RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 209 



hardy water lilies, and around which may be gath- 

 ered some wet-footed plants. 



There are two old cherry trees in the front lawn 

 that are dying. At the foot of the most decrepit 

 is growing the Excelsa rose previously mentioned, 

 which in one season has mounted about fifteen feet 

 (as shown on the frontispiece), and ought in due 

 course to swing its crimson garlands in the breeze 

 from the topmost remaining limbs another year. 

 This is the trial; and if it seems a success, the other 

 old veteran will change its bearing in June from 

 cherries to roses, or mayhap wistaria. 



Other things are to be done. The good plants 

 I want to naturahze as "weeds" are to be selected 

 and placed; the iris planting is to be made more 

 representative; a peony garden wiU come if 

 "shekels" appear for it; some North Carolina 

 mountain evergreen shrubs — ^the leucothoe, the 

 galax, and certain azalea-rhododendrons — are to 

 fiU a corner that will be home for them, I hope; a 

 long hedge of climbers, not roses, is to form a 

 semi-screen for the west garden. Thus, and other- 

 wise, the garden is to grow; for it is, and has been, 

 a true growing garden. And I have thought it 

 worth while, in planning and planting, to take into 

 account what would happen if again this old place 

 were abandoned. God willing, I believe that even 



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