July 23, 1869. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICUI^TURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



of 



Month 



Day 

 ol 



Week. 



Th 



F 



S 



Sou 

 M 

 Tn 

 W 



JULY 24-28, 1869. 



[Show closeg. 

 Royal Horticnltaral Society's Manchester 



9 bUNDAV AFTER THINITT. 



Buckingham Horticnltnral Society's Show. 



Moon 



Rises. 



Moon 



Sets. 



m. h. m, h, 

 21 nl 7 67 af 2 

 4 8 53 3 



ige. 



6 9 



80 9 



52 9 



12 10 



Days. 

 IS 



o 



15 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 



Clock 



belore 



£un. 



6 9 



G 10 



6 12 



6 13 



6 18 



6 12 



6 11 



Day 

 of 



Year. 



20S 

 204 

 205 

 206 

 207 

 208 

 209 



From observations taken nCar London during the last forty^two years, the average day temperatttre of the week is 741*^; and its night 

 temperature 50.7'. The greatest heat was 92°, on the 2.^th, 1844 ; and the lowest cold 32^, on the 23rd, 1868. The greatest fall of rain was 

 1.4S inch. 



ASPECTS OF SPRING GARDENING.— No. 4. 



OR my fourth and last aspect of spring gar- 

 dening, I desii'e to take your readers to the 

 picturesque grounds of Nuneham I'arlj, near 

 Abingdon, the seat of the Rev. W. Vernon 

 Harcourt. 



Tliore is one very pleasant feature about the 

 flower garden here — namely, that it is broken 

 up into four distinct sections, each of wliich 

 is for all practical purposes perfect in itself. 

 Tlie visitor comes upon one of these gardens, 

 and is able to grasp its details without experiencing that 

 uncomfortable sensation of wearine.ss large gardens often 

 produce. Then some woodland or pleasant line of shrub- 

 bery, and bits of greensward and specimen trees most 

 agreeably vary the juonotony of the flower beds, and 

 another garden is reached, till tlie whole are gom; through. 

 Those at the outskirts of the extensive grounds, and lying 

 away from them on the altitude of the upland oa the one 

 side, or forming a kind of natural barrier to the beautiful 

 vistas gained along the expanse of the lowland on the 

 other, are grand woodland glimpses standing out in bold 

 relief against tlie sky. or, on the other liand, in tlie line of 

 the horizon on the lower ground. There are here no 

 mountains to form what that mai-vellous word-painter 

 Ruskin terms " the beginning and the end of ,i,ll natural 

 scenery ;' " the natural cathedrals of the earth, n-ith their 

 natural altars overlaid with gold :" but one can yet look 

 here with happy admiration at the lowland flowers and 

 woods and open skies, liUing the mind with intense delight. 

 " because the shadow of the hope of the hills is in them." 

 A peace and repose dwells here that belongs to the hills 

 also, and the inferior landscape that leads to them. 



Nestling within the line of the friendly shelter of a 

 circle of trees and tall shrubs is the Rosery, a circular 

 garden with a broad border of Roses next the shrubbery, 

 then a broad walk, then a circular belt of small flower 

 beds, and within this the Rose garden. It is the "circular 

 belt of small flower beds" that furnishes the series of the 

 illustrations it is the purpose of this paper to pourtray. 

 Mr. Stewart, the gardener at Nuneham Park, has now 

 become a spring gardener of some repute, and every season 

 some touch of originality diversifies what had been the 

 axraugement of previous years. Some beds tilled with 

 Polyanthuses and fine yellow Cowslips were charming : 

 the dark colours of the former were a good couti'ast to the 

 latter, and how sweetly the landscape seemed to recall 

 " The southern-English scene — 

 The Violet-scented hedgerows. 

 The meadows" emerald sheen." 



Other beds of these simple elements had mingling with 

 them plants of the pretty lilac and white Collinsia bi- 

 oolor. There were also pretty circles and squares of the 

 white and blue Myosotis sylvatica. alternating with the 

 red Silene and the white Arabis albida. In tliis garden 

 Mr. Stewart had tried Nemophila atomaria oculata as a 

 spring bedding plant : it has pale blue flowers, with a dark 

 centre, but it proved too tender : perhaps the wet winter and 



Ko. 434.— Vol. XVII., New SERrES. 



cold spring had seriously afiected it. One plant in this 

 portion of the spring garden was particularly effective — the 

 charnding pale lilac pink Phlox frondosa ; this is always 

 well done at Nuneham. and was as efl'eotive as ever on 

 this occasion. 



From the Rosery a ('(V( media of climbers trained over 

 wire arches leads to Mason's garden, a delightful spot in 

 which pleasant greensward abounds, and huge banks of 

 Rhododendrons, and specimen Magnolias, and other stately 

 trees vary the aspect, while hut few flower beds are 

 present. This delightful garden may be likened to a grand 

 horticultural epic, written in trees, in flowers, in winding 

 walks, shady arbours, and emerald turf. The spot, "so 

 retired and secluded, is so full of pleasantness, that onis 

 could not but recall the dear love for the common Daisies 

 of the fields of the old British poet Chaucer, who had 

 towards them such a deep regard that he would lie down 

 among them, and talk to them in his quaint simplicity as 

 if they were his own ollspring. Here they peeped up from 

 the greensward in multitudes, like reflected stars in the 

 great azure firmament above. In this garden one circular 

 raised bed was particularly striking. This bed was in 

 four divisions, made by lines of stone in the form of a per- 

 pendicular coping running from the centre to the circum- 

 ference : and it was edged with stone in the same way. 

 The centre of the bed was occupied by a stone pedestal, 

 surmounted by a vase, in v.hich was a glorious plant of 

 Dielytra spectabilis, and round the base of the pedestal 

 was a broad ring of Cowslips. Two of the divisions of the 

 bed were filled with the blue Forget-me-not, and two with 

 the showy Limnanthes Douglasii. Another bed of a 

 similar character had two compartments tilled with the 

 pink Silene pendula. one other compartment having 

 Oxyura chrysanthemoides, the other bine Forget-me-not. 

 To "this bed there was a broad edging of Staohys lanata. 

 Another diamond-shaped bed had a pillar of Roses in the 

 centre, round this was the purple Honesty ; in its turn 

 edged with the white Forget-me-not. .Another bed, having 

 a pedestal and vase in the centre, had a ring of Alyssum 

 saxatile round the pedestal, then a broad band of the pretty 

 blue Campnnula pentagonia, with a broad edging of the 

 variegated Viuca elegantissima. In tlus garden is one bed 

 that might be best described as forming on the one side 

 the base of a Prince of Wales's Feather, with two narrow 

 serpentine fang- like beds issuing from it on the other side. 

 This was filled with a double line of Young's Blood "WaU- 

 flower, a fine single dark variety, much used and com- 

 mended by Mr. Stewart ; and edged with Vinca elegant- 

 issima closely pegged-down. There were also two raised 

 beds, in the form of huge stone basons, with pedestals in 

 the centre surmounted by a vase filled witli the Dielytra : 

 round the pedestal of one was the pink Silene, edged with 

 Collinsia bicolor ; round the other the charming Myosotis 

 dissitiflora, with a ring of the double wiiite Saxifraga 

 granulata next it, and edged with the pretty golden-tipped 

 Stonecrop. These had been planted by Mr. Stewart for 

 trial, and it scarcely needs to be stated that all these will 

 be largely used by him in the future. 

 I On the right-hand of this garden, as the visitor proceeds 



No. 108C.— Vol. XLU., Old Sbkhss. 



