The Buckingham Palace Gardens show how much judicious planting can do, and how much is lost in many of the parks as well as gardens by not sufficiently considering the decorative value of plants. The old landscape gardeners, in their desire to copy nature and depart from all formality, forgot the horticultural part of their work in their plans for the creation of landscapes. They had not studied the effects which skilful planting will produce, and ignored flowers as a factor in their scenery. They had not got the wealth of genera which the twentieth century possesses, and of which, in many instances, full use is made. But in a review of London Parks and Gardens, it is impossible not to notice effects missed as well as success achieved. The immense advance gardening has made of late years, and the knowledge and wide range of plants, makes it easier to garden now than ever before. The enormous number of trees and flowers now in cultivation leaves a good choice to select from, even among those suitable for the fog-begrimed gardens of London. The carpets of spring flowering bulbs, the masses of brilliant rhododendrons, the groups of choice blossoming trees, which so greatly beautify many of the parks and gardens, are all the result of modern developments. Experience, too, has pointed out the mistakes in landscape gardening, which is for the most part the style followed in London, and it should be easy to avoid the errors of earlier generations. In formal designing, also, the recent introductions and modern taste in flowers should have a marked influence. In all the parks and gardens, public and private, the chief aim should be to make the best use of the existing material, to draw upon the vast resources of horticulture, which have never been so great as at the present time, and thus to maintain the position or superiority of London gardens among the cities of the world.
