n8 WALL AND WATER GARDENS 



I venture to entreat those who are about to plant 

 Rhododendrons in watery places not to plant them, 

 as has been done so often, on a small round island. 

 I lived for twenty years in a pretty place of some 

 fifty acres where there were three streams and two 

 good-sized ponds. In one of the ponds were three 

 islands, two of them of fair size and closely wooded 

 with Alders and large Grey Poplars and smaller under- 

 wood, but the third and smallest was the worst form 

 of small round pudding of Rhododendrons, about 

 thirty feet across. When ponds are being artificially 

 made it is tempting to leave islands, and if well 

 arranged and planted they may be beautiful, although, 

 in nearly all cases, except where there is unlimited 

 space, a promontory is more pictorial, and favours in 

 a greater degree the sense of mystery as to the extent 

 of the water and the direction of the unseen shore. 



If there is or must be a small island it is far better 

 to plant it with an Alder and a group of Silver Birch. 

 The rounded forms of the Rhododendrons add pain- 

 fully to the rounded dumpiness of the little island. 

 It is better to group them on the shore and to plant 

 the island with something of upright form that will 

 give beautiful reflection in the water, or to let it be 

 covered with non-woody vegetation. 



The common Rhododendron ponticum, with one or 

 two of bold growth that have white flowers, such 

 as " Minnie," and some of the tall, free lilac- whites 

 such as Album grandiflorum and Album elegans, will 

 make the best possible combination. If with these 

 there are some groups of Silver Birch, and the 



