ENGLISH COTTAGE GARDENS 339 



elements the materials, or plants, and the national style of 

 gardening. 



THE MATERIAL TOO DIFFERENT 



The easiest way to prove that we cannot copy English cot- 

 tage gardens is to show that the material is too different. Let us 

 go back to Tennyson's description and run over his list of plants. 

 By "traveller's joy" he means Clematis Fitalba, which is somewhat 

 like our own Clematis Firginiana. English ivy will not luxuriate 

 in our Northern states as it does in Europe. "Vine" means the 

 European grape and we cannot grow that outdoors east of the 

 Rockies. "Rose tree" is the same as tree rose; standards are not 

 hardy. By "jasmine" he means Jasminum officinale, the white 

 jessamine of the poets, which is not hardy in the latitude of Phila- 

 delphia without a sheltering wall and winter protection. 



But Tennyson's list is only the beginning of trouble. Roses 

 are the most precious of all flowers. The English labouring man 

 gets large, double, fragrant roses from June to October with a 

 minimum of effort. He does not have to contend with the rose 

 chafer, or "rose bug" as we wrongly call it. In America roses do 

 not bloom all summer save on the Pacific coast. Climbing 

 roses rarely reach to the third story of a big house. We find that 

 roses require more care and cause more loss and disappointment 

 in America than any other flower. 



All summer, the cottager's yard is gay with flowers. While 

 geraniums and cannas are about the only bedding plants that will 

 bloom all summer here with a minimum of attention, the English 

 cottager can have many others. To grow tuberous begonias in 

 America requires peculiar conditions and considerable skill, but 

 in England it is no trick at all. An American labourer may have a 

 bed of coleus, which is as gaudy, flowerless and monotonous as it 



