MAY
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.
While May is still young, Cowslips are in beauty on the chalk lands a
few miles distant, but yet within pleasant reach. They are finest of all
in orchards, where the grass grows tall and strong under the half-shade
of the old apple-trees, some of the later kinds being still loaded with
bloom. The blooming of the Cowslip is the signal for a search for the
Morell, one of the very best of the edible fungi. It grows in open woods
or where the undergrowth has not yet grown high, and frequently in old
parks and pastures near or under elms. It is quite unlike any other
fungus; shaped like a tall egg, with the pointed end upwards, on a
short, hollow stalk, and looking something like a sponge. It has a
delicate and excellent flavour, and is perfectly wholesome.
The pretty little Woodruff is in flower; what scent is so delicate as
that of its leaves? They are almost sweeter when dried, each little
whorl by itself, with the stalk cut closely away above and below. It is
a pleasant surprise to come upon these fragrant little stars between the
leaves of a book. The whole plant revives memories of rambles in
Bavarian woodlands, and of Mai-trank, that best of the "cup" tribe of
pleasant drinks, whose flavour is borrowed from its flowering tips.
In the first week in May oak-timber is being felled. The wood is
handsomer, from showing the grain better, when it is felled in the
winter, but it is delayed till now because of the value of the bark for
tanning, and just now the fast-rising sap makes the bark strip easily. A
heavy fall is taking place in the fringes of a large wood of old Scotch
fir. Where the oaks grow there is a blue carpet of wild Hyacinth; the
pathway is a slightly hollowed lane, so that the whole sheet of flower
right and left is nearly on a level with the eye, and looks like solid
pools of blue. The oaks not yet felled are putting forth their leaves of
golden bronze. The song of the nightingale and the ring of the woodman's
axe gain a rich musical quality from the great fir wood. Why a wood of
Scotch fir has this wonderful property of a kind of musical
reverberation I do not know; but so it is. Any sound that occurs within
it is, on a lesser scale, like a sound in a cathedral. The tree itself
when struck gives a musical note. Strike an oak or an elm on the trunk
with a stick, and the sound is mute; strike a Scotch fir, and it is a
note of music.
[Illustration: TRILLIUM IN THE WILD GARDEN.]
In the copse are some prosperous patches of the beautiful North American
Wood-lily (_Trillium grandiflorum_). It likes a bed of deep leaf-soil on
levels or cool slopes in woodland, where its large white flowers and
whorls of handsome leaves look quite at home. Beyond it are widely
spreading patches of Solomon's Seal and tufts of the Wood-rush (_Luzula
sylvatica_), showing by their happy vigour how well they like their
places, while the natural woodland carpet of moss and dead leaves puts
the whole together. Higher in the copse the path runs through stretches
of the pretty little _Smilacina bifolia_, and the ground beyond this is
a thick bed of Whortleberry, filling all the upper part of the copse
under oak and birch and Scotch fir. The little flower-bells of the
Whortleberry have already given place to the just-formed fruit, which
will ripen in July, and be a fine feast for the blackbirds.
Other parts of the copse, where there was no Heath or Whortleberry, were
planted thinly with the large Lily of the Valley. It has spread and
increased and become broad sheets of leaf and bloom, from which
thousands of flowers can be gathered without making gaps, or showing
that any have been removed; when the bloom is over the leaves still
stand in handsome masses till they are hidden by the fast-growing
bracken. They do not hurt each other, as it seems that the Lily of the
Valley, having the roots running just underground, while the fern-roots
are much deeper, the two occupy their respective _strata_ in perfect
good fellowship. The neat little _Smilacina_ is a near relation of the
Lily of the Valley; its leaves are of an even more vivid green, and its
little modest spikes of white flower are charming. It loves the poor,
sandy soil, and increases in it fast, but will have nothing to say to
clay. A very delicate and beautiful North American fern (_Dicksonia
punctilobulata_) proves a good colonist in the copse. It spreads rapidly
by creeping roots, and looks much like our native _Thelipteris_, but is
of a paler green colour. In the rock-garden the brightest patches of
bloom are shown by the tufts of dwarf Wallflowers; of these,
_Cheiranthus alpinus_ has a strong lemon colour that is of great
brilliancy in the mass, and _C. Marshalli_ is of a dark orange colour,
equally powerful. The curiously-tinted _C. mutabilis_, as its name
implies, changes from a light mahogany colour when just open, first to
crimson and then to purple. In length of life _C. alpinus_ and _C.
Marshalli_ are rather more than biennials, and yet too short-lived to be
called true perennials; cuttings of one year flower the next, and are
handsome tufts the year after, but are scarcely worth keeping longer.
_C. mutabilis_ is longer lived, especially if the older growths are cut
right away, when the tuft will generally spring into vigorous new life.
_Orobus aurantiacus_ is a beautiful plant not enough grown, one of the
handsomest of the Pea family, with flowers of a fine orange colour, and
foliage of a healthy-looking golden-green. A striking and handsome plant
in the upper part of the rockery is _Othonna cheirifolia_; its aspect is
unusual and interesting, with its bunches of thick, blunt-edged leaves
of blue-grey colouring, and large yellow daisy flowers. There is a
pretty group of the large white Thrift, and near it a spreading carpet
of blue Veronica and some of the splendid gentian-blue _Phacelia
campanularia_, a valuable annual for filling any bare patches of rockery
where its brilliant colouring will suit the neighbouring plants, or,
best of all, in patches among dwarf ferns, where its vivid blue would be
seen to great advantage.
Two wall-shrubs have been conspicuously beautiful during May; the
Mexican Orange-flower (_Choisya ternata_) has been smothered in its
white bloom, so closely resembling orange-blossom. With a slight winter
protection of fir boughs it seems quite at home in our hot, dry soil,
grows fast, and is very easy to propagate by layers. When cut, it lasts
for more than a week in water. _Piptanthus nepalensis_ has also made a
handsome show, with its abundant yellow, pea-shaped bloom and deep-green
trefoil leaves. The dark-green stems have a slight bloom on a
half-polished surface, and a pale ring at each joint gives them somewhat
the look of bamboos.
Now is the time to look out for the big queen wasps and to destroy as
many as possible. They seem to be specially fond of the flowers of two
plants, the large perennial Cornflower (_Centaurea montana_) and the
common Cotoneaster. I have often secured a dozen in a few minutes on one
or other of these plants, first knocking them down with a battledore.
Now, in the third week of May, Rhododendrons are in full bloom on the
edge of the copse. The plantation was made about nine years ago, in one
of the regions where lawn and garden were to join the wood. During the
previous blooming season the best nurseries were visited and careful
observations made of colouring, habit, and time of blooming. The space
they were to fill demanded about seventy bushes, allowing an average of
eight feet from plant to plant--not seventy different kinds, but,
perhaps, ten of one kind, and two or three fives, and some threes, and a
few single plants, always bearing in mind the ultimate intention of
pictorial aspect as a whole. In choosing the plants and in arranging and
disposing the groups these ideas were kept in mind: to make pleasant
ways from lawn to copse; to group only in beautiful colour harmonies; to
choose varieties beautiful in themselves; to plant thoroughly well, and
to avoid overcrowding. Plantations of these grand shrubs are generally
spoilt or ineffective, if not absolutely jarring, for want of attention
to these simple rules. The choice of kinds is now so large, and the
variety of colouring so extensive, that nothing can be easier than to
make beautiful combinations, if intending planters will only take the
small amount of preliminary trouble that is needful. Some of the
clumps are of brilliant scarlet-crimson, rose and white, but out of the
great choice of colours that might be so named only those are chosen
that make just the colour-harmony that was intended. A large group,
quite detached from this one, and more in the shade of the copse, is of
the best of the lilacs, purples, and whites. When some clumps of young
hollies have grown, those two groups will not be seen at the same time,
except from a distance. The purple and white group is at present rather
the handsomest, from the free-growing habit of the fine old kind _Album
elegans_, which forms towering masses at the back. A detail of pictorial
effect that was aimed at, and that has come out well, was devised in the
expectation that the purple groups would look richer in the shade, and
the crimson ones in the sun. This arrangement has answered admirably.
Before planting, the ground, of the poorest quality possible, was deeply
trenched, and the Rhododendrons were planted in wide holes filled with
peat, and finished with a comfortable "mulch," or surface-covering of
farmyard manure. From this a supply of grateful nutriment was gradually
washed in to the roots. This beneficial surface-dressing was renewed
every year for two years after planting, and even longer in the case of
the slower growing kinds. No plant better repays care during its early
years. Broad grass paths leading from the lawn at several points pass
among the clumps, and are continued through the upper parts of the
copse, passing through zones of different trees; first a good stretch
of birch and holly, then of Spanish chestnut, next of oak, and finally
of Scotch fir, with a sprinkling of birch and mountain ash, all with an
undergrowth of heath and whortleberry and bracken. Thirty years ago it
was all a wood of old Scotch fir. This was cut at its best marketable
maturity, and the present young wood is made of what came up self-sown.
This natural wild growth was thick enough to allow of vigorous cutting
out, and the preponderance of firs in the upper part and of birch in the
lower suggested that these were the kinds that should predominate in
their respective places.
[Illustration: RHODODENDRONS WHERE THE COPSE AND GARDEN MEET.]
It may be useful to describe a little more in detail the plan I followed
in grouping Rhododendrons, for I feel sure that any one with a feeling
for harmonious colouring, having once seen or tried some such plan, will
never again approve of the haphazard mixtures. There may be better
varieties representing the colourings aimed at in the several groups,
but those named are ones that I know, and they will serve as well as any
others to show what is meant.
The colourings seem to group themselves into six classes of easy
harmonies, which I venture to describe thus:--
1. Crimsons inclining to scarlet or blood-colour grouped with dark
claret-colour and true pink.
In this group I have planted Nigrescens, dark claret-colour; John
Waterer and James Marshall Brook, both fine red-crimsons; Alexander
Adie and Atrosanguineum, good crimsons, inclining to blood-colour;
Alarm, rosy-scarlet; and Bianchi, pure pink.
2. Light scarlet rose colours inclining to salmon, a most desirable
range of colour, but of which the only ones I know well are Mrs. R. S.
Holford, and a much older kind, Lady Eleanor Cathcart. These I put by
themselves, only allowing rather near them the good pink Bianchi.
3. Rose colours inclining to amaranth.
4. Amaranths or magenta-crimsons.
5. Crimson or amaranth-purples.
6. Cool clear purples of the typical _ponticum_ class, both dark and
light, grouped with lilac-whites, such as _Album elegans_ and _Album
grandiflorum_. The beautiful partly-double _Everestianum_ comes into
this group, but nothing redder among purples. _Fastuosum florepleno_ is
also admitted, and _Luciferum_ and _Reine Hortense_, both good
lilac-whites. But the purples that are most effective are merely
_ponticum_ seedlings, chosen when in bloom in the nursery for their
depth and richness of cool purple colour.
My own space being limited, I chose three of the above groups only,
leaving out, as of colouring less pleasing to my personal liking, groups
3, 4, and 5. The remaining ones gave me examples of colouring the most
widely different, and at the same time the most agreeable to my
individual taste. It would have been easier, if that had been the
object, to have made groups of the three other classes of colouring,
which comprise by far the largest number of the splendid varieties now
grown. There are a great many beautiful whites; of these, two that I
most admire are Madame Carvalho and Sappho; the latter is an immense
flower, with a conspicuous purple blotch. There is also a grand old kind
called Minnie, a very large-growing one, with fine white trusses; and a
dwarf-growing white that comes early into bloom is Cunningham's White,
also useful for forcing, as it is a small plant, and a free bloomer.
[Illustration: GRASS WALKS THROUGH THE COPSE.]
Nothing is more perplexing than to judge of the relative merits of
colours in a Rhododendron nursery, where they are all mixed up. I have
twice been specially to look for varieties of a true pink colour, but
the quantity of untrue pinks is so great that anything approaching a
clear pink looks much better than it is. In this way I chose Kate
Waterer and Sylph, both splendid varieties; but when I grew them with my
true pink Bianchi they would not do, the colour having the suspicion of
rank quality that I wished to keep out of that group. This same Bianchi,
with its mongrel-sounding name, I found was not grown in the larger
nurseries. I had it from Messrs. Maurice Young, of the Milford
Nurseries, near Godalming. I regretted to hear lately from some one to
whom I recommended it that it could not be supplied. It is to be hoped
that so good a thing has not been lost.
A little way from the main Rhododendron clumps, and among bushy
Andromedas, I have the splendid hybrid of _R. Aucklandi_, raised by
Mr. A. Waterer. The trusses are astoundingly large, and the individual
blooms large and delicately beautiful, like small richly-modelled lilies
of a tender, warm, white colour. It is quite hardy south of London, and
unquestionably desirable. Its only fault is leggy growth; one year's
growth measures twenty-three inches, but this only means that it should
be planted among other bushes.
[Illustration: RHODODENDRONS AT THE EDGE OF THE COPSE.]
The last days of May see hardy Azaleas in beauty. Any of them may be
planted in company, for all their colours harmonise. In this garden,
where care is taken to group plants well for colour, the whites are
planted at the lower and more shady end of the group; next come the pale
yellows and pale pinks, and these are followed at a little distance by
kinds whose flowers are of orange, copper, flame, and scarlet-crimson
colourings; this strong-coloured group again softening off at the upper
end by strong yellows, and dying away into the woodland by bushes of the
common yellow _Azalea pontica_, and its variety with flowers of larger
size and deeper colour. The plantation is long in shape, straggling over
a space of about half an acre, the largest and strongest-coloured group
being in an open clearing about midway in the length. The ground between
them is covered with a natural growth of the wild Ling (_Calluna_) and
Whortleberry, and the small, white-flowered Bed-straw, with the
fine-bladed Sheep's-fescue grass, the kind most abundant in heathland.
The surrounding ground is copse, of a wild, forest-like character, of
birch and small oak. A wood-path of wild heath cut short winds through
the planted group, which also comprises some of the beautiful
white-flowered Californian _Azalea occidentalis_, and bushes of some of
the North American Vacciniums.
Azaleas should never be planted among or even within sight of
Rhododendrons. Though both enjoy a moist peat soil, and have a near
botanical relationship, they are incongruous in appearance, and
impossible to group together for colour. This must be understood to
apply to the two classes of plants of the hardy kinds, as commonly grown
in gardens. There are tender kinds of the East Indian families that are
quite harmonious, but those now in question are the ordinary varieties
of so-called Ghent Azaleas, and the hardy hybrid Rhododendrons. In the
case of small gardens, where there is only room for one bed or clump of
peat plants, it would be better to have a group of either one or the
other of these plants, rather than spoil the effect by the inharmonious
mixture of both.
I always think it desirable to group together flowers that bloom at the
same time. It is impossible, and even undesirable, to have a garden in
blossom all over, and groups of flower-beauty are all the more enjoyable
for being more or less isolated by stretches of intervening greenery. As
one lovely group for May I recommend Moutan Paeony and _Clematis
montana_, the Clematis on a wall low enough to let its wreaths of bloom
show near the Paeony. The old Guelder Rose or Snowball-tree is beautiful
anywhere, but I think it best of all on the cold side of a wall. Of
course it is perfectly hardy, and a bush of strong, sturdy growth, and
has no need of the wall either for support or for shelter; but I am for
clothing the garden walls with all the prettiest things they can wear,
and no shrub I know makes a better show. Moreover, as there is
necessarily less wood in a flat wall tree than in a round bush, and as
the front shoots must be pruned close back, it follows that much more
strength is thrown into the remaining wood, and the blooms are much
larger.
I have a north wall eleven feet high, with a Guelder Rose on each side
of a doorway, and a _Clematis montana_ that is trained on the top of the
whole. The two flower at the same time, their growths mingling in
friendly fashion, while their unlikeness of habit makes the
companionship all the more interesting. The Guelder Rose is a
stiff-wooded thing, the character of its main stems being a kind of
stark uprightness, though the great white balls hang out with a certain
freedom from the newly-grown shoots. The Clematis meets it with an
exactly opposite way of growth, swinging down its great swags of
many-flowered garland masses into the head of its companion, with here
and there a single flowering streamer making a tiny wreath on its own
account.
On the southern sides of the same gateway are two large bushes of the
Mexican Orange-flower (_Choisya ternata_), loaded with its orange-like
bloom. Buttresses flank the doorway on this side, dying away into the
general thickness of the wall above the arch by a kind of roofing of
broad flat stones that lay back at an easy pitch. In mossy hollows at
their joints and angles, some tufts of Thrift and of little Rock Pinks
have found a home, and show as tenderly-coloured tufts of rather dull
pink bloom. Above all is the same white Clematis, some of its abundant
growth having been trained over the south side, so that this one plant
plays a somewhat important part in two garden-scenes.
Through the gateway again, beyond the wall northward and partly within
its shade, is a portion of ground devoted to Paeonies, in shape a long
triangle, whose proportion in length is about thrice its breadth
measured at the widest end. A low cross-wall, five feet high, divides it
nearly in half near the Guelder Roses, and it is walled again on the
other long side of the triangle by a rough structure of stone and earth,
which, in compliment to its appearance, we call the Old Wall, of which I
shall have something to say later. Thus the Paeonies are protected all
round, for they like a sheltered place, and the Moutans do best with
even a little passing shade at some time of the day. Moutan is the
Chinese name for Tree Paeony. For an immense hardy flower of beautiful
colouring what can equal the salmon-rose Moutan Reine Elizabeth? Among
the others that I have, those that give me most pleasure are Baronne
d'Ales and Comtesse de Tuder, both pinks of a delightful quality, and
a lovely white called Bijou de Chusan. The Tree Paeonies are also
beautiful in leaf; the individual leaves are large and important, and so
carried that they are well displayed. Their colour is peculiar, being
bluish, but pervaded with a suspicion of pink or pinkish-bronze,
sometimes of a metallic quality that faintly recalls some of the
variously-coloured alloys of metal that the Japanese bronze-workers make
and use with such consummate skill.
[Illustration: SOUTH SIDE OF DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND CHOISYA.]
[Illustration: NORTH SIDE OF THE SAME DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND
GUELDER-ROSE.]
It is a matter of regret that varieties of the better kinds of Moutans
are not generally grown on their own roots, and still more so that the
stock in common use should not even be the type Tree Paeony, but one of
the herbaceous kinds, so that we have plants of a hard-wooded shrub
worked on a thing as soft as a Dahlia root. This is probably the reason
why they are so difficult to establish, and so slow to grow, especially
on light soils, even when their beds have been made deep and liberally
enriched with what one judges to be the most gratifying comfort. Every
now and then, just before blooming time, a plant goes off all at once,
smitten with sudden death. At the time of making my collection I was
unable to visit the French nurseries where these plants are so admirably
grown, and whence most of the best kinds have come. I had to choose them
by the catalogue description--always an unsatisfactory way to any one
with a keen eye for colour, although in this matter the compilers of
foreign catalogues are certainly less vague than those of our own. Many
of the plants therefore had to be shifted into better groups for colour
after their first blooming, a matter the more to be regretted as Paeonies
dislike being moved.
The other half of the triangular bit of Paeony ground--the pointed
end--is given to the kinds I like best of the large June-flowered
Paeonies, the garden varieties of the Siberian _P. albiflora_, popularly
known as Chinese Paeonies. Though among these, as is the case with all
the kinds, there is a preponderance of pink or rose-crimson colouring of
a decidedly rank quality, yet the number of varieties is so great, that
among the minority of really good colouring there are plenty to choose
from, including a good number of beautiful whites and whites tinged with
yellow. Of those I have, the kinds I like best are--
Hypatia, pink.
Madame Benare, salmon-rose.
The Queen, pale salmon-rose.
Leonie, salmon-rose.
Virginie, warm white.
Solfaterre, pale yellow.
Edouard Andre, deep claret.
Madame Calot, flesh pink.
Madame Breon.
Alba sulfurea.
Triomphans gandavensis.
Carnea elegans (Guerin).
Curiosa, pink and blush.
Prince Pierre Galitzin, blush.
Eugenie Verdier, pale pink.
Elegans superbissima, yellowish-white.
Virgo Maria, white.
Philomele, blush.
Madame Dhour, rose.
Duchesse de Nemours, yellow-white.
Faust.
Belle Douaisienne.
Jeanne d'Arc.
Marie Lemoine.
Many of the lovely flowers in this class have a rather strong, sweet
smell, something like a mixture of the scents of Rose and Tulip.
Then there are the old garden Paeonies, the double varieties of _P.
officinalis_. They are in three distinct colourings--full rich crimson,
crimson-rose, and pale pink changing to dull white. These are the
earliest to flower, and with them it is convenient, from the garden
point of view, to class some of the desirable species.
Some years ago my friend Mr. Barr kindly gave me a set of the Paeony
species as grown by him. I wished to have them, not for the sake of
making a collection, but in order to see which were the ones I should
like best to grow as garden flowers. In due time they grew into strong
plants and flowered. A good many had to be condemned because of the raw
magenta colour of the bloom, one or two only that had this defect being
reprieved on account of their handsome foliage and habit. Prominent
among these was _P. decora_, with bluish foliage handsomely displayed,
the whole plant looking strong and neat and well-dressed. Others whose
flower-colour I cannot commend, but that seemed worth growing on account
of their rich masses of handsome foliage, are _P. triternata_ and _P.
Broteri_. Though small in size, the light red flower of _P. lobata_ is
of a beautiful colour. _P. tenuifolia_, in both single and double form,
is an old garden favourite. _P. Wittmanniana_, with its yellow-green
leaves and tender yellow flower, is a gem; but it is rather rare, and
probably uncertain, for mine, alas! had no sooner grown into a fine
clump than it suddenly died.
All Paeonies are strong feeders. Their beds should be deeply and richly
prepared, and in later years they are grateful for liberal gifts of
manure, both as surface dressings and waterings.
Friends often ask me vaguely about Paeonies, and when I say, "What kind
of Paeonies?" they have not the least idea.
Broadly, and for garden purposes, one may put them into three classes--
1. Tree Paeonies (_P. moutan_), shrubby, flowering in May.
2. Chinese Paeonies (_P. albiflora_), herbaceous, flowering in June.
3. Old garden Paeonies (_P. officinalis_), herbaceous, including some
other herbaceous species.
I find it convenient to grow Paeony species and Caulescent (Lent)
Hellebores together. They are in a wide border on the north side of the
high wall and partly shaded by it. They are agreed in their liking for
deeply-worked ground with an admixture of loam and lime, for shelter,
and for rich feeding; and the Paeony clumps, set, as it were, in picture
frames of the lower-growing Hellebores, are seen to all the more
advantage.
[Illustration: FREE CLUSTER-ROSE AS STANDARD IN A COTTAGE GARDEN.]