who love the summer flowers find their season doubled, for the kinds
they have left waning in the South are not yet in bloom in the more
northern latitude. The flowers of our July gardens, Delphiniums,
Achilleas, Coreopsis, Eryngiums, Geums, Lupines, Scarlet Lychnis,
Bergamot, early Phloxes, and many others, and the hosts of spring-sown
annuals, are just in beauty. Sweet Peas are of astounding size and
vigour. Strawberries are not yet over, and early Peas are coming in. The
Gooseberry season, that had begun in the earliest days of August with
the Early Sulphurs and had been about ten days in progress in the
Southern English gardens, is for a time interrupted, but resumes its
course in September in the North, where this much-neglected fruit comes
to unusual excellence. It is a hardy thing, and appears to thrive better
north of the Border than elsewhere.
It is one of the wholesomest of fruits; its better sorts of truly
delicious flavour. It is a pleasure, to one who knows its merits, to
extol them. It is essentially a fruit for one who loves a garden,
because, for some reason difficult to define, it is less enjoyable when
brought to table in a dessert dish. It should be sought for in the
garden ground and eaten direct from the bush. Perhaps many people are
deterred by its spiny armature, and it is certain that, when, as is too
often the case, the bushes are in crowded rows and have been allowed to
grow to a large size, the berries are difficult to get at.
But the true amateur of this capital autumn fruit has them in espalier
form, in a few short rows, with ample space--about six feet--between
each row.
The plants may be had ready trained in espalier shape, but it is almost
as easy to train them from the usual bush form. The vigorous young
growth that will spring out every year is cut away at the sides in
middle summer; just a shoot or two of young wood being left, when the
bushes have grown to a fair size, to train in, to take the place of
older wood. The plants being restricted to the fewer branches that form
the flat espalier, more strength is thrown into the ones that remain, so
that the berries become larger; and, as plenty of light and sun can get
to the fruits, even the best kinds are sweeter and better flavoured than
when they are allowed to grow in dense bushes.
Then when the kinds are ripe how pleasant it is to take a low seat and
sit at ease before each good sort in succession! The best and ripest
fruits can be seen at a glance and picked without trouble, in pleasant
contrast to the painful, prickly groping that goes on among the crowded
bushes. No one would ever regret planting such excellent sorts as Red
Champagne, Amber Yellow, Cheshire Lass, Jolly Painter, a large,
well-flavoured and little-known berry, and Red Warrington, a trusty late
kind. To these should be added two admirable Gooseberries lately brought
out by Messrs. Veitch, namely, Langley Green and Langley Gage, both fine
fruits of delicious flavour.
If such a little special fruit space were planted in these large
Scottish gardens, and the merits of the kinds became known, the daily
invitation of the hostess, “Let us go to the gooseberry garden,” would
be gladly welcomed, and guests would also find themselves, at various
times of day, sauntering towards the gooseberry plot.
How grandly the scarlet Tropæolum (_T. speciosum_) grows in these
northern gardens is well known; indeed, in many places it has become
almost a pest. It is much more difficult to grow in the South, where it
is often a failure; in any case, it insists on a northern or eastern
exposure. Where it does best in gardens in the English counties is in
deep, cool soil, thoroughly enriched. When well established, the running
roots ramble in all directions, fresh growths appearing many feet away
from the place where it was originally planted. It looks perhaps best
when running up the face of a yew hedge, when the bright scarlet bloom,
and leaves of clear-cut shape, are seen to great advantage, and many of
the free growths of the plant take the form of hanging garlands.
[Illustration: CRATHES: PHLOX