Home › Country Life Press, Garden City, N.y › Country Life Press, Garden City, N.y
Country Life Press, Garden City, N.y
PREFACE REASONS FOR THIS BOOK. The author has for some time felt that there was needed in the landscape field, especially by the amateur gardener, a book of this type. He has believed that such a book would be of value to everyone who is interested in the important work of landscape plantings, not only to the amateur but to the expert gardener and to the property owner who has made an exhaustive study of plant uses and plant adaptations.
One of the reasons for the publication of these planting lists for different purposes is that it provides a permanent record for future reference. There is no good reason why a landscape architect thoroughly familiar, as a result of years of experience, study, and observation, with the use of plants should devote his time and thought to the compilation of lists of plants for different purposes, such as wild gardens, spring gardens, rock gardens, and bog gardens in connection with some specific problem only to have each list of material cease to exist for the use of others, as soon as the work in question is completed. Plant lists compiled by capable landscape architects are too frequently used only for one problem, thus requiring the next man who starts to work upon a similar problem to begin his study, not where the other man left off, but at the same point where the other man began, duplicating work and wasting much time and energy. It is not meant to imply that all ornamental plants can be confined within definite standardized lists from which those who attempt to select plants for a specific purpose must choose. It is the author's sincere feeling that lists of plants compiled as the result of the different studies and investigations continually being made, in connection with the landscape problems of many clients, may be accepted as a starting point or a reference beyond which a planter is at full liberty to go when he wishes to use species and varieties which are unusual and rare, or whenever the conditions of his specific problem require it.
The responsibility for the original idea conceived as a basis for the development of this book may be traced to the author's experience in classroom work and in teaching. In this field of work, from a peda- PREFACE gogical standpoint, he has felt the need of a systematic classification, based upon the association of ideas which would aid in remembering and grouping plants. Through learning to know plants by their group associations a comprehensive knowledge of them may be gathered and retained with little effort. One of the easiest ways of memorizing is through the association of ideas. This is the fundamental principle upon which the information in the various groups is based. The same condition has been found in office work. Men with the greatest range of knowledge covering the identification of plants and the botanical classification of plants have found a smaller book of this kind indispensable as a ready reminder of the possibilities of plant uses, when working out planting designs.
The first abridged edition of this book was published in 1916, primarily for the use of the author and a few of his friends in professional work. It was largely local in character. It has met with such a favourable reception, however, and so many requests have been received asking that a book of this kind be continued, and that the field be covered by comprehensive information, that this revised edition is the result.
OBJECT OF THIS BOOK. It is hoped that this book will serve as a ready reference to those who have no authoritative source of information, and whose limited opportunity and limited time for observation have not enabled them to become familiar with a wide range of materials, and to keep familiar with it. This information is not compiled for the purpose of taking the place of the services of a professional landscape architect, where the problem is of sufficient magnitude to justify his employment. This book will assist those who, having no available sources of reliable information at hand, are prone to accept the advice of "landscape quacks" and self-styled landscape architects with little training.
The question is often asked, "What plants can I use for a specific purpose?" This is asked by both professional landscape architects and by owners of properties. This book will place at the disposal of such persons a list of plants from which species and varieties may be selected advisedly.
The discussion does not by any means represent a complete study of this subject. It will take years of checking, verification, and criticism, before a compact compilation of this material can be put into PREFACE final shape which will be valuable as a reference in all sections of the country, where plants other than tropical are used for landscape effects. The correct selection of plants for various purposes in landscape work is but a part of the success of landscape plantings. One should know not only the correct use of plants as indicated in these lists, but their landscape value from the standpoint of their adaptation to design and composition, as well as how to plant and to maintain them. For those unfamiliar with plant materials the information in this book should be supplemented with additional information which may be easily procured from descriptions in nursery catalogues, encyclopedias, and garden books.
THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE BOOK. The main idea behind this method of compiling information for the use of those interested in landscape plantings is that of providing a compact reference manual from which fundamental information can be easily obtained. In reality it is more in the form of a "landscape dictionary." The chapters which have been introduced into this volume are a series of summarized fundamental principles with reference to the respective chapter headings, and they are not in the form of many magazine articles, so compiled as to be interesting to many persons who really read the articles, not always because of the facts in them, but because of the camouflaged outlines.
THE SYSTEM OF NOMENCLATURE. In the compilation of the plant lists, and generally throughout the text of the book, an earnest effort has been made to conform to the recommendations of the American Joint Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature as adopted and published in the 1917 official code of standardized plant names. The two new rulings of this committee regarding botanical names also have been adopted. These rulings are that all botanical names except the generic name shall begin with a lower case letter and not with a capital letter; and second, that in the case of all specific names heretofore ending in a double "i" one of these "i's" shall be dropped. Thus Berberis Thunbergii will become Berberis thunbergi. Since this code fails to cover many horticultural varieties of plants it has sometimes seemed wiser to follow the nomenclature of Bailey's Standard Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, especially in the case of garden forms of plants. An effort has been made to find the most generally accepted PREFACE common name for each plant; or, where none was available, to invent a common name which would be descriptive of the plant and helpful in fixing its valuable characteristics in mind.