In My Vicarage Garden 



they were excellent. It would be too long to go 

 through many more of the herbaceous plants ; it 

 is enough to say that, with scarcely an exception, 

 they were all so vigorous that the record of their 

 beauty in the summer of 1900 will be a lasting 

 memory to every gardener. 



I must go to the shrubs, for it was in the 

 shrubs especially that the long heat of the 

 summer of 1899 produced such wonderful effects 

 in the summer of 1900. Wistarias, both white 

 and blue, almost recalled the pictures that we 

 have seen of them as grown in the gardens of 

 Japan, where they are especial favourites ; but I 

 was surprised that none of them produced fruit. 

 I have never seen the fruit of the blue Wistaria, 

 but last year my white one had a great many of 

 its pretty bean-like fruits ; this year there were 

 none, though the flowers were abundant, and 

 looked so healthy that in such a summer I 

 naturally looked for a crop of fruit. The 

 Catalpas were everywhere loaded with flowers, 

 but in my own garden the beauty both of leaves 

 and flowers was much marred by the strong 

 gales in the beginning of August. The Christ's 

 thorn {Paliurus) was a sheet of pale gold, and 

 was, I think, more beautiful in my own garden 

 than where I saw it in its wild habitats in North 

 Italy ; it is a plant that I admire for its beauty as 

 much as for its historical interest, and I wonder 

 it is not more frequently to be seen in English 

 gardens. But if I were to pick out the shrub 



