My Garden in Spring 



rhizomes, but this could not be allowed, and so it got cut 

 back, and then took to climbing up the dry wall that holds 

 up the river bank at the back. It has now reached the 

 top, and looks so happy clinging to the stones that I have 

 cleared it out altogether from the peat bed. Just now, 

 before its huge, Lotus-shaped leaves have grown up, the fat 

 marbled rhizomes and tall naked scapes bearing the flat 

 heads of pretty pink flowers look very strange clinging to 

 and springing from the wall. 



They may be seen in the right-hand corner of the 

 illustration of the fine old Tamarix tetrandra that now, 

 in late May, is the glory of the whole garden. It is 

 one soft cloud of Strawberry-ice pink, as fluffy and 

 light as Marabou feathers, not a green leaf as yet visible ; 

 and against the background of oaks it stands out like 

 a bush in a pantomime scene of the Fairy Princess' 

 Garden, and one almost expects to see it suddenly lit 

 up with electric lights, and then divided asunder to 

 reveal the Princess reclining on a gilded couch, &c., &c. 

 It does look most astonishingly unreal' out here in the 

 open air, and what surprises me is that it is so seldom 

 seen in gardens. It is perfectly hardy, easy to strike 

 from cuttings, grows rapidly, is graceful in outline, truly 

 marvellous when in flower in May, and beautifully feathery 

 when in leaf from June to November. Yet you rarely 

 see it, while Dorothy Perkins scratches your nose and 

 claws your hat off in every garden you go into. Coto- 

 neaster horizontalis tries its best to block the path up here, 

 and would manage to do so were it not for me and my 

 secateurs. Hedera conglomerata has monopolised the top 

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