The Seasons' Round 



Nestling against the outer edge of the heather is a 

 mass of Crocus biflorus, in their half-opened state look- 

 ing like big pearly eggs in a nest of feathery green. A 

 little sea of lavender and sapphire ripples all around, 

 the result of letting Crocus tommasiniamis have its 

 own way and wander where it will. To complete the 

 picture, a rugged bit of grey limestone, creviced and 

 crannied by a thousand years of weathering, rises from 

 a cushion of low-growing, summer-flowering heather, 

 Ericas hypnoides and cinera. That is February. In 

 April and May the Berberis are still equally beautiful, 

 but in another way. New leaves for old ; but an ever- 

 present sense of soft and exquisite colour harmony is 

 there, for the Grape Hyacinth has taken the place of 

 the Crocus, and the Crimean Irises now shed their blue, 

 cream, grey, and white loveliness around, whilst the 

 Mediterranean Heaths, pink and white, still retain much 

 of their spring beauty. The orange and yellow flowers 

 of the Berberis are over by this time, but have made a 

 brilliant interlude between these two periods. By July 

 the garden all around is so full of colour that these 

 minor effects become less obvious, but they now form a 

 quiet and reposeful part of the whole, and with the 

 opening of the first autumn Crocus or Colchicum in 

 August a new interest begins, and goes on through the 

 autumn glow of foliage and berry in the Berberis ; the 

 autumn-flowering Dorset Heath, Erica ciliaris, and the 

 Irish Heath, Menziesia polifolia, add their rich purple 

 to the scheme. These effects linger on until the winter 

 Heather again opens its flowers in December, and the 

 year begins once more for this miniature Heath garden, 

 for that is what it really is, and one without an ounce 



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