A.y EARLY WINTER GARDEN IN CALIFORNIA. 



85 



a very handsome large plant. About one winter in 

 five it is killed to the roots, but always sprouts out 

 again. Near it are large orange and lemon trees, 

 heavily fruited and in bloom. A plant of the Brug- 

 inansia suavcolcns, perhaps five feet high, is loaded 

 with its large sweet, white flowers. This sounds 

 semi-tropical, certainly, and innumerable such illus- 

 trations of the climate could be given from plants 

 within sight of where I sit and write this. But, on 

 the other hand, at the corner of the kitchen is a pile 

 of boxes of winter apples and pears, grown in the 

 orchard, a quarter of a mile distant : grown on the 

 same kind of soil, at the same elevation, with the 

 same exposure ? There are Bellflowers, Baldwins, 

 Newtown Pippins, Limber Twigs, Spitzenburgs, Jon- 

 athans, and all the old apples, with a few California 

 seedlings besides ; there are Easter Beurre, Winter 

 Nelis, Beurre Clairgeau, and other winter pears. 



But I must not wander so far away from the gar- 

 den, in the midst of which I sit in my shirt- sleeves 

 this warm November afternoon, and watch the men 

 at work in that curiously confusing way incidental 

 to California. One man is replanting daffodils and 

 paper-white narcissuses which have become too 

 crowded, but some of those he takes up are ready 

 to bloom and, in fact, some which he left have been 

 in bloom a week and more. Another is pruning 

 cherry-trees. Still another is plowing in the or- 

 ange grove. A fourth is bleaching and sacking wal- 

 nuts and almonds which have been drj'ing on wooden 

 frames in the sunlight. Many different operations 

 of field and garden mingle strangely at this season 

 here. The house-servant goes down to pick black- 

 berries for tea, and passes men digging blackberry 

 plants for sale, and others planting out blackberry 

 roots for sale next winter. The same may be said 

 of raspberries and strawberries. There are ripe ber- 

 ries, green berries and blossoms often on the plants 

 dug up to be sent away. 



" I don't know which to do first to-day,"' said one 

 of the men a little while ago, "whether to sow peas 

 in the vegetable garden, or gather the quinces and 

 box them for market." 



I have been walking around the garden again, just 

 to notice what I find in bloom. I have rather a dis- 

 like for the set lists, in double columns, of ' ' flowers 

 blooming at noon on January i, in the south-west 



corner of Smith's old sheep pasture." The botan- 

 ical journals do not print such things as often as they 

 did 15 years ago. I would rather make one feel, if 

 possible, the wealth of color and fragrance in the 

 air of this warm Santa Clara valley, hardly four 

 miles from the bay of San Francisco. I have told 

 you of the bees in the ivy. The humming-birds 

 gather about the great abutilon bushes, so laden 

 with drooping turbans of mottled carnelian. If w e 

 did not cut the plants nearly to the ground every 

 year, they would be trees, 20 feet high. The}' bloom 

 unceasingly, just as the fuchsia-hedges do, and o\ev 

 them the humming-birds poise and dart with their 

 gleaming, musical motion. But if I were making a 

 list ? Then I should not forget the wide chrysanthe- 

 mum beds, named varieties staked up, and ready 

 to go on till Christmas. Nor the masses of cosmos, 

 just in their prime : nor the dahlia, geranium, glad- 

 iolus and petunia. The Anemone japonica is still 

 blooming, as it has for months, one of the most sat- 

 isfactory of all our garden favorites. There are 

 pansies still, the violets have come, and, as I ha\-e 

 hinted, the daffodils will be here before many weeks. 

 Of such fiber is woven the warp and woof of Cali- 

 fornia gardening ; almost perennial life, almost per- 

 petual growth, burden the soil w ith surprises. And 

 what is that so spicily fragrant in the air, as the 

 south wind blows across the avenue ? Onlj' the lo- 

 quat blossoms {Mcspihis japonica)\ and by April the 

 clusters of yellowish sub-acid fruits will be ripe. 



In all the sweep of vision, hardly anything except 

 the large American tulip tree (liriodendron), and the 

 rows of Japanese persimmon trees show autumn 

 garbs. The leaves of the former are golden yellow ; 

 the latter is loaded with rosy, crimson and purple 

 leaves, magnificent in shading and artistic effect. 

 The American black walnut and some of the Per- 

 sian walnuts begin to look quite like winter, but the 

 figs still hold their green leaves and ripe fruit, and 

 the pecan avenue is as beautiful as in mid-summer! 

 A horticulturist, used only to climates of sharply 

 contrasted season, is struck with a sort of bewilder- 

 ment at such a state of affairs, — but I have written 

 down, with strict attention to details, the everyday 

 aspects of early November here. 



Charles Howard Shinn. 



Alameda County, California. 



