302 
A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
at Batsford, in Gloucestershire. This new departure soon 
became a recognized feature, and a rocky place on which 
to grow Alpines, on a more or less ambitious scale, found its 
way into every well-regulated garden. 
Another development during the last twenty-five years of 
the century was subtropical gardening. This fashion came in 
the first instance from Paris, and did something to relieve the 
formality of “ bedding-out/' although not nearly as important 
an improvement as the later movement towards hardy flowers. 
In England subtropical gardening was first tried in Battersea 
Park by the superintendent, John Gibson, in 1864, when the 
Park was quite in its infancy, and was administered with the 
other Royal parks. Fine results were obtained from planting 
out the hardier kinds of tree ferns and palms during the summer 
months, but it was soon found that the best kind of sub¬ 
tropical garden was the permanent one. Even in the coldest 
districts of England numerous plants will grow which give a 
tropical appearance. 1 It was found that various bamboos 
would flourish even in Norfolk and Suffolk, where the late 
frosts are most trying to gardeners. Bambusa Metake, Simonii, 
viridiglaucescens, and aurea are perfectly hardy, and besides 
these, such things as Berberis, Aralias, Gunnera scabra, Aristo- 
lochias, giant Heracleums, Arundo Donax, several species of 
Rhus and Spirae, Polygonum cuspidatum, Tamarix, Yuccas, 
Polygonatum multiflorum , Solomon’s seal, Bocconia co v data, and 
several sorts of Acanthus, besides taller trees, such as the 
Ailanthus glandulosa, and Japanese maples, were grouped on 
grass with smaller ferns and grasses to produce a tropical effect. 
Green gardens composed of such things, forming a pleasant 
variation from the brighter flowering plants, were planted in 
some of the colder counties, 2 but chiefly in the warmer districts 
of England, where satisfactory results could be more easily 
1 The Subtropical Garden. By W. Robinson. Second edition, 1879. 
The Bamboo Garden. By Bertram Freeman Mitford (afterwards Lord 
Redesdale), 1896. 
2 The very fine bamboo-garden at Batsford, Gloucestershire, the ones 
at Kew and at Shrublands, Suffolk, were among the earliest, and a 
“ green garden,” chiefly bamboo, was planted at Didlington, Norfolk, 
before 1890 ; but for the most part bamboos were only grown in 
Cornwall and Devonshire. 
