LIBRARY OF CONGRES NNUAL OOOLSOSO8bA as > > aa) ay i fs i) yi, ape yg A ie WOOD AND GARDEN NOTES AND THOUGHTS, PRACTICAL AND CRITICAL, OF A WORKING AMATEUR BY GERTRUDE JEKYLL V1 With 71 Illustrations from Photographs by the Author ELEVENTH IMPRESSION REISSUE LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CoO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1910 All rights reserved SBA 53 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE First Printed, January 1899. Reprinted March 1899, April 1899 (twice), May 1899, June 1899, November 1899, July 1900, May 1901, March 1904, November 1908. Reissued 1910. 7¢) a6 7 ff 4 ST 3 GH i ealiig aad gigi Oe ch From its simple nature, this book seems scarcely to need any prefatory remarks, with the exception only of certain acknowledgments. A portion of the contents (about one-third) ap- peared during the years 1896 and 1897 in the pages of the Guardian, as “ Notes from Garden and Wood- land.” I am indebted to the courtesy of the editor and proprietors of that journal for permission to republish these notes. The greater part of the photographs from which the illustrations have been prepared were done on my own ground—a space of some fifteen acres. Some of them, owing to my want of technical ability as a photo- grapher, were very weak, and have only been rendered available by the skill of the reproducer, for whose careful work my thanks are due. A small number of the photographs were done for reproduction in wood-engraving for Mr. Robin- son’s Garden, Gardening Illustrated, and Fnalish Flower vi PREFACE Garden. Ihave his kind permission to use the original plates. I also owe my thanks to several friends, and especi- ally to Canon Ellacombe and the Rev. C. Wolley Dod, for the correction of a number of errors and inaccuracies in botanical nomenclature that appeared in the first and second editions. G. J. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGES INTRODUCTORY . : : ‘ 2 : ° ; 1-6 CHAPTER II JANUARY ; i : : ; . ' : ORY fe be: Beauty of woodland in winter—The nut-walk—Thinning the overgrowth—A nut nursery—Jris stylosa—Its culture—Its home in Algeria—Discovery of the white variety—Flowers and branches for indoor decoration. CHAPTER III FEBRUARY 4 ; ‘ : 4 SA hte : . 19-31 Distant promise of summer—Ivy-berries—Coloured leaves —Berberis Aquifoliwum—Its many merits-—Thinning and prun- ing shrubs—Lilacs—Removing Suckers—Training Clematis Flammula—Yorms of trees—Juniper, a neglected native ever- green—Effect of snow—Power of recovery—Beauty of colour —Moss-grown stems. CHAPTER IV MUNROE Swain. EC VOR AUD UMM MLNS Daeg Abs Flowering bulbs—Dog-tooth Violet— Rock-garden—Variety of Rhododendron foliage—-A beautiful old kind—Suckers on grafted plants—Plants for filling up the beds—Heaths—An- dromedas — Lady Fern — Lilium auratwm — Pruning Roses — Training and tying climbing plants—Climbing and free-grow- ing Roses—The Vine the best wall-covering—Other climbers —Wild Clematis—Wild Rose. vii vill CONTENTS CHAPTER V PAGES APRIL 3 : : - . : : : . 46-58 Woodland spring flowers—Daffodils in the copse—Grape Hyacinths and other spring bulbs—How best to plant them— Flowering shrubs—Rock-plants—Sweet scents of April— Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds, and other spring flowers— Primrose garden—Pollen of Scotch Fir—Opening seed-pods of Fir and Gorse—Auriculas—Tulips—Small shrubs for rock- garden— Daffodils as cut flowers—Lent Hellebores—Primroses —Leaves of wild Arum. CHAPTER VI EAN : : : 3 : : : é : . 59-76 Cowslips—Morells—Woodruff—Felling oak timber—Tril- lium and other wood-plants—Lily of the Valley naturalised— Rock-wall flowers—Two good wall-shrubs—Queen wasps— Rhododendrons—Arrangement for colour—Separate colour- groups—Difficulty of choosing—Hardy Azaleas—Grouping flowers that bloom together—Guelder-rose as climber—The garden-wall door—The Peony garden — Moutans — Peony varieties—Species desirable for garden. CHAPTER VII JUNE dhe as : : : : oe ESS The gladness of June—The time of Roses—Garden Roses —Reine Blanche—The old white Rose—Old garden Roses as standards—Climbing and rambling Roses—Scotch Briars— Hybrid Perpetuals a difficulty—Tea Roses—Pruning—Sweet Peas autumn sown—Elder-trees—Virginian Cowslip—Divid- ing spring-blooming plants—Two best Mulleins—White French Willow—Bracken. CHAPTER VIII JULY. : : : : : 5 : : : . 89-99 Scarcity of flowers—Delphiniums—Yuccas—Cottager’s way of protecting tender plants—Alstrémerias—Carnations— Gypsophila—Lilium giganteum—Cutting fern-pegs. CONTENTS 1X CHAPTER Ix PAGES AUGUST Bihaeedde oad ab leh mith heh. VES Met Ne coarse ae tw 00 S| Leycesteria—Early recollections—Bank of choice shrubs — Bank of Briar Roses — Hollyhocks — Lavender — Lilies — Bracken and Heaths—The Fern-walk—Late-blooming rock- plants—Autumn flowers—Tea Roses—Fruit of Rosa rugosa— Fungi—Chantarelle. CHAPTER X SEPTEMBER . ; : ; ‘ ‘ ! : . 112-124 Sowing Sweet Peas—Autumn-sown annuals — Dahlias — Worthless kinds—Staking—Planting the rock-garden—Grow- ing small plants in a wall—The old wall—Dry-walling—How built—How planted—Hyssop—A destructive storm—Berries of Water-elder—Beginning ground-work. CHAPTER XI OCTOBER. : : : ! : ‘ , . 125-143 Michaelmas Daisies—Arranging and staking—Spindle-tree —Autumn colour of Azaleas—Quinces—Medlars—Advantage of early planting of shrubs—Careful planting—Pot-bound roots—Cypress hedge—Planting in difficult places—Hardy flower border—Lifting Dahlias—Dividing hardy plants— Dividing tools— Plants difficult to divide — Periwinkles — Sternbergia— Czar Violets— Deep cultivation for Lilium giganteum. CHAPTER XII NOVEMBER . : : : 3 : - 144-157 Giant Christmas Rose—Hardy Chrysanthemums—Shelter- ing tender shrubs—Turfing by inoculation—Transplanting large trees—Sir Henry Steuart’s experience early in the century— Collecting fallen leaves—Preparing grubbing tools—Butcher’s Broom—Alexandrian Laurel—Hollies and Birches—A lesson in planting. = CONTENTS CHAPTER XIII PAGES DECEMBER . 3 : ‘ E : ' 3 . 158-170 The woodman at work—Tree-cutting in frosty weather— Preparing sticks and stakes—Winter Jasmine—Ferns in the wood-walk—Winter colour of evergreen shrubs—Copse-cutting —Hoop-making—tools used—Sizes of hoops—Men camping out—Thatching with hoop-chips—The old thatcher’s bill. CHAPTER XIV LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS . : : . LM=1St A well done vilia-garden—A small town-garden—Two de- lightful gardens of small size—Twenty acres within the walls —A large country house and its garden—Terrace—Lawn— Parterre—Free garden—Kitchen garden—Buildings—Orna- mental orchard—Instructive mixed gardens—Mr. Wilson’s at Wisley—A window garden. CHAPTER XV BEGINNING AND LEARNING . ; Shake . 188-199 The ignorant questioner—Beginning at the end—An ex- ample—Personal experience—Absence of outer help—Johns’ “Plowers of the Field ’””—Collecting plants—Nurseries near London—Wheel-spokes as labels—Garden friends—Mr. Robin- son’s “English Flower-Garden ”—Mr. Nicholson’s “ Dictionary of Gardening ’”’—One main idea desirable—Pictorial treatment —Training in fine art—Adapting from Nature—Study of colour—Ignorant use of the word “artistic.” CHAPTER XVI THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA . . 200-215 The flower-border—The wall and its occupants—Choisya ternata—Nandina—Canon Ellacombe’s garden—Treatment of colour-masses—Arrangement of plants in the border—Dablias and Cannas—Covering bare places—The Pergola—How made —Suitable climbers— Arbours of trained Planes — Garden houses. CONTENTS CHAPTER XVII THE PRIMROSE GARDEN CHAPTER XVIII COLOURS OF FLOWERS CHAPTER XIX THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN CHAPTER XX THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS CHAPTER XXI NOVELTY AND VARIETY CHAPTER XXII WEEDS AND PESTS CHAPTER XXIII THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE CHAPTER XXIV MASTERS AND MEN . INDEX x1 PAGES 216-220 229-240 241-248 249-255 256-262 263-270 271-279 280 Prot OF LLLUSTRATIONS FRONTISPIECE . ; : - - : : ‘ . face title - A WILD JUNIPER . : : : : : . face page 19” Scorch Firs THROWN ON TO FROZEN WATER BY SNOWSTORM . ; ; : : ; : a 2a" OLD JUNIPER, SHOWING FORMER INJURIES . ‘ is 29 JUNIPER, LATELY WRECKED BY SNOWSTORM . ‘ * 29 GARDEN DoOR-WAY WREATHED WITH CLEMATIS GRAVEOLENS . ; : ; , ‘ o 39 Corrace PoRCH WREATHED WITH THE DOUBLE WuitE Rosz(&. alba). : } : : 5 39 Witp Hor, ENTWINING WoRMWooD aNnD Cow- PARSNIP . é ¢ Zé : : « 5 - 43 DAFFODILS IN THE CoPSE . : : : - e 48 MAGNOLIA STELLATA : : : ‘ : : * 50 DarFroDILS AMONG JUNIPERS WHERE GARDEN JOINS CopsE . = ; ? : ; : 33 51 TIARELLA CORDIFOLIA . : : . : : ” 53 HoutyHock, Pink Beauty. (See page 105) . ‘ es 53 TULIPA RETROFLEXA : : : ; - 3 55 LatTE sINGLE TouLies, BREEDERS AND ByBL@MEN Bs 55 - TRILLIUM IN THE WILD GARDEN . . } 5 33 61 . xiii XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS RHODODENDRONS WHERE THE CoPSE AND GARDEN MEET : ; : : : ; Grass WALKS THROUGH THE CoPSE . ; : RHODODENDRONS AT THE EDGE OF THE COPSE . SoUTH SIDE OF DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND CHOISYA . ; : ‘ : ‘ NorTH SIDE OF THE SAME DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND GUELDER-ROSE : ¢ ‘ FREE CLusteR-ROSE AS STANDARD IN A COTTAGE GARDEN . : ; : : : . is DovusLe Waite ScotcH BRIAR. : . Part oF A BusH OF ROSA POLYANTHA GARLAND - Rose sHowina Natura Way OF GROWTH . ; : : : : ; 4 Linac Marte LEGRAyEe. (See page 23) . 3 : FLOWERING ELDER AND PaTH FROM GARDEN TO CopssE 5 : é ; , i p Tur Giant Liny . , 4 : 4 3 . CIstUS FLORENTINUS : f : : 4 THE GREAT ASPHODEL . : : ‘ : : LAVENDER HEDGE AND STEPS TO THE LOFT. ‘ HouttyHock, Pink Beauty . : : A : SoLomon’s SEAL IN SPRING, IN THE UPPER PART OF THE FERN-WALK : : é : , THE FERN-WALK IN AUGUST. : : ; j Jack. (See page 79) 3 : : THE “Onp WALL” . ; ‘ : 2 5 ‘ ERINUS ALPINUS, CLOTHING STEPS IN Rock-WALL Borprrs oF MIcHAELMAS DAISIES F t hs face page 33 ” oP) 33 3 99. 99 33 39 93 33 33 39 3 Pp] 9 65° 66 68" 72 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XV Prns ror Storing Deap LzEAvEs. . . . face page 150 CAREFUL WiLD-GARDENING—WHITE FoOxGLOVES AT THE EDGE OF THE Fir Woop. (See page DTS UNS Ge NRA A A OR ye om cen rg ATO Houty Stems 1n an Otp Hepeu-Row . : ; “i 153 WILD JUNIPERS. 2 : : : ; : 3 154 WILD JUNIPERS . ‘ : ; : , : ys 156 THE WooDMAN ‘ : J P A : : i 158. GRUBBING A TREE-STUMP : : F : ; + 161 FELLING AND GRUBBING TooLs. (See page 150) . 55 161 Hoop-MAKING IN THE Woops : ; ‘ A 3 167 Hoop-sHAVING f : Be : ; : im 169 SHED-ROOF, THATCHED WITH Hoop-cHIP : : of 169 GARLAND-ROSE WREATHING THE END OF A TER- RACE WALL. : : : , : : - 178 A RoapsipE CorraGE GARDEN. . : : . 185 A FLOWER-BORDER IN JUNE . : : : . i 200: PaTHWAY ACROSS THE SourH JBorDER IN JULY. ; , : : : ; : : a 202. OvtsIpE VIEW oF THE Brick PERGOLA SHOWN AT Pacr 214, arter Six Years’ GROWTH . 5s 202. END oF FLOWER-BORDER AND ENTRANCE OF PERGOLA . : : 3 f : . : + 210: South Borper Door anp Yuccas IN AUGUST . Hf 210: Stone-Buitt PERGoLA witH WrovucGHt Oak TEINS Sh Nau Mieke al et eS aig oie Ma Oita PERGOLA Wirth Brick Piers AND BraMs oF RoveH Oak . : , : 3 , P x 214 EIVENING IN THE PRIMROSE GARDEN . : : 5 OT XV1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TatL SNAPDRAGONS GROWING IN A Dry WALL : 3 , , : 4 : . face page 251 — MULLEINS GROWING IN THE Face oF Dry WALL. (See “Old Wall,” page 116). : ; : 5 251 GERANIUMS IN NHAPOLITAN Pots . 3 : ; “A 267 ‘. Space IN STEP AND TANK-GARDEN FOR LILIES, CANNAS, AND GERANIUMS : : 3 5 5 268 HyYDRANGEAS IN TUBS, IN A PART OF THE SAME GARDEN . 3 : : : : : : 0 268 MULLEIN (VERBASCUM PHLOMOIDES) AT THE EDGE oF THE Fir Woop . 6 ; “ ° : x 270 A Grass Pato IN THE CoPSE . . ° : » 270 © WOOD IAND GARDEN CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY THERE are already many and excellent books about gardening ; but the love of a garden, already so deeply implanted in the English heart, is so rapidly growing, that no excuse is needed for putting forth another. I lay no claim either to literary ability, or to botanical knowledge, or even to knowing the best practical methods of cultivation; but I have lived among outdoor flowers for many years, and have not spared myself in the way of actual labour, and have come to be on closely intimate and friendly terms with a great many growing things, and have acquired certain instincts which, though not clearly defined, are of the nature of useful knowledge. But the lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. I rejoice when I see any one, and especially children, inquiring about flowers, and wanting gardens of their own, and carefully working 2 WOOD AND GARDEN in them. For the love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but always grows and grows to an enduring and ever-increasing source of happiness. If in the following chapters I have laid special stress upon gardening for beautiful effect, it is because it is the way of gardening that I love best, and know most about, and that seems to me capable of giving the greatest amount of pleasure. I am strongly for treating garden and wooded ground in a pictorial way, mainly with large effects, and in the second place with lesser beautiful incidents, and for so arranging plants and trees and grassy spaces that they look happy and at home, and make no parade of conscious effort. I try for beauty and harmony everywhere, and especially for harmony of colour. A garden so treated gives the delightful feeling of repose, and refreshment, and purest enjoyment of beauty, that seems to my understanding to be the best fulfilment of its purpose; while to the diligent worker its happiness is like the offermg of a constant hymn of praise. For I hold that the best purpose of a garden is to give delight and to give re- freshment of mind, to soothe, to refine, and to lift up the heart in a spirit of praise and thankfulness. It is certain that those who practise gardening in the best ways find it to be so. But the scope of practical gardening covers a range of horticultural practice wide enough to give play to every variety of human taste. Some find their greatest pleasure in collecting as large a number as possible of INTRODUCTORY 3 all sorts of plants from all sources, others in collecting them themselves in their foreign homes, others in making rock-gardens, or ferneries, or peat-gardens, or bog-gardens, or gardens for conifers or for flowering shrubs, or special gardens of plants and trees with variegated or coloured leaves, or in the cultivation of some particular race or family of plants. Others may best like wide lawns with large trees, or wild gardening, or a quite formal garden, with trim hedge and walk, and terrace, and brilliant parterre, or a combination of several ways of gardening. And all are right and reasonable and enjoyable to their owners, and in some way or degree helpful to others. The way that seems to me most desirable is again different, and I have made an attempt to describe it in some of its aspects. But I have learned much, and am always learning, from other people’s gardens, and the lesson | have learned most thoroughly is, never to say “I know’”—there is so infinitely much to learn, and the conditions of different gardens vary so greatly, even when soil and situation appear to be alike and they are in the same district. Nature is such a subtle chemist that one never knows what she is about, or what surprises she may have in store for us.) Often one sees in the gardening papers discussions about the treatment of some particular plant. One man writes to say it can only be done one way, another to say it can only be done quite some other 4 WOOD AND GARDEN way, and the discussion waxes hot and almost angry, and the puzzled reader, perhaps as yet young in gar- dening, cannot tell what to make of it. And yet the two writers are both able gardeners, and both absolutely trustworthy, only they should have said, “ In my experi- ence im this place such a plant can only be done in such a way.” Even plants of the same family will not do equally well in the same garden. Every practical gardener knows this in the case of strawberries and potatoes; he has to find out which kinds will do in his garden; the experience of his friend in the next county is probably of no use whatever. I have learnt much from the little cottage gardens that help to make our English waysides the prettiest in the temperate world. One can hardly go into the smallest cottage garden without learning or observing something new. It may be some two plants growing beautifully together by some happy chance, or a pretty mixed tangle of creepers, or something that one always thought must have a south wall doing better on an east one. But eye and brain must be alert to receive the impression and studious to store it, to add to the hoard of experience. And it is important to train oneself to have a good flower-eye; to be able to see at a glance what flowers are good and which are un- worthy, and why, and to keep an open mind about it; not to be swayed by the petty tyrannies of the “ florist” or show judge; for, though some part of his judgment may be sound, he is himself a slave to rules, and must INTRODUCTORY 5 go by points which are defined arbitrarily and rigidly, and have reference mainly to the show-table, leaving out of account, as if unworthy of consideration, such matters as gardens and garden beauty, and human delight, and sunshine, and varying lights of morning and evening and noonday. But many, both nursery- men and private people, devote themselves to growing and improving the best classes of hardy flowers, and we can hardly offer them too much grateful praise, or do them too much honour. For what would our gar- dens be without the Roses, Pseonies, and Gladiolus of France, and the Tulips and Hyacinths of Holland, to say nothing of the hosts of good things raised by our home growers, and of the enterprise of the great firms whose agents are always searching the world for garden treasures ? Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how much there is to learn. Looking back upon nearly thirty years of gardening (the earlier part of it in groping ignorance with scant means of help), I can remember no part of it that was not full of pleasure and encouragement. For the first steps are steps into a delightful Unknown, the. first successes are victories all the happier for being scarcely expected, and with the growing knowledge comes the widening outlook, and the comforting sense of an ever-increasing gain of critical appreciation. Hach new step becomes a little surer, and each new grasp a little firmer, till, little by little, comes the power of intelligent combinaticn, the 6 WOOD AND GARDEN nearest thing we can know to the mighty force of creation. And a garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust. “Paul planteth and Apollos watereth, but God giveth the in- erease.” The good gardener knows with absolute certainty that if he does his part, if he gives the labour, the love, and every aid that his knowledge of his craft, experience of the conditions of his place, and exercise of his personal wit can work together to sug- gest, that so surely as he does this diligently and faithfully, so surely will God give the increase. Then with the honestly-earned success comes the conscious- ness of encouragement to renewed effort, and, as it were, an echo of the gracious words, “ Well done, good and faithful servant.” CHAPTER II JANUARY Beauty of woodland in winter—The nut-walk—Thinning the over- growth—A nut nursery—Zris stylosa—Its culture—Its home in Algeria—-Discovery of the white variety —Ilowers and branches or indoor decoration. A HARD frost is upon us. The thermometer registered eighteen degrees last night, and though there was only one frosty night next before it, the ground is hard frozen. ‘Till now a press of other work has stood in the way of preparing protecting stuff for tender shrubs, but now I go up into the copse with a man and chopping tools to cut out some of the Scotch fir that are beginning to crowd each other. How endlessly beautiful is woodland in winter! To-day there is a thin mist; just enough to make a background of tender blue mystery three hundred yards away, and to show any defect in the grouping of near trees. No day could be better for deciding which trees are to come down; there is not too much at a time within sight; just one good picture-full and no more. On aclear day the eye and mind are dis- tracted by seeing away into too many planes, and it is 7 8 WOOD AND GARDEN much more difficult to decide what is desirable in the way of broad treatment of nearer objects. The ground has a warm carpet of pale rusty fern, _tree-stem and branch and twig show tender colour- harmonies of grey bark and silver-grey lichen, only varied by the warm feathery masses of birch spray. Now the splendid richness of the common holly is more than ever impressive, with its solid masses of full, deep colour, and its wholesome look of perfect health and vigour. Sombrely cheerful, if one may use such a mixture of terms; sombre by reason of the extreme depth of tone, and yet cheerful from the look of glad life, and from the assurance of warm shelter and protecting comfort to bird and beast and neigh- bouring vegetation. The picture is made complete by the slender shafts of the silver-barked birches, with their half-weeping heads of delicate, warm-coloured > spray. Has any tree so graceful a way of throwing up its stems as the birch? They seem to leap and spring into the air, often leaning and curving upward from the very root, sometimes in forms that would be almost grotesque were it not for the nevev-failing rightness of free-swinging poise and perfect balance. The tints of the stem give a precious lesson in colour. The white of the bark is here silvery-white and there milk-white, and sometimes shows the faintest tinge of rosy flush. Where the bark has not yet peeled, the stem is clouded and banded with delicate grey, and with the silver-green of lichen. For about two feet JANUARY 9 upward from the ground, in the case of young trees of about seven to nine inches diameter, the bark is dark in colour, and lies in thick and extremely rugged upright ridges, contrasting strongly with the smooth white skin above. Where the two join, the smooth bark is parted in upright slashes, through which the dark, rough bark seems to swell’ up, reminding one forcibly of some of the old fiiteenth-century German costumes, where a dark velvet is arranged to rise in erumpled folds through slashings in white satin. In the stems of older birches the rough bark rises much higher up the trunk and becomes clothed with delicate grey-green lichen. The nut-walk was planted twelve years ago. There are two rows each side, one row four feet behind the other, and the nuts are ten feet apart in the rows. They are planted zigzag, those in the back rows show- ing between the front ones. As the two inner rows are thirteen feet apart measuring across the path, it leaves a shady border on each side, with deeper bays between the nearer trees. Lent Hellebores fill one border from end to end; the other is planted with the Corsican and the native kinds, so that throughout February and March there is a complete bit of garden of one kind of plant in full beauty of flower and foliage. The nut-trees have grown into such thick clumps that now there must be a vigorous thinning, EKach stool has from eight to twelve main stems, the largest 10 WOOD AND GARDEN of them nearly two inches thick. Some shoot almost upright, but two or three in each stool spread outward, with quite a different habit of growth, branching about in an angular fashion. These are the oldest and thickest. There are also a number of straight suckers one and two years old. Now when I look at some fine old nut alley, with the tops arching and meeting overhead, as I hope mine will do in a few years, I see that the trees have only a few stems, usually from three to five at the most, and I judge that now is the time to thin mine to about the right number, so that the strength and growing power. may be thrown into these, and not allowed to dilute and waste itself in growing extra faggoting. The first to be cut away are the old crooked stems. They grow nearly hori- zontally and are all elbows, and often so tightly locked into the straighter rods that they have to be chopped to pieces before they can be pulled out. When these are gone it is easier to get at the other stems, though they are often so close together at the base that it is difficult to chop or saw them out without hurting the bark of the ones to be left. All the young suckers are cut away. They are of straight, clean growth, and we prize them as the best possible sticks for Chrysanthe- mums and potted Lilies. After this bold thinning, instead of dense thickety bushes we have a few strong, well-branched rods to each stool. At first the nut-walk looks wofully naked, and for the time its pictorial value is certainly lessened ; JANUARY i but it has to be done, and when summer side-twigs have grown and leafed, it will be fairly well clothed, and meanwhile the Hellebores will be the better for the thinner shade. The nut-catkins are already an inch long, but are tightly closed, and there is no sign as yet of the bright crimson little sea-anemones that will appear next month, whose bases will grow into nut-bearing twigs. Round the edges of the base of the stools are here and there little branching suckers. These are the ones to look out for, to pull off and grow into young trees. A firm grasp and a sharp tug brings them up with a fine supply of good fibrous root. After two years in the nursery they are just right to plant out. The trees in the nut-walk were grown in this way fourteen years ago, from small suckers pulled off plants that came originally from the interesting cob-nut nursery at Calcot, near Reading. I shall never forget a visit to that nursery some six- and-twenty years ago. It was walled all round, and a deep-sounding bell had to be rung many times before any one came to open the gate; but at last it was opened by a fine, strongly-built, sunburnt woman of the type of the good working farmer's wife, that I remem- ber as a child. She was the forewoman, who worked the nursery with surprisingly few hands—cnly three men, if I remember rightly—but she looked as if she could do the work of “all two men” herself. One of the specialties of the place was a fine breed of mastiffs; 12 WOOD AND GARDEN another was an old Black Hamburg vine, that rambled and clambered in and out of some very old green- houses, and was wonderfully productive. ‘There were alleys of nuts in all directions, and large spreading patches of palest yellow Daffodils—the double Nar- cissus cernuus, how so scarce and difficult to grow. Had I then known how precious a thing was there in fair abundance, I should not have been contented with the modest dozen that I asked for. It was a most plea- sant garden to wander in, especially with the old Mr. Webb who presently appeared. He was dressed in black clothes of an old-looking cut—a Quaker, I believe. Never shall I forget an apple-tart he invited me to try as a proof of the merit of the “ Wellington” apple. It was not only good, but beautiful; the cooked apple looking rosy and transparent, and most inviting. He told me he was an ardent preacher of total abstinence, and took me to a grassy, shady place among the nuts, where there was an upright stone slab, like a tomb- stone, with the inscription : TO ALCOHOL. He had dug a grave, and poured into it a quantity of wine and beer and spirits, and placed the stone as a memorial of his abhorrence of drink. The whole thing remains in my mind like a picture—the shady groves of old nuts, in tenderest early leaf, the pale Daffodils, the mighty chained mastiffs with bloodshot eyes and murderous fangs, the brawny, wholesome forewoman, JANUARY 13 and the trim old gentleman in black. It was the only nursery I ever saw where one would expect to see fairies on a summer’s night. I never tire of admiring and praising Jris_ stylosa, which has proved itself such a good plant for English gardens; at any rate, for those m our southern coun- ties. Lovely in form and colour, sweetly-scented and with admirable foliage, it has in addition to these merits the unusual one of a blooming season of six months’ duration. The first flowers come with the earliest days of November, and its season ends with a rush of bloom in the first half of April. Then is the time to take up old tufts and part them, and plant afresh ; the old roots will have dried up into brown wires, and the new will be pushing. It thrives in rather poor soil, and seems to bloom all the better for having its root-run invaded by some stronger plant. When I first planted a quantity I had brought from its native place, 1 made the mistake of putting it in a well-prepared border. At first I was delighted to see how well it flourished, but as it gave me only thick masses of leaves a yard long, and no flowers, it was clear that it wanted to be less well fed. After chang- ing it to poor soil, at the foot of a sunny wall close to a strong clump of Alstrémeria, I was rewarded with a good crop of flowers; and ‘the more the Alstrémeria grew into it on one side and Plumbago Larpente on the other, the more freely the brave little Iris flowered. The flower has no true stem; what serves as a stem, 14 WOOD AND GARDEN sometimes a foot long, is the elongated tube, so that the seed-pod has to be looked for deep down at the base of the tufts of leaves, and almost under ground. The specific name, stylosa, is so clearly descriptive, that one regrets that the longer, and certainly uglier, wngui- cularts should be preferred by botanists. , What a delight it was to see it for the first time in its home in the hilly wastes, a mile or two inland from the town of Algiers! Another lovely blue Iris was there too, J. alata or scorpioides, growing under exactly the same conditions; but this is a plant unwilling to be acclimatised in England. What a paradise it was for flower-rambles, among the giant Fennels and the tiny orange Marigolds, and the im- mense bulbs of Scilla maritima standing almost out of the ground, and the many lovely Bee-orchises and the fairy-like Marcissus serotinus, and the groves of Prickly Pear wreathed and festooned with the graceful tufts of bell-shaped flower and polished leaves of Clematis cirrhosa ! It was in the days when there were only a few English residents, but among them was the Rev. Edwyn Arkwright, who by his happy discovery of a white- flowered Jris stylosa, the only one that has been found wild, has enriched our gardens with a most lovely variety of this excellent plant. I am glad to be able to quote his own words :-— “The finding of the white Jris stylosa belongs to the happy old times twenty-five years ago, when there JANUARY 15 were no social duties and no vineyards’ in Algiers. My two sisters and I bought three horses, and rode wild every day in the scrub of Myrtle, Cistus, Dwarf Oak, &e. It was about five miles from the town, on what is called the ‘Sahel, that the one plant grew that I was told botanists knew ought to exist, but with all their searching had never found. I am thankful that I dug it up instead of picking it, only knowing that it was a pretty flower. Then after a year or two Durando saw it, and took off his hat to it, and told me what a treasure it was, and proceeded to send off little bits to his friends; and among them ali, Ware of Tottenham managed to be beforehand, and took a first-class certi- ficate for it. It is odd that there should never have been another plant found, for there never was such a free-growing and multiplymg plant. My sister in Herefordshire has had over fifty blooms this winter; but we count it by thousands, and it is the feature in all decorations in every English house in Algiers.” Throughout January, and indeed from the middle of December, is the time when outdoor flowers for cutting and house decoration are most scarce; and yet there are Christmas Roses and yellow Jasmine and Laurustinus, and in all open weather Iris stylosa and Czar Violets. A very few flowers can be made to look well if cleverly arranged with plenty of good foliage ; and even when a hard and long frost spoils the few 1 The planting of large vineyards had destroyed the botanical interest of what had been beautiful flowery wastes. 16 WOOD AND GARDEN blooms that would otherwise be available, leafy branches alone are beautiful in rooms. But, as in all matters that have to do with decoration, everything depends on a right choice of material and the exercise of taste in disposing it. Red-tinted Berberis always looks well alone, if three or four branches are boldly cut from two to three feet long. Branches of the spotted Au- cuba do very well by themselves, and are specially beautiful in blue china; the larger the leaves and the bolder the markings, the better. Where there is an old Exmouth Magnolia that can spare some small branches, nothing makes a nobler room-ornament. The long arching sprays of Alexandrian Laurel do well with green or variegated Box, and will ltve in a room for several weeks. Among useful winter leaves of smaller growth, those of Hpimedium pinnatum have a fine red colour and delicate veining, and I find them very use- ful for grouping with greenhouse flowers of delicate texture. Gaultheria Shallon is at its best in winter, and gives valuable branches and twigs for cutting; and much to be prized are sprays of the Japan Privet, with its tough, highly-polished leaves, so much like those of the orange. There is a variegated Eurya, small branches of which are excellent ; and always useful are the gold and silver Hollies. There is a little plant, Ophiopogon spicatum, that I grow in rather large quantity for winter cutting, the leaves being at their best. in the winter months. They are sword-shaped and of a lively green colour, and JANUARY Vi are arranged in flat sheaves after the manner of a flag- Iris. I pull up a whole plant at a time—a two-year- and old plant is a spreading tuft of the little sheaves wash it and cut away the groups of leaves just at the root, so that they are held together by the root-stock. They last long in water, and are beautiful with Roman Hyacinths or Freesias or Jris stylosa and many other flowers. The leaves of Megaseas, especially those of the cordifolia section, colour grandly in winter, and look nne in a large bowl with the largest blooms of Christmas Roses, or with forced Hyacinths. Much useful material can be found among Ivies, both of the wild and garden kinds. When they are well established they generally throw out rather woody front shoots; these are the ones to look out for, as they stand out with a certain degree of stiffness that makes them easier to arrange than weaker trailing pieces. I do not much care for dried flowers—the bulrush and pampas-grass decoration has been so much over- done, that it has become wearisome—but I make an exception in favour of the flower of ZLulalia zebrina, and always give it a place. It does not come to its full beauty out of doors; it only finishes its growth late in October, and therefore does not have time to dry and expand. I grew it for many years before finding out that the closed and rather draggled-looking heads would open perfectly in a warm room. The uppermost leaf often confines the flower, and should be taken off B 18 WOOD AND GARDEN to release it; the flower dces not seem to mature quite encugh to come free of itself. Bold masses of Heli- chrysum certainly give some brightness to a room dur- ing the darkest weeks of winter, though the brightest yellow is the only one I much care to have; there is a look of faded tinsel about the other colourings. I much prize large bunches of the native Ivis berries, and grow it largely for winter room-ornament. Among the many valuable suggestions in Mrs. Earle’s delightful book, “Pot-pourri from a Surrey Garden,” is the use indoors of the smaller coloured gourds. As used by her they give a bright and cheerful look to a room that even flowers can not surpass. A WILD JUNIPER. CHAPTER III FEBRUARY Distant promise of summer—Ivy-berries—Coloured leaves—Ber- beris Aquifoium—Its many merits—Thinning and pruning shrubs—Lilacs—Removing suckers—Training Clematis flam- mula—Forms of trees—Juniper, a neglected native evergreen —Effect of snow—Power of recovery—Beauty of colour— Moss-grown stems. THERE is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer. Perhaps it is a warm, mossy scent that greets one when passing along the southern side of a hedge-bank ; or it may be in some woodland opening, where the sun has coaxed out the pungent smell of the trailing ground Ivy, whose blue flowers will soon appear; but the day always comes, and with it the glad certainty that summer is nearing, and that the good things promised will never fail. How strangely little of positive green colour is to be seen in copse and woodland. Only the moss is really green. The next greenest thing is the northern sides of the trunks of beech and oak. Walking southward they are all green, but looking back they are silver- grey. The undergrowth is of brambles and sparse 19 rho) 0 WOOD AND GARDEN fronds of withered bracken; the bracken less beaten down than usual, for the winter has been without snow; only where the soil is deeper, and the fern has grown more tall and rank, it has fallen into thick, almost felted masses, and the stalks all lying one way make the heaps look like lumps of fallen thatch. The bramble leaves—last year’s leaves, which are held all the winter—are of a dark, blackish-bronze colour, or nearly red where they have seen the sun. Age seems to give them a sort of hard surface and enough of a polish to reflect the sky; the young leaves that will come next month are almost woolly at first. Grassy tufts show only bleached bents, so tightly matted that one wonders how the delicate young blades will be able to spear through. Ivy-berries, hanging in thick clusters, are still in beauty; they are so heavy that they weigh down the branches. There is a peculiar beauty in the form and veining of the plain-shaped leaves belonging to the mature or flowering state that — the plant reaches when it can no longer climb, whether on a wall six feet high or on the battlements of a castle. Cuttings grown from such portions retain this habit, and form densely-flowering bushes of compact shape. Beautiful colouring is now to be seen in many of the plants whose leaves do not die down in winter. Foremost amongst these is the Foam-flower (Ziarella cordifolia). Its leaves, now lying on the ground, show bright colouring, inclining to scarlet, crimson, FEBRUARY 21 and orange. ellima, its near relation, is also well coloured. Galax aphylla, with its polished leaves of hard texture, and stalks almost as stiff as wire, is nearly as bright; and many of the Megaseas are of a fine bronze red, the ones that colour best being the varieties of the well-known WM. crassifolia and M. cordi- folia. Among shrubs, some of the nearly allied genera, popularly classed under the name Andromeda, are beautiful in reddish colour passing into green, in some of the leaves by tender gradation, and in others by bold splashing. Berberis Aquifoliwm begins to colour after the first frosts; though some plants remain green, the greater number take on some rich tinting of red or purple, and occasionally in poor soil and in full sun a bright red that may almost be called scarlet. What a precious thing this fine old Berberis is! What should we do in winter without its vigorous masses of grand foliage in garden and shrubbery, to say nothing of its use indoors? Frequent as it is in gardens, it is seldom used as well or thoughtfully as it deserves. There are many places where, between garden and wood, a well-considered planting of Ber- beris, combined with two or three other things of larger stature, such as the fruiting Barberry, and Haw- thorn and Holly, would make a very enjoyable piece of shrub wild-gardening. When one reflects that Berberis Aquifolium is individually one of the hand- somest of small shrubs, that it is at its very best in mid-winter, that every leaf is a marvel of beautiful 22 WOOD AND GARDEN drawing and construction, and that its ruddy winter colouring is a joy to see, enhanced as it is by the glistening brightness of the leaf-surface ; and further, when one remembers that in spring the whole picture changes—that the polished leaves are green again, and the bushes are full of tufted masses of brightest yellow bloom, and fuller of bee-music than any other plant then in flower; and that even then it has another season of beauty yet to come, when in the days of middle summer it is heavily loaded with the thick- clustered masses of berries, covered with a brighter and bluer bloom than almost any other fruit can show,—when one thinks of all this brought together in one plant, it seems but right that we should spare no pains to use it well. It is the only hardy shrub IT can think of that is in one or other of its varied forms of beauty throughout the year. It is never leafless or untidy; it never looks mangy like an [ex in April, or moulting like a Holly in May, or patchy and unfinished like Yew and Box and many other ever- greens when their young leafy shoots are sprouting. We have been thinning the shrubs in one of the rather large clumps next to the lawn, taking the older wood in each clump right out from the bottom and letting more light and air into the middle. Weigelas grow fast and very thick. Quite two-thirds have been cut out of each bush of Weigela, Philadelphus, and Ribes, and a good bit out of Ceanothus, “Gloire de Versailles,” my favourite of its kind, and all the oldest FEBRUARY 23 wood from Viburnum plicatum. The stuff cut out makes quite a respectable lot of faggoting. How extremely dense and hard is the wood of Philadel- phus! as close-grained as Box, and almost as hard as the bright yellow wood of Berberis. Some of the Lilacs have a good many suckers from the root, as well as on the lower part of the stem. These must all come away, and then the trees will have a good dressing of manure. They are greedy feeders, and want it badly in our light soil, and surely no flowering shrub more truly deserves it. The Lilacs I have are some of the beautiful kinds raised in France, for which we can never be thankful enough to our good neighbours across the Channel. The white variety, “Marie Legraye,’ always remains my favourite. Some are larger and whiter, and have the trusses more evenly and closely filled, but this beautiful Marie fills one with a satisfying conviction as of something that is just right, that has arrived at the point of just the best and most lovable kind of beauty, and has been wisely content to stay there, not attempting to pass beyond and excel itself. Its beauty is modest and reserved, and temperate and fuli of refinement. The colour has a deliciously- tender warmth of white, and as the truss is not over-tull, there is room for a delicate play of warm half-light within its recesses. Among the many beautiful coloured Lilacs, I am fond of Lucie Baltet and Princesse Marie. There may be better flowers Q4 WOOD AND GARDEN from the ordinary florist point of view, but these have the charm that is a good garden flower’s most precious quality. Ido not like the cold, heavy- coloured ones of the bluish-slaty kinds. No shrub is hardier than the Lilac; I believe they flourish even within the Arctic Circle. It is very nearly allied to Privet; so nearly, that the oval-leaved Privet is commonly used as a stock. Standard trees flower much better than bushes; in this form all the strength seems to go directly to the flowering boughs. No shrub is more persistent in throwing up suckers from the root and from the lower part of the stem, but in bush trees as well as in standards they should be carefully removed every year. In the case of bushes, three or four main stems will be enough to leave. When taking away suckers of any kind what- ever, it is much better to tear them out than to cut them off. A cut, however close, leaves a base from which they may always spring again, but if pulled or wrenched out they bring away with them the swollen base that, if left in, would be a likely source of future trouble. Before the end of February we must be sure to ‘prune and train any plants there may be of Clematis Flammula, Its growth is so rapid when once it begins, that if it is overlooked it soon grows into a tangled mass of succulent weak young stuff, quite unmanage- able two months hence, when it will be hanging about © in helpless masses, dead and living together. If it FEBRUARY 25 is left till thea, one can only engirdle the whole thing with a soft tarred rope and sling it up somehow or anyhow. But if taken now, when the young growths are just showing at the joints, the last year’s mass can be untangled, the dead and the over-much cut out, and the best pieces trammed in. In gardening, the interests of the moment are so engrossing that one is often tempted to forget the future; but it is well to remember that this lovely and tenderly-scented Clematis will be one of the chief beauties of September, and well deserves a little timely care. In summer-time one never really knows how beauti- ful are the forms of the deciduous trees. It is only in winter, when they are bare of leaves, that one can fully enjoy their splendid structure and design, their admir- able qualities of duly apportioned strength and grace of poise, and the way the spread of the many-branched head has its equivalent in the wide-reaching ground- grasp of the root. And it is interesting to see how, in the many different kinds of tree, the same laws are always in force, and the same results occur, and yet by the employment of what varied means. For nothing in the growth of trees can be much more unlike than the habit of the oak and that of the weeping willow, though the unlikeness only comes from the different adjustment of the same sources of power and the same weights, just as in the movement of wind-blown leaves some flutter and some undulate, while others turn over and back again. Old apple-trees are specially notice- 26 WOOD AND GARDEN able for their beauty in winter, when their extremely graceful shape, less visible when in loveliness of spring bloom or in rich bounty of autumn fruit, is seen to fullest advantage. Few in number are our native evergreens, and for that reason all the more precious. One of them, the common Juniper, is one of the best of shrubs either for garden or wild ground, and yet, strangely enough, it is so little appreciated that it is scarcely to be had in nurseries. Chinese Junipers, North American Junipers, Junipers from Spain and Greece, from Nepaul and Siberia, may be had, but the best Juniper of all is very rarely grown. Were it a common tree one could see a sort of reason (to some minds) for over- looking it, but though it is fairly abundant on a few hill-sides in the southern counties, it is by no means widely distributed throughout the country. Even this reason would not be consistent with common practice, for the Holly is abundant throughout England, and yet is to be had by the thousand in every nursery. Be the reason what it may, the common Juniper is one of the most desirable of evergreens, and is most un- deservedly neglected. Even our botanists fail to do it justice, for Bentham describes it as a low shrub erowing two feet, three feet, or four feet high. I quote from memory only; these may not be the words, but this is the sense of his description. He had evidently seen it on the chalk downs only, where such a portrait of it is exactly right. But in our sheltered uplands, in ScotcH FIRS THROWN ON TO FROZEN WATER BY SNOWSTORM. FEBRUARY 27 sandy soil, it is a small tree of noble aspect, twelve to twenty-eight feet high. In form it is extremely variable, for sometimes it shoots up on a single stem and looks like an Italian Cypress or like the upright Chinese Juniper, while at other times it will have two or more tall spires and a dense surrounding mass of lower growth, while in other cases it will be like a quantity of young trees growing close together, and yet the trees in all these varied forms may be nearly of an age. The action of snow is the reason of this unlikeness of habit. If, when young, the tree happens to have one main stem strong enough to shoot up alone, and if at the same time there come a sequence of winters without much snow, there will be the tall, straight, cypress-like tree. But if, as is more commonly the case, the growth is divided into a number of stems of nearly equal size, sooner or later they are sure to be laid down by snow. Such a winter storm as that of the end of December 1886 was especially disastrous to Junipers. Snow came on early in the evening in this district, when the thermometer was barely at freez- ing point and there was no wind. It hung on the trees in clogging masses, with a lowering temperature that was soon below freezing. The snow still falling loaded them more and more; then came the fatal wind, and all through that night we heard the break- ing trees. When morning came there were eighteen inches of snow on the ground, and all the trees that 28 WOOD AND GARDEN could be seen, mostly Scotch fir, seemed to be com- pletely wrecked. Some were entirely stripped of branches, and stood up bare, like scaffold-poles. Until the snow was gone or half gone, no idea could be formed of the amount of damage done to shrubs; all were borne down and buried under the white rounded masses.