The Garden to the flowers of spring. Here also are cultivated even more 

 in Spring successfully than in the South such warmth-loving plants as the 

 Phlox, Pentstemon, Carnation, and Hollyhock. The fact of the 

 flower and vegetable garden being combined probably accounts 

 for the frequency with which, in Scotland, the garden is 

 situated almost five or ten minutes' walk from the house, in 

 close proximity to which are only a few shrubs and flower- 

 beds. 



Often the frosts of the latter part of April and the beginning 

 of May are fatal to gardening. Plants which lay dormant and 

 unhurt during the severest cold, and a little later began to show 

 signs of life, are frequently cut down by " Blackthorn frosts," 

 as they are called. So it was this year. We had been gladdened 

 by the promise of spring, when a fourteen-degrees frost on the 

 twentieth of April dealt a deadly blow to many a tender plant 

 and shrub Spiroeas, to mention only one genus, were despoiled 

 of their beauty for the season. But " Nil desperandum " must 

 ever be the gardener's motto, and in spite of climatic drawbacks, 

 spring flowers are usually cultivated with fairly happy results. 

 In our northern capital the gardens of Princes Street vie in 

 beauty with the London parks ; groups of gay Tulips and the 

 finer kinds of Daffodils, carpeted with purple Aubrietia, double 

 white Arabis and Polyanthus, form a brilliant foreground to the 

 gloomy grandeur of the Castle and its massive rock. 



It is a special charm of our Scottish gardens that the 

 encircling landscape, whether composed of wood or loch or 

 mountain, adds immensely to the flower effects how much 

 so can be fully realised only when seen. The surroundings 

 form a framework so varied that they sometimes become the 

 chief characteristic of the garden. From turfy lawns, bright 



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