THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



wherever labour and time are wasted upon such things the true work 

 of the garden does not, and very often cannot, get the attention it 

 needs. In {&\y of the places where such work is done, is seen much of 

 beauty in the garden — that is, beauty of flower and form and fine 

 colour such as an artist would put in a picture, and which is a picture 

 in itself to begin with. 



The Abuse of Yew Hedges in Flower Gardens.— In old 

 days, whether in a manor house or castle garden, the use of Yew 

 hedges had some clear motive of shelter or division, or clothing 

 against massive walls as at Berkeley ; or at a cottage door, as a living 

 shelter. But when we use Yew hedges from the mere desire for them, 

 and without much thought of the ground or other reasons, we may find 

 ourselves in trouble. At a place where Roses were earnestly sought, the 

 Rose borders were backed up close by Yew hedges ; the Yews were not 

 very troublesome the first year or two, but, as they grew, they became 

 merciless robbers. There are many ways of growing Roses, but it would 

 be difficult to invent any worse way than this, which leaves the 

 gardener always " between the devil and the deep sea," trying to keep 

 back the hungry Yew roots all the while, it being quite easy to secure 

 a background which, instead of eating up the Roses, would support and 

 shelter them beautifully ; such as walls of solid or of open work. Oak 

 palings. Bamboo and other trellises, or espaliers of bushy climbers, like 

 Honeysuckle and Clematis. It is surely easy to enjoy the Yew without 

 letting it eat up the very things we wish to cherish. 



Another bad way is to place lines of Yew hedges so close together 

 that the sun can hardly sweeten the ground between them, this being 

 generally the result of carrying out some book plan, without thought 

 of the ground or its use. More stupid still is cutting up level lawns 

 with Yew hedges across them, or sometimes projected into them a little 

 way, with flower beds in between, within a couple of feet of the all- 

 devouring Yew : — and all this very costly Yew planting working for 

 ugliness, and against the health, and even life, of all the flowers near. 

 For ugliness distinctly, as while such broad and impressive Yew hedges 

 as we see at Holme Lacy and in the older gardens are good in effect, 

 it is quite different with small, hard Yew hedges, set one against the 

 other and repeated ad nauseam. 



It is not only the needs of our own greatly increased garden flora 

 — new races of plants never known to the old people, such as our tea 

 Roses and the rich collections of shrubs from Japan and other 

 countries, that will not bear mutilation or robbing at the root — that 

 should make us pause, as, even in such evidence that remains to us of 

 old flower gardens on ancient tapestries and pictures, we may see 

 some evidence that the lady had room in her flower garden to 

 look around and work among her flowers, unencumbered by a maze 



