256 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



a year. The main purport of this is 

 said to be to enable one to put in spring 

 garden-plants, mostly consisting of a 

 few Forget-me-nots and ordinary spring 

 flowers. If I get an infinitely more beau- 

 tiful spring garden without this annual 

 toil I may leave my flower garden alone 

 in that respect and work for a real one, 

 in which I need not disturb the inmates 

 more than is necessary for their health. 

 I mean one cannot have a garden of Tea 

 Roses and Carnations, and the many 

 beautiful permanent things, if one has 

 to root up one's garden twice every year 

 in order to stick in a few spring flowers 

 in bad imitation of bedding out. I have 

 had beds of Tea Roses in the same place 

 for seven or even ten years in this en- 

 during way of flower-gardening, but I 

 also have the gain of being able to work 

 at the beds all the winter to plant my 

 new Roses, add choice perennials, pro- 

 tect things which a hard winter might 

 injure, and surface the beds with small 

 plants under the greater ones. And I 

 am not excluded from a little choice 

 spring garden, because, in the beds with 

 Roses, Carnations, and other things best 

 worthy of a real flower garden, I can 

 put a layer of the more beautiful and 

 rare bulbs which would not do so well 

 in the grass, or would be too scarce to 

 risk in that way. And, besides, I have 

 but to look over the old terrace-wall 

 from March to the end of May, to see 

 a far finer spring garden in the turf than 

 could ever be set out in the usual way. 

 For years past many people, having got 

 tired of bedding-out in their old flower 

 gardens, and not knowing what to do, 

 have turfed them up; thus we see flower 



gardens attempted anywhere but in the 

 right place. The old idea of a flower 

 garden as a select spot near the house 

 is the right one, be the soil what it may. 

 The present way of scattering beds over 

 lawns and kitchen gardens without plan 

 or coherence, and even in woods and 

 about pleasure grounds, is a weak and 

 inartistic one, making up in no way for 

 the loss of the real flower garden ; this 

 can never be made rightly without some 

 permanent way of planting the beds. 



S 1 *' 



W *4f 



FINE CAMELLIAS IN THE 

 SOUTH-WEST. 



That the Camellia is a plant needing glass shel- 

 ter is an erroneous but too widely credited idea. 

 The Camellia is a hardy shrub, and cases have 

 occurred where the Cherry Laurel, the Portu- 

 gal Laurel, and even the common Pontic Rho- 

 dodendron have been injured by frost when a 

 Camellia growing hard by has been unharmed. 

 One reason of its hardiness is that it is slow 

 to start into growth, while its leathery, glossy 

 leaves withstand severe cold. Although it is in 

 the south-west of England that the Camellia is 

 to be seen at its best, its value as an open air shrub 

 in Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex,Berkshire, 

 Northamptonshire, and Middlesex is proved ; 

 it has even been known to thrive in the open 

 200 miles north of London. Very severe frosts 

 have been known to split the main stems of 

 large plants, causing death, but where the outer 

 branches come down to the ground-level, as 

 they do in well-grown isolated bushes in Devon 

 and Cornwall, they effectually shield the main 

 trunk. As the plant blooms in winter and early 

 spring, when frosts and heavy rains are apt to 

 mar the beauty of the flowers, the Camellia is 

 not to be recommended for planting as a flower- 

 ing shrub in exposed sites in bleak districts, for 

 though its foliage may escape injury the blos- 

 soms are likely to suffer from the effects of rainy 

 gales and frosts. Sheltered positions are there- 

 fore best in all but the warmest parts. The cha- 

 racter of the soil, providing that it contains no 

 lime, is of little importance, for examples are 

 1 to be found of flourishing plants growing in 



