CONTENTS

PAGE
[INTRODUCTION]v
[CHAPTER I]
A MARCH STUDY AND THE BORDER OF EARLY BULBS1
[CHAPTER II]
THE WOOD8
[CHAPTER III]
THE SPRING GARDEN21
[CHAPTER IV]
BETWEEN SPRING AND SUMMER32
[CHAPTER V]
THE JUNE GARDEN39
[CHAPTER VI]
THE MAIN HARDY FLOWER BORDER49
[CHAPTER VII]
THE FLOWER BORDER IN JULY58
[CHAPTER VIII]
THE FLOWER BORDER IN AUGUST65
[CHAPTER IX]
THE FLOWER BORDERS IN SEPTEMBER78
[CHAPTER X]
WOOD AND SHRUBBERY EDGES83
[CHAPTER XI]
GARDENS OF SPECIAL COLOURING89
[CHAPTER XII]
CLIMBING PLANTS106
[CHAPTER XIII]
GROUPING OF PLANTS IN POTS112
[CHAPTER XIV]
SOME GARDEN PICTURES121
[CHAPTER XV]
A BEAUTIFUL FRUIT GARDEN127
[CHAPTER XVI]
PLANTING FOR WINTER COLOUR133
[CHAPTER XVII]
FORM IN PLANTING138
INDEX143

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[White Lilies]Frontispiece
To face page
[Iris Stylosa]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

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.