124 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



\vhat soil and climate allow of, and in that way we arrive at the most 

 important artistic gain of all, i.e. that each garden has its own distinct 

 charms. 



A very lovely group is the Lilacs, much enriched of recent years 

 by the introduction of new species and many charming varieties of 

 the common old Lilac lovely plants, worthy of the finest days of our 

 English spring. Few of the forms found in France seem to thrive 

 in our gardens, owing to grafting on the Privet, which often, after 

 a year or two's poor bloom, kills the plant and begins to take care 

 of itself. How much evil has been done to English ideas of flowering 

 shrubs by thrusting this Privet everywhere ! Lilacs, being hardy in 

 all parts of Britain, deserve our best care, and should always be 

 grouped together in the open sun. They should always be bought 

 from nurserymen who raise them from layers or suckers in the good 

 old way, and should be, once grown up, always kept a little open 

 and free by simple pruning, so that we may get handsome trusses. 

 With these, too, must be grouped such lovely things as the Snow- 

 drop tree, the Stuartias, and bush Magnolias. The Magnolias have 

 recently become more numerous, and it will be easy soon to have 

 a Magnolia garden, at least in favoured places. The tree Mag- 

 nolias should come among the taller flowering trees in the distant 

 parts of our flower grove Horse Chestnuts, Buckeyes, Tulip Trees, 

 Laburnums, Catalpa, and Yellow Wood. The Alpine Laburnum, 

 so very beautiful in bloom, becomes a tall slender tree where not 

 overcrowded, and the flowering Ash (Ornus) must not be forgotten 

 among the taller flowering trees. For the Paulownia, so beautiful in 

 France and Italy in spring, our climate is not warm enough to secure 

 full size or health, save in the most favoured places in the south. 



Some shrubs of modest charm as to their flowers give very pretty 

 effects in well-placed groups, such as the flowering Currant, Tamarix, 

 and Ceanothus on walls. But none are more charming than the wild 

 Roses in summer, the Sweet Briar being taken as representing our 

 native wild Roses ; the Glossy Rose (R. lucida), the American wild 

 Roses ; the many-flowered Rose (Polyantha), and the Japanese 

 (R. rugosa). These and others I have planted in hedgerows and 

 rough fences, and have never planted anything that has given a 

 more beautiful return. 



The Judas Tree is neglected in England, and rarely planted in 

 an effective way. In the Pare Monceau in Paris there is a beautiful 

 grove of it in which trees of various ages form one family party, so to 

 say, showing some differences in colour and earliness. Such slight 

 but often valuable differences arise when we raise trees from seed 

 and do not slavishly follow the habit of grafting one thing on another. 

 This is one of the gains of following a more natural mode of 



