CHAPTER II. 



THE OPEN FLOWER-GARDEN. 



§ ] , — AMEEICAN GARDEN. 



This is understood to be a department in large 

 gardens or in extensive grounds, as the Ameri- 

 can ground is in nurseries, for the culture of 

 plants, comprising many different species, which 

 BO far only have an affinity with each other as to 

 require a peculiar soil, without which few of 

 them can be successfiilly cultivated. There 

 seems, however, to be some incongruity in the 

 term, as a great majority of the plants and trees 

 found in such a department are in reality not 

 of American origin, but from most extra-tropical 

 quarters of the globe ; though the types of some 

 of the most important of them are found in 

 America, as Azalea, Rhododendron, Magnolia, 

 &c., while individuals of even these genera are 

 also natives of China, India, &c. The term is, 

 however, sanctioned both by long custom and 

 also by cultivators, and is probably, in the main, 

 as correct as rosary, or rosarium, is to a garden 

 of roses, or aquarium to a pond in which aquatic 

 plants are grown. 



Situation. — The American garden should oc- 

 cupy aplace within the enclosed pleasure-grounds, 

 and, like the rosarium, should form a link in the 

 chain of connection which unites the different 

 parts of the grounds between the mansion and 

 kitchen- garden, or other point of attraction, 

 which the proprietor or his friends may wish to 

 visit. As the proper soil for the plants is of so 

 much importance, it may happen in some cases 

 that such a soil may exist naturally in some 

 other part of the grounds ; and if such be within 

 a convenient distance, and otherwise eligibly 

 situated, there is no reason why it should not be 

 adopted, in preference to transporting the soil 

 to another situation; and this would be the more 

 reasonable, if the American ground is to be on a 

 large scale. Although many of such plants re- 

 quire a dry soil, as the azalea — particularly 

 during winter and early spring — still most 

 of them, as the rhododendron, are greatly bene- 

 fited by partial irrigation during the season of 

 making their young wood : the means of obtain- 

 ing this irrigation should be thought of in select- 

 ing the site ; and where this cannot be acquired 

 by natural means, then artificial ones must be 

 had recourse to. Many of this class of plants 

 require full exposure to the sun and air, as the 

 azalea; 'others, like the rhododendron, thrive 



well under the partial shade of trees ; and the 

 more tender of them require shelter from cut- 

 ting winds and severe frosts, which shelter may 

 be afforded by surrounding plantations. The 

 more common of them may be planted under 

 the shade of trees in shrubberies, and also for 

 forming evergreen underwood and cover for 

 game, for which they are better adapted than 

 any other evergreen plants, with the exception 

 of the holly, on account of their seldom being 

 injured by frost, even when laurels, &c., are cut 

 down to the ground. Some of them prosper 

 best in the sun, others in the shade— some in 

 dry ground, others in that which is somewhat 

 moist; but none when constantly kept saturated 

 with water. An American garden upon a large 

 scale would be happily situated in a ravine or 

 rocky glen, in which large patches of peaty 

 soil naturally exist ; and if this description of 

 situation had both a south and north exposure, 

 and was sheltered from the east and west winds, 

 it would be all that could be desired. The plants 

 of shade, like the rhododendron, would occupy 

 the northern aspect, which would also have the 

 important advantage of preventing too early 

 growth, and hence escaping the disastrous effects 

 of late spring-frosts, particularly as regards the 

 numerous beautifiil hybrids claiming a parentage 

 from R. arborea. So far as our present expe- 

 rience goes, it would also be of all others the 

 best situation for the Sikkim species and varieties, 

 as well as for those of Upper India in general. 

 Northern aspects present another advantage as 

 concerns late spring-frosts, for should the plants 

 be exposed to a more than usually low tempera- 

 ture during night, its effects will be gradually 

 removed before the sun's rays can reach them, 

 thus preventing the consequences so often expe- 

 rienced of warm sunny days succeeding cold 

 frosty nights. Another advantage is that vege- 

 tation is not so early excited in northern aspects 

 as in southern ones, and hence plants so situated 

 often escape the effects of late spring-frosts, 

 when the same kinds, planted on a southern 

 and earlier aspect, are considerably injured. 

 All plants disposed to flower early in the 

 spring should, therefore, be placed in a northern 

 aspect, for reasons the intelligent cultivator is 

 well aware of. The southern aspect will accom- 

 modate the azalea and such sun-loving plants; 

 the deep deposits, the magnolias and other deep- 



