Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-10-10

The lake IL fillee with pink water.
lilies and one sseep bank II a mass
OF pale blue forget-me-nots. On the
other, fatter banks are masses of
palms and ferns and over the path
leading to the lake is an arbor OF
white roses. Under the trees beyond
are hundreds OF deep blue eiHerarias.
A certain garden entrance is bordered
with the large shining leaves of acan-
thus and behind the acanthus are.
masses OF montbretia. In a distant
corner. ON bit OF dry hillside are
massed agaves of an kinds, wonder
full in the variety of their blue
green's and gray green's. In the bota.
nicaI garden of the city, horribly neg
lected until recently, one gets mag.
nificent effects because things arc
nassed- There is an avenue OF BAN
boo, another Of dates, another bor-
dered with banyans, another or drag.
on trees"-something like the Ha.
waiian lauhala
TWO IDEAS FOR HONOLULU.
In these few garden suggestions
two facts stand out that might well
be of service in Honolulu: 1. Plants
are crowded together in a tropical
fashion. 2. A single variety. tree or
flower, IL grown in large masses Let
us apply these two ideas.
The pictures which a tourist car
ries away with him most gratefully
are pictures OF really tropical gardens
and that because Honolulu is real.
ly tropical place. The gardener
shoHld take lessons from the glorf
ons Hawaiian woods, not from the
pictures in English or American books
on gardening That was what Euro
peans I'm Algiers did-they tried to
improve nature, by cultivation, by in
Producing congenial plants, but along
the old lines. They never tried to
transform by the introduction OF an
alien type The result is that they
have some Of the most marvellous gar.
dens in the world 1t might well be
said that when the first foreigners
arrived Honolulu was a barren waste
except for thistles and cacti The
fault. however. was neither in soil nor
in climate. When water was brought
to the fewers they blnssomed at
once. Then the New Englanders
transpianted here. remembered their
own gardens at home but to attain
something Of the same severe effect
they had to cut away where their
fathers had had TO nurse into being
Pefhans there seemed to them to be
something little immoral in the
rank Of tropicai growth. Few, GER
tain1y. dared to permit such a cool
green riot Of shrubs and vines as still
makes the old AthertoR garden on
King street one Of. the joys OF Homo
lulu
ARTISTIC GARDEN SENSE.
There was probably little artistic
garden sense az FIRST and plants were
hard to get SO there was little mass
planting People kere satisfied to
have one Of each flower and there
still, in many gardens, seems to be
the desire rather to have a great
many different kinds Of things than
splendid mass of one. The sight
OF one hibiscus IN bloom may be pleas
ant but the sight OF a hundred, like
that mass IN the ExpeFiment Station
grounds at the head Of Pensacola
street Is memorable. date is a.
pleasant tree; clump of dates is
Joy. What is more specify gar
den is never beautiful. II is always
q little sense1ess and very firing
There should be In every garden def
mite masses and definite open spaces,
and the masses should be either tro-
pieal tangles or great clumps of one
kind Of shrub or tree This is true
not only for the harmony Of the land
scape but because 1t gives really col
or that one remembers. whereas now
Honolulu has spots Of color, very brill
liant and very beautiful. but some
how not seeming to belong to the
place because they have no particu-
lar reason for being just where they
are. Neither planting, nor color
scheme, has sufficient relation to ar
cliitecture The house should be the 4
center Of the garden even II one OBJ
ject Of the garden is to hide it. Our
paths and pergolas should lead some
where or should at least have some
relation to something else Otherwise
they are as foolish as is q single
crOton in the middle of a lawn. 4
Algiers as city Of gardens today
sufpasses Honolulu although Homo
lulu has in many ways greater adj
N0tAtuSpo. nC tCoc04 - slnelt NAAO
gardens conform to the place and to
the climate They belong where they
are in the tropics. Honolulu does
not give the effect of tropical city,
yet that is exactly what tourists come
tn see. For lessons that are true
Hawaiian gardeners should go into
the mountains where the yellow Of
the kukuis contrasts with the gray
of koas. where vines sprawl over the
trees and wild hibiscus push their
white domes upward through the
crowding underground Of shining
leayed shrubs and soft ferns. They
should turn their faces forever away
from the rigid. formal. superlatively
neat gardens Of Pasadena. Honolulu
Will be completely beautiful only
when 1t is willing to let nature be
aid in her adornment, not
to force her into the stays and erino-
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