Tom Tiddler's Ground 



end of the wedge running between the purple and gold 

 groups. As purple-leaved plants are not very numerous, 

 and many of them lose their depth of colouring somewhat 

 in late summer, the general effect is rather of gold and 

 silver, and therefore Tom Tiddler's ground is now a fitter 

 name. Some of the colour effects persist throughout the 

 seasons, especially in the grey corner where Centaurea 

 Clementei, perhaps the most silvery of all white-leaved things, 

 has come through the last two winters with a brave show. 

 The leaves of Cineraria maritima, though dulled by damp, 

 soon dry up and look white an f d fresh in Spring sunshine. 

 Santolina incana is best cut down annually, but I like to 

 leave a few of the plants unshorn till the scissor-snubbed 

 ones have reclothed themselves, to carry on the grey tradi- 

 tion of their clump. The powdered stems of Rubus tibetanus 

 and Rosa Willmottiae rise up among the lowlier plants, 

 and are very effective in Winter and early Spring, but 

 Rubus biflorus is the most startlingly white-stemmed of all, 

 and I am frequently asked why I have whitewashed it. It 

 puts the others so completely out of court that I have it 

 among the variegated silver plants rather than the greys, 

 and there, when most of its neighbours are leafless, it stands 

 out in its coat of paint. Except for Osmanthus ilicifolius 

 fol. purpureis and some dark-leaved Antirrhinums the 

 purple end retires from business in Winter. Cornus 

 Spaethii in the golden end has bright red bark to its young 

 shoots, but Golden Thyme, and a grass or two, with the 

 golden Juniperus sinensis, and the old, old golden Fever- 

 few, keep up the reputation of the golden corner, while 

 Ajuga reptans fol. var., white-flowered Lamium maculatum, 

 Barbarea vulgaris, and this last year a fine specimen of Jack- 

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