70 On Winter Gardens. 



does not exist, it can at least be procured by the contribution 

 of many, if not by the efforts of one. But as I am ashamed 

 of the scantiness of my own list, deprived of the means of 

 collecting one, I will not add a dozen or two of names, when I 

 hope soon to see a far greater number. 



Still there is another subject connected with ornamental 

 gardening, which has been strangely neglected — strangely, in a 

 climate like ours, and still the more remarkably, when it is 

 recollected that the fashions of our country render winter a 

 sort of conventional summer, as they also reverse the proposi- 

 tion ; or that the time allotted to the rural residence is that in 

 which all the brightest flowers of summer have disappeared ; 

 and, still more, that in which the great mass of vegetation is 

 dormant or dead. 



To the great bulk of the opulent, the flower garden and 

 shrubbery, often far more, are lost to all but the gardener ; it 

 is ornament and expense, without comparative use. Why, 

 then, are the autumnal and winter gardens neglected, while 

 every thing is reserved for spring and summer ? Who, among 

 the higher classes, see the lilac and laburnum flower in their 

 own grounds ? How many see even the rose ? Yet nearly two 

 centuries are past since this recommendation, even to the de- 

 tails, such as the knowledge of that day could make them, was 

 urged by Lord Bacon, urged, yet neglected, since there is scarcely 

 a winter garden in Great Britain, and certainly not one such 

 as might be constructed with a very small degree of attention. 



The reason is not in the ignorance of gardeners, since they 

 do possess knowledge enough of the plants which would serve 

 this purpose ; it must be sought partly in their neglect, but 

 chiefly in the neglect, and more in the ignorance, of rural pro- 

 prietors, who do not seem aware that such a thing is possible. 

 Had they learned what and how to command, their servants 

 would have learned to obey. And while such gardens may be 

 constructed, it is surely superfluous to remark what pleasures 

 might be derived from a spot which excluded the aspect of 

 winter, even did it but cheat us with a cold semblance of sum- 

 mer. How this may be effected, and what are the evergreens 

 and the successions of late flowers, it is not my purpose here 



