144 GARDENS OF ENGLAND 



I thought this brief history of the sweetest of 

 spring flowers would be interesting, for at no 

 period has the plant in one or other of its forms 

 played a greater part in the garden and in the 

 park. This is due to the many beautiful strains, 

 as the nurseryman describes certain groups of 

 flowers, strains having the most refined and 

 intense colours, some a full rich crimson, as 

 rich as the double crimson primrose itself. It is 

 in large beds such as I remember in the Hampton 

 Court Gardens, that the primroses should be 

 planted, and the bewildering variety of shades is 

 a source of keen delight, but it must be re- 

 membered that the plants are raised from seed 

 saved from the finest types. 



But one may have primroses in the woodland, 

 a primrose garden perhaps, such as Miss Jekyll 

 has at Munstead Wood. There, in a clearing 

 from the wood are gathered together those bunch 

 primroses of which I have already written, and in 

 the cool light of a spring evening there seems a 

 mysterious beauty in the bold massing of flowers 

 of white and yellow shades. A subtle scent is 

 wafted from this flower-covered clearing in the 

 wood, and we feel the joy of spring, its fragrance, 

 colour, and sunshine. 



