The Garden Magazine, June, 1920 
257 
All the walks 
of the garden, 
except those of 
flag stones in 
the Rose gar- 
den, areof grass 
kept closely 
cut. But the 
grass of the 
walks and of 
the bowling 
green is the 
only shaven 
grass on the es- 
tate. The broad 
expanse be- 
tween the house 
and the ponds 
in the valley is 
never in any 
sense a “lawn” 
for close mow- 
ing would de- 
stroy the bulbs 
and plants 
naturalized here. Among the rare plants grown is the so- 
called great California Poppy (Romneya Coulteri) which makes 
a great spreading plant five feet high, covered with the poppy- 
like, white flowers, the beauty of which is greatly enhanced by 
the mass of yellow stamens in each. 
A charming feature is a sunken walk covered with a pergola 
which goes from the house to a walled fruit garden some dis- 
tance away. The loose stone walls on either side of this are 
planted with delightful little hardy plants, while the pergola, 
roughly built of timber cut on the estate, is covered with vines, 
notable among which are the great Japanese Grape, Vitis coign- 
etiae, and the Polygonum Baldschuanicum. This Grape is a 
vigorous, magnificent climber where it is hardy, growing to the 
tops of the tallest trees, and the crimsons, yellows, and bronzes 
of its fall coloring are gorgeous beyond 
description. 
Forestry experiments that are extensive 
and valuable are conducted at Gravetye; 
and the trees and shrubs in the gardens and 
everywhere on the estate are seen in all 
their beauty of natural growth, of course; 
for topiary work is one of Mr. Robinson’s 
particular aversions. 
One of the estate’s most delightful fea- 
tures is the ponds at the bottom of the 
meadow-lawn. A small stream has been 
dammed in two places to make long, 
narrow ponds, the banks of which have 
been planted principally with native trees, 
shrubs and plants. In the water are 
great colonies of the vigorous growing 
Water-lilies— Nymphaea candidissima, N. 
marliacea rosea and N. chromatella — vari- 
eties that make true landscape pictures. 
Mr. Robinson considers the newer hybrids 
too uncertain in color and too weak in 
constitution to be of much value for land- 
scape effects. At the head of the ponds 
and the valley an ancient and very quaint 
old English timbered house occupied by 
the gardener sets in a typical English 
cottage garden. And valley, ponds, and 
old house make one of the loveliest pictures 
of quiet rural beauty to be found in all 
England. 
Nowhere has the naturalization of hardy 
shrubs, plants 
and bulbs been 
done so exten- 
sively, or effec- 
tively as here 
— and so the 
spring effects 
of Gravetye a re 
its great out- 
standing fea- 
ture. In the 
grass on the 
sloping hillside 
above and be- 
low the house 
and in the 
meadows and 
along the grass- 
covered wood- 
land roads such 
bulbs as will 
take care o f 
themselves 
when once 
planted have 
been scattered by uncounted thousands; and these have 
of course gone on increasing in numbers and beauty year 
by year — Snowdrop, Snowflakes, Crocus, Anemone, Scilla, 
Chionodoxa, Erythronium, Fritillary, Grape Hyacinth, Star-of- 
Bethlehem, Tulip species, Daffodils, and Narcissus — until 
beauty beyond words is spread on every side. And this great 
wild garden comes into bloom year after year without cost or 
care. May we not well consider the wisdom of avoiding the 
futile labor and expense which digging and planting large areas 
of ground at least twice a year involves and give thought to ways 
and means that develop permanent plantings of lasting char- 
acter? 
Almost every hardy perennial plant and bulb worthy of cul- 
tivation is grown at Gravetye and grown in perfection rarely 
seen elsewhere; these are supplemented by 
the choicer annuals so easily grown from 
seed. No greenhouse or glass of any kind 
is used. Yet the garden is beautiful 
and interesting throughout the year. 
I believe that the “English Flower Gar- 
den” has done more than all other books 
together to improve our gardens and pop- 
ularly to expound the application of art 
and beauty in garden planning; and what- 
ever success I personally may have been 
fortunate enough to have attained as a hor- 
ticulturist is due to its inspiration. 
I have said nothing about fruits and 
vegetables, but they are grown in the same 
perfection as the flowers. Here only in all 
England have I found American Green 
Corn — and Golden Bantam at that! Pro- 
tected on three sides by walls, the Corn 
patch extracts all the heat possible from 
the somewhat reluctant English sun, and 
furnishes creditable “roasting ears” by 
the end of August; not the only distinc- 
tively American thing at Gravetye, bv 
the way — for once after luncheon there 
1 was invited into the library to see some- 
thing that “ought to interest” me, an 
American. And it did — for it was a set 
of letters written by George Washington 
to Arthur Young while the latter was in 
France studying French methods of hor- 
ticulture and agriculture! 
EVERYWHERE ARE FLOWERS IN SUCH ABUNDANCE AS NATURE ALONE SHOWS 
Along this curving way that leads under the trees to the ponds at the bottom of the meadow-lawn, Narcissus 
come so early that the shade cannot overtake them, and with the thousands of other bulbs naturalized in the same 
fashion throughout the estate, make the spring effects at Gravetye comparable to nothing short of the fields Elysian 
“Change being the law of life, it is for the young 
to continue in the right way, never disheartened, 
and always in the hope that intelligent beings 
will never return to the Victorian way of de- 
grading the flower garden into rivalry with 
carpets and even bad carpets’’ 
