44 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



by the roots of neighbouring shrubs, or by old-established 

 climbers, it is not a bad plan to sink in the ground an old 

 tub or half-cask, or even an old tin footbath with the 

 bottom knocked out. Then fill it with the best soil, and 

 put in your plant ; it will benefit more in this way from 

 watering in dry weather. There is nothing so disappoint- 

 ing as to lose a plant in spring, as that means the loss of 

 a whole year. 



Having given the above list, which is pretty well as 

 large as any moderate -sized house would hold, I may as 

 well add some further names to choose from, all of which 

 are worth growing. Magnolia purpurea, M. stellata, and 

 M. conspicua may all be grown against walls, or planted 

 in sheltered situations as shrubs. Yellow Jasmine (not 

 nudiflorum) in favourable situations does well. Cratcegus 

 pyracantha lalandi is the best of the Pyracanthuses I 

 believe, an invaluable shrub. If well pruned, it berries so 

 brilliantly that where people only inhabit their houses in 

 late autumn it is perhaps one of the most satisfactory 

 plants that can be planted. I know one large red house 

 which is covered all round up to a certain height with this 

 plant, and the effect is very decorative, though to have a 

 house entirely covered with only one species of plant is 

 very dull from a gardener's point of view. Unless care- 

 fully cut back and pruned early in the winter, it never 

 flowers and berries well, but forms a dense mass of dark- 

 green leaves. 



Cotoneasters, various, are useful much in the same 

 way, and, I think, endure better very dry situations. 

 Forsythia fortunei and other varieties. Pyrus japonica, 

 now called Cydonia, various shades (this is one of the 

 most precious and invaluable of the early flowering shrubs, 

 and deserves the best places to be found on warm walls). 

 Ceanothus grandiflorus (Gloire de Versailles) is the 

 largest flowering variety, I believe, and a pretty pale-blue 



