4 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER 
May 1, £903. 
~The Autumn Garden, 
_ Seeeeeee 
Fall !—and everywhere the sights and sounds - 
of falling. In the woods through the cool silvery 
air, the leaves so indispensable once, so useless / 
now. Bright day after bright day, dripping 
. might after dripping night, the never-ending 
filtering or gusty fall of leaves. 
: —James Lane Ailen. 
The dazzling splendors of mid-summer 
blessom have given place to the -vivid 
tints of autumn. In the midst of our, en- 
joyment of these autumnal glories we 
should take careful note of the trees, 
shrubs, and creepers, now that they have 
“put their glory on,’ that our gardens may 
be well furnished with them to yield de- 
_light in future autumns. 
Autumn, like spring, is a favorite theme 
of the poets, although a shade of melan- 
. choly usually. tinges the verse of the: Eng- 
lish poets who have been inspired by this 
subject. . In fact, we find it described by 
them variously as. “Autumn Melancholy,’ 
“The Year’s Eventide,” ‘“Pallid Autumn.” 
According to one poet, it is a plunderer 
who strips the trees and fields, to another 
the barber of the year, bald pated autumn 
who stalks about orchard, garden, and 
wood “shaking off fruit-and beating leaves 
from the trees.” Even the wind is said 
to mourn at this season, and so on until 
we shiver and return to our own sunny 
laud where the hues of autumn are by no 
means sombre, and where we can sing in a 
different strain. Autumn, as the gardener 
krows it and enjoys it, is an importation. 
There was no real autumn here before the 
white man came and planted his slips of . 
willow and his acorns in Australian; soil. 
The native trees for the most part remain 
stolidly indifferent to its influence, and re- 
fuse to blush or to become gilded at the 
bidding of the frost. Now that our land 
has been planted far and wide with the 
deciduous trees from ‘colder climes, we are 
privileged to share the sensations of our 
English forefathers, and, like them, to 
associate this season with “the mellow rich- 
ness of the clustered trees,’ “the crush of 
leaves heard beneath our feet,’ with “sun- 
light slanting through the painted trees 
and hazy skies that veil the brazen sun.” 
If we lack the spirit to appreciate the 
subtle influence: and associations of 
autumn and this superb nature painting, 
then the poets surely can imbue us with 
it. A glance at some of the lines that 
“have been inspired by this picturesque 
subject cannot fail to induce the proper 
mood in which to approach this phase of 
Nature, even if occasionally, their fancies 
chill us. Longfellow’s lines are solemn, 
but warm and full of color— 
There is a beautiful spirit breathing now 
Its mellow richness on the clustered trees, 
And from a beaker full of richest dyes 
Pouring new glory on the autumn woods, 
And dipping in warm light the pillared clouds. 
is . colored 
Morn on the mountain, like a summer bird, 
Lifts up her purple wing, and in the vales 
The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer, 
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life 
Within the solemn wcods of ash deep-crimsoned, 
And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved, 
Where autumn, like a faint old man, sits down 
By the wayside a-weary. ” 
Hood’s splendid lines deal distinctly 
with “Autumn Melancholy,’ who “is 
described in the first verse thus :— - 
& 
I saw old Autumn in the misty morn : 
Stand shadowlcss like silence, listening 
To silence, for no lonely bird would sing 
Into his hollow ear from weods forlorn, 
Nor lowly hedge nor solitary thorn ; 
Shaking his languid locks, all dewy bright 
With tangled gossamer that fell by night, 
Pearling his coronet of golden corn. 
and then he regretfully asks :— 
Where is the pride cf Summer, - the green pride— 
The many, many leaves all twinkling ?— three 
On the mossed eim; three on the naked lime 
Trembling,—and one upon the old oak tree. 
What a sense of desolation is expressed 
in those few lines, and how mournful the 
vision of autumn who 
Sighs her tearful spells, 
Amongst the sunless shadows of the plain. 
Alone, Alone, 
Upon a mossy stone, 
She sits and reckons up the dead and gone, 
With the last leaves for a love-rosary, 
Whilst all the withered world looks drearily. 
Like a dim picture of the drownéd past 
In the hushed mind’s mysterious far away, 
Doubtful what ghostly thing will steal the last 
Into that distance, cray upon the giay. 
Thomson, Whittier, and Keats also treat 
the subject in a masterly manner. 
Bryant takes a cheery view of autumn. _ 
His woods are full of glory, the landscape 
in purple and gold, and 
“mingled splendors glow.” 
The forest depths are bright; 
Their sunny-colored foliage in the breeze 
Twinkles like beams of light. 
There is no loneliness,no sense of desola- 
tion— ; 
My steps are not alone 
In these bright walks; the sweet south-west at 
play, : 
Flies, rustling, 
strewn 
Along the winding way. 
And then the inevitable lament— 
where the painted leaves are 
OQ, Autumn ! why so soon . 
Depart the hues that make thy forests glad ; 
Thy gentle wind and thy fair sunny noon, 
And leave thee wild and sad ! 
But, reluctantly, to take leave of the 
pect’s autumn and to return to our own, 
more especially those features of it that 
immediately concern the landscape garden, 
it should be -our aim to introduce into it 
such an‘infinite variety of color and tone 
that at every approach of autumn we can 
exclaim with the poet, “What gorgeous- 
ness, what blazonry, what pomp of colors 
burst upon the rayished sight!’ and to 
that end we yenture to recommend a few 
striking colorists. The Ampelopsis, whose 
varieties are well known and universally 
grown, are conspicuous. examples of 
autumn coloring, the shades varying from 
-crimson. 
green and palest raw sienna to deepest 
A plant is often unobtrusive 
all the. summer, merely lending its own 
: particular note to the general harmony, 
bit as soon as autumn. touches it with her 
magic wand, behold! it emerges from its 
comparative obscurity, a dazzling form in 
crimson and gold. It: is so with the 
‘Sumachs, with many one could name, and 
hence their value, hence their great im- 
poitance in the garden., 
_ The Maples are 
supreme at this season, but can be grown 
only in cool, hilly districts or in fayored 
pesitions in a lowland garden. Those 
who live at lower levels are not favored 
with the vivid tints that paint the vege- 
tation ati higher elevations. | While the 
former must often he content with russet, 
the latter are rejoicing in crimsons and 
ceppery gold. Some vines are con- 
spicuously brilliant in the autumns; they 
are usually worthless fruiting varieties, 
but, nevertheless, claim a considerable 
space on a wall or trellis for ornamental 
pun poses. The deciduous. fruit trees 
should not be excluded from the garden 
simply because they are fruit trees... If 
their vernal, dazzling transformation is not 
suflicient to justify their presence, their 
rich autumn coloring at least should en- 
sure them a place. The ochre leaves of 
the pear become suffused with rich crim- 
sou, and the cherry takes on a warm, 
ruddy gold. The mulberry, too, is not 
only picturesque in form, especially when 
it arrives at a patriarchal age, but in 
autumn it coins a rich pure gold. Oaks, 
elms, plane trees, and poplars all more or 
less light up the landscape with varying 
shades of russet and gold. From the 
graceful birch tree there is a steady drip, 
drip of gold till all its leaves are down. 
As a brilliant feature of the autumn the 
meuntain ash must not be omitted, whose 
hues vary from ruddy gold to crimson, ac- 
cording to the altitude at which it finds 
itself, and the degree of frost. The Eng- 
lish ash tree, very deservedly called the 
“Venus of the woods,” is of surpassing de- 
licacy and grace at all seasons. In its 
autumnal raiment of gold it appears even 
more ethereal, and its leayes flutter to 
earth,in a feathery flake like snow. 
POSCOSOOESO]S 
Phloxes are easy to propagate. The best 
plan is by taking cuttings of young shoots, 
dibbling them into pans or a bed of sandy 
soil. This may be carried on any time in the 
summer, and plants thus procured are much 
stronger than where propagation is effected: 
by division of roots. If one can spare a 
frame and make up a bed of ‘leaf-mould 
and jsandy loam, a _ nice ~stock of 
plants may soon be got together 
for blooming the following year In 
planting them{ out in the garden one should 
if possible, give them a deep soil enriclred 
with rotted dung, as they pay one well-for 
liberal treatment and benefit greatly by a ~ 
cool bottom, especially in a dry season. 
WooDBASTWICK. 
