The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-08-16
LANDSCAPE GARDENING G.
The Artist Of Short Hills Explains
Some Of the Secrets Of
Successful Work.

The secret of the landscape gardeners
art is to make half acre seem ten Times
larger than it really is" This was the
utterance Of Mr.. 7. J. Csparn, the water
color artist Of Newark Mr.. Caparn is
is also landscape gardener of some note.
having received awards for his work In
this line from the London horticultural
Society. It was he who laid ont the
grounds in Short Hills. These are said
to furnish some OF the best samples of
landscape gardening in this section of the
country. Mr.. Caparn's idea of landscape
gardening differs materially from some
Of the alleged open air art work sprlnkled
about suburban residences throug out
this State.
In these days when nearly every man
Of good financial standing has co untry
residence more attention is paid to the
surroundings Some Of the expensive
samples OF lawn decorations are simply
execrabie. In talk with reporter on
the subject of landscape gardening Mr..
Caparn said that many handsome country
residences with fine surroundings were
made eyesores and artistic denominations
because The work of laying out the
grounds was left to men who had no real
knowledge Of their duty. In England
and in other places In Europe. landscape
gardening WAS made a serious subject.
The English horticultural Society's chief
object is to advance the art. and hence its
occasional awards for the most artistic
designs IN garden work
GEoNETRICAL GARDENS.
In this country the work IL TO a great
extent left to the florist and ordinary gar
deners men who know how to cultivate
plants, bat have small idea of the require
menfs OF landscape gardening. Hence il
is that surrounding the residences of so
many of the wealthy III the country are
big squares, triangIes. circles, etc. of
garish flowers and plants. placed there
with no other idea than to crowd as much
and as many colors ia as small space as
possible. These startling blotches OF
color and geometrical garden lines would
not be tolerated in England. France or
italy, where landscape gardening is a
recognized art.
1T is a mistake to lay out a garden in
flower beds. Every garden should be
laid out in harmony with the house which
1t Surrounds.' said Mr.. Caparn. The
artist illustrated this by showing q pic
ture of a Queen Anne cottage. the
grounds about which he had laid out.
In this instance shrubs of a straight, up
right growth were used. The back
ground was OF purple beech, silver birch,
iaburnums. lines and llacs. This house
and its grounds are in one of the Oranges,
and there Is less than an acre of ground;
but the gardening has been done with
such consummate art that it seems from
a casual glance as though there were at
least half dozen acres around the
house. Builders in the country frequent
ly make mistakes in the location OF a
house. which would not happen If care
were taken.
BEAUTY OF THE CURVED LINE.
This has been done In Short Hills. The
roads in this pretty and exclusive place
have been built on liberal lines without
corners, but with sweeping curves, ali of
which help TO nuke carriage riding there
a thing OF delight Mr. Caparn insists
that all these things are included IN land
scape gardening He declares that the
e xteriors of suburban homes will keep
up their cheap and common appearance
until landscape gardening is properly
dignifed here and cultivated by some
8 UGH organization as the London Horti-
cultural Society He thinks that q good
way TO advance the art would be to have
q class Of young men take up the subject
in the Technical School or tho free draw
ing class.