CHAPTER VI 



THE MAIN HARDY FLOWER BORDER 



The big flower border is about two hundred feet long 

 and fourteen feet wide. It is sheltered from the north 

 by a solid sandstone wall about eleven feet high clothed 

 for the most part with evergreen shrubs — Bay and 

 Laurustinus, Choisya, Cistus and Loquat. These show 

 as a handsome background to the flowering plants. 

 They are in a three-foot-wide border at the foot of the 

 wall ; theii there is a narrow alley, not seen from the 

 front, but convenient for access to the 'ftrall shrubs and 

 for working the back of the border. 



As it is impossible to^k eep any one flower border 

 fully dressed for the whole summer, and as it suits me 

 that it should be at its best in the late summer, there 

 is no attempt to have it full of flowers as early as June. 

 Another region belongs to June ; so that at that time 

 the big border has only some inci dents of good bloom, 

 though the ground is rapidly covering with the strong 

 patches, most of them from three to five years old, of 

 the later-blooming perennials. But early in the month 

 there are some clumps of the beautiful Iris Pallida 

 dalmatica in the regions of grey foliage, and of the 

 splendid blue-purple bloom of Geranium ibericum 

 platyphyllum, the best of the large Cranesbills, and the 



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