1870.] FLOWER-GARDEN AT EALING PARK. 505 



FLOWER-GARDEN AT EALING PARK, MIDDLESEX, 

 THE RESIDENCE OF J. S. BUDGETT, ESQ. 



There must be many gardeners and others about the country who 

 have lively recollections of and still feel an interest in the place so 

 long and famously associated with the late Mrs Lawrence and her 

 almost unrivalled collections of plants. Those who remember the 

 Chiswick exhibitions of old — now living only in the records of a 

 glorious past — must also have memories of the display Mrs Lawrence 

 used to make in the days of her great popularity as an exhibitor. 

 Some who worked there and gained a knowledge of the first rudi- 

 ments of their profession at Ealing Park, others who have visited it at 

 some time or the other, and many more who have only heard of the 

 wealth of plants to be once seen there, and the breakfast-parties that 

 used to draw together the elite of aristocratic and fashionable society, 

 will all be interested in hearing again of the place, and knowing 

 whether any of its former splendid reputation still survives. The 

 block of plant-houses, the occupants of which used to excite the envy 

 and wonder of the horticultural world, are gone, but there is no lack 

 of glass at Ealing Park notwithstanding. The plan of the flower- 

 garden now engraved is on the site of the old flower-garden of Mrs 

 Lawrence, and it occupies a piece of ground nearly square in shape 

 on the south side of the site of the once famous plant-houses. When 

 Mrs Lawrence resided here, the flower-garden contained twenty-nine 

 pincushion beds set down very closely together. Mr William Cole, 

 the gardener at Ealing Park, has altogether altered the details of this 

 garden, and its present arrangements can now be seen by a reference 

 to the accompanying plan. 



The line of vases on the left hand of the plan (9) occupies a 

 higher elevation than the flower-garden, which is reached by three 

 flights of steps at different points. The vases are planted both for 

 summer and winter display, and are always a pleasant feature of the 

 garden. Starting from the bottom of the page, the line of vases runs 

 almost directly west to east. The sloping bank of rockwork, which 

 is continued all along on the north side of the flower-garden, is about 

 6 feet in height, and is covered with various Ivies, Arabis albida, 

 Aubrietias, a variety of Sedums, Helianthemums, Alyssum saxatile, 

 Iberis sempervirens, Corydalis lutea, &c. ; and during summer there 

 are various Peas and suchlike to lend their quota of effectiveness. 

 This arrangement gives an almost unbroken succession of bloom, as 

 something or the other continues almost to the time the charming 

 soft-coloured Aubrietias unfold their blossoms in the early spring 

 months. There are also two such pieces of rockwork set down at the 



