles more or less fantastic, 
 and generally hideous, yet after a hundred years 
 or more we find the chairs of Chippendale and 
 the mirrors and tables of Hepplewhite just as 
 beautiful as on the day they were made, and 
 just as effective and dignified in a new house as 
 in an old one, because they had merit, because 
 brains and skill and time were given to their 
 making. 
 
 So it is with the gardens, and with the shrubs 
 and trees; those that possessed merit once possess 
 it still, and those that were beautiful a hundred 
 years ago are just as beautiful to-day, in fact 
 more beautiful, because with the passing of Time 
 they have become enhaloed by sentiment and 
 tradition. 
 
 " A thing of beauty is a joy forever; 
 Its loveliness increases, it will never 
 Pass into nothingness." 
 
 New styles and new fashions in flowers have been 
 introduced and have had their day, yet the Roses 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 and Lilacs of yesterday still possess their charms 
 of colour and form and perfume, charms that a 
 Burbank with all his magic has been unable to 
 dissipate, and these our grandchildren will enjoy 
 as much as their grandfathers enjoyed them. 
 
 If anyone should use the suggestions set forth 
 in Common Sense Gardens and be dissatisfied with 
 the results that are obtained, the defects may be 
 easily remedied: call in a nurseryman or a land- 
 scape gardener and give him carte blanche to im- 
 prove your grounds with pergolas, rustic benches, 
 wire arches, rare trees and plants, and so forth; 
 a great transformation may be worked in a short 
 time. Of two evils the lesser should always 
 be chosen, but in any event your wife and chil- 
 dren should have a garden in which to work and 
 play. 
 
 The illustrations in Common Sense Gardens are 
 for the most part from photographs that I have 
 taken from time to time in my own and other 
 gardens. The figures of walls, arches, fences, 
 gates and so forth, are reproductions of those 
 found in old gardens, and were designed under my 
 supervision for the book; the plan of planting is 
 of my own garden. Acknowledgment is made to 
 Country Life (English) for pictures of English gar- 
 dens; and to House and Garden for the picture of 
 an old garden at Camden, South Carolina. I de- 
 
PREFACE XI 
 
 sire also to mention the following books of refer- 
 ence and to acknowledge their influence : Old Time 
 Gardens, Mrs. Earle; English Pleasure Garden*, 
 Nichols; The Formal Garden in England, Bloom- 
 field; Some English Gardens, George S. Elgood 
 and Gertrude Jekyl. 
 
 CORNELIUS V. V. SEWELL. 
 EASTOVER, 
 
 RYE, NEW YORK, 
 March, 1906. 
 
I GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH . 1 
 II A COMMON SENSE GARDEN . . .21 
 
 III THE GARDEN ENCLOSURE . . .39 
 
 IV LAYING OUT THE GARDEN . . .57 
 V A FEW GOOD TREES . . . .73 
 
 VI EVERGREENS AND OLD Box . . .97 
 
 VII CHOOSING SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES . 127 
 
 VIII GOOD SHRUBS FOR THE YARD . . 147 
 
 IX WALLS OF STONE AND BRICK . . 165 
 
 X FENCES AND HEDGES .... 185 
 
 XI OLD AND NEW ROSES .... 209 
 
 XII EVER-BLOOMING AND CLIMBING ROSES 
 
 AND VINES 233 
 
 XIII FILLING IN WITH COLOUR . . . 267 
 
 XIV THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GAR- 
 
 DEN 287 
 
 XV NATURALIZING 325 
 
 XVI A SMALL WATER GARDEN . . . 369 
 xiii 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE GARDEN ENCLOSURE; MT. 
 
 VERNON . Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ENGLISH LABOURER'S COTTAGE ... 5 
 ROSES AND LILIES IN AN ENGLISH DOORYARD 9 
 A CORNER OF THE GARDEN; MT. VERNON . 13 
 OLD GARDEN; CAMDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA . 17 
 LOOKING DOWN INTO THE GARDEN . . 23 
 A NEW GARDEN; SPRING . . . .27 
 FLOWERING ALMOND IN THE GARDEN . .31 
 Box HEDGES AT MT. VERNON . . .35 
 OLD WALLED ENGLISH GARDEN . . .41 
 AN ENCLOSED ENGLISH GARDEN . . 45 
 
 A GARDEN FENCE . . . . .49 
 
 THE PERGOLA AT ARLINGTON . . .53 
 PRIVET HEDGE AROUND THE GARDEN; PIN 
 
 OAKS IN BACKGROUND . . . .59 
 Box EDGING AT MT. VERNON . . .63 
 
 XV 
 
XVI ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 OLD Box HEDGE 65 
 
 OLD Box 67 
 
 LlLACS BEHIND AN OLD WALL . . .69 
 
 A WELL-FRAMED GARDEN . . . .75 
 WHITE OAK AND SPRUCE . . . .79 
 WHITE OAK IN WINTER . . . .84 
 WHITE OAKS IN WINTER HOLDING THEIR 
 
 LEAVES ....... 89 
 
 AVENUE OF MAPLES 91 
 
 PIN OAK IN WINTER 92 
 
 TRANSPLANTED PIN OAKS . . . .94 
 NURSERY-GROWN WHITE PINE TREES . .101 
 SPRUCE, PINE AND CEDAR . . . .105 
 
 GROUP OF CEDARS 107 
 
 CEDAR GROWING ON TOP OF ROCK . . 109 
 RED CEDARS ON THE LAWN . . . .113 
 
 BOX AND YEW IN AN ENGLISH GARDEN . 117 
 
 OLD Box 121 
 
 ARBOR VIT^E PYRAMIDALIS . . . 124 
 
 TREES AND SHRUBS IN THE GARDEN; MT. 
 
 VERNON 129 
 
 OLD STONE GATEWAY ..... 133 
 MAGNOLIAS ON THE TERRACE; VIRGINIA . 139 
 OLD Box ARCHWAY ; FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND 143 
 OLD SYRINGA IN A COTTAGE YARD . .149 
 WILD RHODODENDRONS IN FRONT OF AN OLD 
 
 WALL .155 
 
 RHODODENDRON ON THE EDGE OF A WOOD . 159 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS XV11 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BRICK WALL IN AN ENGLISH GARDEN . 167 
 
 OLD STONE WALL . . . . .171 
 
 PICKET FENCE ON A LOW BRICK WALL . 174 
 ANOTHER WALL WITH PICKET FENCE . . 176 
 OLD SOUTHERN WALL WITH MOULDED BRICK 
 
 CAP 177 
 
 OLD BRICK WALL WITH MOULDED CAP . 178 
 BRICK RETAINING WALL . . . .179 
 OLD ENGLISH GATE ..... 180 
 ENTRANCE TO FORECOURT; MT. YERNON . 181 
 Box WALK; MT. VERNON .... 187 
 ARCHED GATEWAYS ..... 189 
 
 PICKET FENCE 190 
 
 ARCHES AND HEDGES 191 
 
 POSTS FOR FENCES OR HEDGES . . . 193 
 
 HEMLOCK HEDGE 195 
 
 NASTURTIUMS CLIMBING OVER PRIVET HEDGE 199 
 OLD Box HEDGE NEAR BALTIMORE . . 202 
 
 OLD Box HEDGE 205 
 
 GARDEN PATH; WRAXHALL MANOR . . 211 
 OLD ENGLISH DOVE COTE . . . .215 
 OLD THATCHED CHALK WALL . . .219 
 STONE STEPS AND GATEWAY . . . 223 
 
 ROSE BEDS 232 
 
 ROSE BEDS ENLARGED INTO ROSE GAR- 
 DEN 235 
 
 ROSES ON A BRICK WALL .... 241 
 DAWSON ROSE ON A PEAR TREE . 249 
 
XV111 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 WHITE RAMBLER ON AN APPLE TREE . . 255 
 
 ROSE GARDEN 261 
 
 IN THE GARDEN; MT. VERNON . . . 271 
 YEW BUTTRESSES; ARLEY .... 275 
 
 YEW ALCOVES 279 
 
 THE YEW GARDEN; ARLEY .... 283 
 GARDEN PATH WITH SUNDIAL . . . 289 
 PHLOX OF ALL COLOURS IN THE GARDEN ; JULY 293 
 GERMAN IRIS IN THE GARDEN . . . 297 
 WHITE JAPAN IRIS . . . . .301 
 
 PHLOX AND FUNKIA 307 
 
 WHITE PHLOX IN THE GARDEN . . .313 
 CAMPANULA PYRAMIDALIS . . . .319 
 NARCISSI IN THE FIELD .... 324 
 NARCISSI NATURALIZED ALONG A STREAM . 327 
 NARCISSI IN THE GRASS . . . .331 
 CROCUS IN THE GRASS .... 335 
 
 FOXGLOVES ALONG A WOODLAND PATH . 339 
 
 TRUMPET NARCISSUS 342 
 
 POET'S NARCISSUS 346 
 
 PERENNIALS BORDERING AN OLD PATH . 351 
 A GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR NATURALIZING . 355 
 IRIS ON THE EDGE OF THE LAWN . . 359 
 
 LAVENDER 361 
 
 PLAN OF PLANTING THE FLOWER GARDEN 363-366 
 OLD ENGLISH WATER GARDEN . . . 368 
 
 GARDEN SEATS 371, 375 
 
 PLAN OF PLANTING WATER GARDEN 379-382 
 
COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 
 
 early New England days the 
 residences of the government 
 officials, and later the more preten- 
 tious mansions of the rich merchants 
 were provided with gardens copied on a 
 small and less elaborate scale from the 
 
2 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 gardens of England, for the homes of the bet- 
 ter classes were generally situated in the heart 
 of the town. The New England merchant when 
 he retired from business was careful to re- 
 main in touch with civilization as he had al- 
 ways known it, and rarely isolated himself on a 
 large and lonely estate in the depths of the 
 country, which in those days, to be sure, was 
 for the most part an un tracked wilderness abound- 
 ing in wild beasts and savages. His pleasure 
 seems to have been derived principally from 
 watching the struggles of his successors with 
 the problems that he had met and conquered, 
 rather than from an unlimited contemplation 
 of nature, for which he had a certain amount of 
 respect and perhaps regard, but rarely any inti- 
 mate friendship. 
 
 The early gardens of New England were made 
 when grandeur and magnificence were not much 
 practised by the descendants of the most stern 
 Puritans, when their resources were somewhat 
 limited. They were maintained more as a link 
 between the old and the new, between the past 
 of bitter memory and the future fulsome with the 
 
GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 6 
 
 hope that springs eternal in the human breast. 
 Seeds of the old, well-loved flowers that had 
 been gathered in sorrow and often wet with silent 
 tears were carefully saved and transported with 
 the household gods to the land of promise. 
 There they were sown under the quickening rays 
 of the dazzling sun, which like the pil ar of fire 
 of the children of Israel had led them out of 
 the wilderness into the flowery meads of free- 
 dom. 
 
 The fittest of these flowers survived and have 
 come down to the garden makers of to-day, often 
 hybridized and enlarged and not always improved, 
 but still exhaling the perfumes of old that com- 
 forted the wanderers in a strange land, and brought 
 welcome heartsease in time of sorrow. With 
 them are linked memories of the clays of our fore- 
 fathers, around which such a halo of romance and 
 mystery has always hung. 
 
 With the exception of a few rich merchants of 
 Plymouth, Portsmouth and Salem, and a small 
 number of prosperous planters in Rhode Island, 
 the inhabitants of the New England colonies were 
 not as well blessed with this world's goods as were 
 
COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 their fellow countrymen in the South who lived 
 in a land that literally flowed with milk and honey. 
 And at no period of his career did the New Eng- 
 lander of yore embrace the fashion of princely 
 living as it is called to-day, for it was a fashion 
 that was opposed to his teachings and against the 
 precepts that had been bred in his bone for genera- 
 tions. Even though unwonted prosperity came 
 eventually to dull his Puritan conscience he was 
 quite content to lay out a modest garden adjoin- 
 ing his house, which was generally in town. This 
 back yard, which in reality is what it was, he 
 enclosed with a high fence or wall and used as 
 the old Roman gardens or the gardens of the 
 Renaissance were used, as a secluded room of his 
 house in which to transact important business 
 with privacy; as a sanctuary from the thousand 
 and one worries of everyday life; as a retreat to 
 which to repair in the heat of the day, or in which 
 to recline beneath his own vine and fig tree when 
 the sun was sinking below the tree- tops. There 
 wine and cake were served to the guest upon 
 arrival, or to the casual visitor even if he came 
 within an hour of mealtime, as tea arid toast are 
 
GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 7 
 
 served to-day. There the members of his family 
 foregathered from their various occupations when 
 the shadows were lengthening and the hedge- 
 sparrows nesting in the thicket. 
 
 After a time the yard became an adjunct of the 
 house so that one was rarely planned without the 
 other. The front-yard garden has been insepa- 
 rable from the English cottage since before the 
 time of Elizabeth, and it is from the cottage of 
 England that the cottage of New England in- 
 herited its bed of simples and its garlands of bloom. 
 It is found in some form in every class of dwelling, 
 from the stately homestead of broad acres to the 
 small, unpainted cottage of the farm labourer, and 
 generally owes its particular charms to the minis- 
 trations of the women who, in days gone by, were 
 associated in a more or less vague way in the mind 
 of man with flowers, and credited with many of 
 their attractive qualities. 
 
 This characteristic of the New England home is 
 plainly in evidence as soon as the boundaries of 
 that area are approached, in many instances its 
 influences have overflowed beneficently into the 
 adjoining counties of New York. When the home- 
 
8 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 stead was built near the road, as it generally was 
 for convenience sake, three or four trees whose 
 genus varied with the section of country, but which 
 were generally either White Pines, Maples or Elms, 
 were planted for their shade in a row just outside 
 or just inside the front fence. There on the turf 
 that grew fine and velvety beneath their rustling 
 leaves the inevitable rocking-chair was placed, 
 and the women of the family rocked and read and 
 sewed whenever their manifold duties would per- 
 mit. These trees were the only formal notes of 
 horticulture to be seen in the otherwise natural 
 landscape; and their formality grew into stateli- 
 ness year after year, generation after generation, 
 until to-day they stand glorious monuments to the 
 long dead hands that nursed them through their 
 uncertain infancy, and placed them as pleasant 
 punctuation points on the dusty highway. 
 
 Perhaps it was thus that the parlour fell into 
 disrepute, for in Winter it was too cold to be in- 
 habited; the door was kept tightly closed and 
 locked. It was left to the dust and damp that in 
 our minds are always associated with it, never dis- 
 turbed except on those three momentous occasions 
 
GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 11 
 
 that even in the most carefully regulated New 
 England family are comparatively few and far 
 between, the occasions of births, marriages, and 
 deaths. A record of these was faithfully kept 
 in the massive Bible that reposed upon the table 
 which stood in the exact centre of this sombre 
 room of rooms. 
 
 Before the Revolutionary War there were few 
 elaborate formal gardens in America. Undoubt- 
 edly the best example of one existing to-day with 
 its original shapes and edgings and many of its 
 minor details is that at Mt. Vernon, the home of 
 Washington, near Alexandria, Virginia. In the 
 year 1764 it was probably the most elaborate 
 pleasure garden in the Old Dominion, for prior to 
 that period the planters had not been given to 
 spending either much time or money upon useless 
 luxuries. After the war, however, and in the 
 early part of the nineteenth century all the large 
 estates in the South were provided with pleasure 
 grounds, which varied in size and elaborateness 
 according to the inclinations and pocket-books of 
 their proprietors, and the natural features of the 
 land. All, however, were upon a more ambitious 
 
12 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 scale and aspired to more grandeur and dignity 
 than the gardens of New England. In the South 
 vegetation thrived luxuriantly and new and ex- 
 quisite forms of plant life were frequently dis- 
 covered to delight the heart of the horticulturist, 
 forms that would not thrive in the bitter cold of 
 the Northland. Slave labour was plentiful and 
 cheap and was at the command of the planters to 
 carry out extravagant feats of gardening; thou- 
 sands of hands could be spared for the super- 
 cultivation of the myriads of flowers and shrubs, 
 without which an impressive formal garden is 
 impossible. 
 
 There, too, the tradition of entail was followed 
 by many of the prominent families, so that an 
 estate remained with a name for an indefinite 
 period, generally passing to the eldest son as in 
 England. This was merely a substantial expres- 
 sion of the Englishman's deep-rooted respect, one 
 might say superstition, for custom which became 
 a considerable factor in many Southern gardens. 
 They were made not only for the enjoyment of 
 the generation then in existence, but planned and 
 planted a hundred years into the future. 
 
GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 15 
 
 The ability to construct and plant for to-morrow 
 as well as to-day is one of the most important at- 
 tributes for a gardener to possess. Sentiment and 
 respect for the perfection that time alone can 
 give is absolutely necessary to the art of garden- 
 designing; and refinement of touch and instinct 
 for colouring are as important to the gardener as 
 to the painter. 
 
 Effects of wood and stone and brick, the shapes 
 and colours of hedges and screens, of boskets and 
 groves, of trees and parterres of flowers in the 
 beauty of maturity cannot be set forth on paper, 
 but should appear correctly and vividly to the 
 mind's eye of the designer, just as if they existed 
 and lay spread out shimmering before him. Proj- 
 ects of designing and planting should be approached 
 with the question, "How will they appear next 
 Winter? ten years hence, when the tones have been 
 softened and the shapes rounded out by time?" 
 which the gardener should be able to answer off- 
 hand. 
 
 Many people plant in the Springtime with only 
 the following Summer in view, as they drill vege- 
 table seeds into the kitchen garden. Or they ap- 
 
16 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 peal to nurserymen to accomplish in a few weeks 
 effects that Nature would consume a dozen years 
 in producing gradually. It is painful to have to 
 acknowledge nowadays that the old sentiments of 
 garden-making are utterly disregarded and looked 
 down upon with curiosity and contempt by the 
 ruling disciples of Pluto, whose delight it is to 
 complete things in a single night by the waving 
 of a golden wand ; miserable moderns who live and 
 die in a hurry. 
 
 In the South in the early part of the nineteenth 
 century garden-making became a fad, a great 
 craze in which every man vied with his neighbour 
 to produce the largest and handsomest effects. 
 Architects were brought over from France to 
 make plans and superintend the construction. 
 Some of the schemes were so ambitious that they 
 toppled over before they left the drawing-board. 
 At Charleston, South Carolina, one can still trace 
 the paths and avenues, the general outline and 
 scheme of planting of a garden that was planned 
 to rival the garden at Versailles, that magnificent 
 folly of Louis XIV. Many gardens were laid out 
 or partly planted, but as the fad faded or the 
 
GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 19 
 
 impracticability of the undertaking was realized 
 they were left to the passionate embraces 
 of the jungle, which quickly swallowed them 
 up. 
 
 The men and women who conceived these many 
 beautiful closes, arranged their walks and furnish- 
 ings and planted their hedges and borders, craved 
 the best examples of Chippendale, Sheraton and 
 Hepple white, and imported them from England 
 to adorn the interiors of their homes. Both within 
 and without those stately mansions the inherent 
 breath of refinement softly throbbed. 
 
 Many of those old gardens are in existence to- 
 day very much as they were originally laid out, 
 especially several notable gardens in Camden, 
 South Carolina, and vicinity, that were made about 
 the years 1830-35, some even as late as 1850; 
 others exhibit but shreds and patches of their 
 pristine glory and are kept up only in part owing 
 to the circumstances of their proprietors, or to 
 the indifference with which they are regarded by 
 the families into whose possession they have come 
 through the fortunes of war. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A COMMON SENSE GARDEN 
 
 HE most ap- 
 
 i 
 
 propriate garden 
 for a small house, 
 or for a moderately 
 large house on small 
 grounds, no matter in 
 what style of architec- 
 ture it may be built, is one that can 
 best be described as a cross between 
 the formal garden of the South and 
 the old New England yard, as it con- 
 tains features of both judiciously 
 blended. The formality consists of 
 the hedge or fence enclosing it, the 
 quite formal approach and the gen- 
 eral plan of the paths; and to this 
 is added in the way of planting 
 the half-wild, unkempt freedom of 
 the New England cottage-garden; 
 21 
 
22 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 and in a garden of this size the planting of the 
 flowers, the filling in with colours is a very impor- 
 tant part. Such a plan carefully carried out, 
 even in the smallest details that seem unim- 
 portant to the casual eye, and under the supervi- 
 sion of the owner, will produce results that will 
 more nearly approach in general sentiment the 
 English garden of to-day, yesterday, a hundred 
 years since. 
 
 In a short time such a garden will become a 
 thing of beauty and will prove a joy forever to the 
 worker therein, for it is to the intimate friend of 
 the flowers that the joys of gardening are revealed, 
 to whom the confidences of the Lily and the Rose 
 are made. Its loveliness will increase from season 
 to season as Time mellows it with his unapproach- 
 able touch, adding colour and fulness to it here 
 and there, a touch which the hand of man cannot 
 counterfeit. Flowers are so much more beautiful 
 when growing amid congenial surroundings, so 
 artificial and snobbish when cut and put in vases, 
 or potted and placed in the corners of rooms or 
 on tables for decoration. Tennyson would never 
 pluck a flower and could not bear to see one 
 
Looking down into the Garden. 
 
A COMMON SENSE GARDEN 25 
 
 plucked; such desecration produced a painful im- 
 pression on his mind and upset him for days after- 
 wards. He sought flowers in their own retreats, 
 and perhaps better than any one who has written 
 did he understand their language. 
 
 Such a garden as I have endeavoured to describe 
 looks neither new nor garish from the very be- 
 ginning, neither does it ever appear ridiculous or 
 top-heavy with cheap dignity that it never really 
 possessed except on paper, or in someone's imagi- 
 nation. It will be neither a French garden nor a 
 German, nor Dutch nor Italian nor even English, 
 although it will show many influences of the latter. 
 It will possess the best characteristics of Ameri- 
 can gardens, and if you will only keep the gar- 
 dener out of it it will remain a garden for ever and 
 a day. 
 
 Why do not people give more thought to their 
 gardens? They build houses and go extensively 
 into architecture, especially into that particular 
 style, or combination of styles, in which their own 
 house is designed, yet they seem to think that a 
 garden is just merely a garden, a miscellaneous 
 collection of flowers and colours meant principally 
 
26 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 to pick and to wear, or to put in vases. A woman 
 gives a great deal of thought to the decoration 
 and furnishing of the rooms of her house, why 
 not to the garden, which is also a room, although 
 she can never be made to believe it? It should 
 have, and generally does have, more importance 
 in connection with the general effect of the house 
 both outside and inside for the impression one 
 receives of the exterior is carried within and af- 
 fects the imagination to a great extent than any 
 other room. 
 
 The garden is generally left until the house is 
 nearly if not quite completed; or perhaps planned 
 in a vague way. By that time the owner's pa- 
 tience is exhausted and his finances at a lower ebb 
 than is compatible with good temper and peace of 
 mind. The garden and the planting of it are left 
 to the gardener, who on small estates is necessarily 
 many other things besides, and although he may 
 be very successful with Cauliflowers and Mangels 
 he has little education or taste, and is no more 
 capable of making the garden than furnishing the 
 hall. 
 
 A woman will be dissolved in tears and indigna- 
 
A New Garden; Spring. 
 
A COMMON SENSE GARDEN 29 
 
 tion if the architect neglects to confer with her 
 about the trim of the library or the colour of the 
 border of the bathroom tiling, yet she will order 
 her gardener offhand to plant the garden with 
 Lilies and Roses and whatnots, and expect the 
 result to be satisfactory without giving it further 
 thought. The setting of the garden and the gar- 
 den itself are as necessary to the house as a front 
 porch, and a great deal more necessary than a 
 porte-cochere. A garden is meant to be lived in; 
 it can be made to reflect the character of the 
 owner as much as a living room or boudoir. The 
 refinement that Washington exhibited in laying 
 out the numerous paths and parterres of Mt. 
 Yernon and in planting the hedges and edgings, 
 the love and care that he zealously bestowed upon 
 his flowers and shrubs and the setting out of his 
 trees, would seem to be the best inspiration that 
 an amateur of to-day, who is anxious to make a 
 garden, and to preserve the best traditions of 
 American gardening, could seek or desire. 
 
 The garden of Washington, however, is set in 
 a frame that cannot be reproduced, no matter 
 how many fortunes the designer may have at his 
 
30 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 command, the house, the forecourt with its 
 quaint gateway the numerous outbuildings un- 
 usual and picturesque in themselves, the connect- 
 ing peristyles that match perfectly with pathetic 
 simplicity the architecture of the main building, 
 the location on a thickly wooded bank overhang- 
 ing the noble river whose every wavelet lisps of 
 the history of the neighbouring shores, the stately 
 trees that have reached perfection of character 
 and symmetry of form through the rounding out 
 of many years, the shrubs that have become pa- 
 triarchs of their families, and above all the serenity 
 and repose that are natural to the wild-wood and 
 foreign to thickly populated districts. 
 
 This park and the neighbouring park of Arling- 
 ton, which is larger than that of Mt. Vernon and 
 was planted on a much more liberal scale, are 
 examples that every student of gardening should 
 study unceasingly. At Arlington the planting of 
 evergreen trees especially was most successfully 
 accomplished and one may there learn the best 
 uses to which such trees can be put. Nothing 
 could be more beautiful than the grouping and 
 the disposal of the groups. It is as if they had 
 
Flowering Almond in the Garden-. 
 
A COMMON SENSE GARDEN 33 
 
 been literally painted in the wooded slopes and 
 dells, so softly do their graceful forms and chang- 
 ing colours blend with the various shapes and 
 shades of the deciduous trees among which they 
 are set. 
 
 At Mt. Vernon the paths are enclosed with Box 
 hedges and the parterres are edged with the same 
 bitter-sweet shrub. After a century and more of 
 growth and care these hedges and edgings have 
 reached a perfection that is the envy and despair 
 of every would-be gardener who views them for 
 the first time. 
 
 The dominant note of the whole enclosure is 
 Box. Its pungent odour, so disagreeable to some 
 people, to others sweeter than all the perfumes 
 of Araby, hangs ever on the air, permeates the 
 farthermost nooks and corners with its memory- 
 awakening spell. These hedges have an exas- 
 perating smoothness and softness of colouring that 
 have been gradually absorbed from the suns and 
 snows of many seasons which it would be useless 
 to hope to reproduce in a few years. 
 
 As at Mt. Vernon, so the yards and gardens of 
 New England were dominated by this matchless 
 
34 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 evergreen, as the gardens of England are domi- 
 nated by the Yew. Planted under the front win- 
 dows or along the most used paths it gave a wel- 
 come warmth of colour to the bleak landscape of 
 a northern Winter, and in time crept into the 
 honoured place of friend, unchanging, well-loved 
 by every member of the family. Box is a fa- 
 miliar sight in the neighbourhood of New York 
 where it was extensively used by the Dutch; and 
 in Philadelphia by the English. It has been so 
 prominent in gardens the world over that it should 
 be cherished by garden-makers wherever it will 
 grow, and no one should be deterred from planting 
 it by the thought that it is slow of growth and un- 
 certain, for it is uncertain in some climates and 
 exposed positions. In every garden an altar of 
 Box should be erected where the votaries of Flora 
 may worship and lay their offerings of Rosemary 
 and Bay. 
 
 Clipped and ornamental Box is as old as the 
 Roman hills. During the first century it was 
 used to enclose gardens, to edge walks and to 
 cover alleys, for in the East and in the south of 
 Europe it grew to the height of thirty feet. Pliny, 
 
A COMMON SENSE GARDEN 37 
 
 writing to Apollinaris about his Tusculan villa, 
 describes the terrace as bounded by a Box hedge, 
 from whence there was an easy slope adorned with 
 Box trees cut to represent various animals; and 
 beyond, a circus ornamented in the middle with a 
 Box tree, the whole framed in by a walk covered 
 with Box rising by different stages to the top. 
 The circus survives in our gardens to-day in the 
 round bed placed at the intersection of two paths. 
 Out of respect to Pliny let us ornament it in the 
 middle with a Box tree! 
 
 Could the abundance of Box during the early 
 centuries account for the tricks its odour plays 
 the memory now? It is said often to recall long- 
 forgotten incidents of childhood vividly to mind 
 in middle age; and wonderful tales have been re- 
 lated of the power of its perfume suddenly breathed 
 to present to the mind of an individual of one 
 generation events that had happened in the pre- 
 ceding one, and of which he had never heard. 
 There is no doubt but that the associations of Box 
 are mysterious and romantic and of a pleasing 
 nature to those who are fond of flowers. 
 
 In Pliny's time the chief gardener, who was in 
 
38 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 reality a sculptor of trees, was known as the 
 "topiarius," and under his supervision the scena 
 of those elaborate retreats were planned, and 
 eventually shaped by his skilful shears. The 
 clipped screens and hedges were used as back- 
 grounds for the sculptured shrubs which were the 
 main features in those gardens where the culti- 
 vated flowers were few. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE GARDEN ENCLOSURE 
 
 |JTT^^^HE early English 
 ;;: gardens were en- 
 
 51 closed by high walls 
 
 83 JL. of brick or stone and 
 often surrounded by a moat. 
 If such materials were not 
 available Osier fences were 
 used instead or pickets painted green. 
 Privet, Box and Yew were used for 
 hedges, allowed to grow from eight to ten 
 feet high, and kept carefully clipped and 
 trimmed. American gardens have rarely 
 been enclosed by high walls, except in 
 cities and towns where it was necessary 
 to screen some objectionable object, or 
 where proximity to the traffic of the street 
 interfered with the privacy that a garden 
 should primarily possess. The idea of 
 high-walled seclusion is foreign to this 
 
40 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 country and opposed to the spirit of freedom one 
 is supposed to breathe under its radiant sun and 
 soft blue sky. 
 
 The flower garden, however, should be defi- 
 nitely bounded and at least partly enclosed if not 
 actually walled or hedged in. The word garden 
 is derived from the old English garth, which means 
 enclosure. Natural boundaries such as old walls, 
 banks, terraces, ponds or brooks should be re- 
 tained and worked into the plan, as they are 
 desirable features. Supplement these by hedges, 
 walls of stone or brick, fences, groups of trees or 
 shrubs and screens to complete the form of en- 
 closure. Plant the trees and shrubs in a senii- 
 formal manner, but do not use any exaggerated 
 formal effects on small grounds as they destroy 
 the harmony that should exist between house and 
 garden. Landscape gardeners endeavour to pro- 
 duce imposing vistas and counterfeit perspective 
 in a small area, which is too suggestive of the 
 theatre to be acceptable to anyone who cares in 
 the least for Nature. There should not be anything 
 unnatural or over-conventional about the com- 
 mon sense garden. For that reason geometrical 
 
THE GARDEN ENCLOSURE . 43 
 
 parterres, intricate and bewildering to the eye, 
 should be avoided, as they present a miniature, 
 toylike appearance that belittles the house. The 
 planting of such parterres is characterless, too, and 
 is only for colour in carpet effects which should 
 be very large to be at all imposing as decorations. 
 An exception to such parterres might be made 
 when the miniature garden is between the house 
 and a broad river or other large body of water 
 beyond which the opposite shore is visible, where 
 an extensive panorama lies spread out. The eye 
 then engages an unlimited prospect and is so in- 
 fluenced by the broadness of the surroundings 
 that it does not notice the insignificant appear- 
 ance of the garden that otherwise would seem 
 small and mean. Such a garden then becomes an 
 incident not a feature. Even then the beds should 
 not be made too small and complicated, or they 
 will be hard to plant effectively. 
 
 If the house is situated in an empty lot or field, 
 that is to say one that is quite bare of trees or 
 shrubs, make the garden enclosure of the mate- 
 rial that you think would conform best to the 
 design and colour of the house and which at the 
 
44 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 same time is convenient to use. With half-tim- 
 bered work brick composes well ; with stucco, stone 
 or brick ; with an old frame house or one of colonial 
 design, white pickets or white pickets on a low 
 brick wall, a combination much used in the South 
 and a very pleasing one ; or with any of the above- 
 mentioned designs a hedge of Privet, Hemlock or 
 Box, or a hedge combined with a fence or wall. 
 A little thought, with perhaps the aid of a tem- 
 porary section of enclosure, will enable you to 
 determine the most appropriate materials or com- 
 binations if you are unable to focus well your 
 mind's eye, and any consideration of this most 
 important subject will be well repaid. 
 
 For such a garden a setting will have to be made 
 by planting good trees, trees that will be beautiful 
 and interesting in Winter when divested of their 
 foliage as well as in Summer when in their full- 
 fledged glory. These should be set out both in 
 relation to the house and garden, and the neces- 
 sary shading and filling in given with evergreens 
 and shrubs, not set in stiff, unsightly clumps like 
 old-fashioned bouquets, but used intelligently both 
 as to form and colour; single specimens or two or 
 
THE GARDEN ENCLOSURE 47 
 
 three together in modulated groups. Do not try 
 to out-nature Nature, however, by building up a 
 diversified landscape on your two or three acre 
 demesne, after the manner of the late lamented 
 school of landscape gardeners, for artificial moun- 
 tains, valleys, cliffs, cascades and gorges only look 
 well in menageries when inhabited by wild beasts; 
 such efforts fail utterly to either beautify or im- 
 prove. On a small estate the more harmony that 
 exists between the house and garden, the more 
 one fits imperceptibly into the other, the more 
 one seems absolutely necessary to the other, just 
 so much more success you may be sure you have 
 achieved. Harmony is the keynote that should 
 forever be ringing in your ears. 
 
 Sunken gardens, deliberately sunken ones, that 
 is to say deep pits dug in level ground and not 
 depending upon any natural features of the land 
 for their sunken condition or appearance are quite 
 meaningless, except perhaps in a large park or 
 system of gardens where they might find a place 
 as examples of a type. They are conspicuous on 
 account of their freakishness, which is a charac- 
 teristic that should be avoided in small gardens. 
 
48 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 There is no more reason for digging a pit in the 
 ground in which to plant flowers than there is for 
 building a platform several feet high on which to 
 lay out a garden. Simplicity is above all things 
 important on a small place, simplicity both in 
 planning and planting; few furnishings but good 
 ones; not many plants but the very best varieties 
 and colours of those you use. Give play to the 
 same instincts and tastes that you would employ 
 in furnishing and decorating an important room 
 of your house. 
 
 The habit of tacking on Italian gardens to 
 houses of nondescript style, or to those of Colonial, 
 Gothic or English-cottage design is one that is 
 apt to put the neighbourhood for a considerable 
 radius out of tune. The idea is not artistic. One 
 comes upon colonies of houses, often handsome, 
 elaborate houses built on an acre or two of land, 
 which are overburdened with gardens supposed to 
 be Italian in style, gardens that are cluttered 
 up with all sorts of continental refuse placed gen- 
 erally without meaning; antique garden furnish- 
 ings and bad reproductions purchased abroad for 
 large sums to give "colour" and "atmosphere" 
 
THE GARDEN ENCLOSURE 51 
 
 to these bedizened back yards, and which only 
 serve to call attention to the bad taste of the 
 owners. In this class of garden which is becom- 
 ing more common every year because it is the 
 "fashion," a pergola is conspicuous, in fact it 
 is a sort of hall-mark without which none is con- 
 sidered genuine. 
 
 Italian pergolas are good things to avoid in 
 common sense gardens. Do not connect the gar- 
 den and the house by one, nor let one lean famil- 
 iarly up against the wall of the mansion. A per- 
 gola should not be built in the flower garden at 
 all unless it is in the shape of a small, simple 
 arbour, and then only if you intend to smother it 
 quickly with Honeysuckles or Roses. Such Rose 
 pergolas are common in English gardens where 
 climbing Roses flourish exceedingly, but they are 
 always placed where they have some meaning ; as a 
 dividing line between the flower garden and the 
 kitchen garden ; or at the end of a path ; or as an 
 approach to a terrace or a plantation. 
 
 There is a pergola at Arlington, near Washing- 
 ton, which matches in its proportions the house, 
 a massive structure of classic design. This per- 
 
52 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 gola is a most elaborate affair and is very beauti- 
 ful. It would not look as well anywhere else, 
 and time has added greatly to its beauty. The 
 vines, for the most part Wistaria and Grape, have 
 developed into enormous fantastic growths that 
 have completely entwined the pillars and beams 
 of this great structure. If it was an adjunct to 
 any house except this bepillared classic hall it 
 would look out of place and ineffective. Perhaps 
 it is more appropriate to-day in the grounds of a 
 National Cemetery than anywhere else that it 
 could be put. 
 
 In Central Park, New York, there are several 
 rustic pergolas on which Wistaria has been trained, 
 and their effect in Springtime is enchanting. 
 There used to be one at least a hundred and fifty 
 feet long that spanned the bridle-path where it 
 runs beside the West drive not far below Mc- 
 Gowan's Pass. After a few days of blooming 
 the ground beneath the vines would become com- 
 pletely covered with the purple petals that every 
 zephyr sent fluttering downwards in a twinkling 
 shower. The combination of the delicate colour- 
 ing of the many graceful clusters, and the fresh 
 
THE GARDEN ENCLOSURE 55 
 
 green of the surrounding trees was enchanting for 
 the few days it lasted. The writer of these lines 
 has never forgotten the fairylike impression that 
 this pergola made upon his mind when as a very 
 small boy he used to canter through it on his pony 
 of an early May morning. These rustic pergolas 
 were in a public park and were built when rustic 
 work was much in vogue; there is no excuse for 
 using them anywhere now. 
 
 Small Italian gardens are not effective and should 
 never be used unless the house is in the Italian 
 style. Most of the Italian gardens one sees are 
 shams, pretending to be something that they are 
 not and never will be. The old gardens cannot 
 be reproduced in miniature; the modern ones are 
 enormously expensive and cover many acres of 
 ground. Beautiful effects that are natural in Italy 
 are badly imitated in the neighbourhood of New 
 York, so that the result reminds one of a scene 
 in a comic opera. Italian gardens need space, 
 long avenues of trees, vistas of mountains, topiary 
 work that cannot be reproduced here; their fur- 
 nishings are marble fountains elaborately carved, 
 vases, beautiful statues, colonnades and flights of 
 
56 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 steps; and above all is the colouring of landscape 
 and sky and foliage, a semi-tropical note that can- 
 not be imported and set up like a sun-dial or box 
 of flowers. 
 
 In America one associates such theatrical pleas- 
 ure grounds with the over-rich, or with men of new 
 wealth who seize upon every opportunity to call 
 attention to their riches. In Italy the man of 
 modest means does not have a flower garden; he 
 is quite satisfied with Nature's garden that lies 
 spread out ever before his appreciative gaze in a 
 mist of dazzling colours, exhaling the softest per- 
 fumes. In England, where garden-making and 
 garden-planting have been an art for centuries, the 
 Italian garden is let severely alone. True garden- 
 lovers are never satisfied with make-believe 
 gardens. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 
 
 HE garden may be 
 in the front or the 
 back of the house or 
 at the side of it ; or if 
 none of these situations is 
 available it may be laid 
 out some distance away, 
 but should be connected with the house 
 by a direct path enclosed with a fence 
 or hedge, preferably a hedge. For, as a 
 garden is a part of the house, it should 
 be easily accessible from it at all times, 
 and should be visible from some of the 
 principal rooms. Then it may be en- 
 joyed on a rainy day or in Winter, or in 
 the early Springtime when frost is still 
 in the air but the tender green shoots of 
 the Iris are gently pushing through the 
 
 ground, and Snowdrop and Crocus are 
 57 
 
58 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 sprinkling the brown earth with their welcome 
 bloom. It is a good plan to have the garden con- 
 nected with the front or back porch, or with the 
 piazza, or even better to have the floor of the 
 piazza flush with the garden path, or with a grass 
 terrace from whence a few steps will lead you into 
 the garden. A good formula for the size of the 
 garden is "half as wide as it is long." 
 
 Sunlight is absolutely necessary for the health 
 of the majority of flowers, so that a sunny posi- 
 tion should be chosen for the garden if luxuriance 
 and brilliance of bloom are to be looked for. 
 There is nothing quite so disheartening as trying 
 to coax flowers to bloom in semi-shade. It is 
 well if the garden is so situated that for a short 
 time at least in the morning every nook and cor- 
 ner will be penetrated by the clear, health-giving 
 sunlight, for such a mild tonic is not injurious to 
 even shade-loving plants, and its benefits cannot 
 be overestimated. Sunlight seems to be essential 
 to the most cheerful forms of both plant and ani- 
 mal life, and can be replaced by nothing else. 
 
 If space permits, and there is a shady corner, it 
 is a good thing to have a garden house or a bench 
 
Privet Hedge around Garden; Pin Oaks in Background. 
 
LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 61 
 
 built where one may read and sew and entertain 
 one's friends at tea, for tea is always more at- 
 tractive in company with the flowers. For some 
 plants shade is necessary, as Lily-of-the-valley 
 which thrives under the trees and soon carpets 
 the ground with its silvery green leaves. It is a 
 great temptation to the lover of flowers to repro- 
 duce the bloom of every plant that attracts at- 
 tention in neighbouring gardens, a temptation that 
 often leads to dire confusion of colours and forms 
 and produces bizarre effects that it would be bet- 
 ter to exclude from a small garden. The atmos- 
 phere of the common sense garden should be soft, 
 subdued, suggestive of peace to both the mind 
 and the eye. 
 
 The beginner would do well to start with com- 
 paratively few plants, and when he has thor- 
 oughly mastered the cultivation of these, when 
 he knows their whims and idiosyncrasies and can 
 anticipate their wants and supply their needs, he 
 may take up others, add to his repertoire as it 
 were. He will surely find out that there are some 
 flowers which grow in the gardens of his neigh- 
 bours like weeds but with which he can not sue- 
 
62 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 ceed. This rule, however, works both ways, and 
 he will succeed with some that require much care 
 and attention when his neighbours fail. It is 
 better to give up the obstinate ones for a time at 
 least, although the idea of defeat may be miwel- 
 come; there are enough flowers to go 'round. 
 
 Turn a deaf ear to the nurseryman and even to 
 your dearest friend if he would dissuade you from 
 edging the paths of your garden with Box, for in 
 your heart of hearts you know that there is noth- 
 ing better for the purpose than the little plant 
 that has stood the test for so many hundred years. 
 Besides, there is nothing else that will do. There 
 is certainly nothing more typical, nothing more 
 eloquently redolent of the old garden. When the 
 enclosure is made and the paths laid out and edged 
 with Box, the garden is finished, except for the 
 planting of the flowers ; but if it were never edged 
 with Box it would never be finished, no matter 
 how many flowers were planted nor how brilliantly 
 they bloomed. And i; the flowers never were 
 planted you would enjoy it as it was, as you will 
 see it many months of the year. 
 
 Box edging is easy to transplant and grows 
 
LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 65 
 
 quite rapidly. Although for the first year or so 
 after setting out it may be slightly Winter-scarred 
 in this locality (New York) it will recuperate 
 quickly and be made more stocky by the experi- 
 ence. By the middle of May one may be sure to 
 see it vividly green and is there any green more 
 
 Old Box Hedge 
 
 refreshing than the new green of Box ? and if 
 only three or four inches high it will mark out at- 
 tractively the patterns of the paths and beds. 
 The plants used for this purpose are raised in 
 Holland and Belgium and are a dwarf variety of 
 Bnxus scmpcrvircns . It is better if possible to 
 use stock that has been at least one W.nter in 
 this country, but if you cannot find this, set out 
 the edging in the Spring as soon as it arrives from 
 
66 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 the other side, and plant it in good black loam, 
 watching it carefully to see that it does not dry 
 out. Edging may be propagated very handily from 
 an old hedge that has been neglected and allowed 
 to go to pieces, being useful for nothing else and 
 only an eyesore. Such a hedge can generally be 
 had for the asking, and of course the plants raised 
 from it would be perfectly hardy and very cheap. 
 Box is a very greedy feeder and should be ferti- 
 lized continually if health and vigour are expected 
 to be shown. A top dressing at least every Fall 
 is necessary, and a mulch of well-rotted manure 
 in the Spring is an excellent thing. Many edgings 
 become starved out, turn yellow and die because 
 they have not sufficient nourishment. That is 
 why so many edgings in old gardens look so patchy, 
 so scarred. The soil is unable to nourish the plants, 
 being used up and not having received any en- 
 richment for many years. If you will water your 
 Box plants with manure water of the colour of 
 strong tea every ten days or two weeks during 
 Summer you will find that they will be much 
 strengthened against the rigours of Winter, in fact 
 that they will not be Winter-killed as many people 
 
LAVING OUT THE GARDEN 67 
 
 complain. Do not trim the edging at all the first 
 season after setting out, but the following Spring 
 before it begins to grow give it a good clipping. 
 It makes a second growth later in the season. 
 
 The beauty of a new garden and its surround- 
 ings may be much enhanced and the illusion of 
 
 Old Box 
 
 age heightened by planting old Box and Lilacs, 
 two shrubs that were much in evidence in the 
 New England yards, and that were great favour- 
 ites in the more formal gardens of the South. If 
 these are used, however, care should be taken to 
 place them where they obviously belong, where 
 
68 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 one finds them in old gardens and yards, and not 
 to scatter them indiscriminately about the grounds. 
 Box was planted at the foot of the front porch 
 steps, although this position, especially in New 
 England where formality was not much followed, 
 was often preempted by the Lilacs. At the cor- 
 ners of the beds in the garden and in the round 
 bed at the intersection of two paths it seems 
 very much at home. Hedges of Box were planted 
 along the front yard paths and on the tops of re- 
 taining walls in the immediate vicinity of the 
 house, along walks leading to the kitchen garden 
 and as screens around back and side porches. 
 
 Lilacs were used to a great extent as screens, 
 too, and planted behind walls along the roads and 
 lanes where they were allowed to grow into high, 
 un trimmed hedges. A few stately specimens were 
 to be found shading the well kerb; and there were 
 clumps before the front windows of the dwellings 
 where the fragrant clusters often swung in at the 
 second story casements. Varieties of the com- 
 mon Lilac (Syringa vulgaris are the ones usually 
 seen and they are the best Lilacs to use to-day for 
 a good, substantial Lilac effect. Many of the new 
 
Lilacs behind an Old Wall. 
 
LAYING OUT THE GARDEN 71 
 
 French varieties produce beautiful flowers but they 
 look less like Lilacs, the tendency being to improve 
 a flower out of all likeness to its old form. Hy- 
 bridizing has played havoc with sentiment and 
 tradition. The new varieties are less sturdy and 
 vigorous than the old ; and are of less use in a real 
 garden. When purchasing Lilacs from the nursery 
 be sure to get those grown on their own roots, for 
 most of the new stock both here and in Europe 
 is budded on Privet and is worthless, as it only 
 lives a few years. This is done to gain time and 
 save money, and is a good example of the modern 
 way of doing things in a hurry. 
 
 White Lilacs grow into large trees and are ex- 
 tremely picturesque with their fascinating clusters 
 of highly scented flowers. Although at an ad- 
 vanced age these trees present a somewhat gaunt 
 and scraggly appearance, they are perhaps more 
 suggestive of antiquity than anything else that 
 we can put in the yard, always excepting Box. 
 Hardly a house was built in New England, or in 
 Westchester County up to the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century, or even later, that did not have 
 a clump of Lilacs planted within sight of the win- 
 
72 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 clows. When driving through the country one 
 often comes upon isolated bushes or groups of 
 Lilacs far from any habitation ; but a little explo- 
 ration will always reveal the ruins of a house, the 
 old well or the cellar, perhaps only a retaining 
 wall with Lilacs growing cheerfully from its top 
 or out of its joints. 
 
 Large Lilac bushes are easily transplanted, for 
 they are shallow rooted. When nurserymen wish 
 to force them they dig up good specimens from 
 the nursery and place them in some out-of-the- 
 way corner of the greenhouse, throwing any old 
 rubbish that is handy over their roots, sphagnum 
 or a shovel or two of compost. I have seen them 
 blooming luxuriantly standing practically uncov- 
 ered on the floor of the potting shed. When their 
 flowers are all gathered they are put back in the 
 nursery, but do not bloom again for two years. 
 When looking for old Lilacs care should be taken 
 to select sound specimens, and even a certain 
 amount of size may be well sacrificed to this end. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A FEW GOOD TREES 
 
 I 
 
 F you have not enough 
 confidence to lay out 
 the grounds and gar- 
 den yourself, consult 
 a garden architect of good 
 reputation, one whose work 
 you have seen and know to 
 approach more or less to your ideal; but 
 do not let him do more than offer a few 
 suggestions at a time concerning the 
 points about which you are most in 
 doubt. Otherwise you will probably be- 
 come inextricably confused and your gar- 
 den will lose the individuality that should 
 be absorbed directly from yourself, and 
 lacking which it will become very much 
 the same as ten thousand other gardens 
 that have been turned out at so much the 
 
 square foot or yard. The architect will 
 73 
 
74 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 be useful in suggesting the shape of the garden 
 and the best materials to use for the enclosure, and 
 he may be better able than you to see the possi- 
 bilities of the natural features of the land, because 
 his eye is trained to such work and is ever on the 
 alert. Do not follow his suggestions about plant- 
 ing, however, but do that the first year at least 
 yourself. 
 
 In a garden of the kind under consideration too 
 much conventionality should be avoided. The 
 formality will blend with the semi-wild planting 
 of the garden in such a manner that it will be 
 absorbed. Your own ideas of colour and mate- 
 rial will have full play, just as in the furnishing of 
 any other room of your house where the formal 
 background of walls, windows, trim, mantelpiece 
 and so forth, only serve as a setting for your in- 
 dividual taste in hangings, pictures, rugs and 
 chairs, to say nothing of the minor ornaments. 
 If the same room were left to a decorator to "do" 
 in the style of Louis XV or of Charles I the result 
 would doubtless be very correct, but it would also 
 be very conventional, and you would never feel 
 much at home in it, unless you were in a con- 
 
A FEW C.OOD TREKS 77 
 
 ventional mood and arrayed like Solomon in at 
 least part of his glory. Such a room would really 
 be out of place in the ordinary house, in any house 
 of modest proportions. 
 
 Architects, garden and otherwise have a way of 
 talking their clients into doing or allowing them 
 to do many things that the clients do not desire; 
 it is part of their profession and the more lan- 
 guages they can use the more successful they are. 
 Unless your own taste is entirely lacking it is well 
 to have it reflected to & certain extent in your 
 home. You may spend much time in explaining 
 your ideas to an. architect, and he will listen at- 
 tentively and say a just so;" and "I grasp your 
 feeling exactly;" and then he will go off and carry 
 out his own ideas for which you have to pay. In 
 garden-making it is much better to be responsible 
 for your own failures, to be able to take advantage 
 of your own experiences. If you are not satisfied 
 with the way the flowers look the first year, dig 
 them up and start again. You will have twice 
 as much fun and in the end the solidest sort of 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Before planting trees and shrubs you should 
 
78 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 study every available position at different times 
 of the day in the fresh morning sunlight, in the 
 glare of midday, in the softer lights of afternoon 
 and at twilight, even in the light of the moon. 
 Do not be in too much of a hurry to plant, even if 
 trees and shrubs are conspicuous by their absence 
 and your eyes are hungry for the cool, umbrageous 
 green of rustling leaves; it is much better to make 
 haste slowly. In the course of time you will come 
 to know many places where you are sure that 
 trees should be placed, and you will have decided 
 upon the varieties that can be used to the best ad- 
 vantage. Stake out these spots, and after study- 
 ing the locations from different points of your 
 grounds in relation to adjoining conspicuous ob- 
 jects, such as the windmill of your neighbour or 
 his stable or house, you will change the stakes 
 many times, and stakes are much easier to trans- 
 plant than trees. Note well the aspect of the sur- 
 roundings in Winter, as well as in Spring when the 
 leaves are beginning to burst from their buds and 
 the quivering, pinkish green of the first awakening 
 is in the air; and later on when Nature is more 
 decorously clad in her high-neck Summer gown. 
 
White Oak and Spruce. 
 
A FEW GOOD TREES 8.1 
 
 If one can afford to it is better to plant a few 
 well-developed, shapely trees and shrubs than to 
 bunch together a hundred or so insignificant 
 nurselings that will take years to develop into any 
 degree of perfection, and then will have to be 
 moved. Of course it is more difficult and expen- 
 sive to procure such material and to transplant 
 it, but the trouble and expense are worth while, 
 for your yard and garden will soon attain a dis- 
 tinction that is denied to the majority of parvenu 
 villas. 
 
 The best trees to use for a groundwork of plant- 
 ing are those that are indigenous to that part of 
 the country in which your estate lies, the trees 
 that are identified with your particular locality 
 or county. If your grounds are bare of large 
 trees there will probably be some on the adjoining 
 properties, or along the road, that will benefit you 
 by framing your place in. Plant up to these and 
 you will find that native trees look more at home 
 and thrive better than exotics. Your greatest en- 
 deavour should be to make the house and grounds 
 look as if they were meant to be lived in and en- 
 joyed; that is the way even the smallest estates 
 
82 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 in England appear. Display should always be 
 subservient to simplicity and common sense. 
 Americans have learnt how to build livable houses; 
 the art of building livable gardens will be appre- 
 ciated in time, once the old, natural instincts are 
 awakened. 
 
 Do not cut down any trees with which your 
 grounds may be blessed until you have to, and 
 guard zealously those near the house or they will 
 be ruined by the builder. In fact it is safer to 
 make some sort of contract with him concerning 
 the trees, for otherwise he will not be interested 
 in their welfare, and if a limb should so much as 
 graze the face of one of his carpenters the fellow 
 will be sure to chop it down, and you may go hang. 
 The best way to do is to box them strongly as high 
 up as the branches will allow Great care should 
 be taken with the Cedars, for their picturesque 
 beauty or the formality of their outlines can be 
 utterly ruined by the loss of one or two branches; 
 and Cedar trees cannot be replaced in a hundred 
 years. 
 
 The most valuable trees are those that are 
 beautiful in Winter as well as in Summer; those 
 
A FEW GOOD TREES 83 
 
 that show their character in their massive limbs 
 and unrestrained habits of growth, that stand out 
 against the melancholy skyline of November as 
 pleasingly in their grey and brown habiliments as 
 in Midsummer when swathed in the softest greens, 
 those trees in fact that have particular features 
 to recommend them and that are not in the least 
 like shrubs. 
 
 In these days people spend much of their time 
 in the country, and it is becoming customary for 
 those owning houses out of the city to live in 
 them until the New Year, and return to them 
 early in the Spring. Trees are in full leaf for a com- 
 paratively few months so that a good deal of dis- 
 crimination should be exercised in planting, more 
 than was necessary a few years ago when the 
 country house was only occupied from June until 
 October. Looking at this proposition from a 
 more practical side it will be seen that although 
 many people build with the expectation of occupy- 
 ing their houses only a few months in the year, 
 they will be very glad to let for the Winter. 
 Grounds that are picturesque and cheerful, and 
 livable in Winter naturally attract the house- 
 
COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 hunter and hold him better than those that are 
 obviously made only for Summer effect, that look 
 as if they should be packed up and stored until 
 Spring along with the piazza chairs. 
 
 White Oak in Winter 
 
 The most desirable trees of all are the Oaks, the 
 White, Red and Pin Oaks. They grow in time 
 into enormous specimens and live for an indefinite 
 period. When one plants an Oak tree one not 
 
A FEW GOOD TREES 85 
 
 only benefits his own grounds incalculably, but 
 he also does a service for his neighbours and the 
 adjoining countryside that is the best kind of 
 charity. The most picturesque of the Oaks are the 
 Red and White, which many people never dream 
 of planting on account of their traditionally slow 
 growth; but they forget that these trees begin 
 to show their characteristics at a comparatively 
 early age, and they also forget that the trees 
 that are of slowest growth are of the greatest 
 merit. The truth is that the Oaks are not any 
 slower of growth than many trees that are more 
 extensively planted. The Pin Oak, which is really 
 a rapid grower, is particularly beautiful planted 
 along an avenue or a road in double rows, and is 
 interesting at every stage of its development. As 
 a background for the garden it is unrivalled, for 
 the foliage is dense and of an exquisite glossy 
 green colour and shimmers in the sunlight and 
 vibrates bewitchingly in every breeze that blows. 
 It is a good tree to have in the garden, for its ap- 
 pearance is ideally semi-formal. The Pin Oak 
 carries its limbs close to the ground and the lower 
 branches curve downward, giving it a luxuriant 
 
86 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 effect that one does not find in any other tree 
 possessing so much character. The low-growing 
 branches will be retained for many years if they 
 are given plenty of light and air. Oak trees should 
 be planted sixty feet apart, but in planting an 
 avenue the intervals may be filled in by somo 
 quicker growing trees that in the course of years 
 may be transplanted to make room for their more 
 sturdy neighbours. 
 
 The leaves of the White Oak turn scarlet in Au- 
 tumn and often cling to the branches until Spring, 
 giving the tree a rather unique place in the land- 
 scape. The Oaks are free from disease and insect 
 pests, which is a great recommendation for trees 
 that are to be planted on small grounds where a 
 good presence must be counted upon throughout 
 the season. The Pin Oak is one of the easiest trees 
 to transplant, and it is quite feasible to move 
 specimens twenty-five to thirty-five feet in height 
 from the forest to the lawn, the percentage of loss 
 being small. Select well-branched specimens of 
 good shape and move in December after the ground 
 has become well frozen. When the tree is set, 
 cover the ground about the trunk for a radius of 
 
A FEW GOOD TREES 87 
 
 six feet or so with six inches of coarse litter, and 
 leave it until late in the Spring. When this is re- 
 moved mulch with fine, well-rotted manure, which 
 may with advantage be renewed from time to time 
 during the Summer. It will not be necessary to 
 cut back the tops, but the dead wood should be 
 well cleaned out and the ends of the longer lower 
 branches pruned for eighteen inches or so. Too 
 much cannot be said in favour of the Oak trees 
 which possess so many sterling qualities; beauty, 
 dignity, distinguished appearance, fine colouring, 
 extreme picturesqueness. They are satisfactory 
 to look upon every season of the year. 
 
 The Elm is the most graceful of all our native 
 trees. Who is not familiar with the wineglass 
 Elms of New England that so lightly o'erarch the 
 village streets and greens? It is quite a rapid 
 grower and reaches a graceful form at an early 
 age. It is one of the most desirable trees for a 
 small place, but it is so susceptible to the ravages 
 of the moths that one plants it with many mis- 
 givings. One is loth to give up this tree which is 
 so identified with the history and literature of the 
 country, which is so typical of the New England 
 
88 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 yard, but its unsightliness in early Summer and 
 the disheartening war one is compelled to wage 
 unceasingly against its enemies have weighed in 
 the balance against its use in present-day plant- 
 ing. If a few Elms are set out it would be well to 
 plant Pin Oaks within a short distance of them, 
 which may be retained if the Elms succumb. 
 
 The Maples are popular trees; association, their 
 cheerful habit of growth, their prim, spinster-like 
 attitude and demeanour, their luxuriant foliage 
 have all contributed to their popularity. The 
 most picturesque of them all is the Swamp, or 
 Red Maple, which, however, does well when trans- 
 planted to uplands and is very easy to move. If 
 the Swamp Maple is cut back at the right time it 
 can be trained into a most effective tree. It can 
 be used with the Pin Oak, and as the latter keeps 
 the colour of its leaves longer, the Swamp Maple's 
 vivid red against the Pin Oak's green or yellowish 
 brown makes a sensational burst of colour in the 
 Autumn foliage. It is the first tree to turn, and 
 you no doubt have seen it splashing the swamps 
 with spots of dazzling scarlet in mid-September. 
 
 Sugar Maples are rather formal, shrub-like trees 
 
White Oaks in Winter holding their Leaves. 
 
A FEW GOOD TREES 91 
 
 of heavy, even foliage that were used in New 
 England to line avenues in conjunction with Elms, 
 and were also planted extensively in rows in front 
 of farmhouses and other dwellings for their green- 
 ery and shade and sap. Many New England 
 
 Avenue of Maples 
 
 village streets are completely congested with these 
 trees, as the custom of planting them in front of 
 the houses became so general that light and air 
 have been shut out, an effect which is rather de- 
 pressing, but to which the attention of the New 
 Englander cannot be called without giving offence. 
 
92 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 In many towns these trees have grown so large 
 and have been guarded so carefully that the once 
 attractive front-yard gardens have been completely 
 
 Pin Oak in Winter 
 
 smothered out. Would it not be better to sacri- 
 fice a few of the trees, even though tradition and 
 superstition are slightly jarred? Sugar Maples 
 were considered very ornamental by the land- 
 
A FEW GOOD TREES 93 
 
 scape gardeners of thirty years or so ago, and were 
 much used by them for decorating lawns. 
 
 The Norway Maple is a tree of much the same 
 character but of more massive appearance. It, 
 too, has the lines of a large shrub in Winter, from 
 the upright growth of its limbs. The cut-leaved 
 Maple is a tree of very rapid growth, so rapid in 
 fact that it is useless and is never planted except 
 where a quick effect is imperative. The wood is 
 so brittle and fragile that it is always being blown 
 to pieces. The fancy Maples, such as the Silver 
 and the Weeping, should not be planted on estates 
 of the size cf those under consideration as they 
 are purely decorative trees without character or 
 meaning, that belong to the landscape-garden type 
 and have not as much merit as many shrubs. 
 
 The Beech and Linden are good trees that may 
 be used sparingly in rather prominent positions. 
 It is a great deal better not to plant too many 
 varieties on a small place or the grounds will look 
 like an arboretum, but of course the good trees 
 that are available should be used. The Tulip or 
 Whitewood is a pyramidal-shaped tree of much 
 grandeur when mature. It has large, smooth, 
 
94 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 lobed leaves, and a large flower shaped like a Tulip, 
 greenish yellow with orange markings, and fra- 
 grant. But its growth is rather slow and it is not 
 easy to transplant. If there are any Hickory, 
 
 Transplanted Pin Oaks 
 
 Chestnut or Walnut trees on your land when it 
 comes into your possession they should be retained 
 by all means, but there are many other trees that 
 it would pay better to plant, as the Nut trees take 
 years to become interesting and useful and have 
 their disadvantages; the Chestnuts although beau- 
 tiful in flower litter up the lawn horribly ; the Hick- 
 
A FEW GOOD TREES 95 
 
 ories lose their leaves early; the Walnuts breed 
 millions upon millions of caterpillars that eat up 
 at least two sets of leaves during the summer. 
 Of the three the Chestnut is the most desirable. 
 Poplars are quick growing trees that are used 
 principally for screens, but they are very short- 
 lived and almost worthless. They lose their 
 leaves early, frost or no frost, and if the season 
 is at all dry the first of September will see them 
 bare and unsightly. The single exception in the 
 family is the Lombardy, which is the longest lived 
 of the tribe. It may be used very sparingly in 
 semi-formal work on small grounds as an accent 
 on the rest of the planting. One or two are more 
 effective than half-a-dozen, and their positions 
 should be carefully chosen. They are foreign 
 notes that should be very softly introduced into 
 the composition of the American yard or they 
 will spoil the harmony. One or two might be 
 used as a link between a house that exhibits a 
 continental theme of architecture, and the gar- 
 den. When one sees a Lombardy Poplar one 
 thinks instinctively of France, and why should 
 one be reminded of France when walking in one's 
 
96 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 garden? On the Continent they were used prin- 
 cipally to border very long, very straight stretches 
 of roadway and canals. 
 
 The Buttonball (Sycamore or Oriental Plane) 
 trees should not be planted on small grounds for 
 the present, anyway, until some remedy has been 
 found for the disease that has been ravaging them 
 for the past seven or eight years. Formerly their 
 universally good health w r as one of their recom- 
 mendations, but now they lose their leaves early 
 in June and their wood becomes so weakened that 
 it is broken easily by the wind and scattered over 
 the lawn. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 
 
 VERGREENS are 
 really more effec- 
 tive in Winter than 
 in Summer,, but 
 they should not be used 
 with only that thought in 
 mind as they are most val- 
 uable in combination with their decidu- 
 ous neighbours. The fault generally to 
 be found is that they are overplanted or 
 not planted in the right way. Large 
 beds or masses are very good in a botan- 
 ical garden for educational purposes, but 
 they are hardly the thing for a gentle- 
 man's place, especially a small one. The 
 use of so many varieties gives a museum- 
 like, stuffy appearance to the grounds. 
 Each one has some particular virtue or 
 
 peculiarity of shape, growth or colour to 
 97 
 
98 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 recommend it, but one should be satisfied to pos- 
 sess a few good specimens, which if planted well 
 will be much more enlightening than a large and 
 variegated collection. Simplicity is always dig- 
 nified and in good taste; and the grounds should 
 never be on a more elaborate scale than the 
 house. 
 
 The planting of evergreen trees at Arlington has 
 been mentioned in another chapter, but it was so 
 effectively done that I cannot help referring to it 
 again as an example of successful grouping and 
 colouring. Several varieties of much the same 
 form, but of different heights and shades of green, 
 were combined in groups among the deciduous 
 trees in such a way that the attractive qualities 
 of each were brought out and accented. Ever- 
 greens were linked in an oft-broken chain, connect- 
 ing one plantation with another; and gathered 
 together lightly in groves to break the steepness 
 of the hillside, so that the eye is relieved when it 
 instinctively ascends to the top of the hill on which 
 the mansion stands. There are no great contrasts, 
 but the various trees are exceedingly well-blended, 
 and that is the secret of planting evergreens, to 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 99 
 
 blend them well with the other trees. The plant- 
 ing at Arlington was done before the era of Japan- 
 ese shrubs, and strange to say one does not miss 
 them in the least. 
 
 It is difficult, almost impossible on a small 
 place, to use strange forms and colors of ever- 
 greens without making them seem incongruous, 
 and giving the grounds the appearance of a public 
 park where it is necessary to follow a systematic 
 arrangement. You should strive by every means 
 to keep such an effect from your place, and the 
 simplest way to do it is to use only a few varieties 
 of trees and shrubs of good character and colour. 
 In carrying out such an idea you will also be put 
 to much less expense, for fancy trees are costly 
 and very uncertain, having to be replaced fre- 
 quently, and although your neighbours may vie 
 with each other to plant as many different and 
 expensive kinds as they can procure, your house 
 will at least be set in an appropriate and dignified 
 frame. There is no necessity for crowding your 
 lawn with trees because they are rare or novel; 
 they will surely spoil the general effect and they 
 will not contribute much to your enjoyment or 
 
100 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 peace of mind, the two principal objects to be 
 considered when arranging one's grounds. 
 
 White Pine trees should always be planted if 
 there is any place for them. The New Englanders 
 used them in rows in front of their houses, or for 
 screens and wind-breaks; or they placed them on 
 some commanding knoll as silent sentinels over 
 the other trees, and as such they were a distinct 
 addition to the grounds. Bordering a road they 
 are most impressive when the Winter wind sways 
 their graceful tops and soughs through their 
 branches with the weird melody of an ^F.olian 
 harp. They are good trees to use for making 
 alleys; the ground beneath them becomes in time 
 thickly carpeted with their needles and decorated 
 with their cones. They live to a great age and 
 grow to the height of a hundred and fifty feet or 
 more in some localities, but as time adds to their 
 stature their appearance is often changed ; the lower 
 branches die or are lopped off to give light and air 
 when their growth and that of the neighbouring 
 trees has become too dense. Two White Pines 
 placed conspicuously, near the house, will give a 
 minor cadence to the general planting that is often 
 
Nursery-grown "White Pine Trees. 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 103 
 
 needed to soften the contrast between garden and 
 grounds. 
 
 The Norway Spruce is a good tree that has been 
 used too much because it is cheap and grows 
 quickly. It is too thick and dark and lowering to 
 plant very near the house, as it effectually shuts 
 out light and invites dampness. It is desirable to 
 have a few Spruce trees near at hand, however, for 
 in Winter they are the refuge of many birds that 
 are well protected by the close-knit foliage; robins 
 will make a grove of Spruce trees their home 
 through the Winter, and their presence is always 
 welcome. It is not a native tree but it has been 
 so widely cultivated that in many instances it nas 
 escaped. It is larger and altogether more majestic 
 than either the White or Black Spruce, and the 
 branches are more drooping; this last characteristic 
 gives it a melancholy expression which, as it is a 
 rather heavy tree, makes it unattractive to many 
 people. It is particularly beautiful amid snow- 
 clad surroundings, and dear to the hearts of chil- 
 dren on account of its association with Christmas, 
 a fact that should not be ignored, for the children 
 should be considered when the grounds are planted 
 
104 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 as the influence of trees and flowers in forming 
 character is a marked one. If partly covered with 
 snow the branchlets of the Spruce become so droop- 
 ing that they give almost the appearance of weep- 
 ing. Spruce trees are particularly useful for 
 screens and wind-breaks, and are planted by many 
 people for hedges, for which latter purpose they 
 are of doubtful value as they have many unde- 
 sirable qualities. They do not do well if placed 
 where they get the drippings from other trees. 
 As the Spruces will bear close clipping they are 
 often used for topiary work in America, where 
 topiary material is hard to find; the tops are cut 
 back and the lower growth is encouraged. Then 
 they are shaped into balls, pyramids, and cones, or 
 even made into more fantastic forms. They are 
 not really appropriate for such a purpose, however, 
 for while the effect from a distance is good they are 
 coarse and heavy, and a very poor imitation of 
 Box or Yew. 
 
 Nordmann's Silver Fir (Picea Nordmanniana) is 
 a glorified variety of Spruce that should be planted 
 if possible in place of the Norway or native. It is a 
 tree of more moderate size but of splendid proper- 
 
Spruce, Pine, and Cedar. 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 107 
 
 tions and of exquisite grace and colouring, shading 
 from very dark, rich green to greenish grey under- 
 neath. Its branches are carried lower than any 
 other Spruce tree, the bottom ones often sweeping 
 
 Group of Cedars 
 
 the ground. This tree is of slow growth and devel- 
 opment and expensive to procure, but it will give 
 much pleasure to any one who is fond of evergreens, 
 and is most valuable on account of its habits and 
 colouring where permanent planting is done. 
 
108 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 All things considered the native hemlock (Tsuga 
 Canadensis) is a better tree to use on a small place 
 than the Norway Spruce. It is more graceful, and 
 although it does not grow into so large a tree (and 
 this is really in its favour) its foliage is extremely 
 delicate and more fringe-like and drooping; it is 
 altogether less clumsy and therefore easier to com- 
 bine with other trees in a limited area. 
 
 The Larch is a deciduous tree that has the ap- 
 pearance of an evergreen, and is generally consid- 
 ered as one. In Spring when it is budding it is a 
 beautiful sight with its delicate green plumelets, 
 but its effect in Winter is rather depressing; it 
 reminds one of a dead evergreen which, on account 
 of some oversight on the part of the owner, has not 
 been removed. Unless one has some sentiment or 
 association for the Larch it would be just as well 
 not to use it on a small estate. 
 
 The Irish Juniper is a tree of a beautiful silvery 
 green colour that should be very carefully used in 
 semi-formal work, for it is extremely formal in 
 appearance. It is hardy if not planted in too 
 exposed positions, but is of the slowest growth 
 and requires a great deal of patience to develop. 
 
Cedar growing on Top of Rock. 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 111 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Washington it does ex- 
 tremely well and has been used at Arlington where 
 there are several handsome specimens. 
 
 The Red Cedar is a most beautiful tree. Its 
 growth is naturally pyramidal, but when found 
 near the coast it is often twisted into the most 
 fantastic and weird forms. If your place is bare 
 of Cedars it would hardly be worth while to plant 
 them, their development is so exasperatingly slow; 
 but if Nature has thrown any of them in your way 
 be most careful to preserve them as they give much 
 character to the surroundings. They are to be 
 found growing in the most absurd places, where it 
 would be impossible to establish any other form 
 of tree, or even Cedar itself by transplantation, on 
 the tops of rocks with apparently no soil in sight, 
 tentacled around stones like petrified devil-fish, 
 out of the clefts of rocks where birds have dropped 
 the seeds, very often hanging from the face of a 
 cliff or boulder. They are natural formalities of 
 the landscape that can be made the basis of semi- 
 formal plans. Although it is possible to trans- 
 plant these trees when they are found growing 
 freely in loam and not with their roots forced into 
 
112 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 the clefts of rocks, the risk is great, especially if 
 the tree has attained sufficient age to make it 
 attractive; and the operation is not recommended 
 to amateurs. In Winter the well-defined outlines 
 of the Cedar trees stand out with clearness against 
 the snow, the dark green foliage showing a little 
 subdued and rusty in the frosty air. Dignified in 
 the extreme, they do not lower one's cheerfulness 
 like the funereal Spruce. In some parts of the 
 South, Maryland and Virginia particularly, one 
 notices the Cedars lining the lanes as if they had 
 been carefully planted, when the birds perching 
 on the near-by fences are entirely responsible for 
 their appearance. These trees are very beautiful 
 when located on a terrace among flowers. The 
 green of their foliage is of much the same colour 
 as the English Yew and it sets off most effect- 
 ively such bright blooming plants as Phlox, 
 or Foxgloves and Lilies. This tree is so desirable 
 that if you have any well-shaped specimens it 
 would be a good plan to work up your grounds 
 and garden to them. 
 
 The Japanese evergreens that are planted so 
 much nowadays are very attractive, but their use 
 
Red Cedars on the Lawn. 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 115 
 
 should be confined to Japanese gardens or to 
 Japanese effects in large parks or gardens. The 
 majority of them are quite hardy, but if the ther- 
 mometer goes below zero the Retinisporas, the 
 most beautiful of them all, will be killed. 
 
 Modern Box trees, that is, those grown for the 
 trade in Holland and Belgium, no matter how 
 carefully they have been trimmed, cannot give 
 the same feeling to a new yard as a few venerable 
 specimens ruthlessly torn from the garden of an 
 old farmhouse, where for a hundred years they 
 have been the features as their more fantastically 
 clipped prototypes were the features of Pliny's 
 elaborate plaisance. The Box trees grown in the 
 gardens of long ago were propagated from stock 
 of Buxus sempervirens obtained in England and 
 Holland. It is quite different in appearance from 
 most of the specimens offered in the nurseries to- 
 day, which are varieties of the old shrub, but gen- 
 erally quite dissimilar in character from their 
 common ancestor. It was used for hedges and 
 edgings, and as its habit of growth was more com- 
 pact, the leaves smaller and lying closer together, 
 and the colour richer, when carefully pleached it 
 
116 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 presented the smooth surface so much admired 
 and sought for. The old Buxus sempervirens was 
 used also for specimens on the lawn or in front of 
 the house, and if allowed to grow freely it devel- 
 oped into the most picturesque tree of peculiar 
 conformation. On page 121 is a picture of an old 
 hedge of Buxus sempervirens and a specimen tree 
 of the same variety that was probably planted at 
 the same time. There is one on each side of the 
 porch steps of this old farmhouse in Westchester 
 County. It has taken many, many years for 
 them to reach so large a size. Buxus semper- 
 virens var. arborescens is the Tree Box that is 
 grown in large quantities in Europe. If used for 
 edging it will be found to develop much more 
 rapidly that the old variety, although the colour 
 is not so good nor the growth so compact. In 
 Washington, D. C., arborescens has been much 
 used in the public squares where it has grown to 
 the height of ten or twelve feet. 
 
 Modern Box resembles the low-toned, scarred 
 antiques about as much as machine-made furniture 
 reproduced to-day from the designs of Hepple- 
 white and Sheraton resembles the time-softened 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 119 
 
 maple and mahogany of the eighteenth century. 
 The reproducer unconsciously adds a touch or two 
 of his own which spoils the effect. Yet good re- 
 productions of old furniture are not to be ignored 
 when one cannot obtain originals, and modern Box 
 is far better than no Box at all, and should be 
 plentifully used in the garden and on the grounds. 
 Buy forms that you can shape yourself more or less 
 after the patterns of the old shrubs, and the 
 rounder they are the better they will look, for old 
 Box was generally either dumpy and plethoric 
 and appeared as if it were a crinoline, or it was 
 shaped like an inverted pyramid. The clipped 
 pyramidal forms are the least desirable and are 
 usually the most plentiful and cheap. 
 
 The old specimens are of great assistance to 
 anyone who is trying to produce the effect of an 
 old yard and garden, but unfortunately the sup- 
 ply is limited. The revival of garden-making dur- 
 ing the past few years has stripped the nurseries 
 of the few old and attractive specimens that they 
 once possessed, and the owners of good Box trees 
 in the small towns and villages are fast becoming 
 educated to the value of their long neglected heir- 
 
120 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 looms. The bargainer will have to be diplomatic 
 and persistent and possessed of a well-filled purse, 
 for when the expenses of lifting and moving and 
 replanting are added to the original bill of sale 
 the figures will tot up to a considerable sum. 
 
 The moving of these old specimens should be 
 entrusted to men of experience, for the operation 
 is by no means a simple one and the risk is great. 
 Many nurserymen make a specialty of moving 
 Box for their rich patrons, and they have been 
 quite successful, although it seems to be more or 
 less a matter of luck. Small trees can be suc- 
 cessfully moved in late October after the first 
 really sharp frost, and they should be reset in the 
 same quality of soil as that to which they have 
 been used, a light loam. Good drainage should be 
 provided, for the accumulation of water around 
 the roots is fatal. Avoid setting them in heavy, 
 clayey soil that holds moisture and freezes like a 
 rock, or in cuppy ground where the water is apt 
 to collect around their butts. Care should be 
 taken not to break the tap roots, and to keep the 
 wind and air from drying out any of the roots 
 while in transportation. When setting the tree, 
 
Old Box. 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 123 
 
 puddle the loam as it is thrown back into the 
 excavation, as that will settle it more closely about 
 the roots than the most careful tamping. Be 
 sure to protect the roots by a liberal dressing of 
 coarse litter, and when that is removed in the 
 Spring substitute a good mulch of fine, well-rotted 
 manure. As Box is such a greedy feeder it should 
 be watered through the Summer with manure 
 water, and if this is done the results will not only 
 please but surprise you. December, after the 
 ground is well frozen, is the best time to move 
 large and very old specimens, for then a good ball 
 may be lifted with the roots very much as if they 
 were potted. The condition of the trees, the 
 quality of the soil in which they are reestablished 
 and the care and intelligence with which the trans- 
 plantation is effected seem to have more to do 
 with successful moving than anything else. 
 
 Another good evergreen, a native of north- 
 eastern America, is the Arbor Vitae (Thuja oc- 
 cidentalis), a White Cedar of quicker growth than 
 the Red. It is a tapering tree twenty to fifty feet 
 high, with close, dense foliage that bears clipping 
 well. It is extensively used in America in formal 
 
124 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 work for hedges, arches and screens, in fact it is 
 the only tree we have that can be grown and 
 trimmed into solid looking walls as the Yew is so 
 extensively trained and trimmed in English gar- 
 dens. Thuja pyramidalis is a variety of more 
 
 Arbor Vitse Pyramidalis 
 
 marked pyramidal form that may be used in semi- 
 formal work to take the place of Red Cedar, for it 
 has much the same appearance although it is a 
 more living green in colour. Arbor Vitae occi- 
 dentalis is perfectly hardy. The best screen that 
 I have ever seen made with it is located on the 
 summit of a high, exposed ridge in northern 
 Connecticut, where it is buffeted by all the Winter 
 
EVERGREENS AND OLD BOX 
 
 125 
 
 winds that blow; where the mercury often gets 
 and stays below zero. This screen is twelve or 
 fourteen feet high and has doorways cut through 
 it. It is very old and must have been closely 
 clipped for generations, yet it is apparently in 
 perfect condition, effectively sheltering an old 
 farmhouse. 
 
 The best trees to use in planting a small estate, 
 in the order given, are: 
 
 DECIDUOUS 
 Pin Oak 
 White Oak 
 Red Oak 
 
 Swamp, or Red, Maple 
 Elm (uncertain on ac- 
 count of insects) 
 Norway Maple 
 Sugar Maple 
 Linden, or Basswood 
 Copper Beech 
 Tulip, or Whitewood 
 Lombardy Poplar 
 Larch 
 
 EVERGREEN 
 White Pine 
 Native Hemlock 
 Nordmann's Fir 
 Arbor Vitse occidentalis, 
 
 for walls and screens 
 Arbor Vifoe pyramida- 
 
 lis, for semi-formal 
 
 effects 
 Red Cedar 
 Norway Spruce 
 Irish Juniper 
 
126 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Use White Pine and Hemlock with Pin Oak 
 and the Maples; Nordmann's Fir and Red Ce- 
 dar with Elms and White and Red Oaks; Ar- 
 bor Vita) and Cedar with the Pin Oaks; Norway 
 Spruce with the Oaks, Elms, or Maples, but 
 sparingly. 
 
 The Oaks may all be planted together or with 
 Hickory and Chestnut; the Swamp Maple with 
 the other Maples and with Pin Oak; the Elm is 
 better by itself, as also the Linden, Copper 
 Beech and Whitewood. Lombardy Poplars are 
 to be used very sparingly in connection with the 
 house and the garden. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 CHOOSING SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES 
 
 'ANY people im- 
 agine that shrubs 
 are wasted if they 
 are not massed 
 together in great planta- 
 tions, where they present a 
 solid phalanx of bloom for 
 two or three days each year. The rest of 
 the time the bed is dark and unattractive 
 and is a blot on the lawn, detracting 
 9 from, rather than adding to the surround- 
 8 ings. Such a system may sometimes be 
 convenient on large and bare estates 
 which are difficult to plant anyway, but 
 on small grounds shrubs should be used 
 generally as individual specimens so that 
 their beauty may be seen and admired, 
 so that the good qualities of each may be 
 appreciated; they should not be consid- 
 
 127 
 
128 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 ered from the standpoint of their bloom alone. The 
 same rule should be followed as when disposing of 
 furniture in a room; you do not hide a beautiful 
 china-closet of rare workmanship by placing an- 
 other cabinet or a desk or a settee or a lot of chairs 
 all about it, encompassing it and hiding its grace- 
 ful lines and form. 
 
 I have always thought that the plan of planting 
 in masses was followed by the nurserymen and 
 landscape gardeners because a great many plants 
 have to be used. The arrangement is expensive 
 and extravagant, besides being commonplace and 
 clumsy, and much better effects can be obtained by 
 placing each shrub where it belongs, where it will 
 always look at home and can remain undisturbed 
 for an indefinite time, after the manner of old 
 yards and gardens. Used in such a way shrubs 
 have a meaning and give feeling to the house and 
 grounds; and a man of moderate means may plant 
 and enjoy them. 
 
 When buying shrubs, if there is no nursery in 
 your immediate vicinity, you should choose one 
 that lies in a colder latitude or one just as cold as 
 that in which your place is located. By doing this 
 
CHOOSING SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES 131 
 
 you will get stock that is hardy and will be pretty 
 sure to thrive. Plant shrubs in the Fall if possible, 
 in October or November, or in the very early 
 Spring; and always protect the roots for the first 
 Winter with a good dressing of straw or coarse 
 litter. 
 
 Closely pruned shrubs are prim looking and 
 ugly; the natural growth is pretty sure to be more 
 graceful than any that you can encourage by the 
 shears. The fantastically clipped forms that were 
 common in the Roman gardens and the gardens 
 of the Renaissance, and that were over-extensively 
 used in England up to the middle of the last 
 century, are out of place on small grounds; they 
 make them look top-heavy. Avoid the badly 
 pleached Box that is offered to-day in so many 
 nurseries, for they are poor imitations and detract 
 from the true value of the garden. Try if you will 
 to get the old, round forms that are found in the 
 old dooryards, but do not buy pyramids and 
 standards. 
 
 Cut away the dead wood from shrubs in the 
 Spring; and it will be necessary often to cut back 
 the Mock-orange, for its growth is apt to be rank 
 
132 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 and ungraceful; and remove some of the side 
 branches that stick out and destroy the general 
 symmetry of the bushes. Except for cutting out 
 the large suckers the Lilacs should never be touched 
 with shears, but allowed to grow in their natural, 
 own sweet way. For the rest, the pruning may 
 be left to the common sense of the owner, with the 
 gardener kept at a distance. 
 
 There are so many shrubs that are attractive and 
 desirable that it is hard for the novice to make a 
 choice. If he leaves the selection to a nursery- 
 man he will get a little bit of everything, for the 
 average nurseryman thinks that variety is the 
 spice of planting. One does not realize how large 
 a shrub bill may become until it is sent in, and 
 then it is difficult to check up the various items 
 that have been scattered over two or three acres, 
 for many of them even in that short space of time 
 will doubtless have died from want of care and 
 knowledge on the part of your gardener, or be- 
 cause they were weaklings when they left the 
 nursery and should have received the attention of 
 a trained nurse. You should superintend the 
 planting carefully, for you cannot be sure that any- 
 
CHOOSING SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES 135 
 
 thing either inside or outside the house will be 
 particularly well done if left entirely to the tender 
 mercies of servants. 
 
 It is a much better plan io know exactly what 
 you want and to choose the varieties yourself. 
 For that reason you should patronize the nurseries 
 in your neighbourhood, as then you can run over 
 at odd times when you have the leisure, or when 
 the particular shrubs you are interested in are in 
 bloom. Tag these carefully with the copper-wired 
 tags which the nurseryman will provide, and on 
 which your name should be plainly written with 
 an indelible pencil, so that there will be no doubt 
 about identification when the time for transplant- 
 ing arrives. 
 
 The nurseryman will want to sell you novelties, 
 of which an incredible number are put upon the 
 market every year; and some of his reasons for 
 doing so will not be entirely disinterested. The 
 beginner should leave novelties alone, especially 
 if the area to be planted is limited and his pocket- 
 book is not over-extended. Novelties are the best 
 anti-fat for a plethoric pocketbook that has ever 
 been devised. 
 
136 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 If you should send an order to a nurseryman 
 located at some distance from your home, the 
 chances are that all the stock that you receive will 
 not come up to your expectations. The nursery- 
 man, being only human, will average up the lot so 
 that about fifty per cent of the trees and shrubs 
 will be pretty poor; the rest, fair to medium. 
 Your order will probably have been filled at a low 
 price, but in the end you would have found it 
 cheaper to patronize your own nursery. It does 
 not pay to buy job lots of shrubs and trees, for 
 there is a great demand for good stuff and you 
 may rest assured that there was something queer 
 about your " bargain." 
 
 The home nurseryman will generally be ready 
 to replace trees that fail, unless they die through 
 gross carelessness on your part or the part of your 
 gardener, and he will always take an interest in 
 your place, giving you much advice from time to 
 time, which he will not be likely to do if you ignore 
 the home industry and patronize outside firms. 
 When the nursery is near by, transplantation can 
 be more safely effected, as it is possible to wait 
 for the right kind of weather. This is worth 
 
CHOOSING SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES 137 
 
 much in Spring, for then the plants that are moved 
 on a rainy, muggy day are hardly checked at all; 
 and there is a better chance of quick recuperation 
 than when the stock has been kept on the train 
 for days, perhaps weeks, no matter how carefully 
 it may have been taken up and packed. 
 
 Beware of travelling agents and men who do 
 what it called a cellar business. The former are 
 only interested in selling their wares, never in the 
 wares themselves; many of them do not know a 
 Geranium from a Rose except by the pictures they 
 have seen. The plants handled by the latter class 
 of dealers are apt to be out of the ground a long 
 time, and that does not benefit their constitutions; 
 or if dormant they often begin to sprout before 
 you receive them. Both are apt to disappoint you 
 when it is too late to place your order elsewhere, 
 for they do not keep track of the supplies in the 
 nurseries they represent and are altogether irre- 
 sponsible. It is much better to deal directly with 
 some reliable house. 
 
 The Lilac is a shrub that you will surely wish to 
 see well represented on your grounds. As sug- 
 gested in Chapter IV, much better effect can be 
 
138 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 had with old specimens, which you should be able 
 to procure from some ancient farmhouse in your 
 neighbourhood. You should have a White Lilac in 
 the flower garden, for it will live to a good old age 
 and grow more picturesque every year. Lilacs 
 look well near the house in front of it, if it is pos- 
 sible to put them there, at either side of the porch. 
 One never tires of them in the latter place; they 
 seem really a part of the house. They may be 
 planted to overhang the garden hedge or to border 
 a walk, or for an untrimmed hedge behind an old 
 wall, or on top of a bank. Planted thickly along 
 the party line they make a good screen, and are 
 less stiff and formal than a fence and more useful 
 to your neighbour. You really cannot have too 
 many of them, as they contribute more to the at- 
 mosphere of home than any other shrub. Old 
 bushes can be moved by the " hired man" under 
 your direction; but if you get them from a nur- 
 sery confine your choice to the old varieties. I 
 have moved Lilacs when in flower, and they have 
 gone on blooming just as if they were used to a 
 carriage-drive every day. 
 The white flowering native DOGWOOD (Cornus 
 
CHOOSING SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES 141 
 
 Florida) is found in the woods where it comes into 
 bloom when the leaves of the surrounding trees 
 are just bursting from the buds, and the effect is 
 as if the flowers had been floating through the for- 
 est and were caught on the outstretched branches 
 of the other trees. It is much better used in this 
 way, or on the edge of a wood or grove, as it needs 
 the delicate green to set off its white stars; it is 
 not half as attractive or interesting when planted 
 by itself on the lawn. This tree may be trans- 
 planted from the woods, but good specimens are 
 generally to be found in the nursery, and are surer 
 to succeed. 
 
 MAGNOLIAS are rather formal trees that 
 should be planted in pairs to appear to the best 
 advantage. Very good varieties are soulangeana 
 and conspicui, of very much the same shape and 
 bearing the same kind of flowers, except that the 
 petals of soulangeana have a dark red base. These 
 trees blossom before they throw out their leaves, 
 the end of April, and are often nipped by the frost, 
 when the flowers turn an uninviting brown. There 
 is a shrub-like variety of Magnolia, stellata, which 
 ic rather slow to develop. The flowers are star 
 
142 COMMON SENSE GARDENS. 
 
 shaped and are borne in great profusion, covering 
 the branches. This variety is most effective on 
 the edge of a wood treated as a large shrub. Mag- 
 nolias should always be transplanted in the Spring; 
 and they will take a year, and sometimes two, to 
 get over the effects of moving and start growing 
 again. 
 
 A very graceful tree of small size is the LABUR- 
 NUM (Laburnum vulgare). It is not used much in 
 this country, but is popular in England. It is tall 
 and slight with delicate green foliage, and the 
 branches bend over gracefully and nod with ra- 
 cemes of yellow flowers. Laburnum does well in 
 partial shade and needs a great deal of moisture, 
 so that in dry Summers it should be plentifully 
 watered, and the foliage sprayed. This tree is 
 worth growing and is a good one to have in the 
 garden; it is really a garden tree. Plant it in a 
 corner near a hedge or a fence post, and place 
 Foxglove around it to hide the trunk, which is gen- 
 erally bare for several feet. Or it is very nice 
 swinging gently over a garden seat; it blossoms in 
 June. 
 
 The native HAWTHORN (Cratcegus cocdnea) is 
 
CHOOSING SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES 145 
 
 an attractive tree with red flowers not unlike the 
 English Hawthorn. Hawthorns may be used for 
 pleaching, that is, interweaving their branches 
 overhead. There is a pleached Hawthorn arch at 
 Holly House, Peacedale, Rhode Island, the home 
 of Roland Hazard, Esq., which Mrs. Earle has pic- 
 tured in her "Old Time Gardens." Another va- 
 riety, Cratcegus crus-galli, makes an excellent hedge 
 as its thorns effectually keep off cattle, dogs, etc., 
 but it is not used for this purpose to any extent, 
 perhaps because it is rather slow to start, and 
 everybody nowadays seems to be in a hurry. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 GOOD SHRUBS FOR THE YARD 
 
 HE first shrub to 
 
 L 
 
 blossom in Spring 
 is the FORSYTHIA, and 
 its bright yellow bells 
 are a cheerful addition to 
 the brown lambrequins of 
 April; it is a harbinger of 
 the glorious blossoms that will follow in 
 quick succession until frost. If for no 
 other reason than its earliness this shrub 
 should be planted, but it is ornamental 
 later on when the bright green leaves 
 appear. It is massed in great bunches 
 on many estates, but is good enough to 
 use as a specimen along a roadway or 
 path. Fortunei is the earliest variety, 
 which is followed by viridissima before 
 the last blossoms of fortunei have faded, 
 thus making a good succession lasting 
 147 
 
148 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 two weeks or more. It should not be pruned un- 
 til after it has blossomed as the flowers are borne 
 on the old wood. It will grow eventually into a 
 large bush seven or eight feet high. In England 
 the Forsythia fortunei is trained sometimes against 
 walls, the principal branches being tied up for 
 three or four feet and the slender shoots allowed 
 to droop over gracefully. When trained over a 
 bank or stone wall the Forsythia is effective, for 
 its growth is vigorous and its foliage bright and 
 clean. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA CORONARIUS, or Mock-orange, is 
 a good shrub to use with Lilacs; it is generally seen 
 with them hanging over an old picket fence, or 
 leaning from the top of a bank. Its blossoms 
 have the same odour as the orange flower, from 
 whence its popular name is derived. Old speci- 
 mens can be moved easily, but they grow rapidly 
 and should be pruned vigorously into shapeliness. 
 Do not put Syringas in clumps, as they have too 
 much character to be used in that way. It should 
 hardly be placed in the garden, but will look well 
 in front of the house in the same way that Lilacs 
 are used. 
 
Old Syringa in a Cottage Yard. 
 
GOOD SHRUBS FOR THE YARD 151 
 
 The oldest and best WEIGELIA is the rosea. In 
 June its branches are weighed down with crushed- 
 strawberry coloured flowers, and it blooms again 
 later in the season. It is easy to grow and devel- 
 ops quickly, but it is not so desirable as either the 
 Lilac or Mock-orange ; do not crowd out anything 
 else to make room for it. The other Weigelias do 
 not compare to it. 
 
 VIBURNUM PLICATUM, or Snowball, has better 
 qualities and is more substantial and attractive 
 than the Weigelia. One or two specimens should 
 be used along the paths or driveway. 
 
 HIBISCUS SYRIACUS, or Althea, is a shrub that 
 you will find in the old yards, very often grown 
 into a large tree that every August becomes laden 
 down with its Hollyhock-like flowers. The oldest 
 colours were white and rose-pink, and a rather un- 
 attractive purple which one can do without very 
 well, although it is quite quaint in its homeliness. 
 These shrubs were plentifully planted near the 
 house, or as screens along paths, and as they grow 
 old they have a habit of bending over so that 
 they present a venerable appearance. Althea is 
 necessary for old-fashioned " colour " in the yard, 
 
152 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 and is also desirable to plant because of its 
 strength and vigour. 
 
 DEUTZIA CRENATA bears a white flower in June 
 and grows into a large shrub of graceful habit. It 
 should be planted against a background of trees 
 or hedges, on the outskirts of the lawn, with some 
 low-growing plant at its base, such as German Iris, 
 for the lower parts of the branches are bare. 
 
 The FLOWERING ALMOND was always to be found 
 in New England dooryards. It is a small shrub 
 bearing myriads of tiny Rose-shaped flowers strung 
 along its branches before the leaves appear; there 
 is a white and a pink variety. It is a good shrub 
 for the garden as it blooms very early, and its 
 associations are old-fashioned and respectable. 
 
 Another old-fashioned shrub about which much 
 mystery and sentiment hangs is the CALYCANTHUS 
 FLORIDUS, or Strawberry Shrub, whose reddish- 
 brown inconspicuous blossoms have a strong Pine- 
 apple odour, quite pungent and very acceptable 
 to childish nostrils. Be sure to have two or three 
 of these bushes clumped together somewhere in 
 the yard against the fence, at the end of a path 
 slightly secluded for your children would miss an 
 
GOOD SHRUBS FOR THE YARD 153 
 
 important part of their childhood were they to 
 grow up strangers to this bush's mysterious spell. 
 It has a soothing effect and a sympathetic one, 
 and children are apt to seek it when overwhelmed 
 by fancied troubles that they cannot unburthen to 
 their elders, or plunged in the unexplainable mel- 
 ancholy that they sometimes experience, and that 
 is unfathomable even by their mothers. 
 
 HYPERICUM PROLIFICUM is a little yellow-flow- 
 ering shrub that grows well and blooms in the 
 shade. It is useful along wooded paths where a 
 little colour is needed in Summertime and is so 
 hard to procure. 
 
 CALIFORNIA PRIVET (Ligustrum ovalifoliwri) is 
 an effective shrub when used as a specimen. Its 
 colour is good and it holds its leaves so long that 
 it could almost be called an evergreen without 
 stretching the imagination very far. It is of very 
 quick growth and may be shaped readily with the 
 shears into a rotund bush, which makes a very 
 good supplement to a wooden gatepost. Privet 
 is easily transplanted and it is possible to move 
 large specimens without risk. It will do much 
 better if freely supplied with water and the foliage 
 
154 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 occasionally sprayed, if the hose is handy; in Mid- 
 summer it should be mulched with lawn clippings 
 to keep the soil from drying around the roots. 
 
 The BUSH HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera tartarica) 
 was introduced many years ago from Russia, but 
 became naturalized in the neighbourhood of New 
 York and was a feature of the old Westchester 
 County gardens, in whose ruins it can be found 
 to-day long after the houses have disappeared. It 
 is almost evergreen, retaining its leaves well into 
 January. It is long lived and attains a large size, 
 becoming in time quite as gnarled and picturesque 
 as the White Lilac. At the end of April just be- 
 fore the leaves appear its long, gracefully drooping 
 branches are completely covered with a sweet- 
 scented blossom like the old-fashioned honeysuckle, 
 only the flowers are smaller and of an exquisitely 
 delicate construction. Large specimens of this de- 
 sirable shrub may be successfully moved, and if 
 you could find one it would prove a great addition 
 to your grounds. 
 
 RHODODENDRON MAXIMUM, the native Rhodo- 
 dendron which is very common in Pennsylvania 
 and southwards, and is found also in New England 
 
GOOD SHRUBS FOR THE YARD 157 
 
 and New York, has been used much for naturaliz- 
 ing in the past few years. In fact it has been used 
 too much, especially on large estates where it is 
 thickly plastered over every available space. The 
 first thing a millionaire does after closing the pur- 
 chase of a tract of land on which to build a mansion, 
 is to order a train-load of Rhododendrons. He 
 evidently seems to think that he thus establishes 
 beyond doubt his status in the county. Rhodo- 
 dendrons are much more effective when used spar- 
 ingly, and planted not too close together, for they 
 grow into dense masses of thickly matted foliage 
 and crowd each other out in a short time. A few 
 Rhododendrons are a great addition to a small 
 place a carload or so is a detriment. The loca- 
 tion for them is in partial shade along the edge of 
 the wood, on slightly rising or uneven ground. A 
 good clump thus placed where it will be seen at a 
 slight distance from the driveway is more enjoy- 
 able, and looks better than enormous plantations 
 stretching in all directions like a nursery. They 
 will not grow on limestone soil; they prefer a light, 
 sandy loam, and once established in this they arc 
 not much care except that they should be kept 
 
158 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 from drying out. In very hot weather towards 
 the end of Summer they should be watered, and a 
 mulch of rotted manure applied during July. If 
 you live in the latitude of New York or northward 
 procure your plants from New England or northern 
 New York. In some localities they are found in 
 profusion and it is easy to transplant large speci- 
 mens. The broad-leaved LAUREL (Kalmia lati- 
 Jolid), a near relation of the Rhododendron, is a 
 valuable shrub, considered by many even superior 
 to the Rhododendron. It is an ideal shrub to have 
 near the house as its form is most attractive and 
 its bloom superb. The Laurel blooms a little later 
 than the Rhododendron, and it is well to combine 
 the two as they look much alike and, when thus 
 used, the blooming season of the clump will be pro- 
 longed. When Rhododendrons are taken from the 
 woods they are apt to be imperfect in conformation, 
 and therefore not as desirable for specimens to use 
 near the house as the nursery grown hybrids that 
 are imported from Holland and England. English 
 Rhododendrons are by far the better grown; among 
 those that are recommended by W. Robinson, the 
 English authority, and which are hardy, are: 
 
GOOD SHRUBS FOR THE YARD 161 
 
 ALBUM ELEGANS BLANDYANUM 
 ALBUM GRANDIFLORA CARACTACUS 
 C. BAGLEY C. DICKENS 
 
 EVERESTIANUM LADY ARMSTRONG 
 
 LADY CLAREMONT PURPUREUM ELEGANS 
 ROSEUM ELEGANS H. W. SARGENT 
 Both the Laurel and Rhododendron are evergreen. 
 When the blossoms have faded pick off the seed 
 pods so the strength of the plant will not be wasted. 
 Rhododendrons only bloom profusely every other 
 year. 
 
 Lilies grown in the bed with Rhododendrons and 
 Laurel not only do very well but present a most 
 charming appearance. Lilies need the shelter that 
 the Rhododendrons so well supply, as they are sus- 
 ceptible to late frosts and are injured by the buf- 
 fetings of the wind which they do not well with- 
 stand. And then Lilies do better in the partial 
 shade where Rhododendrons should be placed. The 
 bright, glossy leaves of the shrubs make an ideal 
 background and base for the graceful nodding caps 
 and bells. Use Lilium longiflorum, Lilium umbella- 
 tum, Lilium tigrinum, Lilium candidum, Lilium 
 auratum for a succession. 
 
162 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 HOLLY is a most decorative plant, especially 
 when it is old enough to bear the bright red berries. 
 The use of Holly and other evergreens in religious 
 ceremonies dates from pagan times and it is con- 
 sidered in these days a welcome addition to Yule- 
 tide; in fact it has grown to be a part of Christ- 
 mas itself. It is hard to nurse the English Holly 
 through a northern Winter unless some protection 
 is given to it. It is a good shrub for the yard, and 
 should be planted where it may be seen from the 
 house; it is far too attractive to waste its sweetness 
 on the desert air, as it well might if planted in the 
 garden, for it is in Winter that it is at its best. 
 
 The NATIVE HOLLY (Ilex opaca) which is found 
 from Massachusetts southwards to Florida grows 
 into a tree ten to thirty feet in height, with a com- 
 pact head of spreading branches. It is particu- 
 larly good in Virginia and was used there quite 
 often near the house. It is not often found in 
 northern gardens, although there is no reason why 
 effective and beautiful hedges could not be made 
 of it. 
 
 The best small trees and shrubs to plant, in the 
 order named, are: 
 
GOOD SHRUBS FOR THE YARD 
 
 163 
 
 Trees 
 
 NATIVE WHITE FLOW- 
 ERING DOGWOOD 
 NATIVE RED THORN 
 LABURNUM 
 MAGNOLIA 
 
 Evergreen Shrubs 
 Box 
 HOLLY 
 
 RHODODENDRON 
 LAUREL 
 
 Shrubs 
 LILAC 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 TARTARIAN HONEY 
 
 SUCKLE 
 FORSYTHIA 
 VIBURNUM 
 DEUTZIA 
 WEIGELIA 
 HYPERICUM 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 WALLS OF STONE AND BRICK 
 
 HE most ungainly 
 fence that has ever 
 been devised is made 
 by running lengths of 
 gas pipe through upright 
 wooden posts, and coup- 
 ling them together. From 
 an aesthetic point of view such a fence 
 has not one redeeming feature, its ugli- 
 ness stands out uncompromisingly and 
 detracts from whatever beauty the house 
 and grounds may possess. It is strong 
 and easy to construct, and is quite cheap 
 considering its substance; and it has a 
 smug, neat appearance that many people 
 cannot resist. They excuse the use of it 
 by saying that they intend to cover it 
 quickly with vines. They may cover 
 it but they cannot hide it; the most 
 165 
 
166 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 luxurious tropical growth would be unable to veil 
 its protruding personality. You would know it 
 was a gas-pipe fence if it was boarded up and vines 
 trained over the boards, and you would shudder 
 when you passed it and instinctively anathematize 
 the plumber that invented it. If men arc known 
 by their works you would recognize a man who 
 built such a fence around his yard or garden as 
 one who, although he might be rich, yet was penu- 
 rious; perhaps kind to his wife and children, but 
 possessing no real affection; and you would pity 
 his family. You would place him as a tradesman 
 who had risen from the ranks, but who certainly 
 deserved to be degraded again, and sum up by 
 adding that whatever he was he possessed no soul; 
 for souls and gas-pipe fencing are farther apart 
 than earth and Heaven. 
 
 A wire fence is not so bad because it is incon- 
 spicuous; it is often necessary to erect one to keep 
 the grounds and garden inviolate from marauding 
 dogs and fowls, and a hedge can be grown around 
 it, quickly obliterating its outlines from the land- 
 scape. When a hedge is used, however, a gas-pipe 
 fence is unnecessary, because it cannot keep out 
 
WALLS OF STONE AXD BRICK 169 
 
 small animals, and cows and horses know enough 
 to go around through the gateway. The posts of 
 a wire fence should be made so light and thin that 
 they are almost invisible. 
 
 Next in ugliness to the gas-pipe fence is the wall 
 that is made of mortar, with stones of various 
 shapes and sizes stuck into it after the manner of 
 raisins and almonds in a plum cake, presenting a 
 very rococo appearance. Field stones laid in mor- 
 tar, with deeply sunken joints, is a modified form 
 of this atrocity. These walls are extremely com- 
 monplace and should be used only with houses 
 built of field stone or in the rustic or Swiss chalet 
 style, on a mountain-side, or in a primitive coun- 
 try, if they are used at all. They should never 
 appear near a garden, for the beauty of beautiful 
 flowers is degraded by their coarse ugliness. At 
 seashore colonies on rockbound coasts they are 
 often found; and the dajuntless Nasturtium is the 
 only flower that can be used near them without 
 appearing ridiculous. At one time they were sup- 
 posed to be artistic; it must have been when the 
 tide of art was at very low ebb in this country. 
 These walls are insults to nature when used among 
 
170 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 beautiful wild trees such as Oaks, and cry out dis- 
 cordantly in semi-formal arrangements. At the 
 present time one finds them around jerry-built 
 houses of hideous architecture and gaudy colour- 
 ing. And in such surroundings they are more at 
 home. 
 
 The old, rather loosely jointed stone walls that 
 are common in New York and New England are 
 very picturesque, and if your place is enclosed by 
 one you should retain it by all means. A stone 
 mason will set it to rights in a short time, level it 
 up, fill in the holes, straighten the large stones and 
 rehabilitate it generally, at a small expense. 
 Good capstones should be laid to keep the other 
 stones in place, and Honeysuckles, Roses or Vir- 
 ginia Creeper planted to run over them. You 
 will find that the effect cannot be improved. 
 
 If you decide to have a wall build a dry one, 
 that is, one that is laid up without mortar. Do 
 not let the mason construct it in too smooth a 
 manner, but try to get the effect of an old wall. 
 The Italian stone masons are very expert at this 
 work (and nearly every Italian is a stone mason) 
 and if there are any old walls on your place, or 
 
Old Stone Wall. 
 
WALLS OF STONE AND BRICK 173 
 
 any stones left from the excavation of your cellar, 
 you cannot use them in a better or a more econom- 
 ical way; such a wall will last forever. In work 
 of this kind it is always best to use native stone 
 and not to import any of strange tones or colours. 
 
 Walls of cut stone are only appropriate for elab- 
 orate parks when the house is built of cut stone. 
 The character of the walls and fences should be 
 determined by the character of the house, espe- 
 cially if they will be seen together. You do not 
 want your gateway to appear as if it had been con- 
 structed for some mansion that has since been 
 destroyed, and was utilized to save the bother 
 of building another. 
 
 Walls are too massive and heavy to use for gar- 
 den enclosures, unless they are connected with the 
 house to form a forecourt, for instance, or unless 
 the features of the land demand them, when the 
 garden can be placed in their shelter. A small 
 garden situated on the lawn, or near it, should not 
 be enclosed by a wall; a picket fence or a hedge is 
 far better. The custom of shutting in a garden 
 with high walls is not followed in America except 
 when such a course is necessary to secure privacy; 
 
174 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 the sentiment of the country is opposed to it. The 
 walled grounds and gardens of England are survi- 
 vals of mediaeval days when one's neighbours were 
 inquisitive and generally obnoxious. We admire 
 
 Picket Fence on a Low Brick Wall 
 
 them as curiosities, quaint relics of the past, but 
 we should not long to imitate them. 
 
 By far the best material to use for walls on a 
 small place is brick, the ordinary, everyday brick 
 that is made on Long Island or in the Hudson val- 
 ley, not the smooth, weirdly red pressed brick that 
 is used for chimney pieces and the fronts of houses. 
 Harvard brick is a pretty good colour and texture, 
 though a little dark, but if you use it eschew the 
 black headers for they give a speckled, artificial 
 effect that is out of place in a garden. The com- 
 mon brick ages rapidly; the red softens down and 
 the lines lose their hardness. Near the coast where 
 
WALLS OF STONE AND BRICK 175 
 
 there is a great deal of moisture it looks antique 
 in a year's time. It is soft and brittle, too, and 
 wears and crumbles away in the most enchanting 
 manner. It gives the needed colour to a garden 
 in Winter, and most flowers look well growing 
 against or near it; altogether it is most desirable 
 if it can be used without appearing to strain for 
 effect. Face a retaining wall with brick, or build 
 brick piers at the corners of the garden between 
 the hedges. For making a flight of steps it is far 
 and away ahead of stone; and it combines excel- 
 lently with the materials that are most used in 
 the construction of small houses, brick, stucco, 
 shingles or clapboards. 
 
 The best stone to trim brick with is marble, but 
 unless marble is used in trimming the house it 
 would be too conspicuous in the garden. Blue- 
 stone is bad; never use it to cap brick walls or 
 make steps of, especially dressed or cut bluestone. 
 The best cap for a brick wall is what masons call 
 a rowlock, bricks stood on their sides and over- 
 hanging the wall for two or three inches front and 
 back. The rowlock cap was used extensively in 
 the South where bricks were a favourite material 
 
176 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 in all construction. There are miles of beautiful 
 walls in Annapolis, Maryland, capped this way, 
 or with the round moulded cap which makes an 
 
 Q 
 
 OJnOnH 
 
 Another Wall with Picket Fence 
 
 attractive finish. You can get moulded bricks 
 nowadays, but be sure that they are of the same 
 character and colour as those used in the wall. 
 
 Walls under six feet in height are usually made 
 one foot thick, but eight inches is sufficient if the 
 wall is built in the right way, with three courses 
 of stretchers and then one of headers, and the 
 joints filled in with good mortar made of Portland 
 cement. If you are afraid the rowlock cap will not 
 withstand the weather, let the mason float three- 
 eighths of an inch of Portland cement over it. This 
 is a good precaution in Northern climates and does 
 
WALLS OF STONE AND BRICK 177 
 
 not detract much from the effect of the wall. The 
 foundation for a wall should be at least three feet 
 and a half deep, or down to solid rock; otherwise 
 the frost will be sure to get under it and throw it. 
 
 Old Southern Wall with Moulded Brick Cap 
 
 Above is a picture of an old Southern wall with 
 a moulded cap; and on the next page can be 
 
178 
 
 COMMON SENSE GAKDEXS 
 
 seen a wall around the garden of a house near Bal- 
 timore that was built in 1773. Note how ex- 
 tremely well the house and wall combine. Never 
 use tile, especially glazed tile, to cap a brick wall; 
 no finish at all would be preferable. 
 
 The Southerners used a very good combination 
 of brick wall and picket fence; there is such an 
 enclosure on one side of the garden at Mt. Vernon. 
 On page 174 there is a reproduction of this fence 
 which has been built to make a forecourt for a 
 
 Old Brick Wall with Moulded Cap 
 
 house of Colonial design, and to shut off the 
 kitchen garden from the lawn. The trees around 
 it are very old, pyramidal-shaped Cedars, and 
 
WALLS OF STONE AND BRICK 179 
 
 there is a large Pin Oak at one end of it. They 
 all look as if they had grown up together, the hap- 
 piest of families. The fence combines so well with 
 the house that it seems to be a part of it, and the 
 whole effect is decorative and old fashioned. The 
 gate of the fence is a slight modification of the 
 
 Brick Retaining Wall 
 
 gate at Mt. Vernon. The rounded pickets of the 
 fence are used in the top panels instead of the 
 square, pointed ones of the original; otherwise it 
 is a faithful reproduction. It is a good rule 
 when copying old forms to stick to the originals 
 as closely as possible, and make them fit into the 
 surroundings. On page 176 there is another ex- 
 ample of this style of fence with long and short 
 pickets morticed into the rails. 
 
 The drawing shows a retaining wall built of stone 
 and faced with brick. Such walls are inexpensive 
 to build and are very effective. The one illustrated 
 was placed in a small garden that is a little below 
 
180 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 the level of the lawn. A straight path between 
 Privet hedges leads from the front porch to a flight 
 of brick steps, and along the top of the wall a low 
 Privet hedge has been planted. It forms a charm- 
 ing background for Hollyhocks, and Lilies and 
 
 Old English Gate 
 
 Larkspur, and although only four years old it has 
 become soft and subdued. 
 
 The handgate shown here is a simple one and 
 could be reproduced with good effect; do not use 
 elaborate gates for they do not belong to this 
 period, or style of wall. The picket fence that is 
 used on a brick wall should always be painted 
 
WALLS OF STOXE AND BRICK 183 
 
 white. Whitewash gives a better colour if you can 
 make it so that the first shower will not wash it 
 off, a thing that I have never been able to do. 
 Powdered rice is mixed with it to make it stick. 
 If whitewash is to be used, the posts and pickets 
 should be made of rough, unplaned wood. 
 
 The most charming results were produced in the 
 South with bricks, the people seeming to under- 
 stand their possibilities there better than in any 
 other part of the country. But the South was 
 more prosperous then than New England, and 
 bricks were an expensive material; for some years 
 they had to be imported from England. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 FENCES AND HEDGES 
 
 PICKET fences of the 
 same character as 
 those seen in com- 
 bination with brick 
 walls, make good enclos- 
 ures for gardens. The use 
 of pickets or palings dates 
 at least from the sixteenth century, when 
 Englishmen utilized them if brick and 
 stone, their favourite materials, could 
 not be procured. They painted them 
 green, but the Colonial fences from which 
 those of to-day are patterned were in- 
 variably white. The later Colonial archi- 
 tecture is a modification of the Georgian, 
 which has left its impress on many parts 
 of the Eastern States. It was adapted 
 by the colonists to the climate and their 
 pocketbooks, and thus became softened 
 185 
 
186 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 and toned down to a pleasing extent. A white 
 picket fence with a few good vines trained over some 
 of the posts and along the pickets, makes a very 
 light and graceful enclosure that is an addition to 
 the setting of a shingled house, or one of stucco or 
 brick. 
 
 The posts of such a fence should be made of 
 Chestnut or Locust (the latter is the more dura- 
 ble), and it is better to tar the ends that are put 
 in the ground. The cap is built on, and should 
 be surmounted by a finial of some sort to set it 
 off, an urn or a ball or an acorn. The urn is 
 Georgian, the acorn is found on fences in England 
 of a much earlier period, and is appropriate in the 
 neighbourhood of Oak trees. Such finials can be 
 turned at any mill, but as soon as they leave the 
 lathe they should be set in linseed oil and left 
 until thoroughly saturated; then given a heavy 
 coat of white lead, for otherwise they will check 
 and split off when exposed to the weather. 
 
 The arched gateway on page 1 89 is a simple one, 
 but of ancient origin. In the "Romance of the 
 Rose" there is an illumination of a garden that 
 dates from the fifteenth century, and in it there 
 
Box Walk ; Mt. Veriion. 
 
FENCES AND HEDGES 
 
 189 
 
 is a gateway dividing a fence that is practically 
 identical in form and appearance to this one. The 
 garden was surrounded by an embattlemented wall. 
 
 
 Arched Gateways 
 
 The gateway in the picture is reproduced from one 
 that stands in an old garden at Portsmouth, New 
 Hampshire. On the next page a section of fence is 
 pictured. Such a fence is not expensive to build 
 and the effect is good. Vines should be trained 
 on the posts, and used with discretion on the 
 pickets. Light vines such as Clematis, Rose, 
 Honeysuckle or Virginia Creeper are the best 
 
190 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 kinds. On page 193 are some good posts that 
 may be used with either fences or hedges. 
 
 Box, Privet, Hemlock, Arbor Vitsc, Holly and 
 Spruce are suitable for hedges. A hedge is really 
 the best thing with which to enclose a garden, 
 or the path leading to one, if it is situated on 
 the lawn. A hedge needs some setting off, how- 
 ever, and brick piers or painted wooden posts 
 (page 193) should be used for the four corners 
 and entrance; or for the latter a wooden arch as 
 seen on the previous page. A good combination 
 of hedge and arch is shown opposite, to use 
 for a path when a partly arboured pathway is 
 desired. The arches may be covered with either 
 
 RfifiRf 
 
 RfiflfOlflflR 
 
 ^Qoooooonfir 
 
 MiiiifiiiM 
 
 jj|0oo 
 
 
 
 !;'_ _ 
 
 
 iu 
 
 A Picket Fence 
 
 Honeysuckles or Roses; the former are really better 
 for they carry their blossoms nearly all Summer 
 and are almost evergreen; in fact by the time 
 
FENCES AND HEDGES 
 
 193 
 
 they lose their leaves most people have lost their 
 interest in outdoors for the season. If you use 
 Roses plant Wichurianas, or their hybrids, for their 
 foliage, though of delicate construction, is a rich 
 dark green that holds well, and is not much pestered 
 by insects. The Ramblers are really worthless for 
 any position that will be prominent the whole sea- 
 son. Privet can be used for the hedge part, al- 
 though Box would be better; or Roses or Honey- 
 suckles may be festooned from post to post instead 
 of the hedge; or both used and the hedge kept 
 
 Some Posts for Fences or Hedges 
 
 low. If the posts are used without a hedge they 
 should have bases built on like the caps. 
 
194 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Hemlock is fine hedge material. It has a grace- 
 ful, feathery growth and, when clipped well, presents 
 a smooth appearance, the fine foliage interlacing. 
 If grown for a hedge the top should be bevelled, 
 for if left flat the snow and ice will lodge on it and 
 weigh it down, destroying the lighter branches. 
 Hemlock does well in the shade, which is more 
 than can be said of most plants that are appro- 
 priate for hedges. It should be protected from the 
 sun the first Winter, especially if it is on the south 
 side of a wall or fence, or else it will be scalded. 
 When planting, cut back the tops, and do not trim 
 it the first year or two. The Hemlock hedge on 
 the next page is on the south side of a wall, but is 
 well shaded by the Elms and Maples that sur- 
 round it. It composes beautifully with the old dry 
 rubble that shelters it from the north winds. 
 
 Privet is a shrub that has been roundly abused 
 both in England and America; some people have 
 given up planting it because they consider it too 
 commonplace; others have torn it out for the same 
 reason and replaced it with something not half so 
 good. Nurserymen recommend other plants to 
 take its place, and one that they seem to favour 
 
FENCES AND HEDGES 197 
 
 at the present time is Japanese Barberry. Bar- 
 berry is an attractive, low growing shrub, but as 
 it cannot be trimmed effectively it is useless where 
 a good hedge effect is wanted. Ilex Crenata, Jap- 
 anese Holly, makes a nice hedge, but it is not 
 hardy much north of Richmond. 
 
 California Privet is of very quick growth and 
 possesses so many good qualities that it should 
 not be ignored. If you have a hedge of it and can 
 afford the room in your kitchen garden, or some 
 out-of-the-way corner of your place, you can prop- 
 agate good plants from the clippings. These will 
 come in very handy either to set new hedges with, 
 or to fill up gaps that may occasionally occur in 
 the old one. Plant the cuttings with two eyes in 
 the ground and two eyes out, and use the stoutest 
 shoots you can get. Transplant them in the Spring 
 and thereafter prune them into shapely specimens. 
 Although Privet is not evergreen it retains its 
 colour and leaves into Winter, and when once it 
 starts to grow in Spring it progresses rapidly. In 
 fact, one drawback to Privet as a hedge is the 
 frequency with which it has to be clipped in the 
 growing season. 
 
198 COMMON SENSE GARDEN^ 
 
 Mature Privet does not seem to be affected much 
 by drought unless planted very near rock, but it 
 can absorb a great deal of moisture and does better 
 when provided with it; young plants should be 
 carefully watered in dry seasons to assure their 
 good health. It will grow in partial shade but will 
 not thrive there; the part of a hedge that is under 
 the trees always looks scraggly and mean. In 
 some parts of New England, in exposed positions, 
 Privet cannot be successfully grown. It will do 
 well apparently in any ordinary soil, but its de- 
 velopment is wonderful in light loam. Be sure to 
 top dress the plants in the Fall, and fork in the 
 old manure in the Spring. 
 
 If a Privet hedge is used to enclose a garden, 
 have paths parallel it, and leave only a space of 
 two feet or so between the paths and the hedge. 
 The stone filling of the path will keep the roots of 
 the Privet from intruding on the garden, and from 
 sucking up the moisture and substance from the 
 soil. In the bed that borders the hedge you will 
 be able to grow Nasturtiums, but not much else. 
 The tall growing Nasturtium is the best for the 
 purpose, and as it grows it should be trained over 
 
Nasturtiums climbing over Privet Hedge. 
 
FENCES AND HEDGES 201 
 
 the hedge and let fall in festoons on the outside, 
 or along the top. The effect obtained by such a 
 method is distinctly good, as the Nasturtium will 
 be in bloom from the first part of June until frost, 
 and the bright blossoms are well shown off against 
 the dark green of the hedge. In some of the best 
 old gardens of England Nasturtiums are trained in 
 this way up over the high Yew hedges and screens. 
 The seed should be planted about the tenth of 
 April in the neighbourhood of New York, unless 
 the season is very backward. If you would rather 
 you may have the bed between the path and hedge 
 in grass, where you can naturalize clumps of Jap- 
 anese Iris with Crocuses, Tulips and Narcissi 
 growing between them. These may be left undis- 
 turbed as they will have ripened by the time 
 the grass has to be trimmed. 
 
 To obtain the best results with Privet as a hedge 
 use three-year-old plants, and set them out in two 
 alternate rows, fourteen inches apart, and eight or 
 ten inches apart in the rows. When they become 
 established in this way the branches interweave 
 and form a compact, sturdy mass, and so support 
 each other that the snow and ice of the severest 
 
202 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Winters will not break them down. A hedge may 
 also be made with a single row with less expense, 
 the double row only being used when a particu- 
 larly substantial result is desired. After setting 
 out Privet cut it back to the height of eight or ten 
 inches, and keep the pruning shears well employed 
 for the first and second seasons at least. Such 
 treatment will make the bushes strong and stocky 
 
 Old Box Hedge near Baltimore 
 
 and cause them to furnish close to the ground, so 
 that in the end it will be possible to trim the hedge 
 square, and produce a clean cut wall of living 
 green. After the hedge is well started you should 
 cut back into the old wood every year, when you 
 
FENCES AND HEDGES 203 
 
 first trim it. Beyond the clipping, a Privet hedge 
 takes pretty good care of itself. 
 
 Privet is a very good material for an amateur 
 "topiarius" to practice on. It grows so rapidly 
 that mistakes are quickly covered up, and with a 
 little care it may be shaped into almost any form. 
 Buttresses may be made to hedges, and piers 
 with finials, and the top of the hedge between the 
 columns gracefully turned. Pleaching, however, 
 should be done with a level and a line if you ex- 
 pect to get satisfactory results. This sort of work 
 is very amusing and interesting, and adds to the 
 general effect of the grounds; but a little goes far 
 on a small place. 
 
 Box is an expensive plant to use for hedging pur- 
 poses, but there is nothing so good. The same ef- 
 fect cannot be got with Privet or Hemlock or any 
 other hedge plant. It is not feasible to move an 
 old hedge, as it is almost impossible to fit it to- 
 gether again, although some nurserymen claim to be 
 able to accomplish the feat. Plants of Tree Box 
 can be procured from the nursery fifteen to thirty- 
 six inches in height, and those that have been al- 
 lowed to grow in their natural way should be 
 
204 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 selected. They are generally more or less pyram- 
 idal in form, terminating in a slightly pointed 
 top, sometimes in two tops. Set these bushes 
 close together, cut the tops off and trim the sides 
 level; they will make a very good beginning for a 
 hedge, but should not be allowed to grow upwards 
 until they have grown well into each other. Such 
 a hedge should be carefully fertilized every year, 
 and if it is in a slightly exposed position it should 
 be protected with a screen of boards until well 
 established. It will not be necessary to board the 
 hedge up, in fact this is really worse for it than 
 no protection at all. Cover the butts with coarse 
 litter or salt-grass, and give plenty of manure 
 w r ater during the Summer, and especially during 
 the growing season. On the next page there is a 
 photograph of an old hedge in Westchester 
 County, New York, which for many years has been 
 well established on the top of a stone retaining 
 wall, hedging in the yard. It was badly scarred 
 in the Winter of 1903-05, and at present writ- 
 ing there are many gaps in it which have made 
 the heart of its owner sad. A garden enclosed 
 by a good Box hedge, with posts at the corners 
 
FENCES AND HEDGES 207 
 
 and entrances, makes an ideal decoration for a 
 lawn. 
 
 Arbor Vitsc is often used for making hedges, but 
 as it grows old it is apt to lose some of its lower 
 branches and to present a moth-eaten appearance. 
 A beautiful variety is the golden although a lit- 
 tle too decorative; but occidentalis is perfectly 
 hardy and surer to succeed. 
 
 Native Holly (Ilex opaca) makes an attractive 
 hedge, but I would hardly recommend its use for 
 enclosing a garden in northern latitudes. If you 
 have some position that is sheltered it would repay 
 you to try it, for it is particularly beautiful in 
 Winter. Spruce is too coarse and clumsy for a 
 hedge except on a very large scale, and it will not 
 do well near other trees; it is more valuable for a 
 screen or wind-break. A Spruce hedge does not 
 blend well with a garden of old-fashioned flowers. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 OLD AND NEW ROSES 
 
 L OSES have been iden- 
 tified with Eng- 
 land since be- 
 fore the time of 
 gardens, and in that damp 
 and rather sunless isle they 
 flourish exceedingly, claim- 
 ing more attention than any other flower, 
 and blooming profusely for five months 
 in the year. An Englishman uses Roses 
 everywhere; to him they are emblems, 
 and the chief delight of the countryside 
 where he passes the better part of his 
 life. He trains them over his house and 
 porch, and upon the high walls with 
 which he delights to surround himself, 
 and arches them over the garden paths- 
 he makes hedges of them and colonizes 
 them by themselves in Rose gardens, 
 
 209 
 
210 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 where he spends much of his time studying their 
 habits or watching them grow, revelling finally in 
 their luxurious bloom. Unfortunately in the neigh- 
 bourhood of New York and to the northward, we 
 are limited in the use of Roses; there are compara- 
 tively few varieties that do well under ordinary 
 garden conditions, and that can be brought into 
 satisfactory bloom without the services of a skilled 
 gardener. 
 
 Although a Rosebush is a thing of the most ex- 
 quisite beauty when in flower, its foliage is so sus- 
 ceptible to mildew and rust and the ravages of 
 insects, that by the time the bloom has passed the 
 plant presents a bedraggled appearance, and grows 
 more shabby as the season progresses, so that it 
 detracts from the freshness of its surroundings and 
 casts a sort of blight over the other flowers. If 
 for no better reason space in the garden should 
 be given to but few Roses, and they ought to be 
 so placed that by the end of June they will be 
 overgrown by the other plants, and their shabbi- 
 ness covered up. The principal features of a small 
 garden should be its freshness and vigour, and 
 freedom from any suggestion of disease among the 
 
OLD AND NEW ROSES 213 
 
 flowers which it contains. The long canes that 
 roses throw out quickly after blooming and that 
 should be allowed to grow uncut to develop the 
 bushes properly, are most ungraceful, and give a 
 ragged, neglected aspect to the grounds. The 
 Roses that are used should be arranged so that this 
 awkwardness will be swallowed up by the growth 
 and bloom of the other flowers. 
 
 In the Rose family the one variety that seems 
 to be entirely immune from the attacks of insects 
 is RUGOSA, the Japanese Rose that grows quickly 
 into a bush five or six feet high, thickly clothed 
 with dark green foliage that appears early in the 
 Spring. It bears single white, or reddish pink flow- 
 ers, with a delicate Rose perfume, in May. The 
 haws, or seed pods, are large and bright red, and 
 are quite decorative, for they are conspicuous amid 
 the healthy green foliage. If Rugosa is pruned a 
 little through the Summer it will bloom abundantly 
 until Autumn. This Rose should have a place in 
 the garden, in a corner or somewhere near a path 
 where its perfume will not be entirely lost; its 
 freedom from disease makes it ever welcome to 
 the eye. It is also good along a walk in the yard, 
 
214 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 and will blossom and thrive in partial shade. It 
 is well to remember that the red variety is more 
 vigorous than the white, and will grow into a 
 larger bush. There are hybrids of Rugosa, but they 
 are not as satisfactory as the parent. Blanche 
 Double de Coubert, which bears a double white 
 blossom of much fragrance, is considered the best. 
 Hybrids of this sort have never had much attrac- 
 tion for me; the chief interest and beauty of the 
 original Rugosa is its large single blossom so 
 charmingly borne then somebody comes along 
 and hybridizes it into an Allegheny Hollyhock! 
 Satan certainly finds much mischief for idle hands 
 to do. 
 
 For the sake of association there are several 
 Roses that should be represented somewhere on 
 a small place, and notable among these is the 
 PROVENCE, or Cabbage Rose (Rosa centifolia). Its 
 scent is the typical Rose scent that one associ- 
 ates with the odour of Box; it is the most fragrant 
 of aU Roses. Our grandmothers dried the petals 
 and put them in jars, to which they turned for 
 refreshment during the Winter when the garden 
 was odourless. 
 
Old English Dove Cote. 
 
OLD AND NEW ROSES 217 
 
 The Moss ROSE is a variety of Provence that 
 has a distinct scent of its own, more aromatic than 
 that of the Cabbage ; and a feathery growth around 
 the calyx that got it its folk name. The best Moss 
 Roses are: 
 
 COMMON Moss; pale pink in colour; most useful 
 as a bud. 
 
 WHITE BATH; white, tinged with pink; about 
 the best. 
 
 CRESTED Moss; with mossy bud and crest; very 
 fragrant. 
 
 BLANCHE MOREAU; a beautiful, large rose of 
 good shape; produced in clusters. 
 
 The Moss Roses are all perfectly hardy, but with 
 the exception of Crested Moss are not easy to grow 
 on account of their extreme susceptibility to mil- 
 dew and rust. They should be vigorously pruned, 
 for their growth is wild; and kept out of the flower 
 garden. 
 
 YORK AND LANCASTER (Rosa Gallica) is a red 
 and white striped Rose of ancient origin. They had 
 it in England in the sixteenth century, and Shakes- 
 peare mentions it as one "nor red, nor white, had 
 stol'n of both." It used to be a favourite in the 
 
218 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 old gardens of America, and in the Van Cortland 
 garden, at Croton, New York, there is a specimen 
 which Mrs. Earle estimates to be over a century 
 old; it is still quite vigorous and bears many 
 blossoms every year. York and Lancaster may 
 be had of modern growers, and should be placed 
 in the rose garden, or near a front yard path. 
 
 ROSA LUCIDA is a Rose of American origin which 
 Miss Jekyl, the noted English amateur, says is one 
 of the commonest Roses in old English gardens. 
 She complains that a Rose which has for so long 
 been popular in England has never received an 
 English name. Its nomenclature is derived from 
 the glossy green of its leaves. The flowers are 
 large and single and borne in clusters; they come 
 into bloom in July and last several weeks. This 
 Rose can be supplied by nurserymen, and could be 
 used with good effect for naturalizing in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the garden. 
 
 There were few yellow Roses in the very old gar- 
 dens; for some time BANKSIA was about the only 
 representative of that colour. In the year 1830 
 PERSIAN YELLOW and HARRISON'S YELLOW were 
 introduced, The flowers of the former are of good 
 
OLD AND NEW ROSES 221 
 
 colour but small. Harrison's Yellow bears a me- 
 dium size semi-double flower and blooms much 
 freer than Persian. It makes an attractive-looking 
 bush but should riot be placed in the garden, rather 
 on some distant spot where it may be seen and 
 not heard, for its fair flowers cry to Heaven. If 
 you should by some untoward accident pluck one 
 of the rather tempting, golden blossoms, and in- 
 vestigate it with your nose, it will seem to you as 
 if all the insects in the garden had crawled into 
 it and died. 
 
 There were many Summer Roses grown in the 
 New England yards that have disappeared entirely 
 from present-day gardens. The old yards were 
 overrun with Roses, running, climbing, standing, 
 reclining, and creeping over everything; in June 
 the dooryards must have presented a carnival ap- 
 pearance. When they began to wane, however, 
 the garden lost its interest to a great extent, for 
 these old Summer Roses rarely bloomed more than 
 once in a season. And what a beautiful time the 
 bugs must have had! To-day, the Hardy Perpet- 
 uals and the Teas, and the modern Climbers have 
 taken their places. The English SWEETBRIAR (eg- 
 
222 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 lantine) was brought over at an early date; perhaps 
 it came in the " May flower" along with the ten 
 thousand spinning wheels, chests and chairs that 
 were ferried to the New World. It was so generally 
 cultivated that it escaped to the roadside and mas- 
 querades to-day as a wild Rose. It is unique be- 
 cause of its sweet-scented foliage; and may be had 
 from the nurseries under the name of Rubignosa. 
 An old Rose of much merit because of its bush- 
 like form and plenitude of bloom is MADAME PLAN- 
 TIER, introduced in 1835. The colour of the flow- 
 ers is white and they are borne early in the season; 
 as many as a thousand blossoms have been counted 
 on one bush. If these old Roses are wanted, most 
 of them will have to be sought in the old gardens, 
 from whence the proprietors doubtless will let you 
 take cuttings if you approach them in an humble 
 and reverent spirit. The new Roses of course, do 
 not always console one for the loss of the old; one 
 longs for the sights and the smells of childhood 
 almost as much as for 
 
 " the touch of a vanished hand, 
 And the sound of a voice that is still." 
 
 The perfumes, the sentiment, are not the same. 
 
Stone Steps and Gateway. 
 
OLD AND NEW ROSES 225 
 
 But one cannot have everything, and modern Roses 
 have a beauty and charm of their own that flower 
 lovers cannot fail to appreciate, although in the 
 depths of their hearts they are sure that they do 
 not compare to the less gaudy, though more fra- 
 grant blossoms of the olden days. 
 
 Following is a list of some of the old Roses, with 
 their bloom and some of their characteristics de- 
 scribed briefly. 
 
 DAMASK ROSE, of which Rosa mundi, or York 
 and Lancaster is a variety; used by the colonists 
 for rose water; in the East for attar of roses. 
 
 CRIMSON BOURSAULT (Alpine Rose). 
 
 BANKSIAN; double yellow, from China in 
 1807. 
 
 MUSK ROSE (Rosa Moschata); used in the East 
 for attar of roses. 
 
 The sweet-scented JUNE ROSE of many thorns, 
 common to the dooryards of New England and 
 New York. 
 
 The CINNAMON ROSE; in some parts of England 
 called Whitsuntide, with small flat flowers, and a 
 distinct cinnamon odour. 
 
226 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 SCOTCH BRIAR, or Burnet-leaved Rose; white and 
 yellow, very fragrant. 
 
 ROSA ALBA, or Maiden's Blush; an old cottage 
 garden rose; white and pink. This rose is very 
 susceptible to blight, and was not generally an or- 
 nament to the garden after June. 
 
 The DOG ROSE. 
 
 The BURGUNDY ROSE. 
 
 The BLACK ROSE. 
 
 The FAIRY and GARLAND, two miniature Roses 
 that were especially dear to the hearts of children. 
 
 If you have set your heart on having Perpetual 
 Roses in the flower garden, plant them in the large 
 beds along the paths, eight or nine feet apart, and 
 two feet in from the edging, so that other flowers 
 may be planted in front of them and they will be 
 hidden after the first of July. This treatment is 
 not meant to be recommended as a particularly 
 beneficial one for Roses, although it does not seem 
 to harm them; if any should succumb they may be 
 easily and cheaply replaced. 
 
 ULRICH BRUNNER is one of the best of the Re- 
 montant Roses. Its foliage is particularly healthy 
 and free from insects, and quite thornless; the 
 
OLD AND NEW ROSES 227 
 
 flowers are a deep cherry-red colour, borne on long 
 stems. It blooms freely in late June, and reblooms 
 in September. The growth of this Rose is strong 
 and vigorous, and the buds open out gradually, 
 lasting for a long time whether left in the garden 
 or cut and put in water. The greatest drawback 
 to this plant is its want of compactness, the canes 
 growing to the length of two feet or more before 
 throwing out buds. 
 
 MAGNA CHARTA is a good pink Rose that bears 
 many flowers on rather short stems, so close to- 
 gether in fact that they have the effect of clusters. 
 A strong and vigorous grower, very hardy and 
 making a shapely bush in a short time. Cut off 
 the flowers as they begin to fade or they will hinder 
 the growth of the remaining blossoms. 
 
 GENERAL JACQUEMINOT is the well known dark 
 red Rose that blooms more brilliantly after a severe 
 freezing, and may be grown without the slightest 
 trouble. The flowers are almost worthless for cut- 
 ting as they do not hold their colour. 
 
 COQUETTE DES BLANCHES, a hybrid Noisette 
 Rose, but may be considered and used as a Re- 
 montant. The flower is white, tinged slightly with 
 
228 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 pink. It makes a symmetrical bush, and blossoms 
 rather late, prolonging the Rose season. It is 
 hardy and easy to grow. 
 
 PAUL NEYRON, the largest of all the hardy Roses, 
 but rather difficult to bring into bloom successfully 
 on account of the uncertainty of the buds, and the 
 certainty that the insects will destroy them. This 
 Rose will look shabby and uninteresting unless 
 much attention is given it, and its foliage fre- 
 quently sprayed from the time the leaves begin to 
 appear. 
 
 ANNE DE DIESBACH is a hardy Rose and a good 
 bloomer, bearing many large and deliciously fra- 
 grant flowers of a rich carmine-rose colour. The 
 flowers are of fine form and are very good for cut- 
 ting; stems quite long. A charming Rose, and 
 really next in value to Ulrich Brunner. 
 
 MRS. JOHN LAING, soft pink in colour, with large, 
 fragrant blossoms, and perfectly hardy; a good 
 blooming Rose. 
 
 There is a Polyantha Rose, CLOTHILDE SOUPERT, 
 that should have a place in the garden. It is white 
 in colour often changing to light rose, and two 
 distinct colours are often seen on the same plant. 
 
OLD AND NEW ROSES 229 
 
 There is a pink variety that is also good, but it 
 does not bloom quite so freely as the white. This 
 little Rose bears its flowers in clusters and keeps 
 putting them forth unceasingly from the middle of 
 June until the black frosts; I have found it bloom- 
 ing in the garden after several days of hard freezing 
 weather. It is of a most modest disposition and 
 will, consent to bloom unseen for an indefinite pe- 
 riod. It has been forgotten in the garden and 
 allowed to become completely smothered by the 
 rank Midsummer growth of Dahlia, Phlox, Zinnia, 
 etc., and yet appeared smilingly, covered with 
 bloom after a heavy frost had mowed down its 
 more susceptible companions. It has never re- 
 quired more protection in Winter than the perpet- 
 ual Roses. 
 
 Transplant Remontant Roses in the Fall if pos- 
 sible ; if not, then very early in the Spring, in March, 
 while they are still dormant and when the frost is 
 just out of the ground. If the season is rainless 
 watch them carefully and be sure that they do 
 not dry out. Very good Roses are grown in Cali- 
 fornia, much better than in Holland, and these 
 should be used if you cannot obtain plants from 
 
230 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 some Northern nursery. Dormant Roses set out 
 in the Spring will not bloom well the first year, 
 and will be a little later than those established in 
 your garden; but by filling out with dormant 
 stock each year you will prolong the blooming sea- 
 son to quite an extent. If dormant Roses are dried 
 out when they are received bury them in a damp 
 trench for two or three days, and they will come 
 to life again. 
 
 Remontant Roses do better in clay soil but will 
 grow perfectly well in good garden loam. If pos- 
 sible, get Roses that have been grown on their own 
 roots, but if they are budded plants, set the bud 
 three inches underground and cut off any shoots 
 that are thrown off below it, as soon as they ap- 
 pear. These you will be able to recognize as they 
 differ in character from the budded growth. The 
 roots of Roses should not come in contact with 
 stable manure; if you use a shovelful in the ex- 
 cavation cover it up with three inches of good soil 
 and let the roots find it. Cow manure is the best 
 to use. As soon as the buds start in the Spring 
 saturate the ground around the roots with manure- 
 water (half cow, half horse), of the colour of fairly 
 
OLD AND NEW ROSES 231 
 
 strong tea, twice a week until after blooming time. 
 You will find that the flowers will be improved in 
 size and borne more profusely. 
 
 Some English gardeners in the Spring lay down 
 two or three of the long shoots of the Hardy Per- 
 petual Roses, merely cutting off a couple of inches 
 from the ends, and peg them to the ground. The 
 other shoots are pruned back. In this way more 
 bloom may be had, but of course the method should 
 only be employed in the Rose bed or Rose garden. 
 The next year these shoots are cut off and other 
 shoots pegged down to take their places. 
 
 The Perpetual Roses that have been described 
 are quite able to withstand the hardest Winter in 
 the latitude of New York, and there is no neces- 
 sity for providing straw wrappers for them, or for 
 laying them down and covering them up with straw 
 or leaves. A good mulch of coarse manure mixed 
 with long straw is all they need, with some cow 
 manure spaded in lightly in the Spring. There- 
 after the ground about their roots and between the 
 plants should be kept loosened with a hoe until 
 the Roses have bloomed; after which time once 
 every two weeks will suffice for cultivation. If you 
 
232 
 
 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 wish to have healthy plants and good flowers, the 
 ground must be kept loose and fine. 
 
 The Roses in the flower garden need not be 
 pruned back so vigorously as those that are grown 
 for specimen blooms. The idea in the garden is to 
 make attractive looking bushes that will be covered 
 in due season with flowers. Cut back the plants 
 in the Spring to the height of one or one and a half 
 feet, leaving the thick shoots the longest, and re- 
 moving all of the dead wood. 
 
 Rose Beck 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 EVER-BLOOMING AND CLIMBING ROSES AND VINES 
 
 ONTHLY, or 
 Ever - blooming 
 Roses, need 
 much more care 
 than the Hybrid Perpet- 
 uals and, unless given it 
 will be apt to prove a dis- 
 appointment. Although they are called 
 Ever-blooming few of them blossom con- 
 tinuously throughout the season, and 
 the name is misleading. They have to 
 be watered and sprayed and coddled to 
 keep them in good health; and their 
 leaves watched for mildew, which is pre- 
 vented by sprinkling powdered sulphur 
 over them early in the morning, when 
 they are still wet from the dew. The soil 
 in the beds should be kept loose and 
 fine and frequently moistened, especially 
 233 
 
234 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 during the hottest days of our dry and trying 
 Summers. 
 
 They are not hardy and should be covered in 
 Winter. The best way to do this is to fence the 
 beds in with wire netting two and a half or three 
 feet high, and fill the enclosure with leaves, laying 
 down the long shoots so that they will be well cov- 
 ered up. A few cornstalks or scraggs should be 
 laid on top of the leaves to keep them from blowing 
 away. This will provide a good protection, and the 
 roses will emerge all right in the Spring if the mice 
 have not eaten them up. To guard against such 
 an appalling contingency "rat biskit" should be 
 plentifully crumbled up on the bed before covering 
 it, and some of the pieces of the poisoned cracker 
 scattered through the leaves. In April when the 
 covering is removed the bed should be spaded up 
 to the depth of three or four inches, and some well- 
 rotted manure, which should be two years old to 
 insure the best results, worked in. As soon as the 
 leaves appear begin to spray them with a mixture 
 of tobacco and whale oil that comes in cakes like 
 soap, and may be dissolved in a pail or watering 
 pot as you wish to use it. 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 237 
 
 It is better to grow Ever-blooming Roses in beds 
 by themselves, or in a Rose garden where you may 
 pick the flowers every day and their beauty will 
 not be missed. Perpetual Roses grown in the same 
 manner will give more satisfaction, too, than if 
 they are scattered through the flower garden. If 
 you cannot make a Rose garden, prepare a few beds 
 in some out-of-the-way corner of the place, that is 
 \vell drained and protected from Winter winds, 
 where the plants will get the early morning and 
 the afternoon sun, and will be partially protected 
 from the blistering heat of midday. If you locate 
 such a bed with an eye to the future, some day 
 you may be able to work it up into a Rose garden ; 
 enlarged, enclosed by a hedge or fence, and more 
 extensively planted. On page 232 is given the 
 plan of a collection of Rose beds that will hold 
 about a hundred Roses; and on page 235 the same 
 beds appear elaborated into a garden. 
 
 Ever-blooming Roses require a good loam, or 
 compost, richly fertilized with old stable manure. 
 They should be set two feet and a half each way 
 in the beds, so that they will have plenty of light 
 and air, and sufficient soil to nourish them prop- 
 
238 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 erly. Do not plant Roses too near the roots of 
 large trees, and be sure that the bed is well drained, 
 for damp, soggy ground is the worst place to grow 
 Roses. 
 
 One of the newest and best of the Ever-blooming 
 class is KILLARNEY, a beautiful pink Rose with an 
 unusually long and graceful bud, suggesting in 
 shape forgotten Catherine Mermet. The pink is 
 of a very delicate but fresh shade. This is an Irish 
 Rose, and has become popular with florists who 
 force it and use it instead of the long popular 
 Bridesmaid, which is of a more solid pink. Kil- 
 larney is a faithful bloomer, and the buds and flow- 
 ers have so much character and beauty that three 
 or four are all that is needed for a vase. This is 
 a hybrid Tea rose of vigorous growth; but be- 
 cause it is new it has been quite expensive. Three 
 plants of Killarney, however, will give more pleas- 
 ure and less disappointment than a dozen of almost 
 any other sort. 
 
 MILDRED GRANT; a white hybrid Tea Rose of 
 large size, with curving, shell-like petals. A good 
 Rose for cutting as the flowers are of much sub- 
 stance and last a long time when gathered. In- 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 239 
 
 troduced by Dickson & Sons, and considered by 
 them one of their best Roses. The plant is quite 
 vigourous and the growth strong. A Rose that 
 will give much pleasure and satisfaction to the 
 amateur, and is a good companion to Killarney, 
 which it resembles in many respects. 
 
 KAISERIN AUGUSTA VICTORIA is a white Rose of 
 very rampant growth, apt to bloom in clusters at 
 the end of long branches; the buds are generally 
 of a creamy tint, but the flowers expand into the 
 most perfect forms, large and double, with an ex- 
 quisite perfume. This is a splendid Rose for cut- 
 ting, for the buds will open gradually in water and 
 last for days. The Kaiserin is the best blooming 
 of all the monthly Teas; from a bed of twenty-five 
 a bunch may be picked every day from June until 
 hard frost. This is the white Rose so much used 
 by florists. 
 
 SOUVENIR DE PRESIDENT CARNOT is rosy white 
 in colour, with long, tight buds carried on long 
 stems. A good bloomer. 
 
 MAMAN COCHET ; large, double rose-coloured flow- 
 ers; the buds well shaped; blooming profusely. 
 
 GRACE DARLING, white with Peach-bloom shades; 
 
2K) COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 an exquisite Rose with a gracefully shaped bud; 
 the flower large and full. One of the best ever- 
 blooming Roses, as it really flowers continuously 
 during the Summer. 
 
 CLARA WATSON; salmon pink, with the pink in- 
 tensified on the outer edges of the petals. A finely 
 formed bud opening into a full, well-shaped flower 
 of delicate construction and colouring. Very good 
 for cutting as it keeps for a long time, and is a 
 most persistent bloomer during the Summer. One 
 of the best Teas for a Rose garden. 
 
 LA FRANCE; a Rose that was very popular a 
 dozen years ago. Its flower is of a peculiar, silvery 
 pink colour, and when the bud opens the outside 
 petals fall over, leaving a bud-like heart. It has 
 much character and is a good bloomer, but is both- 
 ered by insects and the buds are apt to be mildewed 
 unless the garden is situated in a very dry place. 
 A good companion to Kaiserin Augusta. 
 
 CLOTHILDE SOUPERT (Polyantha) } described in 
 previous chapter; a most free-blooming, interest- 
 ing variety. 
 
 GRUSS AN TEPLITZ; a little red Rose that 
 blooms freely all Summer, but is borne on such 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 243 
 
 weak stems that it is quite worthless to cut; and 
 it fades soon after placing in water. It is quite 
 effective if planted in quantities as a bedding 
 Rose, for its freedom of bloom can be relied upon 
 to supply colour to the garden throughout the 
 Summer. 
 
 BESSIE BROWN; a white Rose, large and with a 
 well-formed effective flower. A vigorous grower 
 and blooms abundantly. This, like Killarney, is 
 one of Dickson & Sons' Roses, and they are both 
 desirable for the Rose garden. 
 
 Following is an additional list of Monthly Roses 
 that are not as sure blooming as those mentioned 
 above ; but all will give much delight to the grower 
 if he has room to use them. It is impossible to 
 give a list of Roses that are sure to succeed with 
 everybody. Some will bloom bountifully for one 
 person, and not at all for the next. The best way 
 is to find out from experience what Roses will do 
 well in your garden, and to make much of these. 
 The soil, the location, the slight variation of 
 climate or temperature, the exposure, all enter into 
 consideration when cultivating this most fickle 
 plant. 
 
244 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 TEAS AND HYBRID TEAS 
 ANTOINE RIVOIRE; flesh coloured. 
 AUGUSTINE GUINOISSEAU; white. 
 DUCHESS OF ALBANY; pink, sport of La France. 
 METEOR; red. 
 BALDWIN; carmine. 
 ADMIRAL DEWEY; pink. 
 BELLE SIEBRECHT; rich pink. 
 
 BOURBONS 
 APOLLINE; pink. 
 
 CHAMPION OF THE WORLD; light pink. 
 HERMOSA; rose. 
 MRS. DE GRAW; pink. 
 
 SOUVENIR DE MALMAISON ; blush white. One of 
 the oldest Roses grown; vigorous. 
 
 POLYANTHAS 
 
 MOSELLA; white. 
 PAQUERETTE; white. 
 CECILLE BRUNNER; salmon. 
 
 If you have a Rose garden, or a few Rose beds, 
 there are many Remontant Roses that should be 
 grown as well as the Ever-blooming varieties. 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 245 
 
 Nearly all of them are good, and some have partic- 
 ular qualities to recommend them which the grower 
 will not be slow to appreciate. Half the space at 
 least should be given over to the Hardy Perpet- 
 uals, for although their blooming season is com- 
 paratively short it is an eventful one, and to many 
 people these Roses are the crowning glory of June. 
 To have a country place and not to be able to revel 
 in Roses is very much like inheriting a fortune, 
 and dying of starvation. The list that follows 
 includes most of the perpetuals that are worth 
 growing : 
 
 ALFRED COLSOMB; crimson. 
 
 CAPTAIN HAYWARD; crimson. 
 
 CAPTAIN CHRISTY; (Tea, but used as a perpetual 
 as it only blooms once); pink and white. 
 
 CLIO; light rose pink. 
 
 COMPTESSE CECILLE DE CHABRILLANT; deep pink. 
 
 FRANCOIS LEVET; cherry-red. 
 
 FRANCOIS MICHELON; carmine. 
 
 GLOIRE LYONNAISE (like a Tea Rose in form and 
 perfume); yellowish white. 
 
 HEINRICH SCHULTHEIS; pinkish-rose. 
 
246 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 HELEN KELLER; cherry-red. 
 
 JOHN HOPPER; rose. 
 
 LADY HELEN STEWART; scarlet. 
 
 LA REINE; rose. 
 
 MABEL MORRISON; white, tinged with pink; 
 odourless. 
 
 S. M. RODOCANACHI; light pink. 
 
 MADAME GABRIEL LUIZET; pink. 
 
 MARCHIONESS OF LONDONDERRY; white. 
 
 MARGARET DICKSON; white. 
 
 MARGUERITE DE ST. AMANDE; rose. 
 
 MARSHALL P. WILDER; cherry-red. 
 
 MRS. R. G. SHARMAN CRAWFORD; pink. 
 
 OSKAR CORDEL; carmine. 
 
 PAUL'S EARLY BLUSH; light blush pink. 
 
 PIERRE NOTTING; maroon. 
 
 REV. ALAN CHEALES; lake. 
 
 VICK'S CAPRICE; pink. 
 
 SOLEIL D'OR; yellow. 
 
 FRAU KARL DRUSCHKI; whitest of all; a most 
 exquisite Rose. 
 
 BARONESS ROTHSCHILD; pink; odourless. 
 
 MME. N. LEVAVASSEUR; Baby Crimson Rambler ; 
 odourless. 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 247 
 
 Climbing Roses if they are well placed are a great 
 addition to the grounds; but as they are just as 
 susceptible to disease and to insects as the other 
 Roses, and the positions in which they are used 
 are generally conspicuous ones, they should be care- 
 fully looked after or they will prove to be eye- 
 sores rather than ornaments. Their inaccessibility 
 makes them hard to reach with the spray and 
 duster, and often they are allowed to take care 
 of themselves, with the result that by the middle 
 of June they look as if a sirocco of the desert had 
 breathed upon them and withered them up. When 
 trained against the walls of a building, or in the 
 shelter of a porch, they seem to be more unhealthy 
 than anywhere else; the larvae of the insects and 
 their eggs are more effectively protected than the 
 vines. If you have Roses on the house cut them 
 back frequently, so that you can reach them with- 
 out too much toil or trouble. 
 
 Unless the garden is a large one it would be better 
 not to have a Rose arbour in it; keep this for the 
 Rose garden where it will look more appropriate . If 
 your garden is fenced in, however, train a few Roses 
 over the pickets; a Crimson Rambler perhaps, be- 
 
248 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 cause it is the fashion, but surely a Dorothy Per- 
 kins, a hybrid Wichuriana bearing a double pink 
 blossom of good size. It grows very rapidly and 
 its foliage is tough and clean and of a dark green 
 colour. Let the Rambler climb on one of the posts, 
 and prune it so that it will make a good head; or 
 train it over the arch at the entrance to the garden. 
 On another post have a Dawson, a vigorous, 
 climbing white Rose that is hard to restrain; lead 
 it along the pickets of the fence and let it drop 
 over on the other side, out of sight of the garden. 
 Do not cover up the pickets entirely, for they have 
 their place in the general plan and should not be 
 hidden. If there are brick piers in the four corners 
 of the garden put a Crimson Rambler on one and 
 let it fall lightly over the hedge, or run along the 
 top of it. On another put a Dorothy Perkins, 
 and on a third you might train Baltimore Belle or 
 Prairie Queen, very quick-growing Roses that were 
 much used in the old gardens, and that bear Rose- 
 coloured, or white double flowers of a rather old- 
 fashioned mien. These were bred from the Prairie 
 Rose (Rosa setegira) and are about the only Roses 
 of American origin that we have, not very brilliant 
 
Dawson Rose on a Pear Tree. 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 251 
 
 examples to be sure, but valuable on account of 
 their associations. They were introduced about 
 the year 1830. They art v^ery hardy and vigorous 
 and should be pruned into shape, or else they will 
 sprawl over everything within reach in an awkward 
 manner. 
 
 A good place for a Crimson Rambler is in an old 
 Cedar tree, where it will show to good advantage 
 when in bloom and may be forgotten afterwards; 
 there is nothing particularly beautiful in its habits. 
 This Rose has been used so much that it is becom- 
 ing tiresome. It is certainly very handsome when 
 in flower, but the blossoms have no perfume, and 
 its clusters have an artificial look like those made 
 of linen which one sees in a woman's hat. Its 
 lack of fragrance is a great drawback, for if we 
 expect a thorn with every Rose we certainly expect 
 a delightful perfume also. It is so gaudy that it 
 is tropical in its effect, and if there are many 
 Ramblers on a small place the grounds will look 
 bare when the bloom has passed, just as the night 
 seems darker after a flash of lightning. It is too 
 brilliant for the flower garden as it outshines the 
 other flowers and casts a sickly glow over the more 
 
252 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 modest blooms. Grow it in the Rose garden if you 
 will, or the kitchen garden, or somewhere that you 
 will have to go around the corner to see it. The 
 other Ramblers, Pink, White and Yellow, have 
 never been so popular, probably because they have 
 been dwarfed in brilliance by their more flashy 
 sister, but they are less obtrusive and would be 
 better to use in the garden. 
 
 If you have a Rose arbour, either in the garden 
 or Rose garden, construct it as lightly as possible 
 and make it inconspicuous. The vines will look 
 better if they appear to support themselves and 
 to form the arch involuntarily. For the posts use 
 two-by-threes, and turn the arches with boards 
 seven-eighths of an inch in thickness, made as light 
 otherwise as will be consistent with strength. The 
 pieces that are nailed on the sides and across the 
 arches should be of the thickness of laths, and no 
 more of them should be used than will be necessary 
 to hold up the vines. Paint tht posts green and 
 the upper work white; or all white or all green if 
 your taste will be better satisfied. Do not use 
 Cedar poles and posts, or try to get a rustic effect, 
 for that is most inconsistent. One does not find 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 253 
 
 Roses growing in the midst of a forest. Heavy 
 pergolas with stone or brick columns, or in the 
 Italian style, should not be used on small grounds 
 or near a small garden; they detract from the in- 
 terest of the Roses, and are clumsy and altogether 
 inappropriate. 
 
 Good Roses for the arbour are : Evergreen Gem, 
 a cross between Wichuriana and Mme. Hoste; 
 a very fast grower with tough, sweet-scented 
 foliage that is quite free from insects, with a double 
 yellow flower changing to white, and perfectly 
 hardy; Jersey Beauty (Wichuriana and Perle de 
 Jardins), a single yellow Rose of equal vigour, with 
 thick, shiny foliage; and Gardenia, a plant ob- 
 tained from the same cross, bearing a cream- 
 coloured blossom whose petals incurve and resem- 
 ble the Cape Jessamine. These Roses are of com- 
 paratively recent introduction, but as far as I can 
 find out they do not live up to their evergreen rep- 
 utation, although they are very beautiful and 
 doubly attractive on account of their healthy foli- 
 age, which is of the greatest importance in work 
 of this sort. 
 
 Two Wichuriana Roses that may be added to 
 
254 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 the above list are Manda's Triumph and Pink 
 Roamer. 
 
 Do not cover the Rose arbour entirely with 
 Roses. At one end plant a Trumpet Vine, but 
 be sure that it is Bignonia grandi flora not radi- 
 cans. The latter is the quick-growing sort that 
 bears a poorly shaped trumpet blossom of a rather 
 deep red colour, and does not compare with grandi- 
 flora whose bloom is borne in great graceful clus- 
 ters, and is not only unusual in shape but of a 
 most exquisite colour, orange-red, the ends of the 
 trumpets orange. This vine comes into bloom in 
 July shortly after the Roses are done blooming, 
 and the flowers on the clusters open gradually; the 
 bloom is continued profusely for three weeks. 
 This is one of the most beautiful vines, and it may 
 well be used on a pier or post in the flower garden, 
 or trained over an arch. 
 
 On alternate posts of the arbour plant Honey- 
 suckle, the ordinary Honeysuckle that grows so 
 rampantly and bears so well its sweet-scented 
 flowers throughout the season. It is absolutely 
 hardy and may be depended upon to flourish and 
 bloom when everything else fails. It will not in- 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 257 
 
 terfere with the Roses if kept in hand, for they may 
 be trained over it and on it and through it, and 
 it will make a good background for them. Its 
 leaves, which are almost evergreen and disappear 
 for not more than three months in the year, will 
 furnish the arbour luxuriantly throughout the sea- 
 son so that it will present an attractive appearance. 
 Roses will come and blossom and depart but the 
 Honeysuckles will go on forever, cheerful, sweet- 
 scented, an eminently satisfactory possession. 
 
 On a small arbour do not use more than one 
 Crimson Rambler, the other Roses should have 
 places; Baltimore Belle and the Wichurianas. 
 
 The Clematis Paniculata should be used on a post 
 or pillar. It dies down to the ground each year 
 although sometimes a shoot will remain green 
 through the Winter. Once started it grows rap- 
 idly and provides a good green; the climax of the 
 vine is in late August, a time when climaxes are 
 rare in the garden, and the afterbloom is attractive 
 in its light, feathery sprays that are agitated by 
 the slightest air and tremble like gossamers. An- 
 other Clematis that is good to train on the fence is 
 Jackmanni; with a large purple blossom. It is a 
 
258 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 little hard to establish but it is no trouble after- 
 wards. Plant this by the white fence of the flower 
 garden, or so that it may be trained up one of the 
 posts. 
 
 English Ivy is rather delicate for this climate and 
 will do well only against the south side of a wall, 
 or on the ground where it may be readily pro- 
 tected in Winter. It is particularly effective against 
 bricks. You may be able to find some variety of 
 Ivy in the neighbourhood of your home, in some 
 old yard or garden, some vine that has the char- 
 acteristics of the English Ivy yet has become ac- 
 climatized and is hardy. Get cuttings of this and 
 use them on your brick wall. 
 
 Do not use Boston Ivy (Ampelopsis Veitchi) in 
 the country; it is a boulevardier among vines, and 
 is at home only in the neighbourhood of asphalt 
 and lamp-posts. 
 
 Virginia Creeper (Ampelopsis Virginica) is one of 
 the best vines with which to cover an old stone wall, 
 or to use on stone work of any kind ; to gro\v over 
 rocks and to cover the stumps of trees. It will 
 turn brilliant red in September, on time to the 
 minute each year, whether Jack Frost turns up or 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 259 
 
 not. One or two of these vines might be used on 
 the garden fence. It may be transplanted with 
 impunity from the woods any time of the year. 
 
 The best vine for the house is Wistaria; purple 
 and white. In time it will grow to be part of the 
 house and its gnarled, tree-like trunk is most pic- 
 turesque with its arms stretched about the walls 
 in a loving embrace. Train it in the way that it 
 should go, and keep it away from windows and 
 doors. It is a good vine for the porch. The pur- 
 ple is the better, for the white is too intense, too 
 funereal, with its drooping clusters weeping with 
 exactness from the canopy of leaves. This vine is 
 a little too heavy for a small garden unless there 
 should be an old wall in it, along which it might 
 be trained with good effect. 
 
 The best vines to use in the flower garden on 
 piers, arches, posts or fences, are: 
 
 ROSES 
 
 DOROTHY PERKINS QUEEN OF THE PRAIRIES 
 
 DAWSON BALTIMORE BELLE 
 
 EVERGREEN GEM GARDENIA 
 
 CRIMSON RAMBLER 
 
260 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 OTHER VINES 
 
 BIGNONIA GRANDIFLORA CLEMATIS PANICULATA 
 VIRGINIA CREEPER CLEMATIS JACKMANNI 
 
 COMMON HONEYSUCKLE 
 
 Local variety of ENGLISH IVY on brick piers or 
 wall. 
 
 FOR THE ROSE ARBOUR 
 
 BALTIMORE BELLE DAWSON 
 
 QUEEN OF THE PRAIRIES WICHURIANA HYBRIDS 
 CRIMSON RAMBLER BIGNONIA GRANDIFLORA 
 
 HONEYSUCKLE 
 
 FOR THE HOUSE 
 WISTARIAS Variety of ENGLISH IVY 
 
 Roses grown as standards are of very formal ap- 
 pearance and should be used only in large, formal 
 arrangements. On small grounds they present a 
 serio-comic appearance that is generally pathetic. 
 They may be placed in the Rose garden, however, 
 for there they will not be so conspicuous and their 
 stiff ungracefulness will be neutralized by the other 
 Roses. They are very disappointing and hard to 
 
BRICK WALL 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 263 
 
 grow, and they are quite expensive, so that all 
 things considered the beginner would do well to 
 forego the doubtful pleasure of seeing them in his 
 garden. 
 
 In England Roses are used for hedges ; but in the 
 northern parts of the United States they are rarely 
 planted for this purpose. So-called hedges have 
 been made of Crimson Rambler, but as its chief 
 beauty is in blooming time and its appearance in 
 other seasons is not tempting, few people have un- 
 dertaken the task of raising it in this form. On 
 some large estates where there is a skilled gardener 
 it might be tried for a sensational effect. 
 
 A very good hedge may be made of Rosa Rugosa, 
 which might be planted along the path leading to 
 the Rose garden; in fact in such a position it would 
 be very appropriate. It should be kept low and 
 pruned carefully to encourage the bottom growth, 
 for the chief beauty in a hedge is its wall-like effect, 
 and unless this is obtained it is. more or less of a 
 failure. 
 
 Roses look better with some sort of background, 
 and the best setting for them is evergreen trees. 
 In England Yew and Holly are used, and the Roses 
 
264 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 allowed to clamber up into the branches and fes- 
 toon themselves against the dark foliage. In this 
 country, Arbor Vitse, Hemlock and Spruce are the 
 best trees for the purpose and they afford a good 
 wind-break. It would be well to use Pin Oak in 
 combination with them, and not to plant too many 
 Norway Spruces as they are extremely heavy and 
 coarse. Arbor Vitse occidentalis and pyramidalis 
 will give the best effect. 
 
 On page 261 there is a plan of a Rose garden. It 
 is enclosed by a Privet hedge, and a ribbon parterre 
 has been introduced into it for the sake of a little 
 variety. This is formed by Box edging, although 
 turf may be used instead. Turf is a bother to keep 
 nicely trimmed and it will get shabby. The idea is 
 to use the bed for bulbs in the Spring, Hyacinths, 
 or Narcissi or Tulips, when a little colour in the 
 Rose garden is not unwelcome. When these have 
 ripened they should be removed and some flower- 
 ing plants put in instead. Snapdragon is very good 
 for this purpose as it blooms well through the Sum- 
 mer and its foliage is graceful and a good green. 
 If the idea of this ribbon bed is not fancied, a 
 square or round one may be used in its place and 
 
EVER-BLOOMING ROSES AND VINES 265 
 
 Roses planted in it; some small Rose like Clothilde 
 Soupert or Gruss an Teplitz. The garden as 
 planned has a terrace at each end; but these may 
 be eliminated and the beds laid out on the same 
 level as the main garden. The terraces should be 
 planted with ever-blooming Roses. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 FILLING IN WITH COLOURS 
 
 HE gardens of Eng- 
 land, from which 
 the Colonial gar- 
 dens of America 
 drew their inspiration and 
 character, were evolved 
 gradually and not copied 
 from any particular pattern or dominated 
 by any well defined school. Those that 
 were made in the seventeenth century 
 embodied the principal features of Eng- 
 lish mediaeval gardens, although the em- 
 bellishments of statues and figures were 
 borrowed from Italy. The traditions of 
 garden making were indigenous to the 
 island and the florid Italian style was only 
 a passing influence. The Renaissance 
 gardens of Italy were closely copied from 
 
 the descriptions of the ancient writers, 
 267 
 
268 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 and in them the use of pleached trees and shrubs 
 was carried to extremes, as it was in the time of 
 Pliny the Younger, when there was more excuse, 
 for cultivated flowers were rare. 
 
 In England, in the seventeenth century, gardens 
 became more important than they had ever been 
 before and enormous sums of money were expended 
 on their design and upkeep. The Italian fad was 
 overdone in many instances, as most fads are, and 
 when finally it died many of the inappropriate in- 
 novations were eradicated and only the most sub- 
 stantial and worthy retained. These were the 
 terraces, the balustrades, the flights of steps and 
 the fantastically clipped trees, which in time be- 
 came identified with features that were developed 
 from the mediaeval closes, such as the walls, the 
 marking out by definite boundaries, the green 
 walks, the alleys, the covered paths and knottes 
 of flowers, the labyrinths, the mazes, fountains, 
 etc., that are familiar sights in the English gardens 
 of to-day. 
 
 The most striking thing about the English gar- 
 den is its substantialness, its obliviousness to the 
 march of Time. Fads of garden-making have come 
 
FILLING IN WITH COLOURS 269 
 
 and gone, schools of designing have arisen, flour- 
 ished and fallen, great masters of the art have 
 become famous and been forgotten, yet gathering 
 a little of the best from every influence and as- 
 cendency it has grown and bloomed serenely, se- 
 cure in the fastnesses of its own most excellent 
 traditions. One generation has planted a walk 
 with Yews; another has built in a stairway or a 
 wall, and still another, moved by the magnificence 
 and grandeur of Le Notre has diverted a river from 
 its course and led it through a parterre of flowers to 
 frolic in a fountain ; and all these inspirations have 
 been absorbed and blended into an harmonious 
 whole to which Time has only added perfection. 
 
 At one period the English garden was laid out 
 on an enormous scale, often containing gardens 
 within gardens; a park-like enclosure for flowers 
 was considered necessary to uphold the dignity of 
 a great house or castle. Although Le Notre is not 
 known ever to have been in England, his teachings 
 were for a time closely followed in the island across 
 the channel; yet it is a fact, as Bloomfield* points 
 
 .* Reginald Bloomfield, M. A., F. S. A.: "The Formal Gar- 
 den in England." 
 
270 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 out, that the formal garden of England did not 
 need great space to be beautiful and effective. 
 The lower garden of Haddon Hall is but a hundred 
 and twenty feet square; the old walled-in garden 
 at Brickwall, in Sussex, is two hundred feet by a 
 hundred and sixty feet; the garden at Edzall Castle 
 is but a hundred and seventy-five feet long by a 
 hundred and thirty-five feet wide, and there is a 
 beautiful garden at Stobhall, in Scotland, that 
 covers only half an acre. The beauty of these 
 gardens lies in the way they are planted, in the 
 character and colours of the flowers that are used. 
 They are carefully planned and the arrangement is 
 carried out under the supervision of the proprie- 
 tors, who would as soon think of leaving such an 
 important function wholly to the gardener as they 
 would of entrusting the hanging of their Gains- 
 boroughs and Lelys to the cook. The garden is 
 considered to be one of the most important parts 
 of the house, and it expresses the thoughts and 
 sentiments of the master or mistress whose affec- 
 tionate care and devotion are ungrudgingly lav- 
 ished upon it. 
 
 The best and most lasting effects that will not 
 
FILLING IN WITH COLOURS 273 
 
 grow stale and become tiresome to the eye are 
 generally obtained with comparatively few flowers. 
 In England certain varieties are identified with 
 certain gardens, and the traditions have been kept 
 up for generations. Plants that do well in the 
 natural soil and under normal climatic conditions 
 are invariably chosen and developed to perfection. 
 The natural temptation that comes to most gar- 
 deners to plant every flower that has an attraction, 
 or that is new and pleasing to the eye is restrained, 
 and only those that have paramount attractions 
 and the plainest meanings are encouraged to grow. 
 In the garden at Brickwall the flower and colour 
 effect is got with Daisies, Lavender, Phlox, Pop- 
 pies, Sweet William, white Mallow and Rudbeckia, 
 yet the beds are not only interesting but brilliant 
 enough to satisfy the most enthusiastic colourist. 
 An analysis of the flower border of the old walled 
 kitchen garden at Blyborough reveals Hollyhocks, 
 for which the garden has long been famous, Phlox, 
 Summer Daisies and a variety of Michaelmas 
 Daisy; a rather simple collection yet one that is 
 satisfying and beautiful. The forms and colours 
 are intelligently and carefully combined and much 
 
274 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 thought is given to their mixing. White Lilies, 
 yellow Monkshood and delicate pink Phlox is the 
 keynote of another garden; and purple and white 
 Campanula of still another. At Ramscliff, Lark- 
 spurs of various heights and shades with Campan- 
 ula and Pyrethrum form one of the principal 
 themes, superseded later on by Orange Lilies and 
 Monkshood. This latter combination seems to be 
 a favourite in English gardens where Monkshood 
 grows better than it does here; its poisonous 
 quality, how r ever, is a drawback which many peo- 
 ple will not overlook. At Kellie Castle, Holly- 
 hocks and Poppies run riot, the rather poorly 
 furnished stalks of Althea being hidden by the 
 delicate flowers of its companions. At Cleeve 
 Prior, Dahlias, Sunflowers and Autumn Daisies, 
 with Lavender, Michaelmas Daisies and sweet 
 Herbs form an attractive September group. In 
 all these gardens hardy herbaceous plants form 
 the basis of the planting. 
 
 The English gardens are so well enclosed by 
 hedges and screens and arches of Yew and Holly 
 that the character of each flower and its colour 
 is vividly brought out against their sombre yet 
 
FILLING IN WITH COLOURS 277 
 
 sparkling background. The effect obtained is so 
 satisfactory that if one pays any attention to the 
 subject at all, the fact stands out prominently that a 
 good background should be supplied for flowers if 
 the best results are desired; a background of 
 hedges, or brick walls, and a setting of trees that 
 will form a frame, or second enclosure, and will 
 serve the double duty of warding off or breaking 
 the force of inhospitable winds. 
 
 In the famous garden of Levens, in Westmore- 
 land, which was laid out about the year 1700 by a 
 Frenchman named Beaumont, in a Dutch style, and 
 which has since become absorbed by its surround- 
 ings and Anglicized, many strangely cut forms of 
 Yew and Box that resemble chessmen, or the wide- 
 petticoated figures of a Noah's ark were used to- 
 gether with solid blocks of Yews with rounded roofs 
 and mushroom finials, and arched recesses forming 
 arbours. Miss Jekyl says that this effect might be 
 supposed to be puerile, but that such is far from 
 the case. The square-clipped trees offer facets to 
 the light which plays upon them with infinite va- 
 riety, and the weird, stiff forms accent and dif- 
 ferentiate the many good hardy perennials with 
 
278 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 which the garden abounds. The borders in the 
 Rose division are planted with white Pinks that 
 make an attractive, feathery fringe for the deli- 
 cately tinted Roses, a most excellent use for this 
 charming and persistent little plant. The garden 
 at Arley is alcoved with the gracefully curved Yew 
 buttresses of a massive Yew wall, that terminate 
 in steeple-shaped finials. In these alcoves are 
 planted Larkspur, white and Orange Lilies, Py- 
 re thrum, Poppies and Snapdragon. 
 
 A small garden should be so planted that every 
 part of it will be interesting from the beginning of 
 Spring until the first frosts of Autumn, and so con- 
 stituted that when considered in its entirety it will 
 present a well balanced and colourful appearance, 
 showing no gaps in the greenery nor queer freaks 
 of colour among the blooms. Every plant should 
 have sufficient room to develop, and should be so 
 placed that as it approaches the time of its ma- 
 turity it will smoothly glide into its allotted position 
 in the garden picture. The slowly developing foli- 
 age of the late-blooming plants should be utilized 
 as a background for the earlier varieties, so that 
 one set of bloom may gradually take the place of 
 
FILLING IN WITH COLOURS 281 
 
 another, and neither will be regretted among the 
 kaleidoscopic changes of the months. As the flow- 
 ers of the early, low-growing sorts fade and wither 
 something must be ready to take up the burden of 
 bloom; and the spent plant, if it has a tendency to 
 shabbiness, should be screened and shielded by its 
 nearest neighbours. Thus will the ground be hid- 
 den from early May, and the symmetry and bal- 
 ance of the garden, both in regard to colour and 
 shape, be preserved throughout the season. The 
 luxuriance and wildness of growth should become 
 intensified day by day until the climax is realized 
 in a glorious abandon of Phlox and Lily and 
 Dahlia, as August wanes. 
 
 No colour schemes should be followed in a garden 
 of this size, for they are delusive and unsatisfac- 
 tory; and there should be no violent contrasts, no 
 exotic shapes introduced with which to obtain bril- 
 liant effects. A few flowers will supply all the 
 colour and character that are needed, and will be 
 inexpensive to establish; once started the care and 
 labour required will be small. 
 
 Although a flower garden should be given over 
 in the main to flowers, it is a good plan to plant 
 
282 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 in it a few small trees or shrubs with which to 
 break the monotony of the Winter bareness of the 
 beds. Lilacs should be placed where you will see 
 them every day, where their influence may be ex- 
 erted and their companionship enjoyed. Two 
 white Lilacs planted on opposite sides of the garden 
 end will, in the course of a little time, grow into 
 picturesque trees and become features of the en- 
 closure. A Laburnum might be placed near a path 
 over which it will bend gracefully and nod its yel- 
 low clusters; it is a tree that has a great deal of 
 garden character and colour. The Flowering Al- 
 mond, pink or white, was found in the very oldest 
 New England yards; it is a typical New England 
 garden shrub that has associations with the early 
 days of Massachusetts Colony and Providence 
 Plantations. An Almond should be placed in a 
 corner near a path, where the miniature blossoms 
 may be seen and examined. It blooms early 
 when there is very little colour in the garden and 
 is always a welcome sight. A good specimen of 
 Rosa Rugosa might also be placed in one of the 
 beds, well in from the path, where its fresh green 
 foliage will have a good chance to show off some of 
 
FILLING IN WITH COLOURS 285 
 
 the other flowers; use the red variety and prune it 
 back a little to keep it in bloom. Rugosa blooms 
 in early May when rose flowers are a rarity. One 
 of the large bush Roses such as Mine. Plantier or 
 York and Lancaster might be established in a 
 slightly secluded corner, and room left to plant 
 other things around it to hide its bloomless and 
 very often shabby form later in the season. Tar- 
 tarian Honeysuckle looks well in the garden, and 
 it is almost evergreen. It is one of the character- 
 istic shrubs of Westchester County (N. Y.) yards. 
 In all not more than four or five specimens of 
 trees and shrubs should be set out, and these 
 merely for company's sake; their presence is not 
 necessary to the success of the Summer garden. 
 
 In the central bed, whether it be round or square, 
 put an old Box if it is possible to obtain one; if not, 
 a nursery grown tree will have to do; but under 
 no circumstances use a standard or one of pyra- 
 midal form. Buxus sempervirens is the best variety 
 for this position, but B. arborescens grows more 
 rapidly and to a greater height, although it does 
 not show as much real Box character or colour, 
 nor is it strongly odoriferous. If a sundial is used 
 
286 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 in this position instead of a Box, the bed should be 
 turfed over, rounded up a little and made into a 
 sort of mound. Do not place a sundial in a flower 
 bed, for the flowers will be trampled down and 
 destroyed by people trying to reach it, and it will 
 also have the appearance of a useless garden orna- 
 ment, which should not find a place in a garden of 
 this sort. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 
 
 UST inside the edg- 
 ing of the principal 
 beds of the flower 
 garden, shown in 
 plan on pages 364 
 
 the 
 
 and 365, Narcissi of the 
 following varieties should 
 be established: 
 
 EMPEROR 
 BICOLOUR EMPRESS 
 
 GOLDEN SPUR 
 SIR WATKIN VON SIGN 
 
 Intersperse among the Narcissi a few 
 Jonquils; they come into bloom a little 
 earlier. Plant the large bulbs four 
 inches apart, the small ones one; they 
 will grow into each other in a year or so 
 
 and form a permanent, supplementary 
 
 287 
 
288 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 border. When the bulbs have ripened the leaves 
 will begin to fade, and should then be cut off; but if 
 removed earlier the bulbs will suffer. In the round 
 bed use Narcissus poeticus and poeticus ornatus in 
 the same way. The two are identical in shape and 
 colour, but one variety comes into bloom much 
 earlier than the other. In the Fall, when the gar- 
 den has been cleaned up and all the transplanting 
 done, plant in the main beds a few clumps of Ges- 
 neriana, Blushing Bride and Bouton D'Or Tulips, 
 which may be left like the Narcissi. These Tulips 
 flower towards the end of May and are extremely 
 beautiful, the immense cups being borne on very 
 long stems. Gesneriana is rich red in colour, with 
 a dark blue or purple base, and is the progenitor of 
 all the May Flowering, or Cottage Garden Tulips. 
 Blushing Bride is pink, shaded with white, and 
 Bouton D'Or yellow. These Tulips and the Bi- 
 zarres and Bybloems are really the only ones worth 
 bothering about in the garden, and a few of them 
 will give more pleasure than thousands of the 
 double or early flowering sorts, which have to be 
 renewed every year. 
 The round bed and path compose, the Court of 
 
THH BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 291 
 
 Honour of the garden, and there should be placed 
 some of the old-fashioned flowers or those that sen- 
 timent and superstition have made endearing. At 
 the four corners of the path that enter the Court 
 Peonies should be planted. They are older than 
 gardens and were the mainstay of many a blooming 
 New England yard. And Roses; plant there the 
 Cabbage and the Damask Roses, or the Musk Rose 
 that exhales its perfume on the evening air. Cin- 
 namon and June Roses are good garlands for the 
 Court of Honour. Peonies and Roses should not be 
 far separated in the new garden, for in the old they 
 went hand in hand, blooming fragrantly in June. 
 The old double Peonies are the best, the rose-red, 
 the pink or white. Not that the new Japanese single 
 and semi-double varieties are not beautiful; they 
 are, but somehow they do not look like the Peonies 
 one has been used to for so long. Peonies should 
 l)e moved in the Fall and you must not expect 
 much from the following Spring's bloom, if it comes 
 at all. They can be established and will bloom in 
 the shade. The foliage is very clean and free from 
 insects and blight, and aside from all sentiment the 
 Peony is a refreshing ornament to the garden. 
 
292 COMMOX SENSE GARDENS 
 
 In the Court of Honour Bleeding Heart (Dicentra 
 dielytra) should be given a prominent position, for 
 although it is not so very old the gardens of our 
 daddies knew it. It is the Chinese for Dutchman's 
 Breeches, the little plant that carpets the woods in 
 May with which we are all familiar; it was intro- 
 duced into English gardens in 1846 and spread 
 rapidly. Here Violets may be planted (Viola odor- 
 ata), or cheerful clumps of Pansies; and Lady Slip- 
 per, Marigold, Lemon Verbena and Rose Gera- 
 nium. It is a good place, too, for Snowdrops, 
 Scilla, Dog Tooth Violet and Forget-me-not, which 
 may be placed on the garden side of the circular 
 path and will not interfere with the general plant- 
 ing. 
 
 Around the Box in the circular lied establish 
 Larkspur, which will be well shown against the 
 dark green foliage. The rest of the bed may be 
 given over to Pansies and White Lily (Lilium 
 candidum) . The matted foliage and bright flowers 
 of the Heartsease will make a good carpet for the 
 long-stemmed Lilies; and if the bloom is kept well 
 picked it will last into late Summer. A few clumps 
 of white and pink Phlox should also be placed in 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 295 
 
 this bed to keep it in colour until frost. Pinch 
 back the Phlox so that it will be late coming into 
 flower. In this bed a few annuals may be intro- 
 duced later in the season to take the place of the 
 waning blooms : Zinnias or Marigolds or Stocks. 
 
 Below are given the most important hardy her- 
 baceous plants and bulbs, and their best colours for 
 use in the garden, with descriptions of each and 
 suggestions for cultivating and planting. 
 
 For the benefit of greedy and insatiable garden- 
 ers another list of perennials, and some good an- 
 nuals, may be found in the following chapter. 
 
 PEONIES; pink, white, rose-red. 
 
 GERMAN IRIS; purple and deep yellow or golden. 
 
 JAPANESE IRIS; all the colours are desirable. 
 
 DIGITALIS (Foxglove); purple, white. 
 
 DIANTHUS BARBATUS (Sweet William); single, 
 double and auricula flowered; all colours. 
 
 DELPHINIUM (Larkspur); formosum, elatum, 
 English hybrids. 
 
 HOLLYHOCK; single and semi-double; all colours. 
 
 PHLOX; all colours but purple-red. 
 
 DAHLIAS; show and cactus. 
 
296 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 LILIES; L. candidum, L. Philadelphicum; L. 
 umbellatum; L. Canademe; L. liyrinum L. au- 
 ratum. 
 
 CAMPANULA (Canterbury Bell)] rotundifolia; 
 pyrarnidalix. 
 
 HEMEROCALLIS (Day Lily)] /lava; fulra. 
 
 FUNKIA; Grandijlora; G. alba. 
 
 GERMAN IRIS blooms in May, a full month earlier 
 than the Japanese, and although the range of colour 
 is not very varied, the plant is valuable on account 
 of its hardiness, the peculiar light grey-green of its 
 large, strong leaves, and the character of the blos- 
 som which is very much like the Flower de Luce 
 of the gardens past and gone. Get good clumps 
 of this Flag in the nursery, and in a year or so you 
 will be able to divide them with a sharp spade and 
 replant them. The bulbs are most hardy, immor- 
 tal would be a good name for them, and will grow 
 almost on top of the ground; in fact it is the habit 
 of a clump to force itself up and cleave asunder, 
 so that it has the appearance of being split open and 
 hollow in the middle; for this reason it should 
 be frequently divided and reset. The growth 
 
German Iris in the Garden. 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 299 
 
 starts very early in the Spring, and in the warm 
 spells of Midwinter the shoots will begin growing. 
 The roots may be moved at any time of the year 
 without the slightest risk. Plant German Iris in 
 clumps along the edges of the beds, alternating it 
 with Japanese Iris; or a border might be made 
 along both sides of a path for ten or twelve feet 
 or so, say one of the paths leading from the Circus. 
 The best colours are Florentina, white and early; 
 Chereau, white; Pallida Speciosa, lavender; Au- 
 ralia, purple; Vesta, deep yellow with maroon falls. 
 The flower is quite stocky and less ethereal than 
 most Flags. This plant will flourish in any soil 
 and is one of the very few that will bloom in the op- 
 pressive grime and soot of the London atmosphere. 
 Whatever beauty the German Iris possesses fades 
 into pale insignificance beside the stately IRIS OF 
 JAPAN (7ns Kaempferi) . The self-coloured flowers 
 of this Flag are like Orchids, more beautiful than 
 Orchids for they lack the painted, artificial appear- 
 ance of the most familiar air plants. They are 
 borne on long stems reaching, under good condi- 
 tions, the height of five feet or more, and blossom 
 the last week in June or the first week in July. 
 
300 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 All the varieties, except the mottled and double 
 ones, are good and the colours range through many 
 shades of blue to plum colour, purple and white. 
 These Flags flourish in almost any soil, but should 
 be well drained, except in the growing season when 
 a large amount of moisture will increase the size 
 and brilliance of the flowers; in fact much wetting 
 is necessary for a month before they come into 
 bloom. The best clump that I ever saw was lo- 
 cated in the kitchen garden, a little downhill from 
 the tap which was frequently opened in a dry June, 
 and the overflow or waste was continually wetting 
 and cooling the roots, yet did not settle around 
 them as the incline of the ground carried it off. 
 The flower stalks were over five and a half feet 
 high, and the flowers nearly nine inches across. 
 An ideal place for this Iris is on the banks of a 
 pond, or the edge of damp, swampy land where it 
 may cool its toes in the water yet not be inces- 
 santly soaked. It needs sun and warmth and will 
 not do well in the shade. Plant clumps of /ris 
 Kaempferi at intervals of seven feet along the paths 
 in the garden, and even in the narrow bed by the 
 hedge where you will have to irrigate them fre- 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 301 
 
 quently, but where they will be worth the trouble. 
 When this Iris is in bloom the garden presents the 
 most fairy-like picture. The beautiful delicate 
 flowers are borne so high and turn so lightly from 
 
 White Japan Iris 
 
 the slender stems that they seem to rise from the 
 sheaves of drooping leaves like coloured bubbles; 
 the effect in the moonlight is mystical. When the 
 scene is set for Kaempferi's appearance the Phlox 
 clumps are about two feet high and the ground is 
 quite hidden by them and the Funkias and Hemer- 
 
302 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 ocallis; Foxglove and Sweet William are just past 
 their climaxes; the Nasturtium is resting from the 
 first efforts of blooming, and its light-green stems 
 are beginning to trail over the dark-green hedge;' 
 there is a slight slackening of all bloom when the 
 beautiful Flags have the centre of the stage. The 
 other plants are a little awed; there is not much 
 to distract one's attention from the entrance of the 
 leading ladies. Softly they unfold into flower, one 
 by one; first the white, then the purple, then the 
 blue, until the mise en scene is complete. They 
 disappear just as gradually, just as softly, and the 
 lance-like leaves quiver in the faint Summer zephyrs 
 as their beautiful offspring fade and wither and fall. 
 The curtain is only down a moment, to be raised 
 on the fast quickening glories of Rudbeckia and 
 Phlox. If I were going on a journey in the Sum- 
 mer time, to the fairest, freshest, coolest land under 
 the sun, I would postpone my setting out until 
 after Iris Kaempferi had bloomed. Never plant 
 these beautiful flowers in masses; they are not only 
 too magnificent in colour and form for such a pur- 
 pose, but in a small garden the bed would be un- 
 interesting for most of the Summer. They should 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 303 
 
 be near the path where one may enjoy their inti- 
 macy. Japanese Iris does not bloom freely the first 
 year after transplanting, and should be moved in 
 October. 
 
 FOXGLOVE and SWEET WILLIAM are frequently 
 used together. Foxglove is not really a perennial 
 but it generally sows itself and so is considered as 
 one. You should not depend upon this, but sow 
 seed in June in the kitchen garden, and transplant 
 some of the seedlings in the Fall to the flower garden 
 and some to a cold frame, where you can winter 
 them and bring them along early in the Spring. 
 When you set them out in the garden the plants 
 will be large and vigorous and will bloom early. 
 You might have a border of Sweet William in the 
 kitchen garden where it will perpetuate itself with- 
 out any worry on your part, and draft plants from 
 it to the flower garden each Spring. If you do not 
 wish to do this sow seed in drills in July, and trans- 
 plant to beds in the kitchen garden the end of 
 September, where they may be covered up for the 
 Winter. Foxglove does well in the shade, but it 
 may be planted in the sun with equal success. Do 
 not use any of the fancy colours, the old purple 
 
304 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 and the white are the best. The colour range of 
 Sweet William is wide; the dark reds are particu- 
 larly fine and there are whites, pinks and a general 
 variety. 
 
 LARKSPUR is a favourite in English gardens; it 
 is used in combination with many plants, such as 
 Lilies, White Daisies and Yellow Pyre thrum, Monks- 
 hood, Snapdragon and Phlox. It is also grown in 
 clumps among the pleached trees, or against a Yew 
 hedge where perhaps it is more effective than any- 
 where else. In the common sense garden it might 
 be grown in front of a brick retaining wall, using 
 elatum, formosum and some of the brilliant English 
 hybrids; with Campanula rotundifolia and pyram- 
 idalis in front and Lilium candidum, L. superbum, 
 L. umbellatum, L. tigrinum scattered through the 
 bed; or in bunches against Rosa Rugosa or Box, 
 as in the round bed. It is raised from seed in July 
 and it is safer to winter it over in the cold frame, 
 although it will grow in the open ground if the 
 young plants are well top-dressed. The improved 
 English Delphiniums grown from seeds of Kelway's 
 named sorts are exquisite, and should be in every 
 collection. 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 305 
 
 The single and semi-double HOLLYHOCKS are 
 easily grown from seed, and blossom the second 
 season. They should be planted in clumps of 
 from five to seven, and used through the main beds 
 of the garden, among the Phlox, etc., for the tall 
 flower spikes will rise above the other plants and the 
 lower parts of the stalks, which are apt to become 
 bare about blooming time, will be hidden. Save 
 the seeds of the best colours, for they will be more 
 reliable than any that you buy. I never could see 
 any attraction in the Allegheny Hollyhock with its 
 tight, ungraceful rosettes; it does not compare, 
 either in form or colour, to the single. Hollyhocks 
 look well in clumps of two or three in a row in 
 front of a brick or stone wall; or large clumps at 
 the bottom of a flight of steps. If your plants are 
 bothered by red spiders spray the under side of the 
 leaves with soapy water, and continue the spraying 
 during hot weather. If the blight affects any of 
 your plants they should be destroyed; but to pre- 
 vent it spray the plants as soon as they begin to 
 grow in the Spring with water in which soap and 
 flowers of sulphur have been dissolved. Trans- 
 plant Hollyhocks to the garden very early in the 
 
306 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 season on a rainy day; and if the sun should come 
 out strong it would be better to protect them. 
 
 PHLOX is one of the most useful as well as the 
 most beautiful of hardy plants. It has many qual-^ 
 ities to recommend it besides its hardiness; it is 
 easy to grow from seed; it multiplies rapidly; its 
 growth is rampant and it is free from most insects 
 and blights. All these qualities are crowned by its 
 free blooming proclivities and the length of its 
 flowering season. In the old gardens of the last 
 century two colours were to be found, white and 
 the homely purple-red which so detracts from the 
 beauty of other blossoms; but of late years new 
 colours of the softest yet most dazzling brilliancy 
 have been introduced by growers who have made 
 this plant their specialty. It is found in many 
 shades of pink and light lavender; white, and white 
 with a red eye or a pink eye ; red, scarlet, crimson, 
 carmine. Large clumps of Phlox give brilliancy 
 and colour to the garden from early July until Oc- 
 tober, an effect and brilliancy that can be obtained 
 with no other plant. Some of the new shades have 
 an exasperating way of " thro wing back" to the 
 original purple-red, and these flowers should be 
 
Phlox and Funkia. 
 
THE BEST 1'EREXXIALS FOR THE GARDEN 309 
 
 plucked and the plant labelled to take out in the 
 Fall, for purple-red puts the whole garden out of 
 tune. Although the blooming time of Phlox is long 
 it may be lengthened by pinching back a few flower 
 heads in each clump, and gathering some of the 
 stalks when they have come into bloom. Blotches 
 of different shades may be scattered through the 
 garden. The colours of Phlox may be laid on with 
 a lavish hand, for by the time the blooms appear 
 there is not much else to clash with them. Plant 
 many clumps of the white variety, Pearl, which is 
 late and does not flower until the vigour of the 
 pinks and reds has been spent; then it settles over 
 the garden like a mantle of snow, suggesting cool- 
 ness when the heat of August is at its height. Be- 
 sides being scattered through the garden beds, 
 clumps of Phlox should be placed along the paths 
 between the Iris and Roses, to carry the colour 
 through the enclosure. 
 
 Phlox is increased readily by dividing the roots, 
 and this is better than raising it from seed as the 
 colour of seedlings is uncertain. Large clumps 
 should be broken up or their brilliancy will fade 
 and very often revert to the original colour. Every 
 
310 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Fall the Phlox in the garden should be thoroughly 
 overhauled and the purple clumps removed and 
 new stock of good shades added. The variety, Miss 
 Lingard, should not be used with the other Phloxes 
 as it is much earlier and its character quite differ- 
 ent. The following list includes the colours with 
 which the best results can be had: 
 
 ATHIS; salmon; very tall. 
 
 BACCHANTE; crimson, carmine eye; dwarf. 
 
 BERANGER; rosy white. 
 
 COQUELICOT; orange-scarlet. 
 
 COMET; rich crimson. 
 
 EUGENE DANZANVILLIERS; light lilac, white eye. 
 
 HENRY MURGER; pure white, rose centre; dwarf. 
 
 H. 0. NIGER; pure white, crimson eye. 
 
 LA VAGUE; pink, red eye. 
 
 INSPECTOR EIPEL; pink, red eye. 
 
 Miss COOK; white, pink eye; early. 
 
 MOLIERE; salmon-rose. 
 
 MRS. DUNBAR; white, rose eye. 
 
 DEFIANCE; bright red. 
 
 MARGARET SLACK; bright pink. 
 
 PANTHEON; salmon. 
 
 SUNSHINE; salmon pink, rose eye. 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 311 
 
 CARON D'AcHE; cherry-red. 
 
 ROSALIE; white, blush centre. 
 
 SPRINGDALE; deep pink. 
 
 PEARL; pure white; very late. 
 
 BOULE DE FEU; bright red, dark-red centre. 
 
 JEANNE D 'ARC; white; late. 
 
 BRIDESMAID; white, crimson centre. 
 
 MATADOR; orange-scarlet. 
 
 When buying DAHLIAS be sure to get good, 
 sound, field-grown roots, and not seedlings. Mice 
 seem to have a particular liking for these plants 
 and it is hard to bring up seedlings in the garden. 
 You will have to use your judgment in planting 
 Dahlias; put them where there is good space and 
 distribute them in different parts of the beds to 
 take the place of Hollyhocks and Delphiniums. 
 Some of the Show Dahlias are very free blooming, 
 much freer than the Cactus, and are useful for 
 cutting. Plant a few of each sort in early June, but 
 keep most of them back until about the first of 
 July. The bloom will not be needed, and Dahlias 
 do better and bear more flowers if started late in 
 the season. Disbud them freely, for the strength 
 of the stalk should go into only two or three flowers 
 
312 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 on each stem; and cut away some of the lower 
 branches so the growth of the upper ones will not 
 be stunted. Dahlias need a great deal of water, 
 and if the season is dry the hose should be freely 
 requisitioned. Saturate the ground thoroughly, 
 for the bulbs drink greedily; and spray the foliage. 
 LILY bulbs should be planted at the end of Oc- 
 tober or the first of November, except candidum, 
 which should be put in the ground about the fif- 
 teenth of September as it makes a growth in the 
 Fall. This Lily is somewhat fickle; it will do well 
 in one garden under certain conditions, and very 
 poorly in another where the soil, location and 
 treatment are exactly the same. L. superbum, 
 L. Canadense, L. candidum need not be planted at 
 a greater depth than equals three times the height 
 of the bulb, as they root only from their bases; but 
 L. Philadelphicum, L. umbellatum, L. tigrinum, L. 
 upeciosum, L. auratum, L. longiflorum should be 
 planted at least six inches deep, as they root also 
 from the stems. Lilies begin to sprout very early 
 in the Spring and may be injured by the late frosts 
 if some protection is not given; they should be 
 placed where the foliage of other plants will shelter 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 315 
 
 them. Lilies seem to do better in the shade, al- 
 though many authorities differ on this subject. In 
 England they are planted in the neighbourhood of 
 trees and large shrubs, and it would be better to 
 establish them in some part of the garden that is 
 out of the sun for the better part of the day, under 
 a high-branching tree or in the shadow of a shrub 
 or some thick-growing plants. Cover the bulbs 
 with a good top-dressing and remove it carefully in 
 the Spring so the tender shoots will not be broken. 
 The bulbs should not come into contact with ma- 
 nure, and should be fertilized from the surface with 
 a rich mulch that must be kept soaked in dry 
 weather. It is safer to set them in a handful of 
 sand so that drainage will be provided, for Lily 
 bulbs are very delicate and susceptible to rot, es- 
 pecially those that are constructed of scales. To 
 keep down the mice, scatter "rat biskit" liberally 
 on the surface of the bed among the young plants, 
 for mice are very fond of the succulent green shoots. 
 To afford shelter for Lilies and to provide a good 
 base of foliage for the long stems, Funkias may be 
 planted in the bed near them. Funkia grandiflora 
 alba, which bears a sweet-scented white blossom, 
 
316 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 flowers in August and carries its broad, rich foliage 
 unblighted until the end of Summer. Funkia 
 grandiflora has the same foliage, with a blue flower 
 that blossoms at the same time as alba, but is 
 carried on a much longer stem. There is another 
 Funkia, caerulea, that comes into flower the first 
 of July, but it is not desirable to use with Lilies as 
 the leaves turn rusty, and mildew as soon as the 
 bloom is past. 
 
 Lilium candidum, is most effective grown in 
 clumps, with Funkias or Japanese Iris around the 
 outside of the clump. Group it in the main beds 
 near a path; or if you have a good location with 
 a tall hedge for a background it will be well shown 
 off against it. The bulbs should be divided and 
 reset every three years, and the best time to do 
 this is just after the flowers have faded and not 
 when the leaves and stalks begin to turn yellow 
 later on. Lilium Philadelphicum is a lower grow- 
 ing Lily of a reddish colour that should be planted 
 in the shade of some other plants, overhanging the 
 edging. It blooms early and does not last very 
 long, but it is hardy and easy to grow. 
 
 Lilium auratum, the large, showy Lily of Japan 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 317 
 
 seems to be very hard to bring into bloom success- 
 fully, but it makes such a grand exhibition that a 
 few of the large-sized bulbs should be planted every 
 year. Grow this Lily in clumps of three or four set 
 rather formally around the circular path in the 
 Court of Honour. The bulbs are very delicate and 
 deteriorate quickly, so that only a very small propor- 
 tion succeed. The best plan is to plant Aura turns 
 in pots in the Fall, and winter them in the cold 
 frame, setting them out in the garden the end of 
 May or the first of June. A dozen of these plants 
 will give you flowers for eight or ten weeks, and 
 they are as interesting in their way as the Japan- 
 ese Iris. It is impossible to establish this Lily in 
 the garden, for a clump will grow beautifully less 
 for a year or so and then disappear. Good bulbs 
 are expensive, but there is nothing to equal them 
 in the Lily world. 
 
 Lilium umbellatum is very effective grown in 
 front of tall Larkspurs or among Campanula 
 pyramidalis or rotundi folia. It is used extensively 
 in English gardens and is combined with Monks- 
 hood, although one is pretty sure to find Delphin- 
 iums in its neighbourhood. Plant clumps of Urn- 
 
318 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 bellatum well in from the paths but do not have 
 too much of it. 
 
 Lilium longiflorum is the white Japanese Lily that 
 is better known under the name of Easter or Ber- 
 muda. It is perfectly hardy, but if you use can- 
 didum you might omit longiflorum, as you should 
 not have too many white Lilies in the garden. 
 Lilium speciosum var. Melpomene is a beautiful 
 pink Lily that is easily grown. It blooms later than 
 longiflorum and is good to succeed it, if you are 
 particularly fond of Lilies. Plant two clumps in 
 corners by the hedge, as it will look better with such 
 a background and needs the shelter. Lilium Can- 
 adense is the yellowish Canadian Lily that belongs 
 to the Martagon or Turncap family. The petals 
 are the least turned back of any in the group, and 
 the flowers are borne in clusters on the ends of 
 gracefully drooping stems. It is perfectly hardy 
 and may easily be established, but it is not as 
 showy as the Lilies that have been described above. 
 
 Lilium tigrinum is the familiar Tiger Lily in- 
 troduced from China over a hundred years ago. 
 It blooms later than any of the Lilies, except some 
 of the late Aura turns, and is the chief attraction of 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 321 
 
 the cottage yards in New York and New England 
 in August and September, with its turned caps of 
 orange-red, and black spots and stems. It is per- 
 fectly hardy and can be established without any 
 trouble whatever. It is good to have in the garden 
 on account of the lateness of its bloom, and should 
 be planted amid Hemerocallis fulra and flava to 
 hide the bareness of these plants when their flowers 
 have past and their foliage is inclined to shabbiness. 
 
 Funkia grandiflora, and G. alba, are splendid 
 in clumps at intervals of ten feet or so, or as a 
 border along a hedgeless path leading to the garden 
 or the kitchen garden. The foliage is a refreshing 
 green all Summer and they bloom at a time when 
 flowers are particularly desirable and interesting. 
 
 Campanula should be sown in early Spring in the 
 cold frame and transplanted to another frame to 
 winter. The variety rotundifolia may be used 
 along the edges of the paths between the Roses and 
 Iris or planted in front of C. pyramidalis which 
 grows to a greater height and is very showy. Py- 
 ramidalis is good combined with Lilies, and a few 
 clumps may be planted in the large beds among 
 the Phloxes. 
 
322 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Hemerocallis flava is the lemon Day Lily which 
 blooms profusely in June and should be planted 
 in clumps at the corners of the beds or the foot 
 of a flight of steps. Hemerocallis fulva is the 
 orange Day Lily, a rampant grower, with larger and 
 less attractive flowers than flava. Plant it in 
 the large beds, two or four clumps balancing each 
 other; its bloom is borne on long stems well above 
 the other plants. It spreads very rapidly and 
 should be kept from reaching out into the clumps 
 of Phlox, Foxglove, etc., for a little of it goes a long 
 way. 
 
 Rudbeckia, or Golden Glow, is not included in 
 the above list for it is not necessary to use it, and 
 it is of such weed-like growth that it is apt to 
 spread over everything. Small clusters of it may 
 be distributed through the Phlox in the large beds, 
 but place them where the lower part of the stalks 
 will be hidden, for the old leaves generally wither. 
 It should be kept low by pinching off the leaf 
 crowns, and although the individual flowers will 
 not be improved by this method you will get the 
 colour, which is all you need, and the plants will not 
 grow to such a height that they will be broken off 
 
THE BEST PERENNIALS FOR THE GARDEN 323 
 
 and ruined by the wind, for although you may 
 stake them it is impossible to keep the long stalks 
 in a natural position, and staking should be avoided 
 as much as possible. Keep Rudbeckia down to the 
 height of five feet. 
 
 If you have to use stakes in the garden have 
 them as small as possible, and painted green. The 
 Dahlias will have to be staked, and the Larkspurs 
 and Campanula pyramid-alls probably; and some 
 of the Phlox will grow so rampantly that it will 
 need support. When you have made up your mind 
 to do any staking, do not delay the operation any 
 longer than necessary. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 NATURALIZING 
 
 N page 139 is the 
 picture of an old 
 Georgian mansion 
 in Virginia. The 
 in the foreground, 
 which is many acres in ex- 
 tent, has been thickly nat- 
 uralized with Jonquils and Narcissi. 
 Standing by the sundial in early Spring 
 a sea of gold lies spread out at one's feet, 
 a living sea that melts away into the 
 young green of the neighbouring woods. 
 When the wind blows the sea is ruffled 
 and furrowed by the most graceful bil- 
 lows, and the faint water-lily scent of the 
 flowers is borne in on the fresh Spring 
 air, mingled with the odour of newly- 
 turned turf and the smoke from the neigh- 
 bouring cabins. The sight of a field of 
 325 
 
326 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Daffodils played upon by the wind is one never to be 
 forgotten. The most tender symphony is produced 
 without sound, as the tops and stems sway mu- 
 sically to the varying whims and inspirations of 
 the breeze, bending now this way, now that, or 
 fluttering uncertainly for a moment before renew- 
 ing their rhythmic undulations. A faint accom- 
 panying murmur of the breeze from the budding 
 trees adds to the almost imperceptible melody. 
 
 Narcissi are much more enjoyable and more 
 beautiful when growing through the grass of a 
 field than planted primly along the borders of 
 the garden, where, to be sure, they are useful and 
 mildly effective for a little colour, but where they 
 present an ultra-formal appearance and suggest the 
 backyards of a city where they can be grown 
 equally well. Some spot may be found surely on 
 a small place where they may be naturalized, on 
 the edge of the lawn, in a clearing in a grove; or 
 where the garden ends and the long, natural grass 
 of a meadow begins ; on a bank or terrace or grassy 
 knoll. If planted in the rough grass the bulbs 
 ripen before the scythe has to be employed and 
 they do not interfere with a crop of hay. They 
 
NATURALIZING 329 
 
 grow and multiply, especially in deep, loamy soils 
 where there is a good deal of moisture in the Spring 
 of the year. A very successful bed was naturalized 
 by the author between the lawn and a thick clump 
 of wild trees. A band of the bulbs about four and 
 a half feet wide was planted, following the outline 
 of the woodlet, which was composed of Oaks and 
 Elms. The ground fell off a little toward the trees 
 so the rain to a certain extent was carried away, 
 but the soil was deep leaf-mould that had never 
 been disturbed and is always quite damp except 
 for a few weeks in Midsummer. The bed was a 
 hundred and fifty feet long and was carried in a 
 graceful line around a large rock about which a 
 clump of old Cedars twined their gnarled roots, until 
 it was lost to sight in the wild growth of a little 
 glade. Emperor, Empress, Von Sion, Sir Watkin 
 and Barri Conspicuus were used, and the different 
 shades of yellow, primrose and orange-red, and the 
 different characters of the heads of bloom added 
 great interest and beauty to the effect. The bulbs 
 were planted close together so that there was a 
 dazzling and solid band of colour, and when they 
 faded their places were taken by Cranesbill (wild 
 
330 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Geranium) which was supported by a background 
 of Ferns that had begun to stray out of the dark 
 depths of the woods towards the warmer shadows 
 of the lawn. 
 
 The cheapest Narcissi to use are the medium 
 trumpet varieties that may be obtained in mixture 
 from a dollar and fifteen cents to a dollar and a 
 half a hundred. But the gratification that one ex- 
 periences from planting some of the named varieties 
 of marked characteristics and colours is out of all 
 proportion to the extra expenditure. The best 
 Narcissi are: 
 
 BARRI CONSPICUUS; primrose, stained orange 
 scarlet. 
 
 BICOLOR EMPRESS; white perianth, yellow trum- 
 pet. 
 
 EMPRESS; very large; rich golden yellow. 
 
 GOLDEN SPUR; large yellow trumpet, deep yel- 
 low petals. 
 
 INCOMPARABILIS CYNOSURE; sulphur petals and 
 cup, stained with deep orange-red. 
 
 SIR WATKIN (Welsh Chalice Flower) ; very large; 
 sulphur cup, orange petals. 
 
 PRINCEPS (Irish Daffodil) ; primrose and yellow. 
 
NATURALIZING 333 
 
 SINGLE YELLOW JONQUIL, CAMPERNELLE JON- 
 QUIL, NARCISSUS POETICUS (the little white, starry 
 flower with a pheasant's eye) can be established 
 easily and increase very rapidly. Poeticus should 
 be planted in a dry place, however, or it will not 
 blossom. The best place to naturalize it is on a 
 little knoll on the edge of a lawn or grove of trees, 
 where it is well shown off. Poeticus ornatus is an 
 improved Poeticus that blooms early, the first of 
 May; the old variety blooms the last of the same 
 month, the last of the Narcissi to appear. Jonquils 
 may be naturalized in the half long grass, or in 
 the company of Poeticus which it precedes in bloom 
 by several weeks. All the Narcissi grow well in the 
 shade. The small bulbs can be planted with a 
 dibble, a sharp, pistol-shaped instrument with 
 which holes are bored in the ground. The trowel 
 will have to be used for the larger bulbs, to scoop 
 out a cylinder of turf. 
 
 The white, sweet-scented, double Narcissus whose 
 flower is something like a Gardenia, is worthless 
 out of doors. One authority says that it must be 
 planted in a dry position if you wish it to bloom; 
 another, that it will not do well without moisture. 
 
334 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 My experience has been that no matter where it is 
 planted the bud will shrivel up just when it seems 
 about to burst into flower. It is most fickle and 
 it does not pay to bother with it. 
 
 The GESNERIANA TULIP can be naturalized suc- 
 cessfully, and should be placed in clumps along the 
 edge of a bank or near shrubbery, where it is not 
 too dry. The flower is a beautiful red in colour 
 and is borne on a long, straight stem. It is very 
 decorative when cut. Like the Cottage Garden 
 Tulips, Gesneriana is rather too formal and Dutch 
 looking when used in rows in the garden. 
 
 CROCUSES are not of much value in the garden. 
 They are very early, but that is their chief claim 
 to favour. When they first appear our eyes have 
 been flower-starved for so long that we welcome 
 them with much pleasure and talk about their ad- 
 vent at the breakfast table. Crocuses should be 
 placed in the lawn, or on the edge of the meadow, 
 and will have to be renewed about every two or 
 three years. One sometimes sees Crocuses bloom- 
 ing through a late snow, and when they are dis- 
 covered in such a plight the effect is quite startling. 
 
 COLUMBINE is found in a natural state in poor 
 
NATURALIZING 337 
 
 soil, growing on rocks in the partly cleared woods, 
 where it is shady. The native variety, red and 
 yellow in colour, Aquilegea Canadensis, should be 
 naturalized on rocky knolls on the edge of the lawn 
 or in the woods. 
 
 LILIUM LONGIFLORUM naturalized in a glade 
 near water, or where the sound of water may be 
 heard, with ferns for companions, looks better than 
 anywhere else. The lilies, except carididum, like 
 shade and if you have no wood in which to estab- 
 lish them place a clump near some shrubs or by a 
 group of trees. 
 
 The CYPRIPEDIUMS are Orchids and are the most 
 beautiful of our wild flowers. C. spectabile, or 
 Showy Lady Slipper, grows to the height of two 
 feet and bears a rose-white flower. It can be grown 
 in moist leaf -mould well shaded, and is beautiful 
 naturalized in a damp wood. C. piibescens, Yellow 
 Lady Slipper, and C. candidum, White, require the 
 same treatment. C. acaule, or Moccasin Flower, 
 should be planted where it will be well drained. 
 The plant throws up two broad leaves from the 
 base, and from between them grows a stalk a foot 
 high that bears a purple-rose flower. 
 
338 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 FOXGLOVE is easy to naturalize and is very effec- 
 tive grown in the woods or along woodland paths. 
 I have had plants grow in the shadiest part of an 
 Oak grove, from seed sifting through the garden 
 sweepings that had been thrown there. Foxgloves 
 sow themselves and increase rapidly, and can be so 
 easily moved that clumps of them may be trans- 
 planted to any position desired. White is the most 
 effective colour in the wood, and white with Glox- 
 inia-like spots, which add greatly to the odd form 
 of the flower. White and purple may be combined 
 in groups, and as the purple grows to a greater 
 height and forms strong, erect spikes, it is the best 
 to use for the centre of the clumps. Foxglove is 
 not only easy but cheap to naturalize, and the ef- 
 fect obtained with it is most striking as it is not 
 particularly familiar in such connection and is one 
 of the comparatively few plants that can be suc- 
 cessfully grown and bloomed in the shade. Trans- 
 plant Foxgloves in early Spring, and sow every sea- 
 son to keep a supply coming. 
 
 Many wild flowers may be grown on the edge of 
 the lawn, and where there is a field in sight of the 
 garden or yard it may be made attractive with 
 
Foxgloves along a Woodland Path. 
 
NATURALIZING 341 
 
 some of our native plants. The line between the 
 semi-formal garden and the wild garden of fields 
 and woods should not be too sharply drawn. One 
 should melt gracefully into the other, like the 
 mingling of the fountain's overflow with the 
 brook. If your grounds possess any good natural 
 features, such as a wood or glade, or knolls or rocks, 
 let them alone; do not try to civilize them too 
 much or decorate them with exotic plants and 
 flowers. 
 
 Following is a list of hardy herbaceous plants 
 that are of secondary importance in the garden on 
 account of their medium size and less striking char- 
 acteristics. They may be planted along the bor- 
 ders of the paths or in some place that has not filled 
 out according to your expectations. 
 
 AQUILEGIA, or Columbine. One of the most sat- 
 isfactory varieties to grow is ccerulea, the Rocky 
 Mountain Blue Columbine. It is one of the easiest 
 to raise and is perfectly hardy and persistent. 
 Height, three feet. Glandulosa vera bears innumer- 
 able flowers of large size. Plant the seed in the 
 Spring and transplant w r hen three inches high. 
 
342 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Transplant again in the Fall to permanent position. 
 It will bloom the second season. 
 
 COREOPSIS, grandiflora. Plant in the Spring and 
 combine a number of seedlings into a clump which 
 may be set out in the garden in early Fall. It will 
 make quite a bush, but the yellow flowers should 
 be kept well picked off if continuance of bloom is 
 to be expected. Moves easily any time if taken 
 up with a good ball. 
 
 CAMPANULA. Besides the varieties pyramidalis 
 and rotundifolia the Medium Rose and White are 
 good. These are biennials, blooming the second 
 year and then dying down. Seed should be planted 
 every Spring if you wish to keep a supply on hand. 
 The Medium is the true Canterbury Bell and blooms 
 in June and July. A good perennial Campanula 
 is per seed folia grandiflora and p. g. alba, blue and 
 white respectively, with large flowers blooming in 
 June and July. The Campanulas stay in blossom 
 for some time and are altogether one of the 
 most satisfactory perennials. Plant seed in the 
 Spring and establish the plants in the garden in 
 the Fall, covering them up well with top-dressing. 
 Unless the plants are well grown it is safer to win- 
 
Trumpet Narcissus. 
 
NATURALIZING 345 
 
 ter them in the cold frame. Carpathian Harebell 
 (Campanula carpatica) is a small graceful bell- 
 flower of very attractive form and habit. C. frag- 
 iliSj C. turbinata and C. pumila are also worthy of 
 a place in the border if there is room. For the 
 best bell-flower effect, however, C. perscecifolia 
 grandiflora alba, C. pyramidalis and C. medium 
 are the best to use. The two former bloom until 
 quite late in the Summer, but Medium, which is a 
 biennial, is over by the end of June. 
 
 Good perennial CORNFLOWERS are macrocephala 
 and candidissima. Will do well in almost any 
 soil and if started early will flower the first 
 season. 
 
 A very good perennial that grows easily and 
 blooms early in the spring is MYOSOTIS, or Forget- 
 me-not. It likes a cool, moist soil and if rightly 
 situated will bloom all Summer. The bloom should 
 be kept well picked off. It may be started in Au- 
 gust to bloom the next Spring and may be set out 
 with Pansies in the border along the path. Good 
 varieties are alpestris, alpestris robusta grandiflora, 
 alpestris Victoria. 
 
 DIANTHUS Heddewigii, Japan Pink, is a most 
 
346 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 attractive little flower of many colours, that blooms 
 profusely and continues to bloom for some time if 
 the flowers are well plucked. There is not much 
 place for Pinks in the flower garden, unless along 
 some border, but they are good in the kitchen gar- 
 den. Dianthus plumarius is the old-fashioned May 
 Pink, sweet scented, that might be placed in the 
 Court of Honour. Grow them in Summer and 
 transplant to the garden in early Spring. 
 
 SNAPDRAGON, antirrhinum is a very attractive 
 perennial but a tender one; the colours are soft 
 and of a good variety; the foliage a dark green 
 and of extremely graceful habit. It will blossom 
 the first year if sown early; but the best way is 
 to sow it in July and winter the plants in the cold 
 frame for they will not live in the open ground. 
 They should be sown every year. If this plant is 
 given good care and well fertilized the flower stalks 
 and flowers will grow to an enormous size. It is 
 very effective to cut as the graceful stalks droop 
 over prettily in a vase or bowl. New York florists 
 recognize its decorative qualities and force it for 
 early Spring sale. 
 
 PYRETHRUMS are much used in English gardens 
 
Poet's Narcissus. 
 
NATURALIZING 349 
 
 in combination with Campanulas, Delphiniums and 
 so forth, and make a good foreground for such 
 plants. They grow much more luxuriantly in Eng- 
 land however than they do with us, and it would 
 not be well to rely too much upon their cooperation 
 for effects in the common sense garden. Plant 
 them in front of Canterbury Bells, or Larkspur, and 
 the yellow Pyrethrums make a good foreground for 
 White Lilies. They need much moisture and should 
 be kept well watered, and in dry seasons mulched 
 with manure. The single varieties are like Daisies 
 in form, but come in many colours such as crimson, 
 pink, white and yellow ; and the single varieties are 
 the best ones for a small garden. The double va- 
 rieties are more like Chrysanthemums, and as they 
 bloom in June their form seems a little bit incon- 
 gruous and affected in a modest enclosure. Cer- 
 tain seedsmen of England have much improved 
 Pyrethrums of late years and it is to them that we 
 owe the large range of colour. The best colours 
 to use for a small garden in combination with Lilies 
 or Campanula or Delphinium are yellow and white. 
 The flowers are borne most profusely in June, and 
 if the bushes are well cut down just as the bloom 
 
350 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 begins to wane a good second crop will appear in 
 the early Autumn. 
 
 LAVENDER, a grey-green shrub-like plant, prob- 
 ably has more tradition and sentiment connected 
 
 i 
 
 with it than any other flower. It thrives in Eng- 
 land in light, warm soils. It is apparently difficult 
 to raise from seed, so that it is better to procure 
 plants from the nurseryman which may be in- 
 creased by division. Protection should be given 
 them in Winter in this climate, and they should be 
 planted in a very warm, sunny position, on the 
 slope of a bank or terrace. There is a white- 
 flowered variety that is just as sweet as the blue 
 and blossoms at the same time, so that if the two 
 are combined the clump will be more interesting. 
 The best place to plant seeds is in a cold frame; 
 not that the protection of the glass is necessary, 
 but in a frame the seed bed is protected and the 
 young seedlings are kept safe. The amount of 
 moisture may be regulated, which is an important 
 thing, and heavy rains that are so often disastrous 
 to seeds in the open ground may be kept off. Sow 
 the seeds in drills and transplant when two inches 
 high to another frame. To keep off cats and dogs 
 
Perennials bordering an old Path. 
 
NATURALIZING 353 
 
 and chickens a lattice of laths may be made and 
 laid over the top of the frame. 
 
 It is a good thing to have some annuals, not only 
 to use for cutting but also for filling out the flower 
 garden when something happens to the established 
 clumps, as something very often will in the best 
 regulated gardens. 
 
 ZINNIAS are good, as they bloom until frost and 
 the plants grow into bushes of attractive form. 
 Crimson and white and flesh pink are the best 
 colours. 
 
 BALSAM, or Lady Slipper, is one of the easiest 
 grown annuals. If transplanted several times the 
 plants will grow bushy and develop into miniature 
 trees covered with Camellia-like bloom. The dou- 
 ble white, carmine, lavender, rose, in fact all the 
 colours are good. The Balsams cannot be used for 
 cutting but they are an attractive old flower that 
 it will pay to cultivate. 
 
 CALENDULAS and MARIGOLDS should be grown 
 for the purpose of filling up. The tall-growing 
 Marigolds if kept cut back will develop into bushy 
 plants and may be moved any time if a little care 
 is taken. Choose a rainy day, and if the sun should 
 
354 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 come out very strong cover them over with an 
 awning of some sort. 
 
 PANSIES should be started in July, and if early- 
 flowering plants are wanted they should be win- 
 tered in a frame. Otherwise they may be win- 
 tered in the open ground if a good covering of litter 
 and straw is given. Set them firmly and deeply 
 in the ground. If Pansies are placed in partial 
 shade and kept well picked off they will bloom all 
 Summer. One of the most attractive strains is 
 Trimardean Giant; the plants are vigorous and 
 the flowers borne on long stems; colours delicate, 
 blotched and shaded, with many clarets, browns, 
 and blues of alluring shades. 
 
 GLADIOLI, the familiar Summer-flowering bulbs 
 may be easily grown, either in the kitchen garden 
 for cutting or for stately specimens of bloom in the 
 flower garden. No place has been assigned to them 
 in the plan of planting as their location will have 
 to be left to the judgment of the proprietor, who 
 may best use them for filling in bare spots that un- 
 expectedly appear. Gladioli should be planted in 
 succession from the middle of May to the tenth 
 of July. For the flower garden use Lemoines, 
 
A good Opportunity for Natural izi ng. 
 
NATURALIZING 357 
 
 Childsii and GrofPs Hybrids, but for the cutting 
 bed any of the ordinary mixtures that cost from a 
 dollar and a quarter to a dollar and a half a hun- 
 dred will do, and they will be found to be much 
 surer than the fancy strains and altogether satis- 
 factory, although they do not produce such large 
 and showy spikes of bloom. The bulbs should be 
 taken up in the Fall and stored in a dry cellar 
 where the temperature will not go below thirty-five 
 degrees. 
 
 COSMOS should be kept out of the garden. 
 Blooms very late and is generally caught by frost. 
 
 NASTURTIUMS; tall growing to train over the 
 hedge. Nasturtiums should be planted where they 
 are to be used as they are badly checked when 
 transplanted. 
 
 PETUNIAS; double varieties of different colours. 
 
 POPPIES; Shirley; double varieties; Mephisto; 
 Maid of the Mist. 
 
 STOCKS; Ten Weeks and late flowering sorts; 
 rather uncertain about coming into bloom. 
 
 WALL FLOWER ; Paris is a single annual with the 
 peculiarly sweet Wallflower scent; easy to grow 
 and attractive along the path. 
 
358 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 SUNFLOWER; single Russian; double Globe Flow- 
 ered. 
 
 The design for planting the flower garden shown 
 in this chapter is simple and easily carried out. 
 The material for the enclosure should first be de- 
 cided upon, and if the garden is on a lawn a hedge 
 should be used. Pickets, or a brick wall with 
 pickets, are better where the space is uneven and 
 closely surrounded by trees, for if built on a 
 level, open lawn they stand out a little too con- 
 spicuously. 
 
 The paths should be dug out to a depth of two 
 or two and a half feet and filled in with stone. 
 Made thus, they act as blind drains and carry off 
 the superfluous water from the flower beds. The 
 last three or four inches of stone should be broken 
 up into small pieces and well packed. If bricks 
 are used for the paths they should be set in a bed 
 of sand three inches deep at least and well ham- 
 mered down. An English brickmason is the best 
 man to lay such paths; he will understand their 
 construction perfectly. The best bond to use is 
 herringbone, the way the English walks are laid. 
 
 The next best thing to brick is white gravel, 
 
Iris on the Edge of the Lawn. 
 
NATURALIZING 
 
 361 
 
 the kind that is used on tarred roofs. For this 
 gravel make a bed of one and a half inches of 
 clay on top of the stone filling and roll the first 
 dressing well in. Finish off with two inches of a 
 smaller size and keep it loosened up with an iron 
 
 Lavender. 
 
 rake. Paths made of white gravel are a good fin- 
 ish for the garden, not quite as good, as brick for 
 the colour does not combine so well with the flow- 
 ers, but much better than bluestone which is poor 
 stuff; the colour is bad and its associations com- 
 monplace. The coarse is painful to walk on, and 
 the fine screenings dirty and sticky after a rain. 
 
362 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Both brick and white gravel are always dry even 
 immediately after the hardest shower, and gravel 
 particularly is so clean that it does not soil the 
 most delicate gown with which it comes in con- 
 tact. Gravel screened to any size can be ob- 
 tained on Long Island at about the same cost as 
 bluestone or traprock. 
 
 In a common sense garden there is not much 
 room for ornaments. Even a Rose pergola should 
 be kept out of it if it is small, say under sixty by 
 thirty feet. If your heart is set on having an ar- 
 bour, construct one in some other part of the 
 grounds and let it form the basis of a Rose garden. 
 A sundial is really better placed on a terrace or 
 in an alcove off the path that leads to the garden. 
 It may be set in the middle of the path if there 
 is room, but do not place it in a flower bed. A 
 sundial arranged with a background of Lilies is very 
 effective. The round bed in the centre of the 
 Court of Honour is an appropriate place, but I 
 should rather see an old Box tree there. At least 
 try a Box, and if you are not satisfied with its ap- 
 pearance you can replace it with a sundial. If & 
 sundial is set on a raised bed of turf, naturalize 
 
HEMLOCK 01 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ^ * * m s 
 
 ^ui 
 
 E] S HI 
 
 ^ V N? 
 
 x * * 
 
 BRICK orGRA 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 /f /r A /r j\ >c /J" / 
 
 A Delphinium 
 B Foxglove 
 D Sweet William 
 E Lilies (White) 
 H Lilies (Orange) 
 
 K Phlox 
 
 PLAN OF PLANTING TH 
 1 Campanula marc 
 
 L Lilies (Tiger) 2 Campanula medi 
 
 V White Lilac 
 W Laburnum 
 
 3 Campanula Pyra 
 
 4 Japanese Iris 
 
 5 German Iris 
 
WALK 
 
 'LOWER GARDEN 
 
 aa 7 Nasturtium 12 Flowering Almond 
 
 8 Peony 13 Calycanthus 
 
 ilis 9 Hemerocallis Flava 14 Hollyhocks 
 
 10 Hemerocallis Fulva 1.5 Dahlias 
 
 11 Funkia Alba Hi Hudbeckia 
 
NATURALIZING 367 
 
 Narcissi around the base and grow Crocuses and 
 Narcissi through the turf of the bed. 
 
 There should be a seat in the garden at the end 
 of a path near a hedge. Do not use rustic or Italian 
 stone seats. Very good and simple garden benches 
 are made in England, and I know of nothing better 
 for a small garden than one of these. Several of 
 these benches are pictured on page 371. Your 
 carpenter could build one, but there are nurserymen 
 who have the working designs and make a specialty 
 of constructing them at a reasonable price. They 
 should be painted white or green. 
 
 Do not place vases or pots or tubs of flowers in 
 the garden or near it. Palms and other exotics 
 that are used in the house in Winter should be sum- 
 mered in some secluded spot; you will enjoy them 
 all the more when they come home. Hanging 
 baskets too, are obsolete decorations and should be 
 sent to the bourne from which nothing ever re- 
 turns, along with the iron stag and bronzed Indian. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 A SMALL WATER GARDEN 
 
 I 
 
 F there is room on the 
 place for a Water Gar- 
 den the cultivation 
 of Water Lilies and 
 water plants of various 
 sorts will be found to be 
 not only interesting, but 
 also a most delightful diversion. If there 
 is a brook or small pond in the neighbour- 
 hood of the garden that can be utilized, so 
 much the better, but even if a pool has 
 to be constructed the cost may be kept 
 within bounds, and a small expanse of 
 water will serve to exploit many rare 
 and beautiful blooms, and to make per- 
 manent at the garden side many attrac- 
 tive forms of plant life that otherwise you 
 would have to wander far afield to enjoy. 
 A small Water Garden is a good adjunct 
 
 369 
 
370 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 to the garden proper, or to the Rose Garden, if 
 they can be combined without too much apparent 
 effort. 
 
 The plan given in this chapter was drawn for 
 a continuation of a flower garden, and the beds 
 numbered 15 are planted with Peonies, Hollyhocks 
 and Phlox as a link to the garden. If the Water 
 Garden stands by itself and has no definite connec- 
 tion with the rest of the planting, this part of the 
 plan may be modified and be made to conform to 
 the opposite side of the pool by planting beds num- 
 bered 15 like those numbered 13, with Lilies, Flags 
 and Funkias. If it is not desirable to keep beds 
 numbered 13 and 14 in herbaceous plants un- 
 trimmed hedges may be planted in their place, and 
 that part of bed numbered 15 that borders the ap- 
 proach should be included in this new plan. For 
 these hedges use Lilac, Althea, Privet, Red Twigged 
 Dogwood and Golden Willow, which latter will 
 have to be cut back rather vigourously every year 
 to keep it in line with the other shrubs. As a back- 
 ground for the Water Garden use White Willow, 
 Weeping Willow and Hemlock Spruce, and under- 
 neath them plant Rhododendron album elegans, and 
 

 Garden Seats 
 
A SMALL WATER GARDEN 373 
 
 Rhododendron album grandiflorum, varieties that do 
 exceedingly well in damp situations and whose 
 white blossoms are most effective with the foliage 
 of the Hemlock and Willow. 
 
 The pots and boxes marked 11 in the plan may 
 be done away with, and good round specimens of 
 Privet used in their stead. Plant beds numbered 
 12 with Lilies, Flags and Funkias. Lilies seem 
 particularly happy near water, especially White 
 Lilies like candidum, speciosum and longiflorum; 
 or the beautiful pink speciosum melpomone. They 
 make a most appropriate setting for a pool; the 
 white and blue Funkias will shelter the Lilies and 
 make a good carpet for their long stems. In these 
 beds alternate clumps of German and Japanese 
 Iris, placing them near the borders two and a half 
 or three feet apart. In beds numbered 13 and 15 
 use Iris in the same way, and in the centre of each 
 bed a specimen of Forsythia viridissima, Rosa Ru- 
 gosa, or Privet might be placed as a background 
 against which to show off White Lilies and Aura- 
 turn Lilies. Fill in these beds with Ferns which 
 are beautiful in the Water Garden and very effec- 
 tive with Lilies; they afford the same shelter that 
 
374 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 Funkias supply, protecting the tender shoots from 
 the winds and the strong sunlight. The Gossamer 
 Fern (Dicksonia punctilobula) grows from one to 
 one and a half feet high and is good for massing in 
 sunlight or partial shade; it will thrive in either dry 
 or moist soils if goo.d drainage is provided. The 
 Ostrich Fern (Onoclea struthiopteris) grows four feet 
 high and has beautiful palm-like fronds; use it as 
 a background for the smaller Ferns and Lilies. It 
 is easy to grow but should be well fertilized and 
 the clumps placed two feet and a half apart. The 
 Flowering Fern (Osmunda regalis) does well in 
 moist soils in either sun or shade, and can be grown 
 partially submerged in water on the edges of ponds 
 or streams. The clumps should be planted three 
 feet apart. Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum), 
 is easily cultivated if deep shade is given and good 
 drainage provided. Plant it along the borders of 
 the beds one foot apart. 
 
 Construct the tank or pool of concrete, making 
 the sides and bottom about six inches thick. The 
 coping may be made of cement too, instead of 
 marble which is quite expensive, but have it eight 
 or ten inches wide and do not let it rise much above 
 
Garden Seats 
 
A SMALL WATER GARDEN 377 
 
 the surface of the ground; the lower it is the better 
 the effect will be. The urns and the fountain that 
 are in the plan may be omitted, and for the latter 
 a small inconspicuous pipe substituted to provide 
 water for the basin. In place of stone benches 
 English garden seats might be used with just as 
 good results, but seats of some sort you should have 
 as you will use them continually. Around the cop- 
 ing a turf border may be laid instead of the bed of 
 Aegopodium in the plan (No. 10). Make the turf 
 border one and one-half feet wide and plant it with 
 clumps of Japanese Iris, Iris sibirica and Flower- 
 ing Fern, naturalizing Narcissi between the clumps. 
 The border should be confined by a brick coping, 
 the ends of the bricks being embedded and pro- 
 truding two inches above the level of the path. 
 
 On the curved side of the pool build a shelf ten 
 inches wide with a side four inches high, and place 
 it so that it will be four or five inches below the 
 surface of the water. This shelf is 4, 5, 6, 7 in the 
 plan and should be planted with (4 and 6) Parrot's 
 Feather, (5) Water Poppy, and (7) Bulrush. Also 
 make shelves for the two angles (8) and plant them 
 under water with the Cat-tail Flag (Typha lati- 
 
378 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 folia). The shelf numbered 9 is for Cyperus alter- 
 nifolia, a graceful flowering Sedge with bright green 
 foliage. The plants established on these shelves 
 are those whose natural habitat is the shallow water, 
 on the shores of ponds, and planted in this way 
 they appear to be growing from the bottom of the 
 pool. They make an excellent border for the basin 
 and furnish it luxuriantly. 
 
 The Water Lilies marked 1, 2, 3 on the plan 
 should be planted in slat-sided boxes in good rich 
 loam, and placed on the bottom of the pool three 
 feet below the surface. No. 1 is Nympheamarliacea 
 chromatella, a Marliac hybrid, a large, yellow, fra- 
 grant Lily that blooms continuously through the 
 Summer. It is hardy, and may be left in the pool 
 from year to year if the water is not drawn off in 
 the Winter. No. 2, Nymphea Zanzibar ensis is not 
 hardy and should be taken up in the Fall and 
 stored in some warm, damp place until Spring. It 
 is hardly worth while to go to so much trouble for 
 one plant, however, and it would be better to pro- 
 cure a new specimen each year, for warm, damp 
 places are hard to find. This Lily is worth buying 
 anew each season, for it blooms freely and bears a 
 
Plan of Plantii 
 
i Water Garden 
 
A SMALL WATER GARDEN 383 
 
 beautiful, very large, deep purple flower. Nymphea 
 tuberosa Richardsoni is an American Lily with large 
 double flowers. 
 
 The above named Water Lilies were chosen for 
 their blooming qualities, as they flower abundantly 
 all the season, for in a small pool continuous bloom 
 is absolutely necessary. The well known Pond 
 Lily is almost as beautiful as any, and has the 
 sweetest perfume, but it will not make any show 
 in a small garden as it is a shy bloomer of medium 
 growth. And it is so with many other Lilies that 
 would be satisfactory in a pond or good-sized nat- 
 ural pool or backwater, but that would prove ex- 
 asperating in a garden basin. 
 
 If the pool is three feet deep as it should be, the 
 water may be left in it all Winter if the top is 
 boarded over and covered with a few inches of 
 leaves or straw. Then most of the plants may be 
 left undisturbed from year to year. The goldfish, 
 with which every pool should be plentifully pro- 
 vided, may be left for the Winter too, and this will 
 save a lot of trouble and care. The fish will be use- 
 ful in keeping down the " wrigglers" and are a 
 source of much pleasure besides. Toads will come 
 
384 COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 down to your waterside in armies to breed, but the 
 spawn which is readily discerned floating on the 
 surface of the water may easily be removed with 
 a little scoop net made of fine gauze; and toads 
 should really be encouraged as they destroy millions 
 of undesirable insects. 
 
 In Summer, except in very dry periods, the rain 
 will provide all the fresh water that is needed, and 
 rain-water is much better than water from the tap. 
 If the latter is supplied too freely in hot weather 
 a very undesirable water-plant that much resem- 
 bles noxious green scum will spring up quickly and 
 prove a nuisance. 
 
 List of Water Lilies for Ponds, Tanks and Tubs: 
 
 Nymphea pygmaea; Asiatic white Water Lily; 
 can be grown in a few inches of water; small, 
 not free blooming. 
 
 N. Helvola; yellow; small; the best Water Lily 
 for a tub. 
 
 N. alba candidissima; of the finest form; re- 
 quires a great deal of room and a depth of water 
 of five or six feet. 
 
A SMALL WATER GARDEN 385 
 
 N. alba rosea; pale rosy pink; the earliest to 
 flower, ceasing early. 
 
 N. Gladstoniana, pure white; broad petals; one 
 of the best. 
 
 N. odorata; American white Water Lily; me- 
 dium growth. 
 
 N. odorata rubra; Cape Cod variety; pink; 
 small; not a free bloomer. 
 
 HYBRIDS 
 
 N. marliacea Candida; very large; white; flower 
 seven to ten inches in diameter. 
 
 N. marliacea rosea; decided pink tinge; flowers 
 of good form. 
 
 N. marliacea flammea; highly coloured; very 
 fine. 
 
 N. marliacea rubra-pundala; very large; colour 
 carmine. 
 
 The foregoing hybrids are of vigourous growth 
 and are better in deep water, from three and a half 
 to eight feet. 
 
 The following are suited to shallow pools, tanks 
 or tubs: 
 
ocS() COMMON SENSE GARDENS 
 
 N. Laydekcri rosea; pale rose, growing darker 
 with age; early flowering; difficult to propagate. 
 
 N. Laydekcri lilacina; flowers tinged with lilac. 
 
 N. Laydekeri fulgens; darker than lilacina j with 
 quite large flowers. 
 
 N. Laydekeri prolifera; free flowering; pink. 
 
 N. odorata rosacea; very pale pink; free flower- 
 ing. 
 
 N. odorata sulphurea grandiflora; pale yellow; 
 flowers carried well out of the water; foliage mot- 
 tled; petals long, narrow and tapering. 
 
 N. Robinsoni; red with a tinge of yellow; a 
 good grower. 
 
 N. (jloriosa; carmine; finest of all the hybrids. 
 
INDEX 
 
I N D E X 
 
 Adiantum pedatum, 374 
 ^Egopodium (Goat- weed), 377 
 Agapanthus (African Lily), 
 
 '380 
 
 Alexandria, Va., 11 
 Alpine Rose, 225 
 Altar, of Box, 34 
 Althea, 151 
 Ampelopsis Veitchi,258; Vir- 
 
 ginica, 258 
 
 Anne de Diesbach Rose, 228 
 Annuals, list of, 353 
 Antirrhinum, cultivation of, 
 
 346 
 
 Apollinaris, 37 
 Aquilegea, cultivation of, 341 ; 
 
 varieties of, 341 
 Araby, 33 
 Arbor Vitsr, 123 
 Arbour, in place of pergola, 
 
 51 
 
 Arbour Roses, 253 
 Architects, 16; garden, 77 
 Architecture, style of, 21, 25 
 Arley, garden at, 278 
 Arlington, 30, 51 
 Auratum Lilies, in the water 
 
 garden, 373 
 
 Background, for flowers, 277; 
 
 for Roses, 263 
 Balsam, best colours, 353 
 
 Baltimore Belle Rose, 248 
 
 Banksia Rose, 218 
 
 Bay, 34 
 
 Bessie Brown Rose, 243 
 
 Beech Tree, 93 
 
 Bignonia grandiflora; radi- 
 cans, 254 
 
 Black Rose, 226 
 
 Blanche Moreau, Moss Rose, 
 217 
 
 Bleeding Heart, 292 
 
 Blyborough, garden at, 273 
 
 Bouibon Roses, list of, 
 244 
 
 Box, clipped and ornamental, 
 34; abundance of, 37; asso- 
 ciation of, 37, 39; modern, 
 115; shape of, 115; weird 
 forms of, 277 
 
 Box Edging, 62; transplant- 
 ing and cultivating, 65; 
 choice of, 65; necessity of 
 fertilizing, 66; with manure 
 water, 66; trimming, 67; 
 second growth, 67 
 
 Box Hedges, 68; where to 
 place them, 68 
 
 Brick, Long Island, Hudson 
 Valley, 175 
 
 Brick Steps, 175 
 
 Brick Walls, 174; construc- 
 tion, 176; foundation for, 
 
 389 
 
390 
 
 INDEX 
 
 177; with fences, 174, 176; 
 
 retaining, 179 
 Brickwall, garden at, 270; 
 
 flower effect at, 273 
 Burgundy Rose, 226 
 Burnet-leaved Rose, 226 
 Buttonball Tree,. 96 
 Buxus sempervirens, 65, 115, 
 
 116; var. arborescens, 116, 
 
 285 
 
 Cabbage Rose, 214, 291 
 
 California Privet, 153 
 
 Calycanthus Floridus, 152 
 
 Camden, S. C., 19 
 
 Caps, post, 185; brick, 175 
 
 Charleston, S. C., 16 
 
 Chippendale, 19; 
 
 Chestnut, 94 
 
 Cinnamon Rose, 225 
 
 Circus, 37 
 
 Clara Watson Rose, 240 
 
 Cleeve Prior, 274 
 
 Clematis paniciilata; Jack- 
 manni, 257 
 
 Climax, garden, 281 
 
 (-limbing Roses, 247; train- 
 ing, 247 
 
 Clothilde Souperi Rose, 228 
 
 Common sense garden, 21 ; 
 atmosphere of, 61 
 
 Colour Schemes, 281 
 
 Colours, filling in with, 22 
 
 Conventionality, avoidance 
 of, 74 
 
 Cottage garden, Xew Eng- 
 land, 21 
 
 Common Moss Rose, 217 
 
 Coquette des Blanche Rose, 
 227 
 
 Court of Honour, 291, 362 
 Columbine, 341; cultivation 
 
 of, 341 
 
 Coreopsis, cultivation of, 342 
 Cornflower, varieties of, 345 
 ('old frames, best place to 
 
 start seeds, 350 
 Cosmos, 357 
 
 Crocuses, naturalizing, 334 
 Crested Moss Rose, 217 
 Cratcpgus, 142; crus-galli, 145 
 Crimson Boursault Rose, 225 
 Crimson Rambler Rose, 
 
 where to place it, 248, 251 
 Cultivation of Roses, 230, 
 
 231, 233 
 Cypripediums, naturalizing, 
 
 337 
 CyperuK aUernifolius, 378 
 
 Damask Rose, 225, 291 
 
 Dawson Rose, 248 
 
 Dahlias, 295; cultivation of; 
 
 location in garden, 311 
 Decoration, obsolete, 367 
 Deutzia crenata, 152 
 Delphiniums, 295 
 Dianthus barbate, 295; Iled- 
 
 dewigii, 345 
 Dicentra dielytra, 292 
 Digitalis, 295 
 Dog Rose, 226 
 Dogwood, white flowering 
 
 native, 138; red twigged, 
 
 370 
 
 Dormant Roses, 230 
 Dorothy Per'iins Rose, 248 
 
 Edgings, Box, 29, 33; fertili- 
 zation of, 62 
 
391 
 
 Effects, bizarre, in gardens, 
 
 61 
 
 Eglantine, 222 
 Elm Tree, 87 
 Elms, 8 
 
 Elizabeth, time of, 7 
 Entail, tradition of, 12 
 Enclosure, garden, 43 
 Europe, 34 
 Evergreens, shading with, 44; 
 
 planting of, 97, 98, 99; at 
 
 Arlington, 98 
 
 Fad, 16 
 
 Fairy Rose, 226 
 
 Ferns, in the water garden, 
 
 374; best varieties to use, 
 
 374 
 
 Fence, picket, 189 
 Fences, gas-pipe, 165; wire, 
 
 166; picket, 185; colonial, 
 
 185 
 
 Finials, 186 
 Flowering Almond, 152 
 Flowering Fern, 374 
 Flowers, planting of, 22, 29, 
 
 273-277 
 
 Formality, 21 ; of gardens, 24 
 Formal gardens, in America, 
 
 11 
 
 Formal effects, 40 
 Foxglove, 295; cultivation of, 
 
 303; naturalizing, 338 
 Forget-me-not, 345 
 Forecourt, at Alt. Vernon, 30 
 Forsythia, 147; in a water 
 
 garden, 373 
 
 Freakishness, in a garden, 47 
 Freedom, of planting, 21 
 Furnishing, the garden, 74 
 
 Garland Rose, 226 
 
 Garth, 40 
 
 Gate, hand, 180 
 
 Gateways, arched, 186, 189 
 
 Garden, front yard, 7; Eng- 
 lish of to-day, 22; French, 
 25; German, 25; Italian, 
 25; miniature, 43; planting 
 of, 26; sunken, 47; com- 
 mon sense, 21, 40; size of, 
 58; characteristics of Eng- 
 lish, 268 
 
 Garden architects, 73; use of, 
 74 
 
 Garden-making, sentiments 
 of, 16; art of, 56; failures 
 of, 77; revival of, 119 
 
 Garden-planting, art of, 56 
 
 Gardening, joys of, 22 
 
 Gardener, 25, 26; chief, 37; 
 landscape, 40 
 
 Gardeners, school of land- 
 scape, 47 
 
 Garden-house, 5S 
 
 Gardens, old, 19, 55; notable, 
 19; appropriate, 21 ; Ameri- 
 can, 25, 39; of England, 34; 
 Italian, 48, 55; modern, 55; 
 characteristics of, 55; fur- 
 nishings, 55; colouring, 55; 
 Colonial, 267; medurval, 
 267; Renaissance, 267; im- 
 portance of, 268 
 
 General Jacqueminot Rose, 
 227. 
 
 Gladioli, 356; varieties of, 359 
 
 Gossamer Fern, 374 
 
 Goldfish, in the pool, 383 
 
 Grace Darling Rose, 239 
 
 Gruss an Teplitz Rose, 240 
 
392 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Gravel, white, for garden 
 paths, 361 
 
 Haddon Hall, garden at, 270 
 
 Hardy herbaceous plants, 
 list of most important, 295, 
 296; secondary list of, 341 
 
 Harrison's Yellow Rose, 218 
 
 Harmony, 47 
 
 Half-timbered work, 44 
 
 Hardy perpetual Roses, 221 
 
 Hawthorne, native, 142 
 
 Hedge, Box, 37 
 
 Hedges, 19, 29; Box, 33, 203; 
 materials for, 190; Privet, 
 193, 194, 197, 201; Hem- 
 lock, 194; Arbor Vita-, 207; 
 Holly, 207; Rose, 263 
 
 Heartsease, 292 
 
 Hepplewhite, 19, 116 
 
 Hemerocallis, 296; flara, 
 fulva, 322; location in gar- 
 den, 322 
 
 Hibiscus Syriacus, 151 
 
 Hickory trees, 94 
 
 Honeysuckle, 189, 190, 254 
 
 Holly, 162; native, 162 
 
 Holly House, 145 
 
 Hollyhock, 295; cultivation; 
 diseases of; location in 
 garden, 305 
 
 Hybrid Tea Roses, list of, 244 
 
 Hypericum prolificum, 153 
 
 Ilex opaca, 162; crenata, 197 
 Individual taste, 77 
 Individuality of the garden, 
 
 73 
 Instinct for colouring, 15 
 
 Irish Juniper, 108 
 
 Iris, German, 295; cultiva- 
 tion, 296; Japan, 295; cul- 
 tivation, 299, 300; sibirica, 
 377 
 
 Italian gardens, features of, 
 268; bad copies of, 48 
 
 Japanese Evergreens, 112 
 
 Japanese Holly, 225 
 
 Jonquils, in the garden, 287; 
 naturalizing, 326; camper- 
 nelle, 333; single yellow, 
 333 
 
 Kaiserin Augusta Rose, 239 
 Kalmia lati folia, 158 
 Kellie Castle, garden at, 274 
 Killarney Rose, 238 
 Kitchen-garden, 15 
 
 Lady Slippers, 337 
 
 Lavender, cultivation; loca- 
 tion; varieties, 350 
 
 Laburnum rulgare, 142 
 
 La France Rose, 240 
 
 Landscape, natural, 8 
 
 Larch Trees, 148 
 
 Laurel, 158 
 
 Larkspur, in circular bed, 
 292; way to grow, 304; 
 cultivation of, 304 
 
 Le Notre, magnificance of, 
 269; teachings of, 269 
 
 Levens, garden at, 277 
 
 Lilacs, 137, 138; in the gar- 
 den, 282; white, 71 
 
 Lily, 22; white, in circular 
 bed, 292 
 
393 
 
 Lily-of-the- Valley, 61 
 
 Lilies, with Rhododendrons, 
 161; varieties of, 296; cul- 
 tivation; location in gar- 
 den, 312; shelter for, 315; 
 naturalizing, 337; in the 
 water garden, 312 
 
 Ligitstrum ovali folium, 153 
 
 Lilium auratum, 161, 316; 
 candidum, 161, 316; longi- 
 florum, 161, 318; Philadel- 
 phicum, 316; speciosum, 
 318; Canadense, 318; tigrf- 
 num, 161, 318; umbellatum-, 
 161, 317 
 
 Linden Trees, 93 
 
 Limnocharis (Water Poppy), 
 381 
 
 Location of the Garden, 
 57 
 
 Lonicera tartar ica, 154 
 
 Marigold, 353 
 
 Maiden's Blush Rose, 226 
 
 Maple Trees, 8, 88; Red, 88; 
 
 Sugar, 91; Norway, 93 
 
 Silver, 93; Weeping, 93 
 Maidenhair Fern, 378 
 Madame Plantier Rose, 222, 
 
 285 
 Magnolias; soulangeana, con- 
 
 spicui; stellata, 141 
 Magna Charta Rose, 227 
 McGowan's Pass 52 
 Mildred Grant Rose, 238 
 Michaelmas Daisy, 273 
 Moat, 39 
 
 Monkshood, 273, 274 
 Mock Orange, 148 
 Moss Roses, 217 
 
 Monthly Roses, care of, 233; 
 
 protection, 234; spraying 
 
 of, 234; location for, 234; 
 
 cultivation of, 234; soil 
 
 for, 234; list of, 244 
 Mrs. John Lairig Rose, 228 
 Mt. Vernon, 11, 29, 33 
 Musk Rose, 225, 291 
 Myriophyllum (Parrot's 
 
 Feather), 377 
 Mysotis 345 
 
 Narcissus, in the garden, 287; 
 poeticus, 288; p. ornatus, 
 288; naturalizing, 326; va- 
 rieties for naturalizing, 329; 
 cheapest, 330; list of named 
 varieties, 330; double, 333 
 
 Norway Spruce, 103 
 
 Nordmann's Silver Fir, 104 
 
 Nurserymen, 16 
 
 Oaks, White, Rsd, Pin, 84; 
 planting of, 84; most pic- 
 turesque, 85; truth about, 
 85; transplantation of Pin 
 Oaks, 86 ' 
 
 Old Box, placing of, 67; 
 planting, 67; use of, 67; 
 location in old gardens and 
 yards, 68; moving of, 120, 
 123; treatment after mov- 
 ing, 123; in the garden, 285 
 
 Old Lilacs, 67; placing, 67; 
 location in old gardens and 
 yards, 68; as screens, 68; 
 behind walls, 68; along 
 lanes, 68; best varieties to 
 use, 68; new French vari- 
 eties, 71 ; budded on Privet, 
 
394 
 
 INDEX 
 
 71; growth of, 71; trans- 
 plantation of large speci- 
 mens, 72 ; selection of old 
 specimens, 72 
 
 Onoclea Struthiopteris, 374 
 
 Ornaments, in the garden, 
 362 
 
 Osmunda regalis, 374 
 
 Ostrich Fern, 374 
 
 Osier Fences, 39 
 
 Pansies, cultivation of, 354 
 Paths, for the garden, 358 
 Pathways, arboured, 190 
 Parlour; 8 
 
 Paul Xeyron Rose, 228 
 Park, Central, 30 
 Parterres, geometrical, 40 
 Pegging Perpetual Roses, 231 
 Pergola at Arlington, 51 
 Pergolas, to be avoided, 51; 
 
 Rose, 51 ; as a dividing line, 
 
 approach, etc., 51; rustic 
 
 in Central Park, 52 
 Peristyles, 30 
 Perpetual Roses, wintering, 
 
 231 
 
 Persian Yellow Rose, 218 
 Peonies, 291, 295 
 Petunias, 357 
 
 Philadelphus coronarins, 148 
 Phlox, in circular bed, 292, 
 
 295; cultivation of, 309; 
 
 list of best colours, 310, 311 
 Picea Nordmanmana, 104 
 Pin Oak, 84; characteristics 
 
 of, 85 
 
 Planning the grounds, 73 
 Pleasure grounds, theatrical, 
 
 50 
 
 Plaisance, Pliny's, 115 
 
 Pleasure garden, 11 
 
 Pliny, 34; the younger, 268 
 
 Pleached trees, 267 
 
 Positions available for trees 
 and shrubs, 78 
 
 Poplar Trees, 94 
 
 Posts, 186 
 
 Polyantha Roses, list of, 244 
 
 Poppies, 357 
 
 Pool, construction of, 374; 
 depth of, 383; protection 
 of, in Winter, 383; fresh 
 water for, 384 
 
 Projects of designing and 
 planting, 15 
 
 Privet, 39; as topiary ma- 
 terial, 203; in the water 
 garden, 373 
 
 Provence Rose, 214 
 
 Pruning Roses, 232; shrubs, 
 131 
 
 Prairie Queen Rose, 248 
 
 Red Cedar, 111; as a back- 
 ground, 112 
 
 Repertoire, 61 
 
 Rose garden, plan of, 264 
 
 Renaissance, 4 
 
 Refinement, breath of, 19; 
 of touch, 15 
 
 Remontant Roses, 230; list 
 of, 245, 246 
 
 Rhododendron; maximum, 
 154, 157, 158; varieties of, 
 161; varieties for water 
 garden, 370 
 
 Ribbon Red, 265 
 
 Rose garden, plan of, 264 
 
 Roman gardens, 4 
 
IXDEX 
 
 395 
 
 Roses, Summer, 221; use in 
 England, 209 
 
 Rosa centi folia, 214 
 
 Rosa Gatlica, 217 
 
 Row lucido, 218 
 
 Rosa Rubignosa, 222 
 
 Rosa mundi, 225 
 
 Rosa Moschata, 225 
 
 Rosa Alba, 226 
 
 Rosa setegira, 248 
 
 Rose Arbours, 252 
 
 Rose Hedges, 263 
 
 Rose Standards, 263 
 
 Rugosa Rose, 213, 263; in 
 flower garden, 282; in the 
 water garden, 282; hy- 
 brids, 214 
 
 Rudbeckia, location in gar- 
 den, 322 
 
 Salem, 3 
 Sanctuary, 4 
 Screens, clipped, 38 
 Scotch Briar Rose, 226 
 Srirpus (Bulrush), 377 
 Seclusion, high- walled, 30 
 Sentiment, 22 
 Setting, of the garden, 29 
 Seats, for the garden, 367 
 Sheraton, 19, 116 
 Shrubs, 127; as individual 
 specimens, 127; buying and 
 choosing, 128, 131, 132, 
 135; pruning, 131; fan- 
 tastically clipped, 131 ; tag- 
 ging for identification, 135; 
 novelties, 135; for the 
 yard, 147; list for planting, 
 163; in the flower garden, 
 281 
 
 Simplicity, importance of, 48 
 
 Snapdragon, 264 
 
 Souvenir de President Car- 
 
 not, Rose 239 
 South, 16; formal gardens of, 
 
 21; estates in, 11 
 Staking out locations for 
 
 trees, 78 
 
 Stobhall, garden at, 270 
 Stakes, in the garden, 323 
 Stocks, 357 
 
 Success, in cultivation, 62 
 Surroundings in Winter and 
 
 Spring, 78 
 Sundial, 285, 286; location 
 
 for, 362 
 Sunflower, 358 
 Sunlight, necessity of, 58 
 
 Tea Roses, 221; list of, 244 
 
 Tennyson, 22 
 
 Thuja, occidentalis, 123; pyr- 
 amidalis, 124 
 
 Tiger Lily, 318 
 
 Topiarius, 37 
 
 Topiary work, in Italian gar- 
 dens, 56; Amateur, 203 
 
 Trim, for brick walls, 175 
 
 Transplanting Roses, 229 
 
 Trees, in relation to house 
 and garden, 44; places for, 
 78; planting well developed 
 specimens, 78; expense of 
 transplanting large trees, 
 78; best to use for ground- 
 work of planting, 81 ; guard- 
 ing of, 82; contract con- 
 cerning, 82; most valuable, 
 82; discrimination in plant- 
 ing, 83; most desirable, 84; 
 

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