The Garden in Mid-Winter 



answers ; mine would be whole-heartedly for 

 making the best of circumstances. There may- 

 be great men, and great gardeners, who claim 

 to mould the world, and its soils, to their will ; 

 history is witness that they generally come to 

 grief in the end. So let us waste little time 

 upon our turf here, and if we wish to see it in 

 perfection, after its " rolling and cutting once a 

 week for a thousand years," let us revisit the 

 Oxford of our youth in May. 



There is no great change this month in the 

 ordinary run of our garden flowers. The 

 sweet peas are growing apace, but it will be 

 February before they bloom. A magnificent 

 IVigandia is rearing its great purple heads 

 above a wealth of giant green leaves. For 

 stately dignity it is unsurpassed, and its rapid 

 growth is prodigious. Three years ago a small 

 plant in a pot was given to us by a friend, 

 and to-day masses of it, twelve feet high and 

 flowering profusely, are perhaps the most 

 striking feature of our garden. 



Like the roses, the flowering climbers are 

 this winter beautiful without precedent. The 

 orange Bignonia indeed is beginning to show 

 signs of decadence, but the Bougainvilleas are 



65 F 



