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The Garden Magazine, December, 1920 
there is a check of at least one year in the growth of each 
large plant. If the work is done when the wood is well 
ripened and the roots are active, say early in the spring or 
in mid-fall, the roots will continue to function, whereas if the 
planting is made during mid-winter, as many would assume 
that it might safely be in the mild climate of our far 
Northwest, there is less activity of the roots and the con- 
tinuance of the winter rains is apt to cause root rot, especially 
when there is little or no underdrainage of the soil. Newly 
transplanted Holly should be carefully pruned or cut back from 
the top to check the upper growth until that of the roots has 
become normal; or the plant may be stripped of all its leaves, 
as is the common practice in the East when transplanting Holly 
at any time of year. 
Holly requires very little actual care when once established. 
It is practically free from the attacks of insects and requires only 
an occasional top dressing of the soil with well rotted manure. 
This is best applied in the spring or fall, and the annual Christ- 
mas clipping, which is such a pleasant feature of the holiday 
celebration, should be so done as to leave the Holly natural and 
symmetrical, undiminished in value or beauty for the seasons to 
come. 
ENGLISH GARDENS REVISITED 
ERNEST H. WILSON 
Assistant Director, Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University 
Editor’s note: This is the first of the “traveller’s letters” that Mr. Wilson will send exclusively to The Garden Magazine 
during the course of his journey to Australasia. They aim to reflect conditions and observations on garden work and materials in other lands 
from the viewpoint of the American. Thus in the present letter Mr. Wilson sees in the influence of the great war a marked change in the 
English gardener’s attitude and an approach to a closer similarity of thought and feeling to certain ideals and methods that have hitherto 
been characteristic of American gardens. 
f FTER an absence of nine years I found in England the 
love for flowers and gardens more real and more in 
evidence than ever, but heavy taxation combined with 
the high cost and scarcity of suitable labor are doing 
their utmost to stifle this love. There is a marked increase in 
the interest taken in hardy flowers — in shrubs and trees, in 
rock plants and in the herbaceous border, but the death knell 
of the tender exotics has been rung. Orchids will survive as a 
hobby among the wealthy, but the hothouse with its miscel- 
laneous collection of tropical and semi-tropical plants is fast 
vanishing. The price and scarcity of both coal and labor are pro- 
hibitive, and, moreover, people have discovered that in the out- 
door garden they can enjoy, and much more cheaply produce, 
flowers just as lovely as the hothouse product. Hardy plants 
are the garden material of the moment and of the future, and 
after all it is such material that makes the garden a permanent 
institution. 
The management of herbaceous plants is well understood in 
England; but not so well that of trees and shrubs. The old idea 
of a shrubbery being nothing but a screen is hard to eradicate. 
Both shrubs and trees are planted too thickly or not properly 
thinned and are seldom, if ever, given enough room to develop 
their proper form and full beauty. The rockery at the Edin- 
burgh Botanic Gardens, the Heath Garden at Wakehurst Place 
in Sussex, and the long border at Hampton Court are perfect 
examples of their kind; but in one private garden only did I see 
shrubs given their necessary space, and the generous treatment 
they merit. There is need to-day of a work that would do 
for the shrubbery what William Robinson did for the flower 
garden. Shrubs with colored foliage obtrude themselves far 
too frequently in English gardens. To say that they are used 
far too excessively is stating the facts moderately and yet, after 
seven nearly sunless weeks, 1 was forced to admit that they do 
add a little cheer to villa surroundings. 
The new plant introductions of the last twenty years from 
China have become amazingly popular. Indeed, their presence 
or absence in a garden is indicative of progress or otherwise. 
That these Chinese plants have so quickly established them- 
selves in English gardens already rich in plant material is 
proof positive of their merits. 
I visited two Royal Horticultural Society Meetings in London 
and on both occasions the display of flowers and the attendance 
were surprisingly good, especially when the season of the year 
was duly appreciated. Kew Gardens to the average visitor 
shows no ill effects of the war save for a large patch of Potatoes 
where a fine lawn used to be. But the critical eye easily per- 
ceives that the plants in the “collections” have suffered consid- 
erably and that over-crowding is a marked feature of the arbore- 
tum. However, the highest praise is due to the officials who 
have labored so diligently to save and protect these wonderful 
gardens through the terrible strain of the Great War. Nor is the 
public wanting in appreciation for, in spite of the fact that a 
charge of admittance is now made and that traffic rates have risen 
enormously, the lawns at Kew are daily decked with crowds of 
visitors. 
In many private gardens the ill effects of the war are only too 
plainly visible but it is in the nurseries that the full ravages 
are most apparent. Lack of labor in itself has caused the loss 
of a vast quantity of the choicest plant material. Owners of 
gardens have in a majority of instances labored personally in 
their gardens as never before; and that has brought about an 
even keener and more intelligent interest than before, and a 
deeper knowledge and appreciation of the plants themselves. 
Many have found solace and comfort in their gardens during the 
war; and to all such the garden is now sacred and consecrated. In 
England there is a dearth of young gardeners and a shortage of 
stocks of plant material. Young men are seeking more lucra- 
tive employment than gardening and the demand for plant 
material is so limited that there is little or no inducement for 
nurserymen to work up and maintain stocks. In England alone 
there is a wealth of varied material, which our gardens in Amer- 
ica need but cannot have, because of the operation of Quarantine 
No. 37. 
Owing to the crushing burden of debt weighting down every 
European nation the art and practice of gardening must lan- 
guish unless America comes to the rescue. It is the duty of 
those in the United States who love flowers, and of every reader 
of The Garden Magazine in particular, to further by precept 
and example the gospel of gardens and an increased appreciation 
of flowers throughout the length and breadth of this great coun- 
try; to enjoy in the present and to develop and save for the future 
what older generations of cultured people have in the past cher- 
ished and protected for our uplift and enjoyment. 
En Route, Port Said, Egypt, Sept. 10, 1920. 
