44 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



might do earlier, and the very coolness encourages and prolongs 

 the bloom. The shelter of the terrace, with the house behind, 

 helps many things ; but, beyond training, there is little artificial help. 

 It is our privilege of growing so many plants from other countries 

 that makes our open-air gardens so beautiful in the fall of the year : 

 here, when the leaves begin to colour, and when even the Harebell 

 is past its best on the banks, we have a very paradise of flowers. The 

 fact that this fine plant beauty may be enjoyed by all who have a 

 patch of ground and a wall makes it a precious gift, and the plants 

 that here give most flowers are nearly all as easily grown as our 

 common Honeysuckle. 



Loveliest of all the climbers here is the Flame Nasturtium 

 (Tropaeolum speciosum), which* drapes these stately walls, as it does 

 those of many a cottage in Scotland. Admirable for walls as is this 

 fragile and brilliant plant, it is seen to even greater advantage when a 

 delicate shoot runs over a Yew-hedge, with its arrows of colour, 

 and near it on the walls are many flowers of the older and once 

 better-known Tropaeolums ; showy, climbing Nasturtiums of gardens 

 grow high on the walls, and add to the rich glow of colours. 

 Nothing could surpass the rich purple of the Clematis here waves 

 of colour, and flowers of great size, the cool hill air suiting them 

 so well. 



In the warm or temperate south, in Madeira or the Riviera, the 

 garden lover sometimes makes a pretty hedge of Oak-leaved 

 Geraniums ; but, as one does not see them in the South of England, 

 it is a surprise to see them happy on the walls here in Scotland, 

 growing from four feet to seven feet high, with fresh foliage and 

 many flowers. Their spicy fragrance and pretty foliage make them 

 worth the trouble of storing in the winter, and placing in the open 

 air in early summer. All the winter they are kept in the house on 

 trellises, and, carefully trained in summer against the warm wall, soon 

 make fresh growth and are in good bloom late in September. 



Large borders of the common river Forget-me-not remind us of 

 its value as compared with the wood and Alpine Forget-me-nots 

 usually grown in gardens. It is beautiful in moist borders, flowering 

 long through summer and autumn. The charm of the place almost 

 ceases with the terraces, for below them is one of those wonderful 

 displays of "bedding out" in its cruder forms, which attains its 

 greatest " glory " near large Scottish houses, plants in squares, 

 repeated by thousands, and walks from which all interest is taken by 

 the planting on each side being of exactly the same pattern. 



STEPS AND TERRACE IN THE OLD PARK, AXMINSTER. This 

 engraving is instructive as regards the bare state of many gardens. For 

 many years past the rule in some of the most pretentious geometrical 



