134 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



most visible things seen against the blue sky. This costly and ugly 

 work is a survival of the time when the "golden apples" were a 

 novelty, and it was not so easy to go and see them growing in the 

 open air as it now is, and so what was worth doing as a curiosity 

 hundreds of years ago is carried out still. Since the idea of growing 

 these trees in such an ugly fashion arose we have had a noble 

 garden flora brought to us from all parts of the earth, and it would 

 be easy to take our choice of different ways of adorning this garden 

 in more artistic ways with things in the open ground, and of far 

 greater beauty. If this thing at its best and done with great cost 

 has such a result, what are we to think of the English imitations of 

 it, such as those at Panshanger, in which hardy shrubs, like Portugal 

 Laurels, are used, and sham tubs placed around them ? 



I saw the vast orangery terrace at Sans Souci in July 1897, an< ^ 

 was deeply struck by its " ornaments " in tubs ; the branches of the 

 poor distorted trees like black skeletons against the summer sky 

 showing that even with all the aids of artifice, no good result with 

 tubbed oranges is got in northern Germany any more than in 

 northern France. In the warmer south a little better result may be 

 had from trees in tubs, but a few days' journey brings us to orange 

 trees growing as freely and gracefully as willows in Tunis and Algeria 

 and the countries round the Mediterranean. 



The Laurel is a winter garden plant over a large area of northern 

 and central Europe, where the true Laurel (our gardeners and 

 nurserymen erroneously give the name to the 

 The Poet's Laurel vigorous evergreen Cherry, of which we have too 

 in tubs. much in England) is a tender evergreen, requiring 



the protection of a house in winter. It is grown 

 to a vast extent in tubs to place jn the open garden, on terrace, 

 or in courtyard during the summer. The cultivation of the Laurel 

 for this purpose is carried on to such an extent that miles of 

 handsome trees in various forms may be seen in one nursery. 

 There is no plant more worthy of it than the true Laurel, which 

 we usually call the Sweet Bay, and those who cannot enjoy 

 the plant out of doors, as we may in many of the warmer districts of 

 the British Isles, would do well to grow it in tubs, in which state 

 they may enjoy it both in winter and summer. It would be worth 

 while growing it in the same way in cold and northern districts, 

 where it is killed or much hurt in winter, and this sometimes occurs 

 in parts of southern England. Near the sea it may flourish, and 

 20 miles inland be cut down to the ground, or so badly hurt that 

 it gives no pleasure to see. In gardens where one may have fine 

 groups of the tree on sunny slopes, we should never think of it in any 

 other way, and no evergreen tree gives us more beauty when old and 



