SPRING GARDENS. 173 



throughout our country. Orchid-houses themselves cannot give any 

 such array as these when in bloom, and they are often deserving of a 

 little garden to themselves, where there is room for it, while they are 

 useful in many ways in borders and as groups. About the same time 

 come the precious Spanish Iris in many colours, lovely as Orchids, 

 and very easily grown, and the English Iris. The Grape Hyacinths 

 are pretty and early plants of Southern Europe, beautiful in colour. 

 They increase rapidly, and some kinds do very well in the grass 

 in free and peaty soils ; but the rarer ones are best on warm borders 

 and groups in the rock garden. The Narcissus is worth growing in 

 every way — the rarer kinds in prepared borders or beds and the 

 many that are plentiful in almost any cool soil in the grass. In our 

 country, where there are so many cool and rich soils allowing of the 

 Narcissus being naturalised and grown admirably in many ways, 

 it is, perhaps, on the whole, the most precious of all our spring 

 flowers. But the Tulip is the most gorgeous in colour of all the 

 flowers of spring, and for its effectiveness is better worthy of special 

 culture than most — indeed, the florists' kinds and the various rare 

 garden Tulips must be well grown to show their full size and beauty. 

 Replanting now and then is almost essential with a Tulip garden 

 if we are to keep the bulbs free from disease ; the wood Tulip and 

 certain wild species may be naturalised, and in that state are as 

 beautiful, if not so large, as the cultivated bulbs. The Tulip deserves 

 a far better place among spring flowers than it has ever had, as, 

 apart from the two great groups of early and late Tulips hitherto 

 cultivated in European gardens, a number of handsome wild kinds 

 are being introduced from Central Asia and other countries, many of 

 them having early flowers of great beauty and fine colour, and if they 

 will only take kindly to our climate the Tulip garden will soon leave 

 all hot-house brilliancy a long way in the rear. 



P^ONY, Poppy and Lupin. — Paeonies are nobly effective in 

 many ways. Where single or other kinds are plentiful they may 

 be well used as broad groups in new plantations, among shrubs and 

 low trees, and as to the choice double kinds, no plants better deserve 

 a little garden or border to themselves, while the tree kinds make 

 superb groups on the lawn and are safer from frost on high ground. 

 The great scarlet Poppies are showy in spring, and best grown among 

 trees and in the wild garden, and with them may be named the Welsh 

 Poppy, a very effective plant in spring as well as summer, and often 

 sowing itself in all sorts of places. The various garden forms of the 

 opium Poppy and of the field Poppy, both double and single, are 

 very showy where any space is given to annual flowers. 



The common perennial Lupin is a very showy, pretty plant 

 grown in a free way in groups and masses, and may sometimes be 



