1 4 2 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



enjoy ; but was to be part of the expenditure on some glass- 

 sheds which they would never see, and were merely to grow the 

 plants to be put out for a few months in summer. 



In our flower gardens Palms can only be seen in a small state ; 

 nor can they in pots and tubs give one any idea of the true beauty 

 of the Palm on the banks of the Nile or the Ganges. But, worse 

 than this, the system leads to the neglect of the many shrubs and 

 trees of the northern world, which are quite as beautiful as any Palm. 

 The number of public gardens that are being opened in all directions 

 makes it all the more important that the false ideal they so often set 

 out should be made clear. I do not say we should have none but 

 hardy plants in public gardens, but the concentration of so much 

 attention and of the greater part of the cost on such feeble examples 

 of tropical plants as can be grown in this country out of doors for 

 a few months in the summer has a very bad effect. The things 

 which may be grown to perfection in the open air in any country 

 are always the most beautiful, and should always have the first place 

 in our thoughts. 



Looking round the London parks we see much waste in trying to 

 get effects of form from Palms and various tender plants, strewn in all 

 directions, often dotted about and marring the foreground of scenes 

 that might be pretty. Where this is done there is rarely any attempt 

 to get effects of fine form from hardy trees, shrubs, and plants, 

 a much simpler process than building costly glasshouses. 



For our gardens, the first thing is to look for plants that are 

 happy in our climate, and to accustom ourselves to the idea that 

 form may be as beautiful from hardy as from tender things. Many 

 tropical plants in houses cut down close and kept small, would, 

 if freely grown in the open air in their own country, be no more 

 striking in leaf than the Eastern Plane. Many plants that are quite 

 hardy give fine effects, such as the Aralias, herbaceous and shrubby ; 

 Aristolochia among climbers ; Arundo, hardy and very pretty beside 

 water ; the hardy Bamboos of Japan and India ; these last increasing 

 in number, and are very distinct and charming, and often rapid 

 growers in genial parts of the country, especially near the sea. A 

 considerable number will probably be found hardy everywhere. The 

 large leaved evergreen Barberries are beautiful in peat soils, and 

 grouped in picturesque ways, effective for their noble leaves as well 

 as flowers. 



The Plume Poppy (Bocconia) is handsome for its foliage and 

 flowers, even in ordinary soil. A great number of the larger hardy 

 Compositae (Helianthus, Silphium, Senecio, Telekia, Rudbeckia) are 

 fine in leaf, as are some of the Cotton Thistles and plants of that family. 

 The common Artichoke of our gardens and its allies are fine in form 



