302 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



at Batsford, in Gloucestershire. This new departure soon 

 became a recognized feature, and a rocky place on which 

 to grow Alpines, on a more or less"'ambitious scale, found its 

 way into every well-regulated garden. 



Another development during the last twenty-five years of 

 the century was subtropical gardening. This fashion came in 

 the first instance from Paris, and did something to relieve the 

 formality of " bedding-out," although not nearly as important 

 an improvement as the later movement towards hardy flowers. 

 In England subtropical gardening was first tried in Battersea 

 Park by the superintendent, John Gibson, in 1864, when the 

 Park was quite in its infancy, and was administered with the 

 other Royal parks. Fine results were obtained from planting 

 out the hardier kinds of tree ferns and palms during the summer 

 months, but it was soon found that the best kind of sub- 

 tropical garden was the permanent one. Even in the coldest 

 districts of England numerous plants will grow which give a 

 tropical appearance.^ It was found that various bamboos 

 would flourish even in Norfolk and Suffolk, where the late 

 frosts are most trying to gardeners. Bamhusa Metake, Simonii, 

 viridiglaucescens , and aurea are perfectly hardy, and besides 

 these, such things as Berberis, Aralias, Gunnera scabra, Aristo- 

 lochias, giant Heracleums, Arundo Donax, several species of 

 Rhus and Spirae, Polygonum cuspidatum, Tamarix, Yuccas, 

 Polygonatum muUiflorum, Solomon's seal, Bocconia co^data, and 

 several sorts of Acanthus, besides taller trees, such as the 

 Ailanthus glandulosa, and Japanese maples, were grouped on 

 grass with smaller ferns and grasses to produce a tropical effect. 

 Green gardens composed of such things, forming a pleasant 

 variation from the brighter flowering plants, were planted in 

 some of the colder counties,^ but chiefly in the warmer districts 

 of England, where satisfactory results could be more easily 



^ The Subtropical Garden. By W. Robinson. Second edition, 1879. 

 The Bamboo Garden. By Bertram Freeman Mitford (afterwards Lord 

 Redesdale), 1896. 



* The very fine bamboo-garden at Batsford, Gloucestershire, the ones 

 at Kew and at Shrublands, Suffolk, were among the earliest, and a 

 " green garden," chiefly bamboo, was planted at Didlington, Norfolk, 

 before 1890 ; but for the most part bamboos were only grown in 

 Cornwall and Devonshire. 



