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WOOD AND GARDEN
[Illustration: _Frontispiece._]
WOOD AND GARDEN
NOTES AND THOUGHTS, PRACTICAL AND
CRITICAL, OF A WORKING AMATEUR
By
GERTRUDE JEKYLL
_With 71 Illustrations from Photographs
by the Author_
[Illustration]
Second Edition
Longmans, Green, and Co.
39 Paternoster Row, London
New York and Bombay
1899
_All rights reserved_
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press
PREFACE
From its simple nature, this book seems scarcely to need any prefatory
remarks, with the exception only of certain acknowledgments.
A portion of the contents (about one-third) appeared during the years
1896 and 1897 in the pages of the _Guardian_, as "Notes from Garden and
Woodland." I am indebted to the courtesy of the editor and proprietors
of that journal for permission to republish these notes.
The greater part of the photographs from which the illustrations have
been prepared were done on my own ground--a space of some fifteen acres.
Some of them, owing to my want of technical ability as a photographer,
were very weak, and have only been rendered available by the skill of
the reproducer, for whose careful work my thanks are due.
A small number of the photographs were done for reproduction in
wood-engraving for Mr. Robinson's _Garden_, _Gardening Illustrated_, and
_English Flower Garden_. I have his kind permission to use the original
plates.
G. J.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY 1-6
CHAPTER II
JANUARY 7-18
Beauty of woodland in winter -- The nut-walk --
Thinning the overgrowth -- A nut nursery -- _Iris
stylosa_ -- Its culture -- Its home in Algeria --
Discovery of the white variety -- Flowers and branches
for indoor decoration.
CHAPTER III
FEBRUARY 19-31
Distant promise of summer -- Ivy-berries -- Coloured
leaves -- _Berberis Aquifolium_ -- Its many merits --
Thinning and pruning shrubs -- Lilacs -- Removing
Suckers -- Training _Clematis flammula_ -- Forms of
trees -- Juniper, a neglected native evergreen --
Effect of snow -- Power of recovery -- Beauty of colour
-- Moss-grown stems.
CHAPTER IV
MARCH 32-45
Flowering bulbs -- Dog-tooth Violet -- Rock-garden --
Variety of Rhododendron foliage -- A beautiful old
kind -- Suckers on grafted plants -- Plants for
filling up the beds -- Heaths -- Andromedas -- Lady
Fern -- _Lilium auratum_ -- Pruning Roses -- Training
and tying climbing plants -- Climbing and free-growing
Roses -- The Vine the best wall-covering -- Other
climbers -- Wild Clematis -- Wild Rose.
CHAPTER V
APRIL 46-58
Woodland spring flowers -- Daffodils in the copse --
Grape Hyacinths and other spring bulbs -- How best to
plant them -- Flowering shrubs -- Rock-plants -- Sweet
scents of April -- Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds,
and other spring flowers -- Primrose garden -- Pollen
of Scotch Fir -- Opening seed-pods of Fir and Gorse --
Auriculas -- Tulips -- Small shrubs for rock-garden --
Daffodils as cut flowers -- Lent Hellebores --
Primroses -- Leaves of wild Arum.
CHAPTER VI
MAY 59-76
Cowslips -- Morells -- Woodruff -- Felling oak timber --
Trillium and other wood-plants -- Lily of the Valley
naturalised -- Rock-wall flowers -- Two good wall-shrubs
-- Queen wasps -- Rhododendrons -- Arrangement for colour
-- Separate colour-groups -- Difficulty of choosing --
Hardy Azaleas -- Grouping flowers that bloom together --
Guelder-rose as climber -- The garden-wall door -- The
Paeony garden -- Moutans -- Paeony varieties -- Species
desirable for garden.
CHAPTER VII
JUNE 77-88
The gladness of June -- The time of Roses -- Garden
Roses -- Reine Blanche -- The old white Rose -- Old
garden Roses as standards -- Climbing and rambling Roses
-- Scotch Briars -- Hybrid Perpetuals a difficulty --
Tea Roses -- Pruning -- Sweet Peas autumn sown --
Elder-trees -- Virginian Cowslip -- Dividing
spring-blooming plants -- Two best Mulleins -- White
French Willow -- Bracken.
CHAPTER VIII
JULY 89-99
Scarcity of flowers -- Delphiniums -- Yuccas --
Cottager's way of protecting tender plants --
Alstroemerias -- Carnations -- Gypsophila -- _Lilium
giganteum_ -- Cutting fern-pegs.
CHAPTER IX
AUGUST 100-111
Leycesteria -- Early recollections -- Bank of choice
shrubs -- Bank of Briar Roses -- Hollyhocks -- Lavender
-- Lilies -- Bracken and Heaths -- The Fern-walk --
Late-blooming rock-plants -- Autumn flowers -- Tea Roses
-- Fruit of _Rosa rugosa_ -- Fungi -- Chantarelle.
CHAPTER X
SEPTEMBER 112-124
Sowing Sweet Peas -- Autumn-sown annuals -- Dahlias --
Worthless kinds -- Staking -- Planting the rock-garden
-- Growing small plants in a wall -- The old wall --
Dry-walling -- How built -- How planted -- Hyssop -- A
destructive storm -- Berries of Water-elder -- Beginning
ground-work.
CHAPTER XI
OCTOBER 125-143
Michaelmas Daisies -- Arranging and staking --
Spindle-tree -- Autumn colour of Azaleas -- Quinces --
Medlars -- Advantage of early planting of shrubs --
Careful planting -- Pot-bound roots -- Cypress hedge
-- Planting in difficult places -- Hardy flower border
-- Lifting Dahlias -- Dividing hardy plants --
Dividing tools -- Plants difficult to divide --
Periwinkles -- Sternbergia -- Czar Violets -- Deep
cultivation for _Lilium giganteum_.
CHAPTER XII
NOVEMBER 144-157
Giant Christmas Rose -- Hardy Chrysanthemums --
Sheltering tender shrubs -- Turfing by inoculation --
Transplanting large trees -- Sir Henry Steuart's
experience early in the century -- Collecting fallen
leaves -- Preparing grubbing tools -- Butcher's Broom
-- Alexandrian Laurel -- Hollies and Birches -- A
lesson in planting.
CHAPTER XIII
DECEMBER 158-170
The woodman at work -- Tree-cutting in frosty weather
-- Preparing sticks and stakes -- Winter Jasmine --
Ferns in the wood-walk -- Winter colour of evergreen
shrubs -- Copse-cutting -- Hoop-making -- Tools used
-- Sizes of hoops -- Men camping out -- Thatching with
hoop-chips -- The old thatcher's bill.
CHAPTER XIV
LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS 171-187
A well done villa-garden -- A small town-garden -- Two
delightful gardens of small size -- Twenty acres
within the walls -- A large country house and its
garden -- Terrace -- Lawn -- Parterre -- Free garden
-- Kitchen garden -- Buildings -- Ornamental orchard
-- Instructive mixed gardens -- Mr. Wilson's at Wisley
-- A window garden.
CHAPTER XV
BEGINNING AND LEARNING 188-199
The ignorant questioner -- Beginning at the end -- An
example -- Personal experience -- Absence of outer
help -- Johns' "Flowers of the Field" -- Collecting
plants -- Nurseries near London -- Wheel-spokes as
labels -- Garden friends -- Mr. Robinson's "English
Flower-Garden" -- Mr. Nicholson's "Dictionary of
Gardening" -- One main idea desirable -- Pictorial
treatment -- Training in fine art -- Adapting from
Nature -- Study of colour -- Ignorant use of the word
"artistic."
CHAPTER XVI
THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA 200-215
The flower-border -- The wall and its occupants --
_Choisya ternata_ -- Nandina -- Canon Ellacombe's
garden -- Treatment of colour-masses -- Arrangement of
plants in the border -- Dahlias and Cannas -- Covering
bare places -- The Pergola -- How made -- Suitable
climbers -- Arbours of trained Planes -- Garden
houses.
CHAPTER XVII
THE PRIMROSE GARDEN 216-220
CHAPTER XVIII
COLOURS OF FLOWERS 221-228
CHAPTER XIX
THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN 229-240
CHAPTER XX
THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS 241-248
CHAPTER XXI
NOVELTY AND VARIETY 249-255
CHAPTER XXII
WEEDS AND PESTS 256-262
CHAPTER XXIII
THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE 263-270
CHAPTER XXIV
MASTERS AND MEN 271-279
INDEX 280
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FRONTISPIECE _face title_
A WILD JUNIPER _face page_ 19
SCOTCH FIRS THROWN ON TO FROZEN WATER BY SNOWSTORM " 27
OLD JUNIPER, SHOWING FORMER INJURIES " 29
JUNIPER, LATELY WRECKED BY SNOWSTORM " 29
GARDEN DOOR-WAY WREATHED WITH CLEMATIS GRAVEOLENS " 39
COTTAGE PORCH WREATHED WITH THE DOUBLE WHITE ROSE
(_R. alba_) " 39
WILD HOP, ENTWINING WORMWOOD AND COW-PARSNIP " 43
DAFFODILS IN THE COPSE " 48
MAGNOLIA STELLATA " 50
DAFFODILS AMONG JUNIPERS WHERE GARDEN JOINS COPSE " 51
TIARELLA CORDIFOLIA " 53
HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY. (_See page 105_) " 53
TULIPA RETROFLEXA " 55
LATE SINGLE TULIPS, BREEDERS AND BYBLOEMEN " 55
TRILLIUM IN THE WILD GARDEN " 61
RHODODENDRONS WHERE THE COPSE AND GARDEN MEET " 65
GRASS WALKS THROUGH THE COPSE " 66
RHODODENDRONS AT THE EDGE OF THE COPSE " 68
SOUTH SIDE OF DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA
AND CHOISYA " 72
NORTH SIDE OF THE SAME DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS
MONTANA AND GUELDER-ROSE " 72
FREE CLUSTER-ROSE AS STANDARD IN A COTTAGE GARDEN " 77
DOUBLE WHITE SCOTCH BRIAR " 81
PART OF A BUSH OF ROSA POLYANTHA " 82
GARLAND-ROSE SHOWING NATURAL WAY OF GROWTH " 82
LILAC MARIE LEGRAYE (_See page 23_) " 84
FLOWERING ELDER AND PATH FROM GARDEN TO COPSE " 84
THE GIANT LILY " 96
CISTUS FLORENTINUS " 101
THE GREAT ASPHODEL " 101
LAVENDER HEDGE AND STEPS TO THE LOFT " 105
HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY " 105
SOLOMON'S SEAL IN SPRING, IN THE UPPER PART
OF THE FERN-WALK " 107
THE FERN-WALK IN AUGUST " 107
JACK (_See page 79_) " 117
THE "OLD WALL" " 117
ERINUS ALPINUS, CLOTHING STEPS IN ROCK-WALL " 121
BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES " 126
PENS FOR STORING DEAD LEAVES " 150
CAREFUL WILD-GARDENING--WHITE FOXGLOVES AT
THE EDGE OF THE FIR WOOD. (_See page 270_) " 150
HOLLY STEMS IN AN OLD HEDGE-ROW " 153
WILD JUNIPERS " 154
WILD JUNIPERS " 156
THE WOODMAN " 158
GRUBBING A TREE-STUMP " 161
FELLING AND GRUBBING TOOLS (_See page 150_) " 161
HOOP-MAKING IN THE WOODS " 167
HOOP-SHAVING " 169
SHED-ROOF, THATCHED WITH HOOP-CHIP " 169
GARLAND-ROSE WREATHING THE END OF A TERRACE WALL " 178
A ROADSIDE COTTAGE GARDEN " 185
A FLOWER-BORDER IN JUNE " 200
PATHWAY ACROSS THE SOUTH BORDER IN JULY " 202
OUTSIDE VIEW OF THE BRICK PERGOLA SHOWN
AT PAGE 214, AFTER SIX YEARS' GROWTH " 202
END OF FLOWER-BORDER AND ENTRANCE OF PERGOLA " 210
SOUTH BORDER DOOR AND YUCCAS IN AUGUST " 210
STONE-BUILT PERGOLA WITH WROUGHT OAK BEAMS " 214
PERGOLA WITH BRICK PIERS AND BEAMS OF ROUGH OAK " 214
EVENING IN THE PRIMROSE GARDEN " 217
TALL SNAPDRAGONS GROWING IN A DRY WALL " 251
MULLEINS GROWING IN THE FACE OF DRY WALL
(_See "Old Wall," page 116_) " 251
GERANIUMS IN NEAPOLITAN POTS " 267
SPACE IN STEP AND TANK-GARDEN FOR LILIES,
CANNAS, AND GERANIUMS " 268
HYDRANGEAS IN TUBS, IN A PART OF THE SAME GARDEN " 268
MULLEIN (VERBASCUM PHLOMOIDES) AT THE EDGE
OF THE FIR WOOD " 270
A GRASS PATH IN THE COPSE " 270
WOOD AND GARDEN
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
There are already many and excellent books about gardening; but the love
of a garden, already so deeply implanted in the English heart, is so
rapidly growing, that no excuse is needed for putting forth another.
I lay no claim either to literary ability, or to botanical knowledge, or
even to knowing the best practical methods of cultivation; but I have
lived among outdoor flowers for many years, and have not spared myself
in the way of actual labour, and have come to be on closely intimate and
friendly terms with a great many growing things, and have acquired
certain instincts which, though not clearly defined, are of the nature
of useful knowledge.
But the lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others,
is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. I
rejoice when I see any one, and especially children, inquiring about
flowers, and wanting gardens of their own, and carefully working in
them. For the love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but
always grows and grows to an enduring and ever-increasing source of
happiness.
If in the following chapters I have laid special stress upon gardening
for beautiful effect, it is because it is the way of gardening that I
love best, and understand most of, and that seems to me capable of
giving the greatest amount of pleasure. I am strongly for treating
garden and wooded ground in a pictorial way, mainly with large effects,
and in the second place with lesser beautiful incidents, and for so
arranging plants and trees and grassy spaces that they look happy and at
home, and make no parade of conscious effort. I try for beauty and
harmony everywhere, and especially for harmony of colour. A garden so
treated gives the delightful feeling of repose, and refreshment, and
purest enjoyment of beauty, that seems to my understanding to be the
best fulfilment of its purpose; while to the diligent worker its
happiness is like the offering of a constant hymn of praise. For I hold
that the best purpose of a garden is to give delight and to give
refreshment of mind, to soothe, to refine, and to lift up the heart in a
spirit of praise and thankfulness. It is certain that those who practise
gardening in the best ways find it to be so.
But the scope of practical gardening covers a range of horticultural
practice wide enough to give play to every variety of human taste. Some
find their greatest pleasure in collecting as large a number as possible
of all sorts of plants from all sources, others in collecting them
themselves in their foreign homes, others in making rock-gardens, or
ferneries, or peat-gardens, or bog-gardens, or gardens for conifers or
for flowering shrubs, or special gardens of plants and trees with
variegated or coloured leaves, or in the cultivation of some particular
race or family of plants. Others may best like wide lawns with large
trees, or wild gardening, or a quite formal garden, with trim hedge and
walk, and terrace, and brilliant parterre, or a combination of several
ways of gardening. And all are right and reasonable and enjoyable to
their owners, and in some way or degree helpful to others.
The way that seems to me most desirable is again different, and I have
made an attempt to describe it in some of its aspects. But I have
learned much, and am always learning, from other people's gardens, and
the lesson I have learned most thoroughly is, never to say "I
know"--there is so infinitely much to learn, and the conditions of
different gardens vary so greatly, even when soil and situation appear
to be alike and they are in the same district. Nature is such a subtle
chemist that one never knows what she is about, or what surprises she
may have in store for us.
Often one sees in the gardening papers discussions about the treatment
of some particular plant. One man writes to say it can only be done one
way, another to say it can only be done quite some other way, and the
discussion waxes hot and almost angry, and the puzzled reader, perhaps
as yet young in gardening, cannot tell what to make of it. And yet the
two writers are both able gardeners, and both absolutely trustworthy,
only they should have said, "In my experience _in this place_ such a
plant can only be done in such a way." Even plants of the same family
will not do equally well in the same garden. Every practical gardener
knows this in the case of strawberries and potatoes; he has to find out
which kinds will do in his garden; the experience of his friend in the
next county is probably of no use whatever.
I have learnt much from the little cottage gardens that help to make our
English waysides the prettiest in the temperate world. One can hardly go
into the smallest cottage garden without learning or observing something
new. It may be some two plants growing beautifully together by some
happy chance, or a pretty mixed tangle of creepers, or something that
one always thought must have a south wall doing better on an east one.
But eye and brain must be alert to receive the impression and studious
to store it, to add to the hoard of experience. And it is important to
train oneself to have a good flower-eye; to be able to see at a glance
what flowers are good and which are unworthy, and why, and to keep an
open mind about it; not to be swayed by the petty tyrannies of the
"florist" or show judge; for, though some part of his judgment may be
sound, he is himself a slave to rules, and must go by points which are
defined arbitrarily and rigidly, and have reference mainly to the
show-table, leaving out of account, as if unworthy of consideration,
such matters as gardens and garden beauty, and human delight, and
sunshine, and varying lights of morning and evening and noonday. But
many, both nurserymen and private people, devote themselves to growing
and improving the best classes of hardy flowers, and we can hardly offer
them too much grateful praise, or do them too much honour. For what
would our gardens be without the Roses, Paeonies, and Gladiolus of
France, and the Tulips and Hyacinths of Holland, to say nothing of the
hosts of good things raised by our home growers, and of the enterprise
of the great firms whose agents are always searching the world for
garden treasures?
Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how much there is to learn.
Looking back upon nearly thirty years of gardening (the earlier part of
it in groping ignorance with scant means of help), I can remember no
part of it that was not full of pleasure and encouragement. For the
first steps are steps into a delightful Unknown, the first successes are
victories all the happier for being scarcely expected, and with the
growing knowledge comes the widening outlook, and the comforting sense
of an ever-increasing gain of critical appreciation. Each new step
becomes a little surer, and each new grasp a little firmer, till, little
by little, comes the power of intelligent combination, the nearest
thing we can know to the mighty force of creation.
And a garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful
watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches
entire trust. "Paul planteth and Apollos watereth, but God giveth the
increase." The good gardener knows with absolute certainty that if he
does his part, if he gives the labour, the love, and every aid that his
knowledge of his craft, experience of the conditions of his place, and
exercise of his personal wit can work together to suggest, that so
surely as he does this diligently and faithfully, so surely will God
give the increase. Then with the honestly-earned success comes the
consciousness of encouragement to renewed effort, and, as it were, an
echo of the gracious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."