Colour in the Flower Garden

CHAPTER XVII. Form in Planting 138

FORM IN PLANTING 138

INDEX 143

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

WHITE LILIES Frontispiece

IRIS STYLOSA To face page 4

MAGNOLIA CONSPICUA " " 5

MAGNOLIA STELLATA " " 6

FERNS IN THE BULB BORDER " " 7

THE BANK OF EARLY BULBS " " 7

DAFFODILS BY A WOODLAND PATH " " 10

WILD PRIMROSES IN THIN WOODLAND " " 11

THE WIDE WOOD PATH " " 12

CISTUS LAURIFOLIUS " " 13

A WOOD PATH AMONG CHESTNUTS " " 14

A WOOD PATH AMONG BIRCHES " " 15

CISTUS CYPRIUS " " 16

CISTUS BY THE WOOD PATH " " 17

GAULTHERIA SHALLON IN FLOWER " " 18

GAULTHERIA SHALLON IN FRUIT " " 19

WHITE IRISH HEATH " " 20

THE SPRING GARDEN FROM =D= ON PLAN " " 21

PLAN OF THE SPRING GARDEN " " 23

THE FERN-LIKE SWEET CICELY " " 24

THE SPRING GARDEN FROM =E= ON PLAN " " 25

"FURTHER ROCK" FROM =G= ON PLAN " " 28

"FURTHER ROCK" FROM =H= ON PLAN " " 29

"NEAR ROCK" FROM =F= ON PLAN " " 30

THE PRIMROSE GARDEN " " 31

STEPS TO THE HIDDEN GARDEN " " 32

PHLOX DIVARICATA AND ARENARIA MONTANA " " 33

MALE FERN IN THE HIDDEN GARDEN " " 34

EXOCHORDA GRANDIFLORA " " 35

PLAN OF THE HIDDEN GARDEN " " 35

EUPHORBIA WULFENII " " 36

IRISES AND LUPINES IN THE JUNE GARDEN " " 37

PART OF THE GARLAND ROSE AT THE ANGLE " " 39

ROSE BLUSH GALLICA ON DRY WALLING " " 42

SPANISH IRIS " " 43

PLAN OF THE JUNE GARDEN " " 44

PLAN OF IRIS AND LUPINE BORDERS " " 44

WHITE TREE LUPINE " " 46

CATMINT IN JUNE " " 47

SCOTCH BRIARS " " 48

GERANIUM IBERICUM PLATYPHYLLUM " " 49

THE FLOWER BORDER IN LATE SUMMER " " 50

THE CROSS WALK " " 51

THE EAST END OF THE FLOWER BORDER " " 52

PLAN OF THE MAIN FLOWER BORDER " " 53

GOOD STAKING--CAMPANULA PERSICIFOLIA " " 54

CAREFUL STAKING OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES " " 55

WHITE ROSE LA GUIRLANDE; GREY BORDERS BEYOND " " 60

CLEMATIS RECTA " " 61

DELPHINIUM BELLADONNA " " 62

CANTERBURY BELLS " " 63

ROSE THE GARLAND IN A SILVER HOLLY " " 64

ERYNGIUM OLIVERIANUM " " 65

TALL CAMPANULAS IN A GREY BORDER " " 66

YUCCA FILAMENTOSA " " 70

THE GREY BORDERS: STACHYS, &C. " " 71

A LAVENDER HEDGE " " 74

ÆSCULUS AND OLEARIA " " 75

PLAN OF GARDEN OF CHINA ASTERS " " 77

SOME OF THE EARLY ASTERS " " 78

THE SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 79

THE SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 80

THE SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 80

BEGONIAS WITH MEGASEA FOLIAGE " " 80

EARLY ASTERS AND PYRETHRUM ULIGINOSUM " " 81

PLAN OF SEPTEMBER BORDERS " " 81

GARLAND ROSE, WHERE GARDEN JOINS WOOD " " 84

POLYGONUM AND MEGASEA AT A WOOD EDGE " " 84

LILIES AND FUNKIAS AT A SHRUBBERY EDGE " " 84

OLEARIA GUNNI, FERN AND FUNKIA " " 85

FERNS AND LILIES AT A SHRUBBERY EDGE " " 86

GYPSOPHILA AND MEGASEA " " 87

LILIES AND FERNS AT THE WOOD EDGE " " 88

SMALL WIRE-STEMMED ASTER; SECOND YEAR " " 88

SMALL WIRE-STEMMED ASTER; THIRD YEAR " " 88

STOBÆA PURPUREA " " 89

THE GREY BORDERS: GYPSOPHILA, ECHINOPS, &C. " " 92

OCTOBER BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES " " 92

A SEPTEMBER GREY GARDEN " " 92

THE GREY BORDER: PINK HOLLYHOCK, &C. " " 93

PLANS OF SPECIAL COLOUR GARDENS " " 93

A DETAIL OF THE GREY SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 100

YUCCAS AND GREY FOLIAGE " " 102

A FRONT EDGE OF GREY FOLIAGE " " 103

HARDY GRAPE VINE ON SOUTH SIDE OF HOUSE " " 106

HARDY GRAPE VINE ON HOUSE WALL " " 107

VINE AND FIG AT DOOR OF MUSHROOM HOUSE " " 108

CLEMATIS MONTANA AT ANGLE OF COURT " " 108

CLEMATIS MONTANA OVER WORKSHOP WINDOW " " 108

CLEMATIS MONTANA TRAINED AS GARLANDS " " 108

CLEMATIS FLAMMULA AND SPIRÆA LINDLEYANA " " 108

ABUTILON VITIFOLIUM " " 108

IPOMŒA "HEAVENLY BLUE" " " 108

SOLANUM JASMINOIDES " " 108

CLEMATIS FLAMMULA ON ANGLE OF COTTAGE " " 108

CLEMATIS FLAMMULA ON COTTAGE " " 109

CLEMATIS FLAMMULA ON A WOODEN FENCE " " 110

SWEET VERBENA " " 111

POT PLANTS JUST PLACED " " 112

PLANTS IN POTS IN THE SHADED COURT " " 112

MAIDEN'S WREATH (FRANCOA RAMOSA) " " 112

MAIDEN'S WREATH BY TANK " " 113

GERANIUMS, &C., IN A STONE-EDGED BED " " 116

MAIDEN'S WREATH IN POTS ABOVE TANK " " 116

FUNKIA, HYDRANGEA AND LILY IN THE SHADED COURT " " 116

FUNKIA AND LILIUM SPECIOSUM " " 117

LILIUM AURATUM " " 120

A TUB HYDRANGEA " " 120

STEPS AND HYDRANGEAS " " 120

THE NARROW SOUTH LAWN " " 121

HYDRANGEA TUBS AND BIRCH-TREE SEAT " " 124

HYDRANGEA TUBS AND NUT WALK " " 124

WHITE LILIES " " 124

THE STEPS AND THEIR INCIDENTS " " 125

PLAN--THE BEAUTIFUL FRUIT GARDEN " " 129

PLAN--A WILD HEATH GARDEN " " 139

COLOUR IN THE FLOWER GARDEN

CHAPTER I. A March Study and the Border of Early Bulbs

A MARCH STUDY AND THE BORDER OF EARLY BULBS

There comes a day towards the end of March when there is but little wind, and that is from the west or even south-west. The sun has gained much power, so that it is pleasant to sit out in the garden, or, better still, in some sunny nook of sheltered woodland. There is such a place among silver-trunked Birches, with here and there the splendid richness of masses of dark Holly. The rest of the background above eye-level is of the warm bud-colour of the summer-leafing trees, and, below, the fading rust of the now nearly flattened fronds of last year's Bracken, and the still paler drifts of leaves from neighbouring Oaks and Chestnuts. The sunlight strikes brightly on the silver stems of the Birches, and casts their shadows clear-cut across the grassy woodland ride. The grass is barely green as yet, but has the faint winter green of herbage not yet grown and still powdered with the short remnants of the fine-leaved, last-year-mown heath grasses. Brown leaves still hang on young Beech and Oak. The trunks of the Spanish Chestnuts are elephant-grey, a notable contrast to the sudden, vivid shafts of the Birches. Some groups of the pale early Pyrenean Daffodil gleam level on the ground a little way forward.

It is the year's first complete picture of flower-effect in the woodland landscape. The place is not very far from the house, in the nearest hundred yards of the copse; where flowers seem to be more in place than further away. Looking to the left, the long ridge and south slope of the house-roof is seen through the leafless trees, though the main wall-block is hidden by the sheltering Hollies and Junipers.

Coming down towards the garden by another broad grassy way, that goes westward through the Chestnuts and then turns towards the down-hill north, there comes yet another deviation through Rhododendrons and Birches to the main lawn. But before the last turn there is a pleasant mass of colour showing in the wood-edge on the dead-leaf carpet. It is a straggling group of Daphne Mezereon, with some clumps of red Lent Hellebores, and, to the front, some half-connected patches of the common Dog-tooth Violet. The nearly related combination of colour is a delight to the trained colour-eye. There is nothing brilliant; it is all restrained, refined, in harmony with the veiled light that reaches the flowers through the great clumps of Hollies and tall half-overhead Chestnuts and neighbouring Beech. The colours are all a little "sad," as the old writers so aptly say of the flower-tints of secondary strength. But it is a perfect picture. One comes to it again and again as one does to any picture that is good to live with.

To devise these living pictures with simple well-known flowers seems to me the best thing to do in gardening. Whether it is the putting together of two or three kinds of plants, or even of one kind only in some happy setting, or whether it is the ordering of a much larger number of plants, as in a flower-border of middle and late summer, the intention is always the same. Whether the arrangement is simple and modest, whether it is obvious or whether it is subtle, whether it is bold and gorgeous, the aim is always to use the plants to the best of one's means and intelligence so as to form pictures of living beauty.

It is a thing that I see so rarely attempted, and that seems to me so important, that the wish to suggest it to others, and to give an idea of examples that I have worked out, in however modest a way, is the purpose of this book.

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