246 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



the refined colour, tree form and the fine contrast of evergreen and 

 summer-leafing trees. In any real garden in winter there is much 

 beauty of form and colour, and there are many shrubs and trees 

 which are beautiful in the depth of winter, like the Red and 

 Yellow Willow and Dogwoods, and even the stems of hardy flowers 

 (Polygonum) ; the foliage of many alpine plants (Epimedium) are not 

 only good in colour, but some of these plants have their freshest hues 

 in winter, as the mossy Rockfoils of many kinds. In the country 

 garden, where there are healthy evergreens as well as flowering 

 shrubs and hardy plants, how much beauty we see in winter, from 

 the foliage of the Christmas Roses (Helleborus) to the evergreen 

 Barberries ! The flower gardener should be the first to take notice 

 of this beauty, and show that his domain as well as the wild wood, 

 might be interesting at this season. 



For the dismal state of flower-gardens in winter the extravagant 

 practice of our public gardens is partly to blame. A walk by the 

 flower beds in Hyde Park on Christmas Day, 1895, was not a very 

 enlivening thing. One by the bent-bound dunes of the foam-dashed 

 northern shore, on the same stormy day, might be more instructive 

 for here is a large garden carried out with the very extravagance of 

 opulence, and not one leaf, or shoot or plant, or bush in it from end 

 to end ; giants' graves and earth puddings these and iron rails and 

 the line of planes behind. The bare beds follow each other with 

 irritating monotony only five feet of grass between those in line. 

 The southern division of this garden is nearly 500 paces long, and 

 so even that those not in the habit of seeing this costly garden 

 may imagine its ill effect in winter. Nearly 500 yards of a garden 

 sacrificed for its kaleidoscopic effects in summer, and barer and uglier 

 in winter than words can tell of. A more inartistic arrangement 

 would be impossible and there is no chance of variety, breadth, or 

 repose even in summer. 



How are we to break up such an arid space as this in winter ? One 

 of the best ways would be to group families of the choicest flowering 

 shrubs, which would be worth having for their own sakes, and at 

 the same time would give relief to the wintry waste of desolation. 

 At present any relief is only to be obtained by carrying out, in early 

 summer, Palms and Bamboos from the hot-house, which is a very 

 expensive and poor way in a country like ours. In forming groups 

 of the more beautiful flowering shrubs, I do not mean anything like 

 the present brutal treatment of shrubs in the London squares, where 

 the surface is dug, and the shrubs are trimmed like besoms, ending 

 in frightful ugliness ; but each group of plants grown well by itself 

 and let almost alone when once established. They would give relief 

 in the summer ; they often flower beautifully ; and here and there 



