196 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



Have a sunk tub, in the sun, from which to fill a hose, to 

 water more delicate things ; and do not hose too much, 

 especially if your soil is damp, except in very warm 

 weather. On the walls have Eibes sanguineum and 

 Forsythias, as they flower very early. Vines and Fig- 

 trees, white Jasmine, and Jasminum nudiflorum, all do 

 well in London. Wherever there is room on the walls 

 facing south put the deciduous Magnolias (see ' English 

 Flower Garden '). The Magnolia grandiflora has such 

 polished and very shiny leaves ; it grows very well near 

 London. I remember some very fine plants of the same 

 that used to grow in gardens at Walham Green and 

 Fulham, where in my youth people gave what are now 

 called garden-parties and used then to be called * Break- 

 fasts ' why, I do not know, as they never began till three 

 o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps the French refugees 

 brought in the fashion of such entertainments, full of the 

 recollections of the dejeune champetre of Louis XV. and 

 Louis XVI. and their Courts. 



I know a Magnolia in Addison Road I think it must 

 be a M. conspicua that, though crowded up and appa- 

 rently neglected, flowers most beautifully every spring, 

 nearly as well as the famous one which is such a marked 

 ornament every year in the Champs Elysees. A Forsythia 

 at the corner of Marlborough House garden in the early 

 spring has often excited my admiration. I quote these 

 examples to show that plants will grow and flower in 

 London still, if well chosen and cared for. 



For the borders, I recommend no edging ; it is ex- 

 . pensive and useless. The gravel is enough; and it is, 

 I think, prettier to disguise the fact of a line than to 

 accentuate it. Plant what you have in bold clumps 

 the tall plants, of course, at the back ; but rather in waves 

 of height, with bays of the front low-growing things, 

 running back towards and under the wall. Anything 



