THE FLOWER GARDEN IN WINTER. 159 



for the refined colour, tree form and the fine contrast of evergreen 

 and summer-leafing trees. In any real garden in winter there is 

 much beauty of form and colour, and there are many shrubs and 

 trees which are beautiful in the depth of winter, like the Red and 

 Yellow Willow and Dogwoods, and even the stems of hardy flowers 

 (Polygonum). The foliage of many alpine plants (Epimedium) are not 

 only good in colour, but some of these plants have their freshest hues 

 in winter, as the mossy Rockfoils of many kinds. In the country 

 garden, where there are healthy evergreens as well as flowering 

 shrubs and hardy plants, how much beauty we see in winter, from 

 the foliage of the Christmas Roses (Helleborus) to the evergreen 

 Barberries! The flower gardener should be the first to take notice 

 of this beauty and show that his domain as well as the wild wood 

 might be interesting at this season. 



For the dismal state of flower gardens in winter the extravagant 



practice of our public gardens is partly to blame. A walk by the 



flower-beds in Hyde Park on Christmas Day, 1895, 



Flower gardens was not a very enlivening thing. One by the 



in winter. bent-bound dunes of the foam-dashed northern 



shore, on the same stormy day, might be more 



instructive for here is a large garden carried out with the very 



extravagance of opulence, and not one leaf, or shoot, or plant, or 



bush in it from end to end ; giants' graves and earth puddings 



these and iron rails and the line of Planes behind. The bare beds 



follow each other with irritating monotony with only five feet of 



grass between. The southern division of this garden is nearly 



500 paces long, and so even that those not in the habit of seeing 



this costly garden can imagine its ill effect in winter. Nearly 



500 yards of a garden sacrificed for its kaleidoscopic effects in 



summer, and barer and uglier in winter than words can tell of. A 



more inartistic arrangement would be impossible, and there is no 



chance of variety, breadth, or repose even in summer. 



How are we to break up such an arid space as this in winter ? One 

 of the best ways would be to group families of the choicest flowering 

 shrubs, which would be worth having for their own sakes, and at 

 the same time would give relief to the wintry waste of desolation. 

 At present any relief is only to be obtained by carrying out in early 

 summer Palms and Bamboos from the hot-house, which is a very 

 expensive and poor way in a country like ours. In forming groups 

 of the more beautiful flowering shrubs, I do not mean anything like 

 the present brutal treatment of shrubs in the London squares, where 

 the surface is dug, and the shrubs are trimmed like besoms, ending 

 in frightful ugliness; but each group of plants grown well by itself 

 and let almost alone when once established. They would give 



