94 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



pensable in the good garden of hardy flowers, is not a plant for 

 the Primrose garden, as it makes no show in the mass. The grand 

 Primroses for garden effect are the large bunch-flowered kinds, white, 

 yellow, and orange-coloured, red, crimson, and rich brown ; of infinite 

 variety in form, texture, habit, and colouring, easy to raise to any 

 amount by seed, as also by division of the older plants. A Primrose 

 garden (part of which is here illustrated), that for some years has 

 been an ever-increasing source of pleasure and interest to its owners, 

 was formed a few years ago by making an opening about 70 yards 

 long, and varying from 10 yards to 15 yards wide, through a wild 

 copse of young Birch trees. The natural soil was very poor and 

 sandy, so it was prepared by a thorough trenching and a liberal 

 addition of loam and manure, which has to be renewed every year. 

 No formal walks are made, but one main track is trodden down 

 about 2 feet wide near the middle of the space, dividing into two here 

 and there, where a broader clearing makes it desirable to have two 

 paths in the width. The older divided plants are put into groups 

 of a colour together, from twenty to fifty of a sort. The groups 

 of seedlings are of necessity more various, though they are more or 

 less true to the parent colour, so that a patch of a hundred seedlings 

 from yellows, for instance will give a general effect of yellow 

 throughout the group. The whites and yellows are kept at one end 

 of the garden, and the reds at the other ; the deepest yellows next to 

 the reds. Seen from a little distance, the yellow and white part of the 

 Primrose garden looks like a river of silver and gold flowing through 

 the copse. The white stems of the Birches and the tender green of 

 their young leaves help to form a pretty picture, which is at its best 

 when the whole is illuminated by the evening sunlight." 



Some of the Plants for Reserve Garden and for Cutting Flowers. 



