196 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



Have a sunk tub, in the sun, under a tap, from which 

 to fill a watering-pot, to water more delicate things ; and 

 do not hose too much, especially if your soil is damp, 

 except in very warm weather. On the walls have Bihes 

 sangmneum and Porsythias, as they flower very early. 

 Vines and Kg-trees, white Jasmine, and Jasminum nudi- 

 fiorum, all do well in London. Wherever there is room 

 on the walls facing south put the deciduous Magnolias 

 (see ' English Mower Garden '). The Magnolia grandi- 

 fiora has such poUshed and very shiny leaves ; it grows 

 very well near London. I remember some very fine 

 plants of the same that used to grow in gardens at 

 Walham Green and Pulham, where in my youth people 

 gave what are now called garden-parties and used then 

 to be called ' Breakfasts ' — why, I do not know, as they 

 never began till three o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps 

 the French refugees brought in the fashion of such enter- 

 tainments, full of the recollections of the dijeuni champStre 

 of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. and their Courts. 



I know a Magnolia in Addison Boad — I think it must 

 be a M. conspicua — that, though crowded up and appa- 

 rently neglected, flowers most beautifully every spring, 

 nearly as well as the famous one which is such a marked 

 ornament every year in the Champs Blys6es. A Forsythia 

 at the comer of Marlborough House garden in the early 

 spring has often excited my admiration. I quote these 

 examples to show that plants will grow and flower in 

 London still, if well chosen and cared for. 



For the borders, I recommend no edging ; it is ex- 

 pensive and useless. The gravel is enough ; and it is, 

 I think, prettier to disguise the fact of a line than to 

 accentuate it. Plant what you have in bold clumps — 

 the tall plants, of couxse, at the back ; but rather in waves 

 of height, with bays of the front low-growing things, 

 running back towards and under the wall. Anything 



