WALL AND WATER GARDENS A GARDEN OF WALL AND WATER. The ''Country Life" Library. WALL AND WATER GARDENS. BY GERTRUDE JEKYLL. y NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNEr's SONS 153-157, FIFTH AVENUE. I9OI. 3 -OCT 25 PREFACE There is scarcely an English country home where some kind of gardening is not practised, while in a very large number of country places their owners have in some degree become aware of the happiness that comes of a love of flowers, and of how much that happiness increases when personal labour and study work together to a better knowledge of their wants and ways. In this book a portion only of the great subject of horticulture is considered, namely, simple ways of using some of the many beautiful mountain plants, and the plants of marsh and water. It is intended as a guide to amateurs, being written by one of their number, who has tried to work out some of the pro- blems presented by the use of these classes of plants to the bettering of our gardens and outer grounds. The book does not attempt to exhaust the subject, neither does it presume to lay down the law. It is enough, in the case of the rock and wall plants, for instance, to name some of the best and easiest to grow. Those who will make such use of it as to 71 PREFACE work out any of the examples it suggests, will then have learnt so much for themselves that they will be able to profit by more learned books and more copious lists of flowers. The large quantity of pictorial illustration is in itself helpful teaching. " I like a book with pictures " is not only an idle speech of those who open a book in order to enjoy the trivial intellectual tickling of the thing actually represented ; but the illustrations are of distinct educational value, in that they present aspects of things beautiful, or of matters desirable for practice, much more vividly than can be done by the unpictured text. I am indebted to the proprietors of The Garden for the use of some of the illustrations, and for a valuable list of plants and other particulars communicated to that journal by Mr. Correvon of Geneva ; also to the proprietors of Country Life for a still larger number of subjects for illustration ; to Mr. G. F. Wilson of Weybridge and Wisley for several photographs for reproduction ; and to Mr. W. Robinson for two photographs of unusual interest. I have also to acknowledge the kind help of Mr. James Hudson, who compiled the list of Water-Lilies at the end of the last chapter. In some cases I have made critical observations PREFACE vii on pictures showing portions of various English gardens. If any apology is due to the owners of these gardens I freely offer it, though I venture to feel sure that they ^will perceive my intention to be not so much criticism of the place itself as the sug- gestion of alternatives of treatment such as might also be desirable in places presenting analogous conditions. G. J. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE THE DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN I CHAPTER n DRY-WALLING AND ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION . . lO CHAPTER HI THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN l6 CHAPTER IV THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 28 CHAPTER V NATIVE PLANTS IN THE ROCK-WALL 36 CHAPTER VI TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 42 CHAPTER VII TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS {cOJltiniied) . . . -51 CHAPTER VIII SOME PROBLEMS IN WALL-GARDENING . . . 59 CHAPTER IX WHEN TO LET WELL ALONE 63 X CONTENTS CHAPTER X PAGE THE STREAM-GARDEN AND MARSH POOLS .... 66 CHAPTER XI THE ROCK-GARDEN — GENERAL ARRANGEMENT . . . 8o CHAPTER Xn THE ROCK-GARDEN {C07lti7iued) 90 CHAPTER XHI THE ALPINE GARDEN lOO CHAPTER XIV LAKES AND LARGE PONDS I09 CHAPTER XV SMALL PONDS AND POOLS Ill CHAPTER XVI TUBS IN SMALL WATER OR BOG GARDENS . . . . I28 CHAPTER XVII TANKS IN GARDEN DESIGN I35 CHAPTER XVIII A LILY TANK IN A FORMAL GARDEN 141 CHAPTER XIX WATER MARGINS 154 CHAPTER XX WATER-LILIES . . 160 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Garden of Wall and Water Cerastium in the Dry Wall Easy Steps with Dry-Walling Erinus and other Wall Plants Dwarf Lavender Rose and Pinks in the Dry Wall Achillea umbellata Achillea umbellata in Winter Iceland Poppy on the Dry Wall Arabis in a Dry Wall . Diagram (section) of Face of Rock-Wall Rock-Walling Construction . Rock-Walling Construction Rough Steps .... Rough Steps in a Grass Bank Erinus in Rough Steps . Alpine Plants in Sunny Wall Cerastium in a Sunny Wall. Campanula garganica Campanula isophylla Iberis and Cerastium Stonecrop in a Sunny Wall. Lavender-Cotton in Winter . Wahlenbergia dalmatica Stob^a purpurea Outer Wall, Alhambra, Granada Foliage of Iris, &c., at Foot of Wall Saponaria, &c., in Sunny Wall . Frontispiece To face page I „ 2 3 )> 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II " 12 13 15 i6 17 iS )) >' 19 20 21 22 24 25 26 26 26 XI 1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Saxifraga longifolia, &c., in Sunny Wall Ferns at a Northern Wall-Foot Anemone and Primroses at Wall-Foot White Erinus in a Shady Wall Ramondia pyrenaica Smilacina bifolia . Campanula pusilla Primula viscosa Stitchwort in a Rock-Wall CORYDALIS LUTEA Red Valerian in Old Castle Wall CORYDALIS AND FeRN IN OlD WaLL An Old Moat Wall Old Moat Wall with Inner Wall A Double Terrace .... Old Garden Wall Enclosing Wilderness Old Outer Garden Wall An Old H.P. Rose .... Rubus deliciosus .... Pi^ONY Border and Old Buildings Bowling-Green of a Tudor House A Well-Planted Wall and Border Terraced Garden on Steep Slope Middle Terrace, Looking East . Middle Terrace, Looking West . Lower Terrace .... Creepers on a Beautiful Old House Campanulas in Stone Steps . Garden Steps Overgrown Grouping of Tree and Wall Bridge with Wild Overgrowth . Arches, Pescina Anagni, Italy . Flagged Passage with Pergola . An Old Wall with Open Joints . Diagram : Grouping of Wall Plants Brick Wall that could be Planted Arabis, Type of Hanging Wall Plant To face page 2j 28 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 39 40 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 52 52 53 54 55 56 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XIU A Fine House with Unbroken Lawn, &c A Wood Pool .... A Stream Garden . Iris l^vigata .... Iris laevigata in Japan . Water Buttercup . Stream by Willows and Alders Galax aphylla Xerophyllum asphodeloides Zenobia speciosa Steps in Rock-Garden . A Valley-Shaped Rock-Garden Rock-Garden Crowned with Small S Menziesia, the Irish Heath . Plan of the Rock-Garden . Aubrietia in the Rock-Garden Lithospermum prostratum . Arenaria balearica London Pride .... Androsace lanuginosa . A Wild Rock-Garden . Double Sea Campion Hardy Red-Flowered Opuntia In the Rock-Garden at Kew Bank of Spring Flowers at Bath Pool in Messrs. Backhouse's Rock-Garden In Messrs. Backhouse's Rock-Garden White Hoop-Petticoat Narcissus Type of the Smaller Silvery Saxifrages Saxifraga longifolia Saxifraga burseriana Gentianella . Silene alpestris Sempervivum Laggeri Scotch Fir on Lake Shore Royal Fern (Osmunda) . River Edge. Ranunculus florieundus, &c fact page 64 „ 65 >) 66 „ 68 69 70 5) 71 75 )1 76 » 80 82 )> 83 85 )> 86 )5 88 90 91 92 93 „ 94 !> 94 94 95 96 96 )! )> 96 97 98 99 100 lOI 102 104 106 109 no 112 XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BUCKBEAN AND ChAIR-RuSH . gunnera manicata Nymph^aodorata withBuckbean, &c., at Margin Rhododendrons by Water . Poplars and Water Violet . Stream and Pool Garden, by Messrs. Veitch of Exeter Rock Pool, by Messrs. Veitch of Exeter . Castle Moat with Wild Growths Rock and Pool Garden .... Pool at the Villa d'Este .... Rock-Bank and Tank in Bog-Garden . Rough Seat and Flowers in Bog-Garden . Garden-Tank with Rough Kerb . Garden-Tank with Slightly Raised Kerb Pool in a Brick-Walled Garden Court . Pool in a Garden Court .... Diagram : Pool with Dangerous Edge Court in the Generalife Gardens, Granada Pompeii, Atrium and Peristylium Fern-clad Rock-Walls at the Villa d'Este Balustraded Pool in an Italian Garden . Plan of the Garden described . Stairway at the Villa d'Este . Rock and Stream-Garden in Devonshire . Iris l^^vigata in Mr. Wilson's Garden Cow-Parsnip (Heracleum) A Flowery Pond Edge , A Pond that might be Improved Water-Lilies in a Sheltered Pond Water-Lilies To fact page 114 „ » 115 „ „ 116 „ „ "7 " „ 119 ,, „ 120 „ „ 121 ») ,, 123 „ ,, 125 „ „ 126 » » 132 » » 133 „ » 135 „ » 136 „ „ 136 ,. „ 136 „ » 137 >, „ 138 » » 139 >, ,, 140 » „ 141 » „ 149 .> „ 151 „ .. 154 » „ 156 „ -, 157 .. „ 158 „ „ 159 „ „ 161 )> „ 162 CERASTIUM IN THE DRY-WALL. WALL AND WATER GARDENS CHAPTER I THE DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN Many a garden has to be made on a hillside more or less steep. The conditions of such a site naturally suggest some form of terracing, and in connection with a house of modest size and kind, nothing is prettier or pleasanter than all the various ways of terraced treatment that may be practised with the help of dry-walling, that is to say, rough wall-building without mortar, especially where a suitable kind of stone can be had locally. It is well in sharply-sloping ground to keep the paths as nearly level as may be, whether they are in straight lines or whether they curve in following the natural contour of the ground. Many more beautiful garden-pictures may be made by variety in planting even quite straightly terraced spaces than at first appears possible, and the frequent flights of steps, always beautiful if easy and well proportioned, will be of the greatest value. When steps are built in this kind of rough terracing the almost invariable fault is that they are made too steep and too narrow in the 2 WALL AND WATER GARDENS tread. It is a good rule to make the steps so easy that one can run up and down them, whether of skilled workmanship, as in the present illustration, or rough, as in that at p. 14. There is no reason or excuse for the steep, ugly, and even dangerous steps one so often sees. Unless the paths come too close together on the upper and lower terraces, space for the more easy gradient can be cut away above, and the steps can also be carried out free below ; the ground cut through above being supported by dry-walling at the sides of the steps, and where the steps stand up clear below, their sides being built up free. If for any reason this is difficult or inexpedient, a landing can be built out and the steps carried down sideways instead of up and down the face of the hill. In fact, there is no end to the pretty and interesting ways of using such walling and such groups of steps. Where the stairway cuts through the bank and is lined on each side by the dry-walling, the whole structure becomes a garden of delightful small things. Little Ferns are planted in the joints on the shadier side as the wall goes up, and numbers of small Saxi- frages and Stonecrops, Pennywort and Erinus, Cory- dalis and Sandwort. Then there will be hanging sheets of Aubrietia and Rock Pinks, Iberis and Ceras- tium, and many another pretty plant that will find a happy home in the cool shelter of the rocky joint. In some regions of the walling Wallflowers and Snap- dragons and plants of Thrift can be established ; as they ripen their seed it drifts into the openings of other joints, and the seedlings send their roots deep ERIN us, SrONECROPS AND TUFTS OF SILENE ACAULIS. DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 3 into the bank and along the cool backs of the stones, and make plants of surprising health and vigour that are longer lived than the softer-grown plants in the rich flower-borders. I doubt if there is any way in which a good quantity of plants, and of bushes of moderate size, can be so well seen and enjoyed as in one of these roughly terraced gardens, for one sees them up and down and in all sorts of ways, and one has a chance of seeing many lovely flowers clear against the sky, and of per- haps catching some sweetly-scented tiny thing like Dianthus fragrans at exactly nose-height and eye-level, and so of enjoying its tender beauty and powerful fragrance in a way that had never before been found possible. Then the beautiful details of structure and marking in such plants as the silvery Saxifrages can never be so well seen as in a wall at the level of the eye or just above or below it ; and plain to see are all the pretty ways these small plants have of seating themselves on projections or nestling into hollows, or creeping over stony surface as does the Balearic Sandwort, or stand- ing like Erinus with its back pressed to the wall in an attitude of soldier-like bolt-uprightness. In place of all this easily attained prettiness how many gardens on sloping ground are disfigured by profitless and quite indefensible steep banks of mown grass ! Hardly anything can be so undesirable in a garden. Such banks are unbeautiful, troublesome to mow, and wasteful of spaces that might be full of interest. If there must be a sloping space, and if for 4 WALL AND WATER GARDENS any reason there cannot be a dry wall, it is better to plant the slope with low bushy or rambling things ; with creeping Cotoneaster or Japan Honeysuckle, with Ivies or with such bushes as Savin, Pyrus japonica, Cistus, or Berberis ; or if it is on a large scale, with the free-growing rambling Roses and double-flowered Brambles. I name these things in preference to the rather over-done Periwinkle and St. John's-wort, because Periwinkle is troublesome to weed, and soon grows into undesirably tight masses, and the Hyperi- cum, though sometimes of good effect, is extremely monotonous in large masses by itself, and is so ground-greedy that it allows of no companionship. There is another great advantage to be gained by the use of the terrace walls ; this is the display of the many shrubs as well as plants that will hang over and throw their flowering sprays all over the face of the wall. In arranging such gardens, I like to have only a very narrow border at the foot of each wall to accommo- date such plants as the dwarf Lavender shown in the illustration, or any plant that is thankful for warmth or shelter. In many cases, or even most, it will be best to have no border at all, but to make a slight preparation at the wall foot not apparently distinguishable from the path itself, and to have only an occasional plant or group or tuft of Fern. Seeds will fall to this point, and the trailing and sheeting plants will clothe the wall foot and path edge, and the whole thing will look much better than if it had a stiffly edged border. I suppose the whole width of the terrace to be four- 'Jf^^f^ AN OLD GARDEN ROSE AND HYBRID DRY- WALL. ROCK riNKS IN THE DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 5 teen feet. I would have the path six feet wide, allow- ing an extra foot for the rooting of plants next the wall ; then there would be a seven-foot width for the border, planted with bushy things towards its outer edge, which will be the top of the wall of the next terrace below. These would be mostly bushes of moderate growth, such as Lavender, Rosemary, Ber- beris, and Pyrus Japonica, with the plants suitable for partly hanging over the face of the wall. Among these would be Forsythia suspensa, Phlomis fruticosa (Jeru- salem Sage), and the common Barberry, so beautiful with its coral-like masses of fruit in October, its half- weeping habit of growth, and its way of disposing its branches in pictorial masses. There would also be Des- modium pendtdiflorum, and above all the many kinds of Roses that grow and flower so kindly in such a posi- tion. No one can know till they try how well many sorts of Roses will tumble over walls and flower in profusion. Rosa lucida and Scotch Briers come over a wall nearly five feet high, and flower within a foot from the ground ; Rosa wichuriana comes over in a curtain of delicate white bloom and polished leafage. There is a neat and pretty evergreen form of R. sem- pervirens from Southern Italy, in leaf and habit not unlike wichuriana^ but always more shy of flower, which hangs over in masses, and in warm exposures flowers more freely than on the flat. If one had to clothe the face of a wall twelve feet high with hanging wreaths of flowering Roses, there is a garden form of R. arvense that, planted at the top, will climb and scramble either up or down, and will ramble through 6 WALL AND WATER GARDENS other bushes to almost any extent. I know it as the kitchen Rose, because the oldest plant I have rambles over and through some Arbor-vitcB just opposite the kitchen window of a little cottage that I lived in for two years. When it is in flower the mass of white bloom throws a distinctly appreciable light into the kitchen. The Ayrshire Roses are delightful things for this kind of use. Where in steep ground the terraces come near to- gether the scheme may comprise some heroic doings with plants of monumental aspect, for at the outer edge of one of the wall tops there may be a great group of Yucca gloriosa or Y. recurva, some of it actually planted in the wall within a course or two of the top, or some top stones may be left out ; or the Yuccas may be planted as the wall goes up, with small kinds such as Y. fiaccida a little lower down. Another such group, of different shape but clearly in relation to it, may be in the next terrace above or below. When the Yuccas are in flower and are seen from below, complete in their splendid dignity of solid leaf and immense spire of ivory bloom against the often cloudless blue of our summer skies, their owner will rejoice in possessing a picture of per- haps the highest degree of nobility of plant form that may be seen in an English garden. The garden of dry-walled terraces will necessarily be differently treated if its exposure is to the full southern or south-western sunshine, or to the north or north-east. In the case of the hot, dry, sunny aspect, a large proportion of the South European ACHILLEA UMBELLATA NINE MONTHS AFTER PLANTING. ACHILLEA UMBELLATA IN MID-WINTER, SIXTEEN MONTHS AFTER PLANTING. (HalJ of the same group that is shown at p. 6, scale rather larger.) DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 7 plants that are hardy in England and like warm places in our gardens, can be used. Many of these have greyish foliage, and it would be greatly to the advantage of the planting, from the pictorial point of view, to keep these rather near together. It should also be noted that a large proportion of these, of shrubby and half-shrubby character, are good winter plants, such as Lavender, Rosemary, Phlomis, Othon- nopsis, and Santolina ; the latter, as may be seen in the illustration, being specially well clothed in the winter months. These can be as well planted at the top edge of the wall, at the bottom, or in the face. With these plants well grouped, and the addition of some common white Pinks, and the useful hybrids of Rock Pinks ; with a few grey-leaved Alpines such as Cerastium, Artemisia nana, A. sericea, the encrusted Saxifrages, and Achillea umbellata, a piece of the best possible wall-gardening can be done that will be as complete and well furnished in winter (all but the bloom of the plants) as it is in summer. Achillea umbellata is a plant of extreme value in wall-planting in all aspects. It grows fairly fast, and from a few pieces of a pulled-apart plant will in a short time give the result shown in the illustrations ; it should be replanted every three years. There is no need in such a case to remember the exact date of planting. The plant is at its best in its first and second year ; then it begins to look a little straggly and over-worn. This may be taken as the signal for replanting, as in all such cases with any other plants. The above selection of plants would serve for quite 8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS a long section of wall. The character of the planting might then change and gradually give way to another grouping that might be mainly of Cistuses. With these, and in the hottest wall-spaces, might come some of the South European Campanulas ; C. iso- phylla, both blue and white, C. garganica, C. fragilis, and C. muralis. These gems of their kind live and do well in upright walling, whereas they would perish on the more open rockery, or could only be kept alive by some unbeautiful device for a winter pro- tection. Not only does the wall afford the shelter needed for plants that would otherwise be scarcely hardy, but the fact of planting them with the roots spread horizontally, and the crown of the plant therefore more or less upright instead of flat, obviates the danger that besets so many tender plants, of an accumulation of wet settling in the crown, then freezing and causing the plant to decay. In many places where these rather tender southern plants are grown, they have to have a covering of sheets of glass in the winter, whereas in the wall they are safe and have no need of these unsightly contrivances. Some of the Plants and Shrubs for Dry-Walled Terraces In a Cool Place Saxifrages, Mossy. Corydalis. Wall Pennywort. Erintis alpinus (cool or warm). Arenaria balearica. Small Ferns. ICELAND POPPY A I i HI: I UP OF THE ROCK-WALL. ARAB IS IN A DRY -WALL. DRY-WALLED TERRACE GARDEN 9 To Hang Down Rock Pinks. Aubrietia. Iberis. Cerasttum. Alyssum. Mossy Saxifrage (cool). In Sun or Shade Wallflowers. Thrift. Snapdragons. Dianthus fragrans . Shrubs to Hang Cistus cyprius. C. laurifolius. Lavender. Othonnopsis cheirifolia. Desmodiu7n penduliflorum. Rosa lucida. R. sempervirens, vars. Over from the Top Phlomis fruticosa. Santolina chamcecyparissus. Rosemary. Berberis vulgaris. Pyrus japonica. Rosa wichuriana. R. arvense, garden vars. Grey-leaved Alpine Plants for the Wall Cerasttum tomentosufii. Achillea umbel lata. Artemisia nana. Artemisia sericea. Plants for Hottest Places Campanula isophylla. C. fragilis. Yucca gloriosa. V. Haccida. Campanula garganica. C. muralis. Yucca recurva. Opuntia, in var. CHAPTER II DRY-WALLING AND ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION A ROCK-GARDEN may be anything between an upright wall and a nearly dead level. It is generally an arti- ficial structure of earth and stones, and alas ! only too often it is an aggregation of shapeless mounds and hollows made anyhow. Such a place is not only ugly but is very likely not suitable for the plants that are intended to grow in it. If any success in the cultivation of rock-plants is expected, it is only reasonable to suppose that one must take the trouble to learn something about the plants, their kinds and their needs, and it is equally necessary to take the trouble to learn how their places are to be prepared. Happily for the chances of success and pleasure in this delightful kind of gardening the right way is also the most beautiful way. There is no need to sur- round every little plant with a kind of enclosure of stones, set on edge and pointing to all four points of the compass ; it is far better to set the stones more or less in courses or in lines of stratification, just as we see them in nature in a stone quarry or any moun- tain side where surface denudation has left them standing out clear in nearly parallel lines. It matters not the least whether the courses are far apart or DIAGRAM (SECTION) SHOWING ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENT OF THE FACE OF THE STONES IN A ROCK-WALL AT AN ANGLE OF 45°. {Sec p. ii ) ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION ii near together; this is naturally settled by the steep- ness of the ground. In a wall they are necessarily close, and in very steep ground it is convenient to build them with the courses rather near each other. In such a case as a steep slope with an angle of 45 degrees, the face of the rock-bank could be built in either of the two ways shown in the diagram. Both will suit the plants. The flatter the angle of the ground the further apart may be the rocky courses, as the danger of the earth washing away is diminished. If the stone is not in large pieces, it will be found a good plan in rather steep banks to begin at the path level with a few courses of dry-walling, and then to make an earthy shelf and then another rise of two or three courses of walling, using the two or three courses to represent one thickness of deeper stone. But in any case the rock-builder should make up his mind how the courses should run and keep to the same rule throughout, whether the stones lie level or dip a little to right or left as they generally do in nature. But whether a stone lies level or not as to the right and left of its front face, it should always be laid so that its back end tips down into the ground, and its front face, when seen in profile, looks a little upward. This, it will be seen, carries the rain into the ground instead of shooting it off as it would do if it were laid the other way, like the tile or slate on a building. As for the general shape or plan of the rock-garden, it must be governed by the nature of the ground and the means and material at disposal. But whether it 12 WALL AND WATER GARDENS will be beautiful or not as a structure must depend on the knowledge and good taste of the person who plans it and sees it carried out. As mentioned elsewhere, it is both highly desirable and extremely convenient to have different sections of the garden for the plants from different geological formations, therefore we will suppose that a portion is of limestone, and another of granite, and a third of sandstone with peat. If this sandstone and peat is mainly in the shadiest and coolest place, and can have a damp portion of a few square yards at its foot, it will be all the better. Of course if a pool can be managed, or the rock-garden can be on one or both banks of a little stream or rill, the possibilities of beautiful gardening will be endless. In making the dry-walling the stones should all tip a little downwards at the back, and the whole face of the wall should incline slightly backward, so that no drop of rain is lost, but all runs into the joints. Any loose earth at the back of the stones must be closely rammed. If this is done there is no danger of the wall bursting outward and coming down when there is heavy rain. Any space backward of newly moved earth behind the wall must also be rammed and made firm in the same way. The two illustrations of a bit of dry wall freshly put up give an idea of the way it is built. The one containing the angle shows how the stones are tipped back, while the one with the straight front shows how spaces at some of the joints and between the courses are left for planting. If the scheme of planting is ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION 13 matured and everything at hand as the wall goes up, it is much best to plant as the stones are laid. The roots can then be laid well out, and larger plants can be used than if they were to be put in when the wall is completed. In making the steps that go with such dry-walling it will not be necessary that they should be entirely paved with stones. If the front edge is carefully fitted and fixed the rest can be levelled up with earth and the sides and angles planted with bits of Mossy Saxi- frages or other small growths. This is also a capital way of making steps in steep wood paths. In such places the use of thick wooden slab as an edging is a much worse expedient, for in wet or wintry weather it becomes extremely slippery and dangerous. The steps themselves will become flower gardens ; only the front edges need be cemented ; indeed, if the stones are large and heavy enough to be quite firm there need be no cement ; but if two or three stones are used to form the edge of a four-foot-wide step it is just as well to make a cement joint to fix the whole firmly together. This fixing need not be made to show as a conspicuous artificial joint; it can be kept well down between the stones, and spaces left above and below to form many a little nook where a tiny Fern may be planted or a little tuft of some other small plant — any plant that one may most wish to see there. If the space is cool and shady the little Saxifraga Cynibalaria is a charming thing. It is an annual, but always grows again self-sown ; in the depth of winter its cheerful tufts of little bluntly-lobed 14 WALL AND WATER GARDENS leaves look fresh and pretty in the joints of stones. It flowers quite early in the year and then withers away completely, but the seeds sow themselves, and so with- out any one taking any thought or trouble it renews itself faithfully from year to year. Many small Ferns will also be quite happy in the front joints of the shady steps, such as Cheilanthes vestita, Cystopteris fragilis and C, dickieana^ Aspleniuni Trichomanes, A. Ruta-muraria, Ceterach, and the Woodsias. The little creeping Arenaria balearica will grow up the cool side of the wall or the front edge of steps and be a carpet of vivid green in deepest winter, and in June will show a galaxy of little white stars on inch- long thread-like stalks that shiver in the prettiest way to the puffing of a breath of wind or the weight of raindrops of a summer shower. In a couple of years or even less, small Mosses will appear on the stones themselves, and the spores of Ferns wind-blown will settle in the stony face and in the joints ; then will come the delight of seeing these lovely things growing spontaneously, and coming willingly to live in the homes we have made ready for them. No little flowering plant seems more willing to take to such a place than Erinus alpinus. As soon as steps grow mossy (even if they are of solid bricklayer's work with mortar joints), if a few seeds of Erinus are sown in the mossy tufts they will gladly grow as shown in the illustration, where this cheerful little plant has been established on some solid steps of rough sand- stone leading to a loft, and now scatters its own seed STEPS IN A ROUGH GRASS BANK ; STONES CEMENTED AT FRONT. ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION 15 and is quite at home as a well-settled colony making natural increase. This is an extreme case, for the little Alpine has nothing whatever to grow in but the mossy tufts that have gathered of themselves within the time, some eight years, since the steps were built. Had the steps been of dry-walling, such as was described in the early part of the chapter, they would have grown all the quicker, having the more favour- able conditions of a better root-run. CHAPTER III THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN Many of the most easily grown Alpines are just as happy on a sunny wall as in the shade. So bene- ficent to the roots is contact with the cool stone, that plants that would perish from drought in the lighter soils and fierce sun-heat of our southern counties remain fresh and well nourished in a rock-wall in the hottest exposure. Moreover, in walls all plants seem to be longer lived. Those of the truly saxatile plants, whose way of growth is to droop over rocks and spread out flowering sheets, are never so happy as in a rock-wall. But it cannot be too often re- peated that to get good effects a few kinds only should be used at a time. So only can we enjoy the full beauty of the plant and see what it really can do for us ; so only can we judge of what the plant really is, and get to know its ways. In many of those rock-plants that are grown from seed, indi- viduals will be found to vary, not only in the colour and size of the bloom, but in other characters, so that the plant cannot be judged by one example only. Look at the variety in trees — in Birches, in Hollies, in Oaks ! Still more is this natural variation notice- able in small plants that are close to the eye. In i6 ALPINE PLANTS IN A SUNNY LIMESTONE WALL AT THE JARDIN ALPIN D'ACCLIMATATION, GENEVA. SAXIFRAGA LONGI FOLIA, ERINUS. PHYTEUMA COMOSUM, ETC. (Fay Siixifraga Lougi folia in Flower see p. loo.) THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 17 watching a number of the same kind one learns how to judge them ; one sees in Cerastium, for instance, such as one of the many tufts hanging out of the wall in the picture, that one tuft has a brighter and better appearance than the next one. Then one sees that the flower, which at first one had thought was whiter than its neighbour, is not different in colour, but has rather wider petals, and that they open more and lie a little flatter, and that the leaf is somewhat broader and its downy covering slightly heavier and therefore whiter looking. Nothing is a better lesson in the knowledge of plants than to sit down in front of them, and handle them and look them over just as carefully as possible ; and in no way can such study be more pleasantly or conveniently carried on than by taking a light seat to the rock-wall and giving plenty of time to each kind of little plant, examining it closely and asking oneself, and it, why this and why that. Especially if the first glance shows two tufts, one with a better appearance than the other ; not to stir from the place until one has found out why and how it is done, and all about it. Of course a friend who has already gone through it all can help on the lesson more quickly, but 1 doubt whether it is not best to do it all for oneself. Then the hanging plants, Cerastium, Alyssum, Aub- rietia, Silene, Arabis, Gypsophila, Saponaria, Rock Pinks and the like, though they grow quite happily on the level, do not show their true habit as they do when they are given the nearly upright wall out of which they can hang. There are plenty of plants for the B i8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS level, and this way of growing in hanging sheets is in itself a very interesting characteristic, point- ing to the use of many beautiful things in circum- stances that could not otherwise be dealt with so satisfactorily. The Rock Pinks and their hybrids are very im- portant wall-plants of the hanging class. The hy- brids for such use are derived from Dianthns ccesius (the Cheddar Pink), D. pluinarius, D. superbus, D. fragrans, and possibly others. D. fragrans and its double variety are delightful wall-plants; the double is that wonderful tiny white Pink whose scent is like the quintessence of that of Jasmine ; a scent almost too powerful. Seed of these hybrids can be had by the name of Hybrid Rock Pinks ; it is easily grown and yields interesting varieties, all capital wall and rock plants. The Rock Pinks are equally happy in a wall in sun or shade ; but as we are just now considering the plants that will bear the hottest places, among the most important, and at the same time the most beautiful, will be some of the tender Campanulas of Southern Italy, and others that are usually found tender or difficult of culture in England. Campanula garganica, a native of rocks and walls in that curious promontory of Gargano that stands out into the Adriatic (the spur on the heel of Italy), is often an uncertain plant in our gardens. But planted in a cleft in very steep, almost wall-like rock-work, or still better in an actual wall in the hottest exposure, where it cannot suffer from the moisture that is THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 19 so commonly fatal to it, it will thrive and flower abundantly. This species, with other Campanulas that are absolutely saxatile, should in England always be grown in a wall or perpendicular rock-work. The same treatment suits C. Raineri, the yellow-flowered C. petrcea of the Tyrol, and Campanulas muralis, Elatine, elatinoides, excisa, macrorhisa, and mirabilis. That the same plan is suitable to C. isophylla may be seen by the illustration showing a tuft flowering in a wall facing south-west, in a garden thirty-five miles south-west of London. Places should also be given to the tenderer of the Lithospermums, L. Gastoni and L. graniinifolium. Graminifolium is a neat bushy-looking plant ; both have the flowers of the fine blue colour that is so good a character of the genus. In hottest exposures in Devon and Cornwall and the Isle of Wight there would even be a chance of success with L. rosmarini- folium, the "Blue Flower" of the Island of Capri. Its colour may be said to be the loveliest blue in nature. It has not the violent intensity of the Gen- tian, but a quality entirely its own. If one may without exaggeration speak of a blue that gives the eye perfect happiness, it would be this most perfect blue of the lovely Gromwell of the cliffs of Capri. But it must have sun and air and full exposure, or the colour is wanting in quality, therefore it is not a plant for the unheated greenhouse. The easily grown L. prostratiim likes a rather cooler place, and is more a plant for the rock-garden or for 20 WALL AND WATER GARDENS grassy banks. This most useful trailer is not par- ticular about soil, though the Lithospermums as a genus are lime-loving things. Another important race of plants for the hot wall are the various kinds of Iberis. All will do well. The commonest perennial kind, /. sempervirens, shows new beauties in the wall. Still better is the hand- somer /. correcefolia, larger both of leaf and flower. In the south of England we may also have /. gib- raltarica and /. tenoreana, both white, tinted with pink or lilac, and /. Pruiti, pure white, all South European plants. These are short-lived perennials, scarcely more than biennials, but they come well from seed which should be sown in the wall ; the unmoved seedlings will do much better than any transplanted ones. Closely allied to the Iberises and capital wall-plants, doing well in all soils, but preferring lime, are the ^thionemas, mostly small neat plants with bluish leaves and pretty pink flowers. ^. coridifolium or pulckelluniy from Asia Minor, is charming against grey stones, while the Syrian ^. grandiflorum is like a beautiful little pink-flowered bush. Rabbits are very fond of this family of plants, indeed they seem to favour the CrucifercE in general. When I first grew the ^thionemas, forgetting their relationship to Iberis, I put them in a place accessible to rabbits ; the rabbit being the better botanist recognised them at once, much to my loss. But in the wall they are safe. The sunny wall is also the true place for the Stone- IBERIS AND CERASTIUM IN THE DRY-WALL. THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 21 crops large and small, from the tiny Sedum glaucum and the red-tinted 5. Lydium and brittle dasyphyllmrij through the many good kinds of moderate size, of which pulchellumy kamtschaticum, and Ewersii are im- portant, to the large-sized S. spectabile blooming in September. Among these, one of the most useful is 5. spurium in three colourings ; pink, a deeper colour- ing near crimson, and a dull white. It is one of the easiest plants to grow ; a few little pieces (they need scarcely be rooted) will quickly take hold, and a year hence make sheets of pretty succulent growth smothered with bloom in middle summer. The pretty Phloxes of the setacea group are capital plants in the hot wall ; in their second and third year hanging down in sheets ; the only one that does not hang down is the charming pink "Vivid," which has a more tufted habit. The free-growing P. stellaria, one of the same family, should not be forgotten. Its colour, a white tinged with faint purple, makes it suitable for accompanying Aubrie- tias, which do well both in sun and shade. There is a lovely little labiate, Stachys Corsica, which is a delightful small plant to grow in level joints ; it is not much known, but is desirable as a gem for the warm wall. Arnebia echioides is also a good wall-plant. It will be important that the wall, especially if it is of any height, should have a crown of bushy things at its top, and not a crown only, for some shrubby and half-shrubby plants should come down the face here and there to a depth of two or three joints, and 22 WALL AND WATER GARDENS occasionally even more. The plants for this use will be Cistus and Helianthemuniy Lavender, both the large and the dwarf kinds, Rosemary, Phlomis, Santolina (Lavender Cotton), Southernwood, Olearia Haastii, Eurybia gunniana (hardy only in the south of England), Cassinia fulvida, Berberis Aquifolium and B. vulgaris (the common Barberry with the beauti- ful coral fruits), Scotch Briers, Rosa lucida and Rosa wichuriana, and any other beautiful small shrubs, preferably evergreen. Also some of the pleasantest of the Sweet Herbs, Hyssop and Catmint (beloved of cats), both beautiful garden plants, and Rue for the sake of its pretty growth and blue leaves. These, or rather a few of them at a time, in very carefully selected association, would be grouped upon the top and a little way down. It will have a good effect, if one of these more im- portant bush-like plants, in the case of a dry wall from eight to ten or more feet high, swept right down with a broken or slightly curving diagonal line from top to bottom, with some more plants of the same on the lower level at the wall's foot. For this use Othon- nopsiSf Nepeta, Hyssop, dwarf Lavender, and Santolina would be among the best ; Santolina being especially valuable, as it is excellent in winter and never untidy at any time. The neat little Scabiosa Pterocephala must have a place ; it is a good plan to have a section of the wall devoted mainly to plants of grey foliage ; here would be the place for this, in company with Achillea unibellata and Artemisia sericea and others of this o :^ to, o o o :^ THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 23 warmth-loving genus; and in the grey part of the wall there will be Southernwood and Catmint {Nepeta Mussini), Hyssop and Lavender Cotton, and the curious, almost blue-leaved, Othonnopsis cheirifolia. Many of these will be among the plants just named, but to make this clear and easy for reference they will be put together in the list at the end of the chapter. The hardy Fuchsias will also be good plants for the head and foot of the wall, and the pretty little F. pumila for the wall itself. There are two of the small St. John's-worts that must not be forgotten, Hypericum coris, a perfect gem among dwarfer shrub-like plants, and H. repens, its exact opposite in habit, for H. coris stands up erect, and H. repens hangs straight down like Moneywort in a window-box. It would be tempting in Cornwall to try the Caper plant {Capparis spinosd) and the hardier of the Mesembryanthemums that do so well in the Scilly Islands ; the best to try would be M. blandwn in its two varieties — album and roseum, seldom entirely out of bloom ; the straw-coloured M. edule and its hand- some crimson-flowered ally, M. rubro-cinctum ; M. glaucum, one of the hardiest and finest, with large canary-yellow flowers ; and M. deltoides, which forms a dense curtain when it is allowed to hang, and fills the air in spring with the vanilla-like scent of its small but countless pink blossoms. With these, and in a part of the wall specially pre- pared with rather larger spaces between the stones in 24 WALL AND WATER GARDENS the courses, some of the hardy Opuntias would be par- ticularly suitable ; they are mentioned more at length in the chapters on rock-gardens. Here would also be the most suitable place for the Euphorbias. Several of the Edraianthus (now better known as Wahlenbergia), pretty plants of the Campanula family, that are often lost in gardens from winter damp, will be safe in the sunny wall. The best will be W. dal- matica and W. Pumilio, Another branch of the Cam- panulacecB, the Phyteumas, are of special value in the wall, and will do nowhere so well. The most usually cultivated are P. comosum, P. hemisphcericiim, and P. orbiculare. Other pretty plants, also often lost in the usual forms of rock-garden, are Acantholimon venustum and A. glumaceum ; allied to Thrift. Many of these plants are best propagated by fresh seed, which can be sown as soon as it ripens in adjoin- ing joints and crevices. It should also be remem- bered that there are several annuals that can with advantage be sown in the wall ; some of the most suitable would be Iberis odorata, Saponaria calabrica, and Silene pendula, also the little blue Stonecrop {Sedum cceruleum). The lovely little Petrocallis pyrenaica is a true plant for the sunny wall in its upper joints. The larger growth of StobcBa purpurea will also suit the top joints of the upper courses, or the warm place at the wall- foot. It is a thing that will not only do well in such places, but that so used will look quite at its best. To those who are unacquainted with it it may be described as a thistle-like plant with silvery-green spiny foliage THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 25 and leafy stems, and an abundance of pale purplish wide-open bloom, large for the size of the plant. Most of the Thistles, however handsome in leaf, are disappointing in flower. This good plant, on the contrary, surprises by the size and quality of its bloom. It is not a plant to mix up with other things in a border, but exactly right for the hot rock-wall, Parochetus communis must not be forgotten. It is one of the flowers of perfect blue, a delight and surprise to see on a little plant that looks like a humble Clover. Being a native of Nepaul, it is not always hardy in English gardens, but the shelter of the wall will pre- serve it in any of our southern districts. The foot of the wall will be best if it is not planted closely all along, but if occasionally some handsome warmth-loving plant is there in a tuft or group. Some of the plants most suitable for this place will be Acanthus, Iris stylosUy Crinums and Plumbago Lar- pentcB, and of smaller plants, Anomatheca cruenta, Anemone fulgens, and in the south, Amaryllis Bella- donna^ Pancratium illyricum, and Zephryanthes carinata. An occasional bush at the wall-foot would also come well, such as Rosemary, Cistus lusitanicus, Veronica hulkeana, Ozothamnus rosmarini/olius, or Griselinia littoralis. Wonderful is the pictorial quality of Ivy, and its power of assimilation with the forms and surfaces of ancient buildings. For a permanent covering of any- thing ugly of brick or stone it is also a most helpful auxiliary, and though I am just now considering ways 26 WALL AND WATER GARDENS of using what are more of the nature of flowering plants, the merits of this grand climber must never be forgotten. There are often places where such a wall- garden as has been described may need some dark and quiet background. If at the end of such a scene any wall or building returned forward square with the wall, here would be the place for Ivy. Indeed there are many vast piles of building whose grim severity could endure the presence of nothing of a less serious character. Thus this great outer wall of the Alhambra, towering up in its massive simplicity, could have borne no other climbing plant than its one great sheet of Ivy. Plants for the Sunny Rock-wall Cerastium^ Alyssum, Aubrietia, Fuchsia gracilis, Riccartoni, Silene, Aral/is, Gypsophila, pumila. Saponaria, Dianthus hybs., Hypericum coris, repens. D. fragafts, phttttarius, super- Mesembryanihemum blandum, bus. (These will hang down.) edule,rubro-cinctum,glaucu?n, Campanula garganica, Raineri, deltoides. PeircEa, muralis, Elatine, ela- VVahlenbergia dalmatica, Pu- linoides, excisa, macrorhisa, milio. mirabilis, isophylla. Phyteumacomosion^hemisphceri- Lithospertnum Gasioni, gra- cum, orbiculare. 7ninifolium. Acantholimon glumaceufti, ve- Jberis setnperuirens, correcsfolia, nustum. tenoreana,gibraltarica, Pruiti. Stachys Corsica. ALthionetna coridifolium,grandi- Lavender. florum. Santolina. Sedutn glaucum, Lydium, dasy- Eurybia gunniana. phyllum, pulchelliim, kam- Ilyssopus officinalis. tschaticum, spurium, Ewersii, Scabiosa Pterocephala. &c. Othonnopsis cheirifolia. PEINADOR DE LA REIN A : ALHAMBEA, GRANADA. o o Q o O O SAXIFRAGA LONGIFOLIA, [See also p. loo.) ANTIRRHINUM GLUTINOSUM, AQUILEGIA JUCUNDA, ERINUS IIIRSUTUS IN A LIMESTONE WALL. (See opposite p. loo ) THE ROCK-WALL IN SUN 27 Phlox setacea and vars., P. stel- laria. Cistiis, Helianthemum and vars. Berberis Aquifolium, vulgaris. Rosa spinoszssima, lucida, wichti- riana. Olearia Haastii. Cassinia fulvida. Nepeta Mussini. Artemisia sericea. Parochetus communis. Arnebia echioides. Rosmarinum officinale. Artemisia Abrotanum. Achillea umbellata. Petrocallis pyrenaica. (By seed) Iberis odoraia, Sapo- naria calabrica, Silene pen- dula, Sedum caeruleum. At the Foot Acanthus. Crinujft, vars. Anomatheca cruenta. Amaryllis Belladonna. Zephyranthes cari7iata. Cistus lusitanicus. Ozothamnus rosmarinifolius. StoVtea purpurea. OF THE Wall Iris stylosa. Plumbago LarpentcB. Anemone fulgens. Pancratium illyricum. Rosemary. Veronica hulkeana. Griselitiia littoralis. CHAPTER IV THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE A DRY wall with a northern or eastern exposure offers just as free a field for beautiful planting as one that looks towards the sun, and it may be assumed that quite two-thirds of the plants advised for the sunny wall will flower and do well in the cooler one also, while this will have other features distinctly its own. For whereas on the sunny side many South European species, and members of the sun-loving succulent families, will find a suitable home, the cool wall will present a series of garden-pictures almost equal in number though dissimilar in character. What will be most conspicuous in the cool wall will be a luxuriant growth of hardy Ferns, both native and exotic ; indeed the main character of its furnishing will be cool greenery in handsome masses, though flowers will be in fair proportion. Here again, if the wall- garden is to be seen at its best, and if the plants are to be shown as well as possible, it will not do to throw together one each of a quantity of kinds, but a fair number of two or three kinds at a time should be arranged in a kind of ordered informality. No actual recipe or instructions can be given for such planting, though somewhat of the spirit of it may be appre- }-hJOVS AT A NORTHERN WALL-FOOT. THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 29 hended from the diagram at p. 61, in which the groups of each kind of plant are represented by the different ways of hatching. It would be well to get into the way of this kind of planting as a general rule, though here and there one isolated plant of very distinct character would have a good effect. At the foot of the wall would be grand tufts of the largest of the British Ferns, Male Fern, Lady Fern, Harts-tongue, Osmunda, and Shield Fern, and with these, handsome foreigners such as Struthiopteris ger- manica and several North American kinds. The cool pale fronds of Harts-tongue {Scolopendrium), in form and texture so unlike most other Ferns, are valuable not only for their own sake but for fostering the feel- ing of shade and coolness that is the main character of this portion of the garden. When established at the wall's foot they are of all Ferns the most willing to increase by the sowing of their own spores, though this can easily be helped by shaking a frond whose fructification is mature along some joint where a young growth of it is desirable. Be it remembered that though most Ferns love a bit of peat. Harts-tongue rejoices in a strong loam, also that Polypodiuni cal- careum, as its specific name says plainly, will be thank- ful for lime. The little Ruta inuraria is also a lime lover. The common Polypody is hardly ever so hand- some as in a cool wall, while its relatives the Oak and Beech Ferns will be quite at home in wide joints. If a specially cool and moist spot is noticed while the wall is building it will be well to leave out a block 30 WALL AND WATER GARDENS or two in a couple of courses, and to form a little Fern cave for the delicate Filmy Ferns {Hymenopkyllum), and if the garden should be near the sea on our south coast there would be a chance of success with the Sea Spleenwort {Asplenium marinum) planted in a deep joint. The delicately beautiful Cystopteris, in several kinds, will be some of the best things in the wall, also the dainty little Woodsias. The difficult Holly- Fern will do well in a deep horizontal wall joint, and Parsley Fern {Allosorus) will be contented with a cool cleft if liberally fed with chips of slate. The wide family of Saxifrages will be largely re- presented in the cool rock-wall. This is a group of plants that presents so many different forms that it is one of the most puzzling to amateurs, but it is much simplified, if, putting aside some of its outlying members, one thinks of it in its relation to the wall as mainly of three kinds ; the London Pride, the mossy, and the silvery or encrusted kinds. Every- body knows London Pride {Saxifraga umhrosum) as a pretty plant in garden edgings and for ordinary rock-garden use, but I doubt if it is ever so charming as when grown in the cool wall, when its dainty clouds of pink bloom are seen puffing out from among Fern-frond masses. Then, once seen, it is easy to recognise the Mossy Saxifrages, of which 5. hypnoides of our northern mountains is the best known. Then no one who has once seen any examples of the silvery or encrusted Saxifrages, with their stiff, mostly strap-shaped leaves bearing along their saw-like edges 5 Oh THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 31 that miracle of adornment of limy incrustation, could fail to recognise the others of this branch of the family. Most of them thrive in calcareous soil. They vary in size from the tiny 5. ccssia to the large S. longifolia, whose huge rosette, so well shown in the illustration at p. 27, is followed by a great panicle of creamy white flower sometimes two feet long (see p. 100). No plant, except perhaps Ramondia, is more grateful for the upright position. The Mossy Saxifrages may be at once recognised by their mossy appearance. They are for joints near the bottom and the foot of the wall. The close mossy form seems to open out and stiffen as it leads to the handsome S. Camposi and to 5. ceratophylla and others of this intermediate class. Another section of the Saxifrages, somewhat mossy in appearance though not classed with them, are 6". burseriana and 5. juni- perina. They are the earliest to bloom, the flowers opening in February; large and pure white, in striking contrast to the close thick tufts of dark green foliage. Others of the smaller Saxifrages that will find a place in the wall are the yellow-flowered 5. sancta, not unlike the last as to its leafy tuft; 5. oppositifolia, forming spreading or hanging sheets with red-purple bloom ; and the double-flowered form of the native 5. granulata. S. Cymbalaria is an annual that will always sow itself ; the seedlings are bright and pretty through the depth of winter. Several of these Saxifrages, such as 5. longifolia, will do well on the warm wall also, but they are better seen and enjoyed on the cool one. 32 WALL AND WATER GARDENS In an important position in the cool wall will be a good planting of Ramondia pyrenaica. This ex- cellent plant cannot be too highly estimated. Its home in nature is in cool clefts in mountain gorges, where it constantly receives the mountain mists or the spray of the torrent. It is best in the lower part of the wall, but if the wall is of fair height and backed by a cool mass of earth, it is well to have it on the eye level. Near it should be a plant of the same family, Haberlea rhodopensis, smooth-leaved, and with much the same habit of growth and yet of quite different appearance. The wall will give an opportunity for succeeding with many Alpine Primulas, some of them difficult in ordinary rock cultivation. Alpine Auriculas and any garden Primroses will be charming in some of the lower joints, and the lovely P. Monroi, or more properly P. involucrata, one of the most dainty of its family, will here do well. Others worth growing in the wall will be P. Allionii, P . glutinosa^ P. marginata, P, nivalis^ and P. viscosa. The beautiful Androsaces, good alike in sun and shade, will have their place in the wall. The Hima- layan A. lanuginosa seems to be one of the most willing to grow in English gardens, where its silky rosettes of foliage and pretty heads of pink flowers will fall over the face of the rocks, clothing them in a charming manner (see p. 94). A. Laggeri of the Pyrenees and A. carnea and A. chamcejasme of the Swiss and Austrian Alps should also have a place. Anemone apennina should be planted in the lower SMILACINA BIFOLIA. {One-third life size.) THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 33 joints and also Anemone sylvestris^ while A. hepatica is never so well pleased as when its roots are close to or among stones. Snapdragons are grand wall-plants, both in sun and shade. I think the tender colourings, white, yellow, and pinkish, are the most suitable for the cool exposure, and the fine dark crimson reds and mixed colourings for the warm one. The many kinds of Houseleek {Sempervivmn) are perhaps better suited for joints in the warmer side of the wall and warm spaces in the rock-garden, though many will thrive in the cool wall. Many a plant that one would scarcely have thought of putting in the wall will come there of its own will. Such a lesson I learnt many a year ago from the pretty little Smilacina bifolia, which is by nature a woodland plant. I had put some on the top of a piece of dry-walling facing north, to fill the space temporarily while some Andromedas were growing that were to crown the wall-top. The little plant grew downward into the chink as the picture shows and then spread along the next lower course, mak- ing itself quite at home. Two of the Acaenas will be welcome, namely, A. microphylla and A. pulchella. The first is the one most commonly grown, but A. pulchella has merit, not only on account of the pretty form of the delicately- cut leaves, but from their unusual bronze colouring. In the wall also one can more easily escape their burrs, which are always too ready to catch hold of clothing. 34 WALL AND WATER GARDENS Moneywort {Lysimachia numniularid) will be beauti- ful hanging clown among the Ferns, and associated •wlih. Cory dalis capnoides. Waldsteinia fragoides^v^Wh its bright yellow bloom and brightly polished leaves, must not be forgotten. Campanula, that large genus that yields species of the highest beauty for nearly every kind of gardening, will be represented by several ; by C. carpatica and C. turbinata, as good in shade as in sun, by the tallest of all, C. pyramidalisy a grand wall-plant in the milder parts of our climate, and by the handsome C. lati- folia (best in the white form) and by some of the smaller kinds, which will include C. pusilla and the lovely dwarf C. ccespiiosa, both pale blue and white. They run along the joints, throwing up their little bells in such quantities that they jostle one another and are almost overcrowded. The branch of the same family detached under the name of Syniphy- andra contains some charming flowers that thrive in such a place as the cool dry wall, vS". pendula doing well ; here also 5. Hoffmanni would be at home. Arenaria balearica is described elsewhere as a capital cool wall-plant, growing up from below ; not only rooting in the joints but clothing the whole face of the stones with a kind of close skin of its tiny stalk and leaf, so that every stony hollow and projection can be clearly traced through it. A. montana has larger flowers and a different way of growth, but it is a good plant for the wall. Two little plants of neat growth and small white bloom should have a place — Hutchinsia alpina and s s THE ROCK-WALL IN SHADE 35 Cardamine trifoliata. They suit admirably as com- panions to some of the smaller Ferns. The Double Cuckoo-flower {Cardamine pratensis) is an excellent wall-plant. The accommodating Cruciferce, Arabis, Alyssum, and Aubrietia will flower just as freely in the cool as in the warm wall, also the Wallflowers, whether the garden kinds or the species. An autumn sowing of lonopsidium acaule will give next season a good crop of this charming little plant. Linaria alpina can also be sown, and Erinus alpinuSy which seems willing to grow in any position. Garden Primroses and Anemones are thankful for a place at the cool wall-foot. Plants for the Rock-wall in Shade Ferns, native and foreign. Lysiniachia nummularia Saxifrages. (Moneywort). Ramondia pyrenaica. Corydalis capnoides. Alpine Auriculas. Waldsteinia fragoides. Primula involucrata, Allionii, Campanula carpatica, iurbinaia, gluiinosa, marginata^ nivalis^ pyramidalis, latifolia^ pu- viscosa. silla, ccBspiiosa. Androsace lanuginosa^ carnea^ Sytnphyandra pendula, Hoff- chamcBJasme, Laggeri. m,anni. Anemone appenina, sylvestris^ Arenaria balearica, montana. Hepatica. Hutchinsia alpitia. Antirrhinutn majus (Snap- Cardamine trifoliata. dragon). Cardamine pratensis Jl. pi. Sempervivum, in variety. lonopsidium acaule (seed). Smilacina bifolia. Linaria alpina (seed). Accena microphylla^ pulchella. CHAPTER V NATIVE PLANTS IN THE ROCK- WALL When a wall-garden has been established for some years one may expect all kinds of delightful surprises, for wind-blown seeds will settle in the joints and there will spring up thriving tufts of many a garden plant, perhaps of the most unlikely kind. Foxgloves, plants that in one's mind are associated with cool, woody hollows, may suddenly appear in a sunny wall, so may also the great garden Mulleins. When this happens, and the roots travel back and find the coolness of the stone, the plants show astonishing vigour. I had some Mulleins ( Verbascum phlomoides) that appeared self- sown in a south-west wall ; they towered up to a height of over nine feet, and were finer than any others in the garden ; while everything that is planted or that sows itself in the wall seems to acquire quite exceptional vigour. It sometimes happens also that some common native plant comes up in the wall so strongly and flowers so charmingly that one lets it be and is thankful. The illustration shows a case of this where the wild Stitch- wort {Stellaria Holosted) appeared in the wall and was welcomed as a beautiful and desirable plant. Close to this tuft, which has now for five years been one of the 36 STITCH WORT IN A ROCK-WALL. WELSH POPPY AND HART'S- TONGUE FERN AT FOOT. CORY DA us LUTE A. NATIVE PLANTS IN ROCK-WALL 37 best things in the place at its own flowering-time, is a colony, also spontaneous, of the Shining Cranesbill {Geranium lucidum), whose glistening, roundish, five- lobed leaves turn almost scarlet towards the end of summer. These are both common hedge-weeds, but so dainty is their structure and kind of beauty that we often pass them by among the coarser herbage of the country lanes and hedges, and only find that they are worthy garden plants when we have them more quietly to ourselves in the rock-wall. There are other wild plants that are also worthy of wall space. The Wall Pennywort {Cotyledon Umbilicus), so common in the south-west of England, is a precious plant, and is especially happy in combination with hardy Ferns. Linaria Cymbalaria is a gem in a rough wall, and, though a doubtful native, is so generally found as a wild wall-plant that it takes its place in books of British botany. The yellow Toadflax {Linaria vulgaris) is also a grand wall-plant, and so is the yellow Corydalis {C. lutea), though the paler flowered and more daintily leaved C. capnoides, also known as C. ochroleuca, is a better plant ; just a good shade more delicate and more beautiful throughout. In considering the best of the native plants for wall- gardening, the Welsh Poppy {Meconopsis cambrica) must not be forgotten ; its place is at the foot of a wall, and in its lower courses among Ferns. Nearly all the British Ferns can be grown in walls, many of them acquiring great luxuriance. As nearly all are plants that love shade and coolness and some degree of moisture, they should be in walls 38 WALL AND WATER GARDENS that face east or north ; the larger kinds in the lower joints and quite at the foot, and many of the smaller ones in the upper joints. The Common Polypody runs freely along the joints, and the shelter preserves the fronds from winter injury, so that often, when severe weather kills the wild ones in the lanes and hedges, those that have the pro- tection of the wall will carry their fronds, as will also the Harts-tongue, green and perfect through- out the winter. It would be well worth having a bit of cool wall for British plants and Ferns alone ; its beauty would scarcely be less than that of a wall planted with exotics. There are two small English Ferns that do not object to a dry and sunny place, namely, Aspleniinn Ruta-muraria and Aspleniuin Trichomanes. They seem to be fond of the lime in the joints of old mortar-jointed walls, and able to endure almost any amount of sunshine. Of the other English plants that like warm wall-treatment three come at once to mind ; all of them plants so good that for hundreds of years they have been cultivated in gardens. These are Thrift, Wallflower, and Red Valerian. In a sunny wall all these will be at home. Wallflowers never look so well as in a wall, where air and light is all around them and where they grow sturdy and stocky, and full of vigour. Compare a close-growing, bushy Wallflower in a wall, with its short-jointed, almost woody stem, stout and unmoved in a gale of wind, with one RED VALERIAN [CENTRANTHUS) IN AN OLD CASTLE WALL. NATIVE PLANTS IN ROCK-WALL 39 planted out in a bed. The garden-nurtured plant will be a foot and a half or two feet high, and its large heavy head will be beaten about and twisted by the wind till it has worked a funnel-shaped hole in the ground, and is perhaps laid flat. Thrift, that lovely little plant of rocky seashore and wind- blown mountain top, is indispensable in all rock and wall gardening, neat and well clothed all through the year, and in summer thickly set with its flower-heads of low-toned pink. It loves in nature to grow along rocky cracks, sending its long neck and root far down among the stones. There is a garden form with bright green leaves and darker coloured flowers, but, though it is un- doubtedly a more showy plant it is scarcely an improvement on the type ; much of the charm is lost. The Red Valerian {Centranthus ruber) is a chalk- loving plant ; it will grow in ordinary soil, but is thankful for lime in some form. In this, the garden form of deeper colour is a better plant than the type ; the colour in this case being deepened to a good crimson. Another British plant of the chalk that will also be handsome in the rock-wall is the fine blue- flowered Gromwell {Lithospermum purpuro-cceruleuni) ; it throws out long runners like a Periwinkle that root at the tips. They seem to feel about over the surface of the wall till they come to a joint where they can root. Two of the British wild Pinks, namely, Dianthus cmius and D. deltoides, are among the best of plants 40 WALL AND WATER GARDENS for a sunny wall ; and another, not exactly showy but neat and shrub-like and of considerable interest, well worthy of a warm place, is the Wood Sage {Teucrium Scorodonid). Another charming wild plant for sunny joints and places on a level with the eye, or for such wall-tops as would be only as high as eye level, is the Sheep's Scabious {Jasione montana) ; neat and pretty, and worthy of cultivation on wall or dry rock-garden, where the little plants, each with its large flower- head, can be grouped rather more closely than in the heathy wastes where they are generally in a thin sprinkle among short grass. Another plant for wall- top, growing willingly in any soil though preferring lime, is the yellow Rock Rose {Helianthemum vulgare), common on sunny banks in chalk districts, and one of the few species (the others rare or local) that are the representatives of the large Cistus tribe of Southern Europe. One more chalk-loving plant should also be in the sunny wall. Reseda luteUy the Wild Mignonette ; tall, graceful, and sweet scented. It is best sown in the wall if seed can be obtained. There are still some native plants for the warm wall of the succulent class. The Houseleek, so frequent on the roof of the cottage outhouse ; the tall and stout Sedum Telephiuvi^ the Live- Long of old English naming (for a spray of it in a room without water will live a month almost unchanged) ; and the smaller Stonecrops, ^. anglicum, S. album, and 6". acre. There are still to be named for a wild wall in a cool shady place some of our small wood plants ; indeed, ^6 ' NATIVE PLANTS IN ROCK-WALL 41 they seem never happier than when they become estabHshed in the wall joints and chinks. Snch a one is the Wood Sorrel, one of the daintiest of spring flowers, whether in wall, garden or wild. Primroses also take kindly to the lower joints on the shady side, and the cool wall-foot is the place of all others for one of the native Irises, /. fcetidissimaj whose dark green sword -like leaves are good to see throughout the winter, while in October the seed-pods are opening and showing the handsome orange-scarlet fruit. Then the Purple Columbine is a grand cool wall- plant ; the delicate yellow-flowered Wood Pimpernel {Lysimachia nemorum) will trail happily in some lower joints ; the larger Moneywort is one of the best of wall draperies ; and even two moisture-loving small things, the Moschatel {Adoxa) and the Golden Saxi- frage {Chrysosplenimti) will be satisfied with the cool- ness of the lowest joints and the comfort of the mossy wall-foot. CHAPTER VI TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS A GRAND old wall is a precious thing in a garden, and many are the ways of treating it. If it is an ancient wall of great thickness, built at a time when neither work was shirked nor material stinted, even if many of the joints are empty, the old stone or brick stands firmly bonded, and, already two or three hundred years of age, seems likely to endure well into the future centuries. In such a wall wild plants will already have made themselves at home, and we may only have to put a little earth and a small plant into some cavity, or earth and seed into a narrow open joint, to be sure of a good reward. Often grasses and weeds, rooting in the hollow places, can be raked out and their spaces refilled with better things. When wild things grow in walls they always dispose them- selves in good groups ; such groups as without their guidance it would have been difficult to devise inten- tionally. So if one had to replant the old moat wall how pleasant a task it would be to rake out the grasses and wild Lettuce and other undesirables, saving the pretty little pale lemon Hawkweed and the Ivy-leaved Toad- flax and the growth of flags by the culvert, and re- TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 43 placing the weeds with just a few of the plants that might occur in such a place ; among others Wallflower and Red Valerian and the native Stonecrops. In such a wall, which is outside the garden, and seems rather to belong to the park, it would be suitable to use these good native plants rather than exotics, such as would find a more fitting home within garden ground. A half-double rambling Rose planted inside, and a wild Clematis, both ramping and bounding over, and hanging half-way down to the water, would also make a pleasant break in the long line of the balustrade. In the further portion of the same moat, in the picture showing the roof and window of the tea-house and the Lombardy Poplars, the lower wall is the con- tinuation of the same, but here it is more within garden ground. The upper wall is the retaining wall of the raised bowling-green, and, but that in this case the wall is mostly used for fruit trees, would be a per- fect place for many a little sun-loving rock-plant of Southern Europe ; for here is that cool backing of the mass of earth and that exposure to fullest sunshine that afford the surest prospect of success with such plants. It is to be hoped that this tempting double terrace, which seems only to invite the careful minis- trations of the sympathetic gardener, may some day be worthily taken in hand. The double terrace always offers special opportuni- ties for good gardening, for whereas the single line of abrupt change of level, unless treated with some bold- ness, may in certain aspects have a thin and meagre appearance ; where it is doubled, there is an oppor- 44 WALL AND WATER GARDENS tunity of treating the two terraces in a much larger way horticulturally, while equally preserving their architectural value. This richness of effect is plainly seen in the fine example illustrated, though it is open to question whether it would not have been better still had the upper wall been carried solid to the height of the coping of the balustrade, or even higher, and the upper ground levelled up to it. But there are fine things in this piece of gardening. It shows plainly the salutary effect of rambUng growths partly veiling the balustrade, and even of tall things of the Cypress class doing the same work, though this came possibly as a happy accident ; such another accident as those that are of so high a value in the tree and shrub overgrowths of the old gardens of Italy. The defect of arrangement in this picture is a certain monotonous repetition of Gyneriums alter- nating with Yuccas in the lower border. Here would have been a grand place for grouping the Yuccas as described in the chapter on the Rock-wall in Sun. One can hardly imagine a more perfect site for a garden than a place where such an arrangement as this would be reversed on the further side of the lawn, so that there would be a range of double terrace on the shady side as well as on the sunny. Where new gardens are being made, such a disposition of the ground is well worth considering, for in many sites where ground comes awkwardly with regard to a house — sometimes sloping away diagonally — such a garden could be laid out. :^-iimti-"T-fi^ii-"ftrrrVffff1 uLD L,AklJt:.\ HALL ENCLOSING A SHRUB GARDEN OR WILDERNESS. TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 45 Many a good old garden, not of the earlier times but dating from the latter half of the eighteenth century, has a large space of pleasure ground within walls. When these were planted, wire-netting, that temptingly cheap and useful abomination, had not been invented, iron was a costly commodity, and if the pleasant home grounds were to be given a more permanent fence against deer and cattle than a wooden one, it must needs be a wall. Here is such a wall, broken only by the tall piers of masonry and well-wrought iron gates that lead from the seclusion of the shady garden to the outer world. Where there are fairly long stretches of such walls the artist gardener has good scope for arranging large effects ; for doing something thoroughly well and just sufficiently, and then passing on to some other desirable possibility ; for making pictures for all the seasons in just such well-considered progression, and just such degree of change or variety as will be most pleasant and delightful to see. Good walls often have their opportunities wasted. There is generally the usual planting of one each of one thing after another, a wearisome monotony of variety — a sort of exhibition of samples. Where there is little wall-space this may be a kind of necessity, but in these old gardens where the bounding walls run on for many hundred yards, there is no need for any such planting. Thus one may plant in imagination a long stretch of such wall, beginning at one of the gateways. If the piers are well designed, the first consideration 46 WALL AND WATER GARDENS will be not to let them be smothered by the climbing plants. One of the many beautiful Ivies, not the common Irish nor any other of the larger leaved ones, but such a lovely thing as the dainty Caenwood variety, is just the thing for the piers, and even this must be watched and perhaps thinned and suitably restrained every year or two. Next to it and partly growing among it, and climbing up one pier, a Clematis Flatmnula will do well ; its delicate clouds of bloom lovely in September. Then would come some darker bushes, Choisyay Bay, or Laurustinus, and next beyond them something totally different ; some pale pink Tree Paeonies grouped with Laven- der, and on the wall with this group, which would be a longish one, the beautiful May-flowering Clema- tis Montana, not stiffly trained, but only fastened to the wall here and there, when its blooming masses will cling together and hang in grand garlands wide- swung from point to point ; some hanging low so that they are in close association with the Pceonies, when one of the year's best flower-pictures will be to be seen. Then we will have some garden Roses. The white Rose {R. alba), single and double, and Maiden's Blush — they are not climbing Roses, but such as will rise to this wall's height ; at their foot will be more Lavender, and among it bushes of Cabbage Rose and of Damask and the striped Cottage Maid, perhaps more commonly known as York and Lan- caster, a name which, however, belongs of right to a different Rose of rather the same class. Then we TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 47 would have a good stretch of white Jasmine, sweetest of late summer flowers. Following this there should be a good length of Guelder Rose, delightful as wall clothing in addition to its usual business as a flowering bush in the open, and at its foot and flowering at the same season will be great clumps of the old crimson Paeony. As for Roses, their uses are endless, but for such a wall as this the best will be the free-growing Ayr- shires. If any hybrid perpetuals are to have a place they had better be some of the older ones, not now admitted at shows, but such as are often found in old gardens growing on their own roots, and sometimes of great age. They are of the highest value in the garden as the picture well shows. Such a Rose, though not the one shown, whose name is lost, is Anna Alexieff ; this would be trained free at full length upon the wall — it is not a climber but a free grower — and a group of the same at the foot would be pruned into loose bush form and grouped with the ever-charming Madame Plantier. This combination of pink and white good garden Roses is delightful. One or two Rosemary bushes would be among these, and then a thicker group of Rosemary, some of it trained to the wall. And so on for a good way, with Rosemary and any of the garden Roses that we may love best, and on the wall old favourites like Blairii No. 2, Climbing Captain Christy, and Climbing Aimee Vibert. Two hundred yards of wall would soon be covered with even this limited choice of kinds, and then it 48 WALL AND WATER GARDENS would be time to change the character of the plant- ing, though perhaps still within the Rose family, so that next we might have that pretty thornless Tree Bramble Rubus deliciosus, and below it some of the other unarmed Brambles, the rosy R. odoratus and the white R. nutkanus. Then there might come a stretch of wall for winter bloom ; the yellow Winter Jasmine (/. nudifloruni) and Winter Sweet {Chimon- anthus fragrans) and Garrya elliptica ; the evergreen branches of the Garrya partly protecting the naked bloom of the Chimonanthus. These are only a few of the combinations that might be made ; while long lengths of wall may well be given to Vines, with Lilies and Irises at their foot, and with here and there a thin climber such as one of the large-flowered Clematises, or Rhodo- chiton volubile, to run among their branches. For gate-piers of wrought stone that are in still more dressed ground nothing is more suitable than that splendid climber, the best form of Bignonia radicans, but it is too tender for the cold midlands. When a garden prospect embraces the view of an ancient building it seems to reduce the range of choice to within much narrower limits. In the garden shown in the picture this has evidently been felt, in that here is a good planting of the June-flowering Paeonies and nothing much else. Had it suited the other needs of the garden as well, it might have been even better to have planted large masses of sober greenery, as of Yew and Box, with no other flowers than some bold clumps of white Lilies and a few bushes of white Roses, and RUBUS DELICIOSUS. TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 49 perhaps some Rosemary and China Rose or some other old garden Rose of tender pink colouring. But the bold forms of the flower and the important leafage of the Paeonies are good here also ; the only thing that is unworthy of the scheme being the small row of Pansies next the grass. It would have been better to let the Paeonies bush over the edge of the grass ; the row of small flowers is a petty intrusive incident in a scene where nothing should sound any note that jars upon the harmony of noble ancient building and simple dignity of garden practice. The gardener may represent that, when masses of foliage of large herbaceous plant or shrub hang over the grass, it is difficult to mow to the edge — and to a certain degree he is right. It is undoubtedly easier to run the machine along a clearly defined and unobstructed edge. But if the gardener is the good fellow that he generally is he will at once understand that this is just one of the points that makes the differ- ence between the best and most careful and thought- ful gardening, and gardening that is ease-loving and commonplace. In the case of such edges, instead of a man and a boy with a mowing-machine the man has a scythe and the boy has a bean-pole. Boy and man face each other a few paces apart, the boy moves back- ward, lifting the foHage with his pole, while the man advances mowing under the held-up leaves. There is nothing in it that the plainest labourer cannot under- stand, while the added refinement that is secured is a distinct gain to the garden. It is only where the D so WALL AND WATER GARDENS labour allowed is already insufficient that the gar- dener's plea should be allowed. Nothing is more frequently to be seen, even in quite good and well-manned gardens, than this tyranny of the turf-edge. The same thing appears in the picture of the bowling-green of a fine old Surrey house ; the straight edge, which is right against the path, cutting much too harshly against the front of the flower border. The illustration of another flower border in the same good garden as the one with the Paeonies, where all things seem to be so well done that there is little that can be criticised, shows the better way of letting the plants lap over the broad grass verge. Here is a wall about twelve feet high, with a noble flower border at its foot. Already it has an old growth of Ivy, while the young Magnolia .towards the front, when it has had a few more years of growth, will repeat the mass of deep green foliage. Then its own great leaves will just suggest that larger scale of permanent foliage that will better suit the height of the wall. Wisely has the border been planted with just the very best things ; with Delphinium and white Lilies in generous masses, and bold groups of Flag-leaved Irises and bountiful clumps of Pinks. When the Roses on the wall have come to their strength and the Pillar Roses have covered their poles, this flower border will be a fine example of good hardy gardening. ::d o o oq ►<. (^ Q:; ^ ^ o q O i-H -•:5 -J o ^ "^ ^ o '^ ^ ^ fe; 'O o ^ •--« H o cq CHAPTER VII TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS {continued) To any one who has both practised and studied garden- ing for a number of years, and has at last acquired a glimmering of illumination as to what is best to be done in the many circumstances presented by various sites, it is immensely instructive to see gardens or even to see pictures of them. Perhaps the pictures are even the best, if there are enough of one place to give an idea of all its portions, or if there are several illus- trations of some important feature. In the black and white presentment of a scene, that can be held in the hand and examined quietly and at leisure, without the distractions of brilliant sunshine or colour, or wind or rain, or the company of one's fellow-creatures (how- ever charming and sympathetic they may be), the merits of the scene can be very fairly judged. It may therefore be useful to make a few remarks on a de- finite piece of gardening ; an important wall-garden in a fine place in Somersetshire. The four pictures give an accurate idea of the steeply terraced garden. The first shows both terraces, with a glimpse of the walk on the third or lowest level, and the still steeply sloping grass below. The next two pictures show the middle level, looking both ways from nearly midway in its length. 51 52 WALL AND WATER GARDENS The upper terrace shows not unskilful manage- ment of a rather abrupt transition from the wooded slope to pure formality by a nearly symmetrical line of evergreens. Next comes a grand retaining wall, buttressed at short intervals and planted with good wall-shrubs. The wall rises enough to form a parapet to the upper terrace. The point where each buttress rises and gives occasion to widen the coping above, is accentuated by an American Aloe in a pot. The pots are of plain flower-pot shape and look a little too plain for this use, although the character of the walling does not demand vases highly enriched. The weakest point in the middle terrace is the poverty of scheme in the succession of small square beds that break forward in each bay between the piers, and that seem to be planted without any general design or distinct intention, but with stiff little edg- ings showing an outer margin of bare earth. This would be much improved by putting all the beds together as to the space nearest the wall ; and next the grass, by leaving the length of the front edge of two beds and the interval between them, and in the space represented by the front of the third, swing- ing the front line back in an arc (not a whole semi- circle but something shallower), in the centre of which the pot plants would stand ; then continuing the treatment with the next pair of beds, followed by the segmental swing-back, and so on throughout. Moreover, the front line of the beds comes too far forward into the grass by about one-fourth of its projection, taken from the line of the front of the A TERRACED GARDEN ON A STEEP SOUTHERN SLOPE. {No. i.) h O O --^ u Q LOWER TERRACE. {No. 4.] TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 53 buttresses. The proportion would be much better with a greater width of grass and a lesser width of flowers. The little fountain basin would then make a re- versed figure in one of the arcs, and the planting on each side of it would be symmetrical and rather important. Such a rearrangement of the beds would much improve this terrace ; and would give the wall added dignity and offer more scope for the growing of handsome groups of plants. The Yew hedge which forms the parapet of this terrace and stands just at the top of the lowest wall is a capital example of its kind, though the garden would have given a better impression of cohesion if the wall had been treated in the same way as the one above. But the planting at its base seems in these more horticulturally enlightened days to be quite indefensible. The foot of one of the noblest ranges of terrace walls in England is too good to be given over to the most commonplace forms of bed- ding, whereas it presents the best and most becom- ing site for some of the noblest of plants ; for Mag- nolia and Bignonia, Yucca, Carpenteria, Choisya, and Rotnneya. Here it would be better to have a much narrower border against the wall, about half the width of the present one, and to take some advantage of the open joints in the upper courses for the planting of some of the lovely things named in the chapter on the Sunny Rock -wall. Perhaps I should offer some apology to the owners of this fine garden for my presumption in making 54 WALL AND WATER GARDENS it an object-lesson ; but the many evidences of good gardening it displays seem an encouragement to the making of friendly criticism. It is already so good that it is tempting to contemplate how such a com- bination of pleasant conditions could be made even better or be differently treated. Where there is beautiful architectural proportion and enriched detail, as in the example of the portion of a fine old Tudor house shovi^n in the illustration, it is obvious that it would be most unwise to let it be over-run with coarse or common creepers. In this case there is evidence of watchful restraint ; the climbing plants are just enough to clothe sufficiently, while none of the beauty of the building is unduly smothered. The whole question of the relation of vegetation to architecture is a very large one, and to know what to place where, and when to stop, and when to abstain altogether, requires much knowledge on both sides. The horticulturist generally errs in putting his plants and shrubs and climbers everywhere, and in not even discriminating between the relative fitness of any two plants whose respective right use may be quite differ- ent and perhaps even arltagonistic. The architect, on the other hand, is often wanting in sympathy with beautiful vegetation. The truth appears to be that for the best building and planting, where both these crafts must meet and overlap and work together, the architect and the gardener must have some knowledge of each other's business, and each must regard with ^ RESTRAINED USE OF CREEPERS ON AN OLD HOUSE THAT HAS BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. to O o to TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 55 feelings of kindly reverence the unknown domains of the other's higher knowledge. By the gardener is not meant the resident servant, but the person, whoever it mfty be, who works with or directly after the architect in planning the planting. The terraces just described have so little of special architectural design that they may be considered as belonging entirely to the garden, so that there is no reason why they may not be treated with absolute freedom. One of the careful gardener's duties is to watch, not the growth only, but the overgrowth of plants, trees, and shrubs. In many a garden some over- growth of shrub or tree may be of the highest pictorial value. Sometimes wild plants will come in stonework and come just right, or seeds of garden plants will find lodgment in a crack or joint of masonry, and provide some new or attractive feature that had never been thought of. Often Ferns and small wild things will grow in the joints of walls and steps on any cool exposure. It is well worth while to notice the willingness of plants to grow in such places, and to encourage or restrain as may be need- ful. In the wide stone steps of the Gloucestershire house with the pedimented doorway are some seed- ling plants of several ages of the handsome white Chimney Campanula {C. pyramidalis) ; it also grows spontaneously in the wall of a shallow area to the basement of the same building. In these steps the growth of this and other plants has been encouraged. They are perhaps rather more scattered all over the 56 WALL AND WATER GARDENS steps than is desirable. The sentiment conveyed by a shallow flight is one of welcome and easy access, and it is best that no plants should be allowed to invade the middle space, or at any rate none so large that they rise to the height of a single step. But the presence of such plants gives a keen delight to the flower lover, even though his sympathies with archi- tecture may tell him that for plants to be in such a place is technically wrong. This picture calls to mind the story of how the common Harebell {Cam- panula rotundifolid) is said to have come by the specific name that seems so little descriptive of the very narrow leaves of the flower-stalks, though the less noticeable root leaves are roundish. It is said that Linnaeus observed it as a little round-leaved plant, growing in the joints of the steps of the University of Upsala, and named it from its rounded foliage of winter and spring. The Ivy-leaved Toadflax is a charming plant in the joints of steps, and so are some of the smaller Cam- panulas, such as ccespitosa and pusilla, and even some rather larger kinds, as turbinata and carpatica. In the other example of weed and grass-grown steps, the overgrowth needs restraining and regulat- ing. The lowest of the six steps badly wants the shears, and the invasion of the small-leaved Ivy, which would be desirable if not quite so thick, is also com- plicated and made to look untidy by many tufts of grass that would be much better away. The Scotch walled garden, with its fine row of o 'O Q o o o ^ '^ o I-, o 5 hi ^-* o o t] ::i. ^ Q ^ ^ hn -^ [^ o fc; o TERRACE AND GARDEN WALLS 57 Pansies, shows the value of good groups of trees in connection with walls. There is many a dismal wall, or court with paving right up to the wall, where the clever placing of some suitable plant in a chink of broken-cornered flag- stone, or empty joint close to the wall-foot, may redeem the dulness and want of interest of such a region of unbroken masonry. The plants most suit- able for such a place are Male Fern and Harts-tongue, Welsh Poppy, and Iris fcetidissima ; all but the Poppy having also the advantage of winter beauty. Just lately in my own home I have had an example of the willingness of a pretty plant to grow in the little space offered by the meeting of two paving-stones, one of which had lost an angle. Here a seed of Mimulus cupreus grew self-sown, and the neat little plant, with its rich, deep orange bloom flowering all the summer, is a joy to see. This would also be a plant for the stone-paved sunless court with others of its family, . including the common Musk. The picture of a fine stone bridge in the north of England shows how much a good and simple structure gains by the invasion of Ivy and wild things of even more bushy growth. Here is a beneficent piece of human work in a naturally beautiful landscape of wood and water. Stream and forest accept the man- wrought bridge and offer it welcome and brother- hood by adorning it with the friendly growths, whose masses are so admirably disposed, that the scene 58 WALL AND WATER GARDENS becomes a picture that is very much the better for the presence of the bridge, while the bridge itself is much the more beautiful for the neighbourly invasion. The same influence of vegetation in softening the aspect of rugged architecture may be seen wherever there are old buildings ; its presence investing the ancient structure with a whole new range of qualities that excite the keenest interest in cultivated minds. For who can see the splendid work of human design and skill as shown in this grand rough-hewn masonry, absolutely adapted to its own work, and yet, from its complete sympathy with surrounding nature, seeming to grow spontaneously out of the rocky gorge ; who can see this, made all the more perfect by the lovely work of God in the dainty Fern fronds of the Maidenhair, without a thrill of humble admiration and thankfulness ? ARCHES: PESCINA ANAGNI, ITALY %>M^ — CHAPTER VIII SOME PROBLEMS IN WALL-GARDENING The illustration shows one of the many pleasant ways in which a little careful study of ground pro- blems and ingenious adaptation of material can be worked out and made into a simple thing of beauty and delight. A half-sunk garden passage leads on a gentle uphill slope from house to stables. The walls are of blocks of stone with wide joints, all laid a little sloping back, so that the whole face of the two walls lies back. The wall was planted, both as it was built, and also after- wards, with quantities of spring-flowering plants; Arabis, Aubrietia, Violets, Pinks, Cerastium, and others of early bloom. The crowning pergola, on which grow Vines only (late-leafing in England), does not over-shade the early flowers when they are in bloom, while later it rather gives them comfort by sheltering them from the summer sun-heat. The path is paved with flags so that it neither wants weed- ing nor repair from being washed out, while the very easiest sweeping keeps it clean. Many are the unsightly and featureless places that by some such treatment might be made beautiful, and more quickly than in any other way of gardening ; 59 6o WALL AND WATER GARDENS for the wall-plants having their roots always cool seem to grow away quickly at once, and yet to be longer- lived than their own brother plants in the more level garden. Indeed, wall-gardening is not only extremely in- teresting and soon rewarding, but it seems to quicken the inventive faculty ; for if one has once tasted its pleasures and mastered some of the simpler ways of adapting it for use, others are sure to present them- selves, and a whole new region of discursive delights offers itself for the mental exploration of the horti- culturally inventive. One after another, pleasant schemes come to mind, soon to be fashioned, with careful design and such manual skill as may have been acquired, into such simple things of beauty and delight as this first flower-walled and then Vine- shaded pleasant pathway. Besides the wall-gardening that may be designed and reared, there is also that which is waiting to be done in walls that are already in being. Sometimes there is an old wall from whose joints the surface mortar has crumbled and fallen. Such a wall as is shown in the illustration is indeed a treasure, for its rugged surface can soon be jewelled with the choicest of mural vegetation. But so good a chance is not for every garden, for often the wall that one would wish to make the home of many a lovely plant is of the plainest brick or stone, and the mortar joints are fairly sound. Still the ardent wall-gardener is not to be daunted, for, armed with a hammer and a bricklayer's cold chisel, he knocks out PROBLEMS IN WALL-GARDENING 6i joints and corners of bricks (when a builder is not looking on) exactly where he wishes to have his ranges of plants. A well-built wall, seasoned and solidified by some years' standing, will bear a good deal of such knocking about. In chiselling out the holes the only thing that had better be avoided is making much of a cavity just under an upright joint ; nor is it ever needful, for even if one wishes to have a longish range of any one plant, as shown in the diagram in the case of the growth horizontally hatched, the plants will close up, though planted in the first place a little way apart, while there is nothing against widening any upright joint or making it gape funnelwise either upward or down. The diagram gives a general indication of the way in which it is advised that plants should be disposed. It shows four kinds in a section of wall of from six to seven feet long. Three of the kinds are hatched across in different ways to distinguish them. Even this sort of arrangement would be monotonous unless it were varied by some wall spaces left almost blank, and then perhaps with one such range alone. The four kinds are almost too many at a time, and were only crowded in to illustrate the same kind of arrangement with slight variations. The way of growth must, of course, be taken into account, for it would be a grievous oversight to plant a range of Rock Pinks or Arabis or Alyssum, that in a year or two will hang down two feet, and to plant in the next course below them some other smaller things that would soon be smothered. So the upright growth of Wallflower, Snapdragon, and 62 WALL AND WATER GARDENS Valerian must be considered and allowed for as well as the down-drooping of those that make hanging sheets. So also the neat stay-at-home habit of Thrift will be taken into account, and the way of running along a joint of Polypody and Campanula ccespitosa. From March to May, or just after they ripen in the autumn, seeds are put in mixed with a little loamy earth, and if the cleft or opening is an upright one, unwilling to retain the mixture, a little stone is wedged in at the bottom or even cemented in. For a plant of rather large growth, like V2XQXYds\{Centranthus),2i whole coping brick can be knocked off the top, and probably quite a nice rooting-place be made with the downward- digging chisel, to be filled up with suitable soil. By some such means, and always thinking and trying and combining ideas, the plainest wall can in a couple of years be so pleasantly transformed that it is turned into a thing of flowery beauty. There is no wall with exposure so hot or so cold that has not a plant waiting for just the conditions that it has to offer, and there will be no well-directed attempt to convert mural ugliness into beauty whose result will not be an encouragement to go on and do still better. Ah' A BIS. TYPE OF A HANGING WALL PLANT FOR USES DESCRIBED IN LAST CHAPTER. CHAPTER IX WHEN TO LET WELL ALONE In garden arrangement, as in all other kinds of deco- rative work, one has not only to acquire a knowledge of what to do, but also to gain some wisdom in perceiving what it is well to let alone. The want of such knowledge or discrimination, or whatever it may be called, is never more frequently or more conspicuously shown than in the treatment of grassy spaces in pleasure grounds, that are planted at the discretion of some one who has not the gift of know- ing what kind of placing, of what trees or shrubs, is the most advisable. Such a one naturally says, " Here is a space of turf otherwise unoccupied, let us put there a specimen tree." It may be a place in which the careful and highly cultured garden critic may say, "Here is a space of turf, let us be thankful for it, and above all things guard it from any intrusion." I call to mind two good places where there is a dignified house, and groups of grand trees, and stretches of what should be unbroken level sward. In older days it was so ; the spreading branches of the great Cedars and Beeches came down to the lawn, and on summer evenings the shadow of a noble grove of ancient trees swept 63 64 WALL AND WATER GARDENS clear across the grassy level. The whole picture was perfect in its unity and peace, in its harmony of line and fine masses of form — full of dignity, repose, and abounding satisfaction. Now the noble lawn-levels have been broken by a dotting about of specimen Conifers. One Abies nord- mannia, one Thuya, one Wellingtonia, one Araucaria, one Taxodium, and so on, and so on. What once was a sanctuary of ordered peace is now a wearisome and irritating exposition of monotonous common- place. The spiritual and poetical influences of the garden are gone. The great Cedars are still there, but from no moderately distant point can they now be seen because of the impertinent interposition of intruding "specimens." Like many another thing done in gardens, how much better it would have been not to have done it ; to have left the place unspoilt and untormented by these disastrous interlopers. If only it had just been let alone ! The illustration shows a noble house in South Middle England. The picture is complete. The great building is reflected in the still water, and the natural water margin, without any artificial planting, is wisely left alone. It is all so solemn, so dignified, that any added fussiness of small detail, however beautiful in itself, would be a kind of desecration. There are plenty of other opportunities for garden- ing about this fine place, already wisely treated, and though it is tempting to plant any edge of pool or '-0 WHEN TO LET WELL ALONE 6^ river, happily it has those for its owners who, with wise discrimination, see that it is better let alone. So again in the case of a wild forest pool, such as the one shown in the picture. Here is a glimpse of quiet natural beauty ; pure nature untouched. Being in itself beautiful, and speaking direct to our minds of the poetry of the woodland, it would be an ill deed to mar its perfection by any meddlesome gardening. The most one could do in such a place, where deer may come down to drink and the dragon-fly flashes in the broken midsummer light, would be to plant in the upper ground some native wild flower that would be in harmony with the place but that may happen to be absent, such as Wood Sorrel or Wood Anemone ; but nothing that would recall the garden. Here is pure forest, and garden should not intrude. Above all, the water-margin should be left as it is. Foreign Irises, so good to plant by many garden pools, would here be absurd and only painfully ob- trusive, and as the place is already right it is far best left alone. There are many places that call aloud for judicious planting. This is one where all meddling is forbidden. CHAPTER X THE STREAM-GARDEN AND MARSH POOLS Where there is a stream passing through the out- skirts of a garden, there will be a happy prospect of delightful ways of arranging and enjoying the beautiful plants that love wet places. Even where there are no natural advantages of pictorial environ- ment, given a little sinking of the level and the least trickle of water, with a simple and clever arrange- ment of bold groups of suitable plants, a pretty stream-picture may be made, as is seen by the illus- tration of the water-garden in a good nursery near London. But where there is a rather wider and more copious stream, rippling merrily over its shallow bed, there are even wider possibilities. The banks of running water where the lovely Water Forget-me-not grows are often swampy, and the path that is to be carried near one of them may probably want some such treat- ment as is recommended in the early part of the chapter on Water Margins. When a water-garden is being prepared by the side of any such stream, the course of the path may well be varied by running first close against the water and then going a yard or two 66 THE STREAM-GARDEN 67 inland ; then it might cross on stepping-stones and again run inland and perhaps pass behind a little knoll and then again come back to the stream. Then the stream might divide, and the path be carried between two rills, and so on in a progression of varied incident that would be infinitely more interesting than if the path kept to one bank nearly always at the same distance from the water after the manner of a towing- path. I am supposing my stream to run along the bottom of a little valley. Close to it the ground is open, except for a few tufts of low wild bushes. As the ground rises it is wooded, first with sparse copse-wood and groups of Birches and Hollies ; and after this a rather thick wood of Scotch F'ir. Having pleasantly diversified the path in relation to the stream, we have to think how best it may be planted. Some of the plants suited to the running stream edge will be the same as for the margins of stiller ponds, but some that have a liking for running water will be proper to the stream itself. Such a one is the Water Forget-me-not. If it does not occur in the neighbourhood it is easy to raise quite a large stock from seed ; and strong seedlings or divisions of older plants have only to be planted in the muddy soil at the water edge when they will soon grow into healthy spreading sheets and give plenty of the dainty bloom whose blue is the loveliest of any English plant. Next to the Forget-me-not on the water edge, and also a little more inland, I should plant the double Meadow- 68 WALL AND WATER GARDENS Sweet, the double garden form of the wild Spircea Ulmaria, and again beyond it, quite out of sight of the Forget-me-not, others of the herbaceous Spiraeas, ^. pahnata, S. venusta, and 5". Aruncus — all moisture- loving plants. Drifts of these might spread away inland, the largest of them, which would be of Spircea Aruncus, being placed the furthest from the stream ; they are plants of bold aspect, showing well at a little distance. I should be careful not to crowd too many different plants into my stream-picture. Where the Forget- me-nots are it would be quite enough to see them and the double Meadow- Sweet, and some good hardy moisture-loving Fern, Osmunda or Lady Fern. The way to enjoy these beautiful things is to see one picture at a time ; not to confuse the mind with a crowded jumble of too many interesting individuals, such as isj usually to be seen in a water- garden. Close by the stream-side and quite out of view of other flowering plants should be a bold planting of Iris l(Evigata, the handsome Japanese kind, perhaps better known as Iris Kcsmpferi. It is in varied colourings of white, lilac, and several shades and kinds of purple ; but for this stream, where it is desirable to have the simplest effects, the single pure white alone will be best. There are double varieties, but in these the graceful purity of the form is lost and the char- acter of the flower is confused. The best way to grow them in England is in the boggy margin, not in IRIS L/E\-I(^ATA. SYN. I. KAEMFFERl. THE STREAM-GARDEN 69 the stream itself ; for though seeds will fall and ger- minate in shallow water, planted roots do better just out of it, but always with their heads in the full sun- shine. This is one of the many cases where the natural ways of a plant cannot be followed in our gardens, for in Japan they commonly grow with the roots submerged. Some plants of bright green foliage, such as the handsome branched Bur-reed {Sparganium ramosum) will fittingly accompany groups of this noble Water Iris. The yellow Mimulus {M. luteus) is a capital thing for the stream-side ; once planted it will take care of itself ; indeed it has become naturalised by many streams in England. Another interesting and pretty plant that would do well in its company is the only English representative of the Balsams, Inipatiens Noli-me-tangere ; it is an annual, but will sow itself again. It should be noted that in such a stream-garden it will usually be the opposite side that is best seen, and this should be borne in mind while composing the pictures and setting out the path. It is well worth while to consider some pleasant arrangement of colour in the way the varied flower- pictures will present themselves in the course of a walk ; thus, after the blue Forget-me-not with the white Spiraeas might come the pink and rosy colour- ings of Spircea venusta and S. palntata. As the stream leads further away we begin to forget 70 WALL AND WATER GARDENS the garden, and incline towards a wish for the beautiful things of our own wilds, so that here would be, for the earliest water flowers of the year, the smaller of the wild kinds of Water Buttercup {Ranunculus aquatilis). The larger kind, more frequent near London, R. grandiflorus, is figured elsewhere. The smaller one is in better proportion to the size of the little stream. The picture shows how it grows in pretty patches, though the stream is not the one that is being described. Near it, but flowering later, are some strong patches of the native yellow Water Iris (/. Pseud-acorus), some of the same being in a swampy patch a yard or two from the bank on the other side of the path, with some of the handsome smooth-leaved rank growth of the Water Dropwort. A little further the tall yellow Loosestrife {Lysi- machid) will make some handsome patches ; then will come a few yards of rest from bright flowers and a region of Fern-fringed stream bank, where the Lady Fern, one of the most delicately beautiful of water- side plants, should have a good space ; some plants almost touching the water and others a little way up the bank. After this the character of the stream shows a change, for here is a clump of Alders, the advance guard of a greater number that are to be seen beyond. Now it is time to make some important effect with plants of a larger size, that will prepare the eye, as it were, for the larger scale of the water- WHERE THE STREAM PASSES UNDER J HE ilVLLOirS AND ALDERS. THE STREAM-GARDEN 71 loving trees. Here, therefore, we have a widespread planting of these large things. By the stream on one bank a long-shaped mass of the rosy Loosestrife {Lythrum), and detached patches of the same hand- some plant, and grouped near and partly with it the Giant Cow-Parsnip {Heracleum). The one so long in cultivation is a grand plant in such a place, but still better is the newer H. mantegazzianiim. On the other bank is the native Butter-bur {Petasites) with its immense leaves, a striking contrast in leaf-form to its neighbours. Now the stream passes into the swampy region of Willows and Alders, and the path follows it only a little way in ; but already we have been among great clumps of Marsh Marigold, some close down to the stream edge in the open, and some in wet hollows a yard or two away. But in the dark pools of mud and water under the Alders the clumps grow larger and more luscious, and in April they are a sight to see, showing sheets of rich yellow bloom, that look all the brighter rising alone from the black pools under the trees. The path that has hitherto accompanied the stream now turns away from it, and on its return journey skirts the streamward side of some boggy pools and oozy places that lie at the foot of the wood's edge. The wood is mostly of Scotch Fir, with a lesser number of Oaks, Hollies, and Birches in the opener parts. It slopes down to the little valley, ending in a 72 WALL AND WATER GARDENS ragged line of low scarp never more than four feet high, showing dark peaty earth, and below it whitish or yellowish sand more or less stained by the darker soil above. The drainage from the wooded hill seems to gather in the chain of pool and swamp at the foot. The pools lie perhaps two feet above the level of the stream ; here and there a sort of natural shallow ditch carries the water into it from them. The water seems to drain out of the hill very slowly, for nowhere does it run, and only near the stream, which is about fifty yards away, can one sometimes hear a tiny trickle. It is an ideal place for a wild garden of plants that like boggy ground and cool wood-side places. The wood rises to the south-west, so that the marshy region is mostly in shade. Between this boggy belt and the stream is rough grass and a few low thorn bushes and brambles, in ground which is not exactly marshy, but always cool and damp. Some of the Firs that come down to the very edge of the wood stand on the low scarp of blackish sandy- looking ground. Here and there it is broken down into a little gently-sloping bank that sucks up the moisture from below and is sunless from the shading of the wood. These little banks, naturally mossy, are just the place for Linncsa and for Pyrola and Trien- talis, three plants of a nature that is neither large nor showy, but that has that charm that cannot be described, that makes the heart leap, and frames the lips into the utterance of an exclamation of joy and thankfulness, and that holds the mind en- THE STREAM-GARDEN 73 thralled by the subdued and mysterious poetry of beauty that is a character of these lovely little modest growths of the woodland wilds of our own and other lands. Here too, rather more in the open, is the Mountain Avens {Dryas octopetala), and in that moist hollow, almost swampy and always somewhat in shade, is Epig(Ba repens, the May-flower of New England. Then in the damp grass, more towards the stream, there are here and there tufts of the two Marsh Orchids with flowers of greenish purple, and hand- some clear-cut foliage, the Marsh Helleborine and the broad-leaved Helleborine {Epipactis palustris and E. latifolid). In a place like this these beautiful things can be seen and enjoyed at ease, and far better than when they are cramped close together in a smaller space. Here again will be the marsh-loving Ferns, and fore- most among them great groups of the Royal Fern (Osmunda) at the edge of one of the small marshy pools that are deeply fringed and sometimes filled with the pale-green bog-moss Sphagnum. These little still pools, some of them only a yard or two across, are not stagnant, for they are constantly fed by the trickle of the springs, and the moisture— scarcely running water— finds its slow way to the stream. Their fringes are a paradise for Ferns. Be- sides the Royal Fern there are two of the largest and most graceful of British Ferns, Aspleniuni Filix-fcemina and Nephrodium dilatatum (Dilated Shield Fern), and 74 WALL AND WATER GARDENS down at the moistest pool edge are Nephrodium Thelypteris and Lomaria, and a little way up on the cool bank, always in shade, the North American Onoclea sensibilis. In a moist nook already filled with Sphagnum, in this region of Fern beauty, and with the dusky wood beyond, is a considerable planting of the North American Mocassin-flower {Cypripedium spectabile), with its great pouched and winged flowers of rose and white, and its fine pleated leaves of bright fresh green. What a plant ! Its beauty almost takes away one's breath. Any one who had never seen it before, suddenly meeting it in such a place, with no distractions of other flower-forms near, would think it was some brilliant stove Orchid escaped into the wild. It loves to throw its long cord-like roots out into black peaty mud, when they will grow strong and interlace into a kind of vegetable rook's-nest. Every year the tufts will become stronger and send up still nobler spikes of leaf and bloom. Such a sight seems to give the mind a kind of full meal of enjoyment of flower beauty, and it is well that following it there shall be some plant of quite another class. So the next boggy patch has another American plant of a very different form, the curious Sarracenia purpurea ; a weird, half-hooded trumpet of a thing, of a dull-green colour, closely veined with red purple, and near it, in striking contrast to its mysterious aspect, the frank and pure-looking Grass of Parnassus {Parnassia palustris), with its white bloom daintily veined with green and its pretty pearl-like buds. Near GA LA X A PH YLLA . {See next page.) THE STREAM-GARDEN 75 these may also be Pinguicula grandiflora^ the finest of the native Butterworts, that grows in the bogs of the south-west of Ireland, and looks like handsome Violets rising from the pale-green bog-moss. One spot of Sphagnum-haunted bog-land should have some of the native marsh plants that are perfect gems of beauty. The little Bog Pimpernel, whose small pink flowers remind one of those of Linncua, the more so that they are generally borne in pairs, though of different habit, in that they stand up instead of drooping. Then there will be the Ivy-leaved Bell- flower, smallest of its kind, its flowers carried on hair-like stalks, and its little leaves of tenderest tissue, Ivy-like with pointed lobes. Then the small Cornish Moneywort {Sibthorpia europcsd), not hardy in the north, with pretty tender pale-green leaves and flowers scarcely noticeable ; and here may be grown the two little native Bog Orchids, Malaxis and Liparis. All these are such small things that they might easily be overlooked unless one knew that in such a special place they were to be found for a little searching. At a place where the bank between wood and marsh is cool and moist, yet not boggy, will be Gaultheria procumbens, closely carpeting the ground with its neat sheets of green lighted up by its bright red berry, and above it and stretching in under the Firs its larger relative, Gaultheria Shallon. On some cool mossy bank there will be two charming little 76 WALL AND WATER GARDENS plants, one native, one North American — Goodyera repens, with its brightly veined and marbled leaves, creeping close to the ground, where it may have to be looked for among the moss, and Mitchella repens, the Partridge Berry. This little plant also creeps among the moss. It has neat entire leaves veined with white, and bright red berries following whitish flowers. Another plant from North America, a strange, hand- some thing that deserves to be better known, will have a place in this region. Out of bloom it would never be noticed among its neighbouring clumps of Royal Fern, for it looks only like a tuft of grass ; but when it throws up its tall flower-spikes, Xerophyllunt is a plant that commands admiration and even some sur- prise. It flourishes in a peaty place that is cool and damp though not swampy. Another plant of con- siderable beauty, Galax aphylla, likes exactly the same conditions, with a little shade added. This is another of the good things that has come to us from North America, and is a precious plant in several ways of gardening ; it is so neat and pretty that it is suitable as a single plant among the choicest things in a re- stricted collection, while in the wild garden it is equally in place in considerable masses. It thrives where there is peat or sandy leaf-mould that can always be kept a little moist, and though rather slow at first, yet as soon as the tufts begin to grow strongly they increase, spreading outwards, fairly fast. The flowers are gracefully carried on thin, strong. XEROPHYLLUM ASPHODELOIDES. THE STREAM-GARDEN 77 almost wire-like stems, and the leaves, tough and leathery, though not thick, assume a beautiful winter colouring. Some charming native bog-plants must also not be neglected. The Bog Asphodel {JSlartheciutn), with its straight spikes of yellow bloom and neat sheaves of small Iris-like leaves ; the Cotton Grass {Erio- phormn), and the Sundew {Drosera rotundifolid). These all thrive in beds of Sphagnum. Here also should be the bog-loving Heath {Erica tetralix), the Pink Bell Heather, and its white variety, and our native Sweet Bog Myrtle. Sweeter still and here in place will be the Canadian Candleberry Gale {Myrica ceriferd), and another of the same most fragrant - leaved family, Coniptonia asplenifoliay the "Sweet Fern" of the Northern States. One little marsh pool must be given to Calla palustris, rooted in the margin and spreading to- wards the water ; a very clean-looking plant with its solid leaves and ivory-white flowers. Its near relative and natural associate, Orontiuniy may well be with it, rising from the bottom in water about a foot deep. In the green space of rough grass between the marsh pools and the running water, there is already a fair quantity of the pretty pink-flowered Marsh Rattle iPedicularis), and in the same region Gentiana Pneumonanthe has been planted. There is no occa- sion to cram this space with plants, and yet it is pleasant to come across surprises ; here and there a 78 WALL AND WATER GARDENS clump of some good Fern, or, in the drier places, some interesting Bramble. The lower part of the little valley (the Marsh Marigold and Alder region is at the upper) is less peaty ; in parts more of an alluvial loam. Here the English Fritillaries are at home in scattered groups, some purple and some white. Here also will be repre- sentatives of the small Trumpet Daffodils, N. Pseudo- narcissus, N. nanus, and N. minor ; and here will be the Globe-flowers {Trollius) 3.nd. the handsome purple- blue-flowered Geranium pratense. Plants for the Stream and Stream-side Myosotis palustris. Spircea pabnata. S. Artcncus. Iris IcEvigata. Mimulus btteus. Ranunculus aquatilis. Lysimachia vulgaris. Heracleum giganteum. H. mantegazzianum. Spircea Ulmariafl. pi. S. venusta. Osmunda regalis. Asplenium Filix-fcemina. Impatiens Noli-me-tangere. Iris Pseud-acorus. Lythrum Salicaria roseum. Petasites vulgaris. Caltha palusiris. Plants for Damp Peaty Bank Linncea borealis. Trientalis europc^us. Dryas octopetala. Gaultheria procumbens. G. Shallon. Asplenium Filix-fcemtna. Nephrodium dilatatum. Pyrola minor. P. arenaria. Epigcea repens. Goodyera repens. Mitchella repens. Lomaria spicarit. Osmunda regalis. THE STREAM-GARDEN 79 Plants for Peaty Bog-Pools and Beds OF Sphagnum Cypripedhim spectabile. Sarracenia purpurea. Calla palustris. Orontiuin aquaticum. Parnassia palustris. Pinguicula grandiflora. Anagallis tenella. Campanula hederacea. Sibthorpia europcea. Malaxis paludosa. LipatHs Loeselii. Narthecium ossifragum. Eriophorian angustifoliwn. Drosera rotundifolia. In Cool Peat Xerophyllum asphodeloides. Galax aphylla. In Damp Grass near Stream Pedicularis palustris. Gentiana Pneiononanthe. Fritillaria Meleagris. Trollius europcsus. Geranium pratense. Narcissus Pseudo-narcissus. Narcissus nanus. N. minor. CHAPTER XI THE ROCK-GARDEN — GENERAL ARRANGEMENT After the marsh pools and still on the homeward journey, and between this region and the shrubbery portion of the garden proper, will be the rock-garden (see plan, p. 89), approached on the marsh side by some of the plants of rather large size. Nothing is more strikingly beautiful than a large patch of Equi- setuni Tebnateia, a native plant ; mysterious, graceful, and almost tropical-looking. Near it there are two large-leaved plants, Saxifraga peltata, in moist rich soil carrying its great leaves three feet high, and Rodgersia podopkylla, with palmate leaves as large as those of the Horse Chestnut, but the divisions hand- somely jagged at the ends, and the whole leaf of a fine reddish-bronze colouring. It is sometimes crippled by late frosts, and well deserves the protec- tion of a few Fir boughs. If there is space enough here would also be a place for the giant Gunneras (besides their other water-side sites), and for another spreading patch of Heracleum mantegazzianum, for Arundo Donax, and for the Bam- boos. These giant Reeds and Grasses should in such a good garden as this have a large space, of which they would be the chief occupants. They should be 80 ZENOBIA (ANDROMEDA) SPECIOSA (FULL SIZE). {Type of small evergreen flowering shrub for the Rock-Garden. THE ROCK-GARDEN 8i in bold, informal clumps, with easy grassy ways pass- ing between. In the present case the fringe of their masses on the rock-garden side is approached by shrubs that will enjoy the same conditions. These will be Kalmias, Azaleas, Ledums, Andromedas, Vac- ciniums, Gaultherias, and Myricas, the bog and peat- loving shrubs. Of these the Kalmias and Myricas will suit the dampest places. As clumps or groups of these approach the rock-garden they will join on to it without any jarring obstruction. The green path that skirts the cool foot of the mound or promontory that forms the rock-garden will only be one of several others that pass among the Bamboos and join the path that we came along by the bog pools. The plan shows the general arrangement. Even where the peaty foot of the rock mound comes down to the level, the rock-garden's influence will still cross the grass path ; for the same kind of planting is continued on the other side, only then dying away into the larger growths that will continue the scheme of planting in that direction. Now we are clear of the Fir-wood hill, and the ground to the south-west, though still slightly rising, and thinly wooded with Oak, Thorn, and Holly, is not steep enough to shade the rock-garden ; moreover, some trees have been cut away to ensure that full light and clear air space that so many rock-plants need. The rock-garden has been made in what was a natural knoll of sharply rising ground, or rather a kind of promontory thrust out from the wood. F 82 WALL AND WATER GARDENS Three main paths pass through it ; the one on the right skirts the natural foot of the promontory, passing first north-east, then north, then a little north-west ; the one to the left mounts its shoulder by an easy ascent, partly excavated so as to give rocky banks right and left ; but it is nearly level at the top before coming to the further descent. Here will be the place for fine short turf to be pierced by the bloom of mountain bulbs, Snowdrops, Spring Snowflakes, and the like ; each kind having its own little region, in- formally bordered by some group of small bushes. The third path will be cut through the heart of the knoll, gently turning, and having steep banks right and left. In forming such a rock-garden as this the rock-builder must use all his skill, so that the lines of the work shall not only be good in themselves, but shall not jar with anything that comes before or after, or with any view of the half distance that can be seen from any portion of the garden scheme. This scheme of three main pathways supposes a fair space of ground, such as a third of an acre to half an acre. If less space has to be dealt with it is better to have an easy path alone and a sloping bank on either side, as in the good rock-garden shown in the illustration at the next page. When the ground is shaped and the rocks placed, the next matter of importance, and that will decide whether the rock-garden is to be a thing of some dignity or only the usual rather fussy mixture, is to have a solid planting of suitable small shrubs crown- ing all the heights. Most important of these will WELL-ARRANGED ROCK-GARDEN IN THE FORM OF A LFFTLE VALLEY, THE ROCK-GARDEN 83 be the Alpine Rhododendrons ; neat in habit, dark of foliage, and on a scale that does not overwhelm the little plant jewels that are to come near them. No shrubs are so suitable for a good part of the main plantings in the higher regions. Then there will be Heaths, among which the white Menziesia would be largely used on the cooler exposures, and Pernettyas in quantity. The pretty and fragrant Ledum palustre will also be a useful shrub in the backward regions of the cooler portions, while the neat L. buxifolium, on the fringes of the solid shrub planting, will lead well to the smaller plants. Other shrubs that will suit these upper portions are Cistus laurifolius, Cistus cyprius, with Spanish Gorse and various Brooms in the hot- test places ; Andromedas, Gaultherias, Pernettyas, and Ledums will come in the cooler spots. In addition to the Alpine Rhododendrons there will be R. myrti- folium and several small garden hybrids. These are all shrubs of dark coloured foliage ; by using them in bold masses they will give the whole rock-garden that feeling of unity and simplicity of design that often in such places is so painfully wanting. Other small evergreen shrubs, such as Skimmias and Daphne pontica should also be used rather near together, but from their brighter and paler colour preferably in a group by themselves. By working on such a general plan we shall avoid that rude shock so often experienced when the rock- garden comes into view, from its appearance being so uncompromisingly sudden. Perhaps there is a 84 WALL AND WATER GARDENS smooth bit of lawn, with pleasant easy lines of flower or shrub clump ; then you pass round some bush, and all at once there is a shockingly sudden rock- garden. I cannot think of any other term that gives the impression I wish to convey. It often comes of want of space. Only a certain space can be given to the rock-plants, and it must be made the most of ; still, even in small gardens it might be more or less prepared or led up to. But I am not just now considering the limitations of the smallest gardens (a tempting theme, but one that should be taken by itself), but rather the best way to lay out ground that is not cramped in space or stinted of reasonable labour. Therefore, where the region of groups of handsome hardy moisture-loving exotics ends (to the left of M and P on the plan), we come to an occasional flatfish boulder or blunt-nosed rock just rising above the ground, as the path rises very gently. Presently these large plants, of which the furthest back were in quite moist ground, are left behind, and we are among bushes four to seven feet high (N and above on plan). These give place to lower shrubs, rather more thinly grouped, while the rocky boulders are more frequent and more conspicuous. Presently, and only by a gentle transition, the rock- mound comes into view, and we see that there are three paths, each having a slightly different aspect, while the whole mound, clothed with dark, close- growing, and for the most part, dwarf shrubs, has a unity of character which presents no shock to the mind, but only a pleasant invitation to come THE ROCK-GARDEN 85 and see and enjoy. There is no bewilderment, because there is no jumble or crowding of irrelevant items. Everything falls into its place, and a quiet progress through any one of the paths presents a succession of garden-pictures that look not so much as if they had been designed and made but as if they had just happened to come so. There is nothing perhaps to provoke that violent excitement of wonderment so dear to the uneducated, but there will be, alike to the plant lover and to the garden artist, the satisfaction of a piece of happy gardening, without strain or affectation, beautiful and delightful in all its parts and growing easily and pleasantly out of its environment. The shrubs named as those best fitted for the upper portions of the rock may well have an occa- sional exception, for though the masses must be large enough to give a feeling of dignity, they must not degenerate into monotony. This can be secured either by the free growth or rather overgrowth of some of the shrubs named, such as that of Brooms and Cistus cyprius or by the use of a shrub of larger stature, such as Juniper. Veronica Traversi, as it grows older and assumes a small tree shape, is one of this class and Cassinea fulvida is another. Rosemary and Lavender also, after a few years of rather close and neat growth, rise and spread and open out, showing trunk-like stems. This older state, which has a somewhat unkempt look in the neater parts of the garden, give these shrubs that rather wilder habit that fits them 86 WALL AND WATER GARDENS all the better for their place among the boulders of the rocky heights. There is also a class of shrub of trailing character that is most useful for leading from those of stiffer growth on the higher ground, to the lower regions where there will be more flowery plants. The low growing Cotoneasters, Savin, and Miihlenbeckia, are some of the best of these, and Heaths of many kinds from the tall Tree Heath of the Mediterranean to the low-growing and early-blooming Erica carnea. Among the different kinds of Heath nothing can well exceed the usefulness of the white Menziesia, for it is not only a neat dark green tuft in winter, but in all the summer months and even into autumn it bears its large Heath-bells in good quantity. These dwarf shrubs should be planted so as to appear to stream out of the dark and solid growths above, following and accentuating the stratified lines in which the stones are laid. If they are planted just above the stones they will fall naturally into their places. It will also add greatly to the feeling of general cohesion which it is so important to obtain in such a garden, if below these again the same kind of scheme is carried out in plants that have some kind of solidity of appearance or persistence throughout the year, such as Thrift and Asarum; their long-enduring dark foliage being highly becoming as a setting to flowers of lively colour. Ferns also, on the shady side, should be used in the same way, while on the sunniest exposures the same idea would be carried out by. some of the THE ROCK-GARDE»N 87 neat whitish or glaucous-leaved plants, Rock Pinks, Antennaria, Achillea, and so on. Now and then among the small shrubs, and just below the larger ones, a single plant of bold aspect will make a great effect, though the general scheme of planting should be in easy informal groups or long drifts. The kind of plant to use in these points of exceptional isolation is such a one as the best type of Eryngium. alpinum, or one of the more important Euphorbias, or a tuft of Yucca flaccida. If the rock-garden is very large, larger than the one in contemplation, great groups of the nobler Yuccas are magnificent, but they would be on a scale rather too large for the present garden. Evergreen Shrubs for the Upper Part of the Rock-Garden Rhododendron ferrugineuni. Cotoneaster horizontalis. R. hirsutum. C. microphylla. R. myrtifoliwn. Cassinea fulvida. Pernettya, vars. Double Gorse. Abies danbraziliana. Genista prcecox. A.pumila. G. andreana. Junipertts Sabina. Cistus laurifolius. Lavender. C. cyprius. Rosemary. Ruscus racemosus. Erica carnea. Veronica Traversi. E. Tetralix alba. Daphne Mezereum. E. arborea. D. pontica. E. ciliaris, E. vagans. D. Cneorum. E. cineria, vars. Ulex hispanicus. Calluna, vars. Andromeda floribunda. Menziesia polifolia. A. Catesbm. Miihlenbeckia complexa. Zenobia speciosa. 88 WALL AND WATER GARDENS o rt cs "S *i 'd H fc; S ^ >~j o >-( ^ ^i -*i tj ^j £ 00 ct. s? o S 'o Q s: tij ft; ^ •~4 ."^ k. o <^ h< ■S: to o "il ^ O ^ fti '^ . 1-^ 00 fij ^ o ^ ■^ h ct; li, i-i ^ >< •—1 o 00 li. •^-1 o :^ o •-1 "^ o "^ ftj hs •-I >< ^ 0^ THE ALPINE GARDEN loi others that are fairly well content with one that is not their own, but there are a certain number that are not so tolerant, and if we would do the very best we can for the lovely plants of the mountain regions they should be given the kind of soil and rock that suits them best. From its very beginning then, if an Alpine garden is to be made in a calcareous soil let it be planted with the lime-loving plants and those that are tolerant in the matter of soil, but not with those that demand granite. Hitherto the mistakes of amateurs may have been excused, because in the books and plant lists that have till now been available the great importance of this has not been clearly and concisely put before them. If the Alpine garden is to accommodate a larger range of plants than those proper to the one soil, or if preparation from the first has to be made for plants of these two geological divisions, it is well that one distinct portion of the garden should be prepared with limestone and the other with granite. In this way it will not only be easier to work the garden and to know the destination of any newcomer, but the plants themselves will be in better harmony. I would earnestly counsel intending planters, if they have to do with a small space only, to be content with plants of the one or the other class of soil, because, as in all other kinds of gardening, the mere dotting of one plant, or of two or three only of a kind, will never make a beautiful garden, but at the best can I02 WALL AND WATER GARDENS only show a kind of living herbarium. Single examples of these lovely little children of the great mountains may be delightful things to have, and in the very smallest spaces no doubt will be all that is possible ; but we wish to consider gardening in its nobler aspects, not merely the successful cultivation of single specimens of the Alpine flora. In planning an important Alpine garden it should be remembered that in preparing homes for some of the best of these lovely plants, not only the rocky places must be considered, but the grassy ones as well, for the pasture land of the Alps is as bright with flowers as the more rocky portions. It is here that are found the Snowflakes and the Snowdrops, the Dog's-tooth Violets and the Anemones of the Pulsatilla group. Here also are the glorious Gentiana acaulis, the bright gem-like G. verna, and in boggy places G. bavarica^ near in size to G. verna, and sometimes mistaken for it, but different in the shape and arrangement of its more crowded leaves, and in the still more penetrating briUiancy of its astounding blue. These little gems are not often seen at their best in English gardens, but G. acaulis is a much more willing colonist, and in some gardens where the soil is a rich loam it grows rapidly and flowers abundantly and proves one of the best of plants for a garden edging. Though properly a plant of the pastures, the illustra- tion shows how kindly it takes to the rock-garden in England. The difficulty of imitating the close short turf of THE ALPINE GARDEN 103 the upland Alpine pasture is that here the grasses grow too rank and tall ; the only ones therefore that should be employed are the smallest of the wiry- leaved kinds, such as the short Sheep's Fescue with the tufted base. A true Alpine garden, it should be understood, is a place where plants native to the Alps alone are grown. It should not be confused with a general rock-garden where we have mountain and other plants from the whole temperate world. Besides those that one generally classes as plants, meaning flowering plants, there will be many of the beautiful small Ferns of the Alps to ^be considered, and the small shrubs whose presence is so important in the more prominent eminences of our rock-gardens and the tops of our rock-walls. Of the latter, in the true Alpine garden, the most important are the dwarf Rhododendrons, and nothing could be so fitting a groundwork or setting for the little bright-blossomed jewels that will be their companions. Especially in the mass and when out of flower, their compact form and dark rich colouring are extremely helpful in securing a feeling of repose in the composition of the main blocks of the rocky region, while their beautiful bloom makes them, when in flower, some of the loveliest of dwarf shrubs. Here again it must be noticed that care must be taken to suit each kind with its geological require- ment. The genus Rhododendron is represented by three species in the Alps ; in those of Switzerland I04 WALL AND WATER GARDENS by R. ferriiginiuDi and R. hirsutum, and in those of the Tyrol by R. Chamcecistus. Still further east, in the Eastern Carpathians, is found R. myrtifolimn. It is with the two Swiss kinds that our rock-gardens are mostly concerned, though R. inyrtifolium is also of value, and will grow in many soils, though it prefers sandy peat. Of these Swiss kinds R. ferruginitim is a plant of the granite, while hirsutum belongs to the limestone, as does also the R. Chamcecistus of the Tyrol. Subjoined are lists of plants proper to the two main geological divisions. It will be seen that in each genus the species seem to be nearly equally divided, so that in a garden devoted to one or other there would be no exclusion of any of the more important kinds of plants. Those that will do well in either soil are not included in the list. If in the case of some plants proper to the one formation we find in England that they can be grown in the other, it will not affect the general utility of these lists, which are meant to point out the conditions under which only they are found in nature, and under which they thrive best in gardens. It must also be understood that the lists do not aim at being complete. They comprise only the most characteristic examples of the species special in nature to the limestone and the granite, and that have been tried and proved either in the Jardin d'Acclimatation at Geneva, or at one of the two experirhental stations in the mountains that are on the limestone and on the granite respectively. It must also be understood that a good number of THE ALPINE GARDEN 105 the Alpine plants that we are familiar with, that are tolerant of a variety of soils, and that are so well represented in the best trade lists, do not appear here ; so that if it is not convenient to supply any plants with either granite or limestone, those named in the following lists may either be avoided, or we may be content with what success we may have in such a soil as we are able to give them. There are certain plants of the higher Alpine regions that are usually failures in English rock-gardens, of which Eritrichiuin nanuni may be taken as a type. Others in the same list of what we know as difficult plants are : Androsace glacialis, Charpeniieri, helvetica, pubescens, wulfeniana, and imbricata ; Achillea nana, Thlaspi rotundifolium, Artemisia spicata ; Campanula cenisia, Allionii, excisa, petrcea ; Saxifraga Seguieri planifolia, and stenopetala. In order to succeed with these plants they must have the poorest possible soil ; only a coarse gravel of small stones with a little sandy peat ; such a soil as will always be poor, light, and porous ; in one con- taining more nutriment they simply die of indigestion. The drainage must be perfect. They delight in full exposure and sun heat, and will succeed either in a wall or the flatter rock-garden, though here they are much benefited by the ground around them being covered with little stones in order to keep it cool. The following is a list of plants proper to the cal- careous and granitic formations respectively : — io6 WALL AND WATER GARDENS Calcareous Achillea atrata. Aconitum Anihora. Adenostylis alpina. Androsace chamcejastne. „ arachnoidea. „ helvetica. „ pubescens. „ villosa. Anemone alpina. „ narcissijlora. „ Pulsatilla. „ Hepatica. Anthyllis montana. Artemisia mutellina. Braya alpina. Campanula thyrsoidea. „ cenisia. Cephalaria alpina. Cyclamen europ(Eum. Daphne alpi7ta. „ Cneorum. Dianthus alpinus. Draba tomcntosa. Erica carnea. Eryngium alpinum. Erinus alpinus. Gentiana alpina. „ angustifolia. „ Clusii. „ ciliata, „ asclepiadea. Geranium aconitifoliunt. Globularias. Gnaphalium Leontopodium. Gypsophila repens. Lychnis Flos-jovis. Moehringia muscosa. Granitic Achillea nwschata. Aconitum septenirionale. Adenostylis albifrons. Androsace carnea. „ lactea. „ glacialis. „ imbricata. „ vitaliana. A nemone sulphurea. „ baldensis. „ montana. „ vernal is. Arnica montana. Artemisia glacialis. Astrantia minor. Azalea procumbens. Braya pinnatifida. Campanula spicata. „ excisa. Daphne petrcea. ,, striata. Dianthus glacialis. Draba frigida. Ephedra helvetica. Eritrichium nanum. Gentiana brachyphylla. „ Kochiana. „ frigida. „ Pneumonanthe. „ pyrenaica. Geranitim argenteuvi. Gnaphalium supinum. Linncsa borealis. Lychnis alpina. Memn athamanticum. Oxytropis campestris. Papaver rhceticum. ■J ^^ O < b^ ft; a: [^ O a. THE ALPINE GARDEN loy Calcareous Oxytropis m on tana. Papaver alpinum. Primula Auricula. „ clusiana. „ integrifolia. „ minima. „ spedabilis. Ranunculus alpestris. „ Seguieri. Rhododendron hirsutum. Ribes petraum . Saussurea discolor. Saxifraga longifolia. ccesia. diapensioides. burseriana. tombeanensis, squarrosa. media, aretioides. Senecio abrotanifolius. „ aurantiacus. Sempervivum dolomiticum. „ Mr turn. „ Neilreichii. „ Pittoni. „ tectorum. Silene acaulis. „ alpestris. „ Elizabethce. „ vallesia. Valeriana saxatilis. Viola cenisia. Granitic Phyteuma hemisphcericum. „ pauciflorum. Primula hirsuta. „ glutinosa. ,, wulfeniana. „ Facchi7iii. „ longiflora. Ranunculus crenatus. ,, glacialis. Rhododendron ferrugineum. Ribes alpinum. Saussurea alpina. Saxifraga Cotyledon. „ Hirculus. „ Seguieri. „ moschata. „ aspera. „ bryoides. „ ajugcefolia. „ exarata. „ retusa. Senecio unijlorus. „ carniolicus. Sempervivum arachnoideum. „ acuminattim. „ debit e. „ Caudini. „ Wulfeni. Silene exscapa. „ rupestris. „ pumilio. „ quadrifida. Vaccinium uliginosum. „ oxycoccus. Valeriana celtica. „ Saliunca. Veronica fruticulosa. Viola comollia. io8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS Ferns Cystopteris alpina. „ mo ft tana. Aspidium Lonchiiis. Asplenium Selovi. „ fontanum. viride. Woodsia hyperborea. „ ilvensis. Blechnum spicant. Allosorus crispus. Asplenium germanicutn. ,, septentrionale. CHAPTER XIV LAKES AND LARGE PONDS Except in the case of Water-Lilies I have often noticed that the smaller the pool or pond in which orna- mental water-plants are grown the better one is able to enjoy them. In the large pond, and still more in the lake whose length is measured by miles, the scale of the water surface is so large, and the visible extent of land and water so wide, that one does not feel the want of the small water-plants nearly so much as one desires a bold treatment of tree and bush, and such fine things as will make handsome groups upon the shore and masses in the middle and further dis- tance. If I had a large space of water, with land more or less bare and featureless sloping to it, I should begin by planting a good extent of the coolest and dampest slope with Spruce Fir, bringing some of the trees right down to the water's edge. The Spruce would be planted as far apart as they were to stand when full grown, but more thinly to the water's edge, so that here, as they grew, they could be thinned by degrees till they stood in good groups. Birches would also be planted near the water, and would show as graceful silver-stemmed trees standing reflected in the lake and backed by a no WALL AND WATER GARDENS dense forest of Spruce. Scotch Fir is also beautiful near water, especially in hilly ground, and it might be better to plant Scotch than Spruce if the land was very poor and sandy. But Spruce is essentially a damp - loving Conifer, and nothing gives a more solemn dignity to a water landscape than a large extent of its sombre richness of deep colouring, espe- cially when this is accentuated by the contrast of the silver Birches. If the soil is strong or of a rich alluvial nature Alders will grow to a large size, forming great rounded masses. But some smaller matters will also be wanted to give interest to the lake shore, so that here will be clumps of the Royal Fern {Osmunda), and the graceful Lady Fern, and where the path passes there should be clumps of Water Elder ( Viburnum Opulus) giving its pretty white bloom in early summer and its heavy-hanging bunches of shining half-transparent berries in the autumn months, when the leaves also turn of a fine crimson colour. The sunny bank of the lake I should keep rather open and grassy, with only occasional brakes of bushy growth of Thorn and Holly, wild Rose and Honey- suckle, with woodland planting of Oak and Hazel, Thorn, Holly, and Birch beyond. If the lake or large pond is in flat low-lying country the large growing Poplars and Willows named in the next chapter will suit its banks or near neighbourhood. tv»^4^ >A 7 >>^ Ac- -^ <^^^l?l^^ -^'>:^ CHAPTER XV SMALL PONDS AND POOLS It is probably in the smaller ponds and pools, or in river banks and back-waters, that most pleasure in true water-gardening may be had. Every one who has known the Thames from the intimate point of view of the leisured nature-lover in boat or canoe, must have been struck by the eminent beauty of the native water-side plants ; indeed our water-gardens would be much impoverished if we were debarred from using some of these. Many of them are among the most pictorial of plants. There is nothing of the same kind of form or carriage among exotics that can take the place of the Great Water- Dock {Rumex Hydrolapathuin), with its six feet of height and its large long leaves that assume a gor- geous autumn colouring. Then for importance as well as refinement nothing can be better than the Great Water Plantain, with leaves not unlike those of the Fimkia but rather longer in shape. Then there is the Great Reed {Phragmites) and the Reedmace that we call Bulrush {Typhd), and the true Bulrush {Scirpus) that gives the rushes for rush -bottomed chairs — all handsome things in the water close to the bank. 112 WALL AND WATER GARDENS Flowering Rush {Butomus) makes one think that here is some tropical beauty escaped from a hot-house, so striking is its umbel of rosy bloom carried on the tall, round, dark-green stem. It has the appearance of a plant more fitted to accompany the Papyrus and blue Water-Lily of ancient Egypt than to be found at home in an English river. This charming plant would look well near Equisetum Telmateia, which would grow close down to the water's edge. The yellow Iris of our river banks is also an in- dispensable plant for the water-garden, and will do equally well just in the water or just out of it. Not unlike its foliage is that of the Sweet Sedge {Acorus Calamus), fairly frequent by the river bank. I have driven my boat's nose into a clump of it when about to land on the river bank, becoming aware of its presence by the sweet scent of the bruised leaves. The branched Bur-reed {Sparganium ramosuni) has somewhat the same use as the Sweet Sedge in the water-garden, making handsome growths of pale- green luscious-looking foliage, and spikes of bloom that are conspicuous for the class of plant ; it is re- lated to the Chair- Rush {Scirpus). It grows in very shallow water and in watery mud. The Cyperus Sedge {Carex pseudo-Cyperus) is also handsome for much the same use. Of the floating river flowers the earliest to bloom is the large Water Buttercup {Ranunculus floribundus) ; its large quantity of white bloom is very striking. Where this capital plant has been established there might be a good planting of Marsh Marigold near it ■■•' '' t- " - ■;':-iri,5"-rv-.'»y .. • " *' «'- . ■ v 'j^rB .••'."'at"' ,