OCTOBER 195 



On the back of a house my parents built in '41, in 

 Rutland Gate, was planted, I think, the first Virginia 

 Creeper I ever remember in London. In those days 

 beyond this house it was all fields and nursery gardens. 

 London was not then quite so black as it is now not in 

 that part, at any rate. I well remember the beauty and 

 glory of this Virginia Creeper. It was never pruned, 

 and hung from top to bottom of the house in lovely 

 masses of falling foliage. Virginia Creepers, like many 

 other things, vary a little in their growths ; one that 

 has its leaves out early in the spring is the best for 

 London. The Ampelopsis is prettier for being very 

 much starved, as the leaves keep smaller, and less like 

 the redundant growth at Boston, which I so condemned 

 before. But on the whole, even for London, I prefer the 

 growth of the common Virginia Creeper. 



Autumn effects need never be thought of in London 

 at all. When people come back to the West End, after 

 the holidays, it is nearly winter. The poor leaves, choked 

 and smothered in soot, have fallen sadly and greyly to 

 the ground, leaving all their autumn glory to their more 

 fortunate country brethren ; and all can be swept clean 

 and tidy before anyone comes back. Amongst deciduous 

 shrubs all the ordinary common ones do very well, 

 and only want attention and pruning, and pulling- off of 

 suckers, as the same plants require in the country. 

 Privets, being half-deciduous, do very well also. Bamboos 

 are useless, as they are never in full beauty, even in the 

 country, till the autumn and winter. In all small gardens 

 it is my advice to avoid turf, and especially in London. 

 It never looks well, and is expensive and troublesome to 

 maintain, which is one reason the day-gardener likes it. 

 Have as wide a border all round the wall as you can 

 afford, and some red gravel or a bricked or tiled square in 

 the middle of the garden to sit on. 



o2 



