Garden Ornaments Part 9

Occasionally, we come across an iron fountain painted black or red. This metal is cheap and stock designs can be purchased, but the very best ones are private orders and can never be reproduced. The price varies as with every other bit of garden furniture from a few dollars up to as many thousands. The advantage of this metal is that it fits into places where marble should be avoided.

Pottery fountains have been used within the last few years, and many of them are very graceful, being turned and finished by hand. This type has a special mission in our garden, its proper placing being in New England where the gray rocks, hedges and evergreen predominate. This material is shown in more colors than almost any other. These include gray, brown, green, blue, and many shades of terra cotta. This variation of color makes it adapted to almost any situation. One advantage in their use is that, strongly reinforced as they are by galvanized steel wires, they are climate-proof and practically indestructible.

The location of this special garden ornament demands serious attention.

It is often placed where it will attract attention to some special feature that has been carefully worked out in detail. More especially is this true when it has been inserted as a part of the retaining wall and is surrounded by some choice vine whose flowers accentuate the architecture.

There are so many forms and features connected with this special garden ornament that there need never be any sameness. It is an ideal medium with which to recreate the fauns, satyrs and nymphs of the garden.

Animals, too, are often used and so are cupids.

The planting, which is of as much importance as the ornamentation, depends upon the size of the pool and its location. Shade requires far different treatment from sunny exposures, while the heart of a gra.s.s plot lends itself to little or no floral embellishment. The finish of the pool influences the arrangement of the flowers. Should it be very ornamental, the planting should be far enough away not to shut off its picture effect in the landscape. If it is simply a curbing, it should have a setting of green or of low-growing plants.

Often an effective treatment is worked out through a border of velvety turf outlined by plants. Peonies never fail to bring out the right coloring of the fountain, that is if they are far enough away not to cut off the design. They are called rightly the aristocrats of the flower garden. For ma.s.s planting, they are most effective, their great gorgeous blossoms, daintily dyed and ranging from white to the deepest red, their wonderful fragrance and their decorative value are unsurpa.s.sed. They can either be planted in solid color or in a combination that is artistic. The Couronne d'Or, beautiful white in coloring and showing blossoms of red in the center with a halo of yellow around, makes a picturesque contrast to the deep green of the tree leaves. The large, double, ball-shape bloom of the Felix Crousse intermixed with white, gives one of the most fascinating combinations of red and white. The beauty of peonies is that they grow anywhere although they do best in rich, deep soil and with a sunny exposure. They are perfectly hardy, require no protection and unlike most other plants are not infested by either insects or disease. All they ask for is plenty of water during their growing season.

Grandmother's flowers, which are so fas.h.i.+onable to-day, are particularly desirable as a planting around a fountain. The sweet moss rose trailing through the gra.s.s and mixing its blossoms with the yellow of the Scotch rose is often used for low effects, or where very little coloring is advisable. The amount of planting and the height naturally depend upon the design of the individual fountain. Those that are ornamental are so effective that they need practically nothing to bring out right effects.

Iris is always in good form. We find it to-day so highly developed that in comparison to the little fleur-de-lis that grows unmolested in the neighboring swamp, it seems scarcely a variety of the same flower. As we are able to buy both double and single Irises, we should make a choice and not mingle the two. The double with its flowers averaging from eight to ten inches across, is an artistic foil for the white of the fountain.

Commencing with the German, which comes into bloom about the middle of May, we can follow the time of blossoming through the introduction of the j.a.panese Iris which lasts through July. In their planting, better effects are produced if two colors only are used. This can be supplemented by a third if the coloring is broken by the introduction of a thread of white. For the German, why not use the Honorabilis, which is a golden yellow with outside yellow petals shading to a mahogany brown, or the King of Iris, which is a clear yellow. The Florentina Alba gives the white coloring, its flowers being very large and fragrant.

These two colors can be enhanced by the adding of the Camillian which is a delicate blue with falls tipped a little darker shade. These are more suited for a fountain with a low curbing or for an informal garden where cement is used. They give a very pretty effect, their flowers being pictured in the water below.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THIS WALL FOUNTAIN WITH ITS Sh.e.l.l BACKGROUND AND BASIN IS MOST FITTINGLY PLACED]

Pansies are never out of place. A very pretty idea is to have them ma.s.sed for as many as eight inches around the curb. Choose for these, bright-colored varieties rather than dark. The tufted pansies, which are one of the most important bedding plants in Europe, are rapidly growing in favor in our country. One reason for this is that they flower continuously for nearly eight months in the year. The flowers are not as large as those of the single pansy, but their bright colors make them a welcome addition to our garden. The rich, golden yellow, the violet with a dark eye and the white, are all three admirable for this purpose.

Pansies love coolness and give their largest and finest flowers in early spring and late fall. They are so easy to grow, rioting in the cool, deep mellow beds they love, that everybody should use them. They will endure all winter long if protected by a few evergreen vines. The size needed for bedding for your fountain depends entirely upon the width of the bed. The most superb specimens are found among the orchid flowering ones. They take their name mainly from their tints and variation of color resembling the gorgeous shades seen in orchids. These are the most novel and distinctive strain that we have used for years.

Have you ever considered the graceful effect of ornamental gra.s.ses? They can be used with telling effects for the margin of the fountain, although care must be taken not to plant those that grow to enormous height. The Euallia j.a.ponica is appropriate. Its long, narrow, graceful green foliage, flowering into attractive plumes, give it a distinctive place for this purpose. Mix with it the Zebra gra.s.s, whose long blades are marked with broad yellow bands across the leaf. Intermix with this the hardy fountain gra.s.s which grows only four feet in height and has narrow foliage, bright green in coloring, cylindrical flower-heads carried well above the foliage, tinged with a bronze purple and is one of the most valuable of the hardy gra.s.ses.

In the planting of the gra.s.ses, to make the best effect give the taller ones the outside row, letting the low ones fall over the water, mirroring in the surface below. One of the advantages in using this is that it attracts birds and b.u.t.terflies. Nothing can attract the songsters quicker to your fountain than this kind of surrounding.

Occasionally, we find that instead of planting, beds are geometrically laid out to surround this, the axis of the garden design. In cases like this we have to depend upon the borders for effect. These can be hedge-loving plants or they can be a solid, low planting. Scotch heather is very pretty. It should be grown in sunny places with moist surroundings. Its racimes of dark rose pink petals, lasting from July to September, make it very effective for this purpose. The j.a.panese Barberry can also be included, nothing equals it in artistic value. It requires but little pruning to keep it in shape, while its fruit or berries, a.s.suming rich brilliant colors in the fall, are most effective when used for a setting like this.

If possible, try for flowers that have fragrance. It adds so much to the effect to breathe in the sweet odor as you sit watching the shading of the flowers, the swaying of the birds, and listening to the musical tinkle of the water as it drips into the basin below.