Hollyhock, Pink Beauty.
Hollyhocks have been fine, in spite of the disease, which may be partly checked by very liberal treatment. By far the most beautiful is one of a pure pink colour, with a wide outer frill. It came first from a cottage garden, and has always since been treasured. I call it Pink Beauty. The wide outer petal (a heresy to the florist) makes the flower infinitely more beautiful than the all-over full-double form that alone is esteemed on the show-table. I shall hope in time to come upon the same shape of flower in white, sulphur, rose-colour, and deep blood-crimson, the colours most worth having in Hollyhocks.
Lavender has been unusually fine; to reap its fragrant harvest is one of the many joys of the flower year. If it is to be kept and dried, it should be cut when as yet only a few of the purple blooms are out on the spike; if left too late, the flower shakes off the stalk too readily.
Some plantations of Lilium Harrisi and Lilium auratum have turned out well. Some of the Harrisi were grouped among tufts of the bright-foliaged Funkia grandiflora on the cool side of a Yew hedge. Just at the foot of the hedge is Tropæolum speciosum, which runs up into it and flowers in graceful wreaths some feet above the ground. The masses of pure white lily and cool green foliage below are fine against the dark, solid greenery of the Yew, and the brilliant flowers above are like little jewels of flame. The Bermuda Lilies (Harrisi) are intergrouped with L. speciosum, which will follow them when their bloom is over. The L. auratum were planted among groups of Rhododendrons; some of them are between tall Rhododendrons, and have large clumps of Lady Fern (Filix fœmina) in front, but those that look best are between and among Bamboos (B. Metake); the heavy heads of flower borne on tall stems bend gracefully through the Bamboos, which just give them enough support.
Here and there in the copse, among the thick masses of green Bracken, is a frond or two turning yellow. This always happens in the first or second week of August, though it is no indication of the approaching yellowing of the whole. But it is taken as a signal that the Fern is in full maturity, and a certain quantity is now cut to dry for protection and other winter uses. Dry Bracken lightly shaken over frames is a better protection than mats, and is almost as easily moved on and off.
The Ling is now in full flower, and is more beautiful in the landscape than any of the garden Heaths; the relation of colouring, of greyish foliage and low-toned pink bloom with the dusky spaces of purplish-grey shadow, are a precious lesson to the colour-student.
Solomon's Seal in Spring, in the upper part of the Fern-walk.
