This work investigates the fundamental principles and practical techniques required to cultivate and maintain a successful hardy flower garden. Helena Rutherfurd Ely, an experienced gardener, presents a comprehensive framework for amateur and seasoned gardeners alike. She utilizes her personal experience in managing gardens in New Jersey to provide actionable advice on soil preparation, plant selection, and aesthetic garden design. Her argument centers on the idea that gardening is a primal instinct that can be refined through systematic planning and horticultural knowledge.

Experts and gardening enthusiasts frequently cite this work as a foundational text in the American gardening canon for its blend of practical instruction and prose. Readers often note that while the horticultural advice remains sound, the text serves as much as a historical document of early 20th-century gardening aesthetics as it does a manual.