36 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



until the summer flowers were planted, sometimes very late ; so that 

 in June, when we ought to have flowers or, at least, pleasant colour 

 wholly over the ground, there was nothing but grave-like earth, but the 

 spring flowers round a country house should be grown in a different 

 way. They may be naturalised in multitudes, grown in borders, in 

 special little gardens for bulbs, and in various other ways without in 

 the least disturbing the beds near the house, which should for the 

 most part be planted permanently, so that the greatest amount of 

 beauty may be had throughout the fine months, without disfiguring 

 the beds during those months. 



But the permanent flowers should be hardy, and of the highest order 

 of beauty, and such as require more than a few weeks or months for 

 development ; though here and there blanks might be filled with 

 good, tender plants, like Heliotrope. Many of the hardy flowers, 

 too, should be fragrant Tea Roses, Carnations, and tufted Pansies ; 

 all those, grown in large groups, give off a grateful odour round a 

 house. What is the soil in these gardens for ? Why do people make 

 them ? Surely it is not to have them laid down to grass in a 

 country like ours where grass in park, meadow, lawn, and playground 

 is seen on all sides? The objection to the bare surface of beds 

 in such gardens is a just one ; but it is easily got rid of by 

 permanent planting ; and if the ground in the early state of the 

 bed or from any other cause is bare below the flowers, it is quite 

 easy to surface the beds with small rock and other plants of good 

 colour nearly all the year. 



ENGLISH COTTAGE GARDENS are never bare and seldom ugly. 

 Those who look at sea or sky or wood see beauty that no art can 

 show ; but among the things made by man nothing is prettier than 

 an English cottage garden, and they often teach lessons that " great " 

 gardeners should learn, and are pretty from Snowdrop time till the 

 Fuchsia bushes bloom nearly into winter. We do not see the same 

 thing in other lands. The bare cottages of Belgium and North France 

 are shocking in their ugliness ; even in Ireland and Scotland we do 

 not see the same charming little gardens, nor are they so good in 

 some parts of England ; as in Surrey, Kent, and the southern 

 counties. I often pass a small cottage garden in the Weald of 

 Sussex never without a flower for nine months in the year. It is 

 only a square patch, but the beauty of it is far more delightful 

 than that of the large gardens near, and it is often pretty when they 

 are bare. 



What is the secret of the cottage garden's charms ? Cottage 

 gardeners are good to their plots, and in the course of years they 

 make them fertile, and the shelter of the little house and hedge 

 favours the flowers. But there is something more and it is the 



