THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



831 



interest for our gardens and home grounds, 

 in which they are much neglected. Not- 

 withstanding the number of trees in the 

 country, I doubt if there is a more pictur- 

 esque one than the Babylonian Willow, 

 which is not common in many districts 

 about London, although it is by the river 

 and in the eastern counties. There are 

 many, however, who plant this who do 

 not care for handsome Willows of erect 

 habit, but, as we think, with more beauty 

 of colour, such as the scarlet-barked or 

 cardinal Willow, and even the old yellow 

 Willow. Of late years a number of other 

 Weeping Willows have been propagated 

 in Germany and elsewhere, so that we 

 are no longer confined to the old Weeping 

 Willow, which was apt to be cut down 

 occasionally in hard winters. When the 



Old Pollarded Willow in Suffolk, after Strutt. 



gardener plants a Willow, it is generally 

 some curious one with a mop head, like 

 the " American " Weeping Willow. Coun- 

 try gentlemen should therefore take the 

 Tree Willows under their own care, and 

 plant them in bold groups and colonies 

 here and there, by water or in wet or 

 marshy places. A marshy place planted 

 with underwood formed of the yellow or 

 red Willow would be charmingly pictur- 

 esque in winter indeed at all times and 

 there is no difficulty in getting any of 

 these W T illows by the hundred or thousand. 

 In places which are much haunted by the 

 rabbit, young Willows of these kinds go 

 very rapidly, and, planted by streams in 

 meadows where there are cattle, they are 

 nibbled down, so that in certain districts 

 a little care may be wanted to protect 

 them. None of the Willows here men- 

 tioned should ever be grafted. I have 

 skeleton Willows alongside some ponds, 

 the sad remains of grafted Willows which 

 were interesting and little-known kinds, 

 all grafted on the common Sallow (Salix 

 caprea}. The grafted portion gradually 

 died ; the stump on which they are grafted 



remained sound, and from it have come 

 the vigorous shoots of many Withies. 

 Inasmuch as the whole country and the 

 woods near have many of the same tree, 

 which seeds everywhere, this unsought 

 plantation of a common tree by garden 

 ponds is far from a gain. " As easy to 

 strike as a Willow," is a proverb among 

 gardeners, and there is no good reason 

 for grafting these plants. The graceful 

 Willow, called in our gardens the American 

 Willow, is invariably grafted on the Sallow, 

 and if not watched and the suckers re- 

 moved, will quickly perish ; but if a shoot 

 of this plant be hanging into water it 

 quickly roots, showing how easily the trees 

 could be increased if nurserymen would 

 take the trouble to do it in the right way. 

 The objection to the grafting is, first of 

 all, the frequent death of the tree ; 

 secondly, falsified and weak growth, and, 

 where it does not die, endless trouble ; 

 thirdly, we lose some of the true uses of 

 the tree, the habit not lending itself 

 always to grafting on the standard 

 form. Why should we not be able to 

 use the Weeping Willows as rock or 

 bank plants, not on standards, in which 

 form the growth is often less graceful than 

 on our own root trees ? Though we think 

 the finest Willows for effect in the land- 

 scape are the Tree Willows, in all garden 

 ground the Weeping Willows are likely 

 to be the most planted, and we should 

 guard against an excessive use of them 

 in home landscape owing to this same 

 weeping habit. One large isolated Weep- 

 ing Willow, or a group of such trees on 

 the margin of water, gives a much better 

 effect than a number dotted about. Fur- 

 ther, the Weeping Willow ungrafted when 

 isolated has an advantage over many 

 other weeping trees in its beauty of habit, 

 all is grace and softness ; like a fountain 

 of water, the branches rise lightly into 

 the air to fall again gracefully. On the 

 other hand, in most other weeping trees 

 artificially made by grafting on standards 

 there is none of this lightness of aspect 

 and of form. Willows are admirably 

 suited for giving us an abundance of 

 shade where this is desired, and they are 

 among the hardy trees that thrive in and 

 near towns. Only the Willows most effec- 

 tive in the home landscape and in the 

 home woods are named here. Some small 

 and alpine Willows are interesting for 

 the rock-garden, but they are more suited 

 for botanical collections. The dwarf 

 creeping kinds grown in gardens are 

 6". kerbacecz, S. lanata, S. reticulata, and *5\ 

 serpyllifolia, all natives of the northern 

 parts of Europe and America. They 



