SPRING GARDENS. i77 



welcome hedges of flowers in the early year. So, too, the Cornflower, 

 a lovely spring flower, and perhaps the finest blue we have among 

 annual plants ; but to have it good and early it should be always 

 sown in Autumn, and for effect it should be in broad masses, some- 

 times among shrubs or in recently broken ground which we desire to 

 cover. Some of the Californian annuals are handsome and vigorous 

 when sown in autumn, always provided they escape the winter. The 

 White Godetia is very fine in this way. In all chalky, sandy, and 

 warm soils the Stocks for spring bloom are handsome and fragrant, 

 but it is a waste of time to attempt to grow them on cold soils. It 

 would be taking too narrow a view to omit from our thoughts of 

 spring gardens the many beautiful flowering. 



Shrubs and trees that bloom in spring, as some of the 

 finest effects come from the early trees and shrubs. Among the 

 most stately are the Chestnuts, particularly the red kinds, fine in all 

 stages, but especially when old. The snowy Mespilus is a hardy, 

 low-sized tree, blooming regularly, and well deserves a place in the 

 pleasure garden or the fringes of shrubberies. The Almonds, more 

 than any shrubs, perhaps, in our country and in France, light up the 

 earliest days of Spring, and, like most southern trees, are best in 

 warm valley soils, growing more slowly in cool heavy soils. They 

 should be in groups to tell in the home landscape. The double 

 Peaches are lovely in France, but as yet rarely so with us, owing, 

 perhaps, to some defect of the stock used. Perhaps of all the hardy 

 shrubs ever brought to our country the Azaleas are the most precious 

 for effect. They are mostly wild on the mountains of America, and 

 many forms have been raised in gardens which are of the highest 

 value. Many places do not as yet show the great beauty of the 

 different groups of hardy Azalea, particularly the late kinds raised of 

 recent years. A neglected tree with us is the Judas-tree, which is 

 very handsome in groups, as it ought always to be grown, and not as 

 a starved single tree. The various double Cherries are noble flower- 

 ing trees, being showy as well as delicate in bloom, and the Japanese 

 kinds do quite as well as the old French and English double Cherries, 

 though the trees are apt to perish from grafting. The American 

 Fringe-tree (Chionanthus) is pretty, but some American flowering 

 trees do not ripen their wood well enough in England generally to 

 give us the handsome effects seen in their own country. Hawthorns 

 are a host in themselves ; those of our own country make natural 

 spring gardens of hills and rocky places, and should teach us to give 

 a place to the many other species to be found in the mountains of 

 Europe and America, which vary the bloom and prolong the season 

 of early-flowering trees. There are many varieties of our native 

 hawthorn — red, pink, double, and weeping. The old Laburnum has 



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