E. T. Cook

“ And what store there is of these to choose from, not green only, but colour-tinged—Berberis of many kinds, the shining ordered leaf-rows of Azara, the purple tints of Mahonia and Gaultheria, the bronze of Andromeda buds, the deep dull green of Osmanthus, the wine red of Leucothoë, the pearl grey of Atriplex, and a hundred more will respond to our beck and call. Only we must choose with judgment, for whether our lot is cast in north or south, in the black east or soft caressing west, makes all the difference to our choosing. ”

“ This is the place where the Vines may be so well planted. If the main stem only is trained or guided it is well to leave the long branches to shift for themselves, for they will ramble and dispose themselves in so pictorial a way that the whole garden is bettered by their rioting grandeur of leaf mass.
Aristolochia Sipho, with its twining stems and handsome leaves, will, like the Vine and the Virginian Creeper, answer to all these uses of jungle-like growth among trees and shrubs and free climbing in hedge, over pergola or rough building. ”

“ There is no more common mistake made than that of planting just the wrong things in the wrong places. Thus we see plantations of Spruce on dry, sandy hill-tops, from whence the poor trees must look with longing eyes to their true home in the moist, alluvial soil of the valley-bottom below. In mixed plantations we see Conifers from many climes and all altitudes, all expected to do equally well in perhaps one small space of garden ground. ”

“ The whole outline of the tree is noble, with its broad, shining, russet-backed leaves, a delight to look upon in winter—nor is it shy, when full-grown, of bearing in late summer its scented ivory-white lily-cups. It is too much, however, to expect the lovely-sculptured, crimson-flushed cones, which in warmer climates than ours open about November to disclose their hanging scarlet seeds. ”

“ Nothing can so effectually destroy good effect as the usual senseless mixture of deciduous and evergreen shrubs that, alas! is so commonly seen in gardens—a mixture of one each of a quantity of perhaps excellent things planted about three feet apart. There would be nothing to be said against this if it were the deliberate intention of any individual, for, as a garden is for the owner's happiness, it is indisputably his right to take his pleasure in it as he will, and if he says, "I have only space for a hundred plants, and I wish them to be all different," that is for him to decide. ”

“ They are like the Hybrid Perpetuals in their love for a rich loamy soil—one inclining to a clayey rather than to a sandy nature. Loving abundant sunlight, they are not happy in shady spots. The commonest mistake in their cultivation is in pruning. The notion that they have to be cut back like Hybrid Perpetuals and such-like Roses has often resulted in the loss of a season's flowers, besides destroying for the time the peculiar beauty of habit that many species possess. ”

“ Nothing, perhaps, in the wide range of garden beauty is more pictorial than an ancient Cedar, dusky and glaucous, with cavernous shadows, holding upright the smooth, pale-brown, rounded cones on its flattened branches, or some grand Silver Fir standing alone in its solemn symmetrical beauty, or even, as may now and then be seen, though rarely, some stately Araucaria, wind-sheltered, whose radiating branches sweep down upon the greensward. ”

“ There is a sad want of variety amongst evergreen and deciduous shrubs in the average English garden. Faith is placed in a few shrubs with a reputation for robbing the soil of its goodness and making a monotonous ugly green bank, neither pleasant to look at nor of any protective value. As one who knows shrubs well and the way to group them says, "Even the landscape gardeners, the men who have the making of gardens—with, of course, notable exceptions—do not seem to know the rich storehouse to draw from." ”

“ Let us take the thought as company and try to glean some of Nature's own lessons of fitness. How instinctively we seek, for a winter ramble, the shelter of the woodland copse, which is not far distant from any English country habitation. The broad grass drive is hoar with frosty rime in the shadow of the bushes and crisp under foot. ”

“ Still it does not follow that a shrub or flowering tree cannot be used both for groups and single use, for such an one as the Forsythia just mentioned is also of charming effect in its own groups, with the red-tinted Berberis or the quiet-coloured Savins, or whatever be the lower growing bushy mass that is chosen to accompany it. Every one can see the great gain of such arrangements when they are made, but to learn to make them, and even to perceive what are the plants to group together, and why, that is the outcome of the education of the garden artist. ”

“ Hardy shrubs have for many years brought colour and fragrance to the greenhouse in the depth of winter, but we think it is only within recent years that they have been used in such beautiful variety as at the present time. The great show of the Royal Horticultural Society in the Temple Gardens, and many of the delightful fortnightly displays, have been responsible for much of their present popularity, and the picture of a group of Plums, Peaches, Almonds, Wistarias, and many other things in flower long before their natural season, is refreshingly pleasant when perhaps winter still lingers. ”

“ Even the familiar Laurel, good as it is when suitably placed, and used not too freely, is constantly scathed and disfigured in damp or low-lying localities. For the same reason, it is doubtful whether Rhododendrons should be planted within range of our windows. Most of them, in severe weather, frightened before they are hurt, put on a melancholy air and droop of leaf which is apt to send a shiver through any shrinking mortal whose vitality is already low enough.
The bare boughs of winter, on the contrary, are never depressing. They sleep, but it is not the sleep of death ”

“ The shoots, often long, sucker-like growths that push from the base in summer, supply the flowers of the following year, and until they have flowered should not be touched with a knife. Whatever pruning is necessary—and it is, as a rule, a mere matter of thinning out of old worn-out stems—is to give the young growths more air and freedom. No shortening back is needed. It may always be remembered that some of the most beautiful specimens of Wild Roses in existence, especially those of rambling growth, have never been pruned at all. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII A WINTER GARDEN OF TREES AND SHRUBS
The budding spring, the ripening summer, the outpoured riches of harvest, appeal to all, physically if not spiritually. But to hundreds of people a winter landscape is dreary beyond expression. They never dream of going into a garden during the dark months ”

“ If we think of the changes in gardening terms which have occurred during the last quarter of a century, there is surely significance in the gradual transition from the Rock Garden or Alpine Garden into the more imposing Rock Garden of our present-day language. It points to the bolder grouping—now happily adopted in most good gardens and more in accordance with Nature's pattern—which includes evergreen and flowering shrubs as well as the close-growing alpine plants, gem-like in their brilliant colours, which in earlier days were alone considered suitable for the purpose. ”

“ A GROUPING OF MAGNOLIA STELLATA.
Cassinia fulvida, still known in nurseries by its older name of Diplopappus, in winter wears its fullest dress of tiny gold-backed leafage in long graceful sprays, that are borne in such profusion that they only beg to be cut to accompany the rare flowers of winter that we bring indoors to sweeten and enliven our rooms.
Of small-flowering trees none is lovelier than the Snowy Mespilus (Amelanchier) , and for a tree of somewhat larger size the good garden form of the native Bird Cherry is beautiful in the early year. ”

“ Nothing is pleasanter in woodland than broad, grassy ways, well enough levelled to insure safety to an unheeding walker. In early spring, before the grass has grown any height, here is the place where Daffodils can best be seen and enjoyed, some in the clear grass and some running back in wide drifts into any side opening of the wood. If the grass is cut in June, when the Daffodil foliage is ripe, and again early in September, these two mowings will suffice for the year. ”

“ Only be sure that more important still than climate are the wind-breaks we can plan, and the shelter we may contrive. Yet when we are in doubt we can always come back with satisfaction to the quick-growing hardiest shrubs and find in them some fit setting for our garden picture. The slender angled branches of green Broom, the rigid spiny Furze, scented Rosemary, or hoary Lavender—all will lend their varied tints and attributes as we need them. ”

“ Indeed, for reducing the hard lines of the most formal gardens and for showing them at their best, for such enjoyment as they may give by the humanising of their rigid lines and the softening of their original intention as a display of pomp and state and the least sympathetic kind of greatness, the beneficent quality of age and accompanying over-growth may be best shown by the wreathing and clambering cluster Roses, whose graceful growth and tender bloom are displayed all the better for their association with the hard lines and rough textures of masonry surfaces. ”

“ The charm of many an estate is not the garden or the woodland, but the monarchs that for years have weathered the winter storm and stand out as noble specimens of their family. Often there are fine trees of rarer species which their owners naturally wish to preserve from decay as long as possible. ”

“ There are no better garden ornaments for foliage than Figs and Vines, and though the needful pruning of a Vine for fruit takes off somewhat of its pictorial value, which depends in some measure on the wide-flung, luscious summer growth and groping tendril, yet in any shape the Grape Vine is a thing of beauty. ”

“ It is not only a pleasant object in leaf and flower in early summer, and in autumn glory of golden fruit, but even when bare of leaves in winter a fully matured tree is strikingly beautiful, and in boggy ground where no other tree would thrive it is just at its happiest and is most fruitful. Then many Apples are extremely ornamental, and there is a whole range of Crabs; Siberian, Chinese, and home-raised hybrids that are delightful things both in flower and in fruit. ”

“ But grown, as it is so often, jammed up and smothering other things, or held in bounds by a merciless and beauty-destroying knife, its presence has not been to the advantage of English gardening.
When the planting season comes round, think of some of the good shrubs not yet in the garden, and forget pontic Rhododendron, Laurel, Aucuba, and Privet. By this is not meant rare shrubs, such as may only be had from the few nurseries of the very highest rank or from those that make rare shrubs a speciality, but good things that may be grown in any garden and that appear in all good shrub catalogues. ”

“ Grown in the proper way, that is, as an isolated shrub, with abundance of space to develop its graceful branches and brilliant green leaves, the Cherry Laurel is a beautiful evergreen; it is quite happy in shady, half-wooded places. ”

“ We are not wholly free from blame in this matter in so far as our gardens are concerned, for spring and summer and autumn all have their share in the garden plan, while winter, too often, stands apart uncared for and unclothed. Yet how much may be done by the right grouping of beautiful trees and shrubs to make the winter garden harmonious and inviting. ”

“ When trees are planted out singly it is well to choose those with spreading heads and low stems, as then the tree will shade itself to a great extent, the short amount of bare stem being less exposed to the sun's rays than a taller one. After all, this is only Nature's method of protection, as, in a wild state, no young tree is bare-stemmed, except in a wood, where it is shaded by those near it. On the edge of a wood, or in the open, young trees are furnished to the ground with foliage, which is not shed until the stem has become hardened enough to withstand climatic vicissitudes. ”

“ The lithe, trailing stems, wreathed with their shining, taper-fingered leaves, so exquisitely pencilled, are cushioned on the soft, feathery moss, or twine in and out amongst the Hazel stocks, or creep at will up the nearest tree trunk. One can scarcely look at Ivy on a winter's day without a [Pg 49] thrill of admiration, especially this woodland sort, for, mark it well, Nature never encourages the coarse-leaved Ivy of common cultivation within her domains. ”