Borders should not be confused with edgings.

"Border is the name applied to the narrow division of the garden which usually accompanies each side of a walk. In fact, any bed which acts as a boundary to a walk or grass-plot, or the main quarters of a garden may be properly described as a border.

"Flower-borders should be well drained. In plotting them it must be remembered that if narrow no art will impart to them an air of boldness. If the pleasure grounds are small, narrow borders are permissible. All flower-borders should be made in proportion to the size of the garden and other surroundings. Neatness must be the presiding deity over flower-borders; and no application of the hoe and rake, no removal of decayed leaves, no tying up of straggling members can be too unremitting."[94]

According to Lawson, the borders "should be roses, thyme, lavender, rosemary, hyssop, sage and such like and filled with cowslips, primroses, violets, Daffy-down-dillies, sweet Sissely, Go-to-bed-at-noon, and all sweet flowers; and, chief of all, with gilliflowers, July-flowers, commonly called gilliflowers or clove July-flowers (I call them so because they flower in July); they have the names of cloves of their scent. I may well call them the King of Flowers (except the rose). Of all flowers save the Damask Rose they are the most pleasant to sight and smell."