CARNATION, LILY, IRIS, AND THE NOBLER SUMMER FLOWERS. 203 



be used (not merely the Cloves, but many other handsome forms 

 ranging through the best colours) with in every way satisfactory 

 effects in the flower garden. 



The hardiness of the flower is proved by the natural habitats of 

 the plant, which is found in rocky upland places in many countries of 

 Europe, and finds a substitute for its native rocks on Rochester Castle, 

 and at Chateau Gaillard, in Normandy. It never suffers from cold, 

 though alternations of mild and hard weather will often affect it on 

 cold soils by starting the plants into growth at a time when on the 

 mountains they are at rest under snow. 



Lily and Iris and the Nobler Summer Flowers.— The Lily 

 had to go too from the flower-garden of our own day ; it was too tall, 

 and no doubt had other faults, but like the Rose it must come back, 

 and one of the gains of a free way of flower-gardening is that we are 

 able to put Lilies or any other flowers in it at any season that suits 

 their planting, and that their bloom is welcome whenever it comes, 

 and leaves us content with brown stems when it goes. If in the large 

 flower-garden we get some diversity of surface through groups of the 

 rarer flowering evergreen shrubs, we have for these the very soil that 

 our Lilies thrive in, and we break up in pretty ways these groups by 

 planting Lilies among them, gaining thereby two seasons of bloom, 

 light and shade in the masses, and diversity of form. 



The Iris too, with its Orchid-like beauty and flower, and with a 

 higher value of leaf than either Lily or Orchid, is in summer flowering 

 kinds fit to grace the flower-garden with some permanent beds. Some 

 will tell us that we may not do these things in the set flower- 

 garden under the windows, but from an artistic point of view this is 

 not true and very harmful. There is no flower-garden, however arid 

 or formal in its plan, which may not be planted in picturesque 

 ways and without robbing it of fine colour either. But to do that 

 in the face of ugly plans we must be free to choose among all beauti- 

 ful things of the open air, not forgetting the best of the half-hardy 

 plants that enjoy our summer — Heliotrope, great Blue Salvia, not 

 forgetting Scarlet Geranium — no more than Cardinal Flower ; annual 

 summer flowers, too, from Sweet Pea to Stocks, Mignonette, and Pansy. 

 A true flower-garden is one which has a place for every flower its 

 owner cares for. 



There is no reason for excluding the best of the summer flowers 

 from Hollyhocks to Sea Hollies, choosing always the best and those 

 that give the most pleasure, and never coarse or weedy plants. For 

 these the true place is the shrubbery and wild garden. It was the 

 use of these coarse and weedy plants that did much harm in old 

 mixed borders when they were allowed to eat up everything. In 

 those days they had not the choice of fine plants we now have, many 



