for }a 



1920 



403 



An English Cottage Garden 



A^rOXG the many i)icuires afforded by the English 

 country-side, few can Ije found more charmint; than 

 the Httle peeps of harmonious coloring and form 

 oftentimes met with in sequestered villages, where 

 Roses climb at will beneath the o\-erhanging thatched 

 eaves, clambering up to the chimne}- and garlanding 

 it with a wealth of blossom. As one walks up the wind- 

 ing village road, one notes how well the walls are clothed 

 with climbing plants. Here the whole front of a cottage 

 is veiled in pink summer Roses, and not only are these 

 siTiall summer-blooming kinds employed, but on manv 

 cottage wall other varieties may be noticed. Reve d'Or 

 is a lovely Rose, and is often used on cottages. It is a 

 very rapid grower, and will cover the side of a house in 

 a few years. When garlanded with its golden-fawn 

 blossoms, which cluster so thickly as to almost hide 

 the leafage, it is indeed a "Dream of Gold." The foli- 

 age is also abundant and graceful, being distinct from 

 that of other Roses. Here and there in the south-west 

 Marechal Niel may sometimes be seen re^"elling in the 

 sunshine on a 

 white-washed wall 

 and bearing a 

 goodly crop of 

 handsome deep 

 golden-yellow blos- 

 soms, while climb- 

 ing Captain Giris- 

 ty, Lamarque. and 

 many others very 

 often take the place 

 of the more com- 

 monly grown clus- 

 ter Roses. Here. 

 one side of a cot- 

 tage is wreathed 

 with Jasmine, a 

 mauve Clematis 

 thieading the thick 

 growth and ming- 

 ling its blue stars 

 with the white 

 clusters of the Jas- 

 mine flowers. Here 

 against a white- 

 washed wall crim- 

 son Hollyhocks 

 glow, here a flow- 

 ering Myrtle sur- 

 rounds a lattice 

 window, here the 



Passion-flower has draped a gable with a \-fil of greenery, 

 studded in the summer with blue or white flowers, and 

 in the chill autumnal days with innumerable fruits of 

 golden-orange that gleam like fairy-lamps amid the 

 dark foliage. 



Throughout most months of the twelve, cottage 

 gardens possess some feature of interest. In the 

 darkest days of the year there are the Christmas Roses, 

 and tlie Winter Jasmine mingles its golden flowers 

 with the crimson !)erries of Cotoiicastcr microphyUa 

 over the porch. Then we have the vivid scarlet of 

 Pyriis japonica against the white-washed house and the 

 white mantle of the .Irabis, often, in the genial south- 



CuurUay of ijinjtiiijtf; l!:i.slr\:;i\! (ICncIisIO. 



All English Thatched Roof Cottaiic Covered With 

 the Atlraelive Cottage Carden in the 



west, in full beauty ere February has passed away, 

 clothing the rude stone-retaining wall at the pathside. 

 A little later the purple Rock Cress {Aubrietia) takes 

 its place beside the Arahis, and the bright yellow of 

 Alyssum saxalile gleams by the pathway. By the little 

 gate that leads to the road, spreading its outer branches 

 over tlie hedge, stands a great bush, almost a tree, of 

 Rose Maiden's Blush, thickly studded in the early 

 summer with fair, flesh-pink blossoms ; there the old 

 Cabbage Roses flower profusely and load the air with 

 the sweetest perfume ; and Moss Roses, pink and 

 white, forgotten in many a garden, perfect their ex- 

 quisite buds. Solanum jasminoidcs is a common 

 climber on many cottages in the south-west, and there 

 is no doubt that in a warm district it is the finest of 

 all flowering climbers, since it often starts into 

 bloom in the month of April, increasing in beauty 

 until September, and often carrying flowers until 

 Christmastide. 



The Wistaria, with its great drooping, lavender 



clusters, is a spe- 

 cial favorite, and 

 may often be seen 

 garlanding cottage 

 walls. The author 

 of "The English 

 Mower Garden" 

 never penned a 

 truer sentence than 

 \\ hen he wrote : 

 "Among the things 

 made b}' man noth- 

 ing is prettier than 

 an English cottage 

 gaiden." There is 

 rarely much I)are 

 earth in a cottage 

 garden. The size 

 of the plots is too 

 smr.ll to permit of 

 any groimd being 

 wasted, and thus 

 everywhere the 

 Ijiown earth is cov- 

 ered with flowers 

 and foliage, which 

 is as it should be 

 in all gardens, but 

 too rarely is. No- 

 where do the 

 li)\ely .Madonna Lilies grow in such unsullied chaste- 

 ness and gracile vigor as in cottage gardens, though 

 apparently but Httle thought is given to their cultural 

 requirements, and one can only surmise that the clue 

 t(i their unfailing health and beauty is to be found in 

 Ruskin's words: "Flowers only rightly flourish in the 

 gardens of those who love them." Cottagers show 

 their taste in the appreciation of fragrance, and many 

 of their gardens are filled with sweet odors through 

 the long summer twilight. Great Lilac-bushes, with 

 their w-ealth of perfumed flower-spikes, often overtop 

 the low, thatched eaves, wliile by the village road the 

 ycllow-tassellcd Labiiniitiii hangs its shower of gold. — 

 (Jardciiing Illustrated. (English.) 



/ 'iiies and Climbers. 

 Foreground. 



Note 



