JUNE
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.
What is one to say about June--the time of perfect young summer, the
fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign
to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade? For my own
part I wander up into the wood and say, "June is here--June is here;
thank God for lovely June!" The soft cooing of the wood-dove, the glad
song of many birds, the flitting of butterflies, the hum of all the
little winged people among the branches, the sweet earth-scents--all
seem to say the same, with an endless reiteration, never wearying
because so gladsome. It is the offering of the Hymn of Praise! The
lizards run in and out of the heathy tufts in the hot sunshine, and as
the long day darkens the night-jar trolls out his strange song, so
welcome because it is the prelude to the perfect summer night; here and
there a glowworm shows its little lamp. June is here--June is here;
thank God for lovely June!
And June is the time of Roses. I have great delight in the best of the
old garden Roses; the Provence (Cabbage Rose), sweetest of all sweets,
and the Moss Rose, its crested variety; the early Damask, and its red
and white striped kind; the old, nearly single, Reine Blanche. I do not
know the origin of this charming Rose, but by its appearance it should
be related to the Damask. A good many years ago I came upon it in a
cottage garden in Sussex, and thought I had found a white Damask. The
white is a creamy white, the outsides of the outer petals are stained
with red, first showing clearly in the bud. The scent is delicate and
delightful, with a faint suspicion of Magnolia. A few years ago this
pretty old Rose found its way to one of the meetings of the Royal
Horticultural Society, where it gained much praise. It was there that I
recognised my old friend, and learned its name.
I am fond of the old _Rosa alba_, both single and double, and its
daughter, Maiden's Blush. How seldom one sees these Roses except in
cottage gardens; but what good taste it shows on the cottager's part,
for what Rose is so perfectly at home upon the modest little wayside
porch?
I have also learnt from cottage gardens how pretty are some of the old
Roses grown as standards. The picture of my neighbour, Mrs. Edgeler,
picking me a bunch from her bush, shows how freely they flower, and what
fine standards they make. I have taken the hint, and have now some big
round-headed standards, the heads a yard through, of the lovely Celeste
and of Madame Plantier, that are worth looking at, though one of them is
rather badly-shaped this year, for my handsome Jack (donkey) ate one
side of it when he was waiting outside the studio door, while his
cart-load of logs for the ingle fire was being unloaded.
What a fine thing, among the cluster Roses, is the old Dundee Rambler! I
trained one to go up a rather upright green Holly about twenty-five feet
high, and now it has rushed up and tumbles out at the top and sides in
masses of its pretty bloom. It is just as good grown as a "fountain,"
giving it a free space where it can spread at will with no training or
support whatever. These two ways I think are much the best for growing
the free, rambling Roses. In the case of the fountain, the branches arch
over and display the flowers to perfection; if you tie your Rose up to a
tall post or train it over an arch or _pergola_, the birds flying
overhead have the best of the show. The Garland Rose, another old sort,
is just as suitable for this kind of growth as Dundee Rambler, and the
individual flowers, of a tender blush-colour, changing to white, are
even more delicate and pretty.
The newer Crimson Rambler is a noble plant for the same use, in sunlight
gorgeous of bloom, and always brilliant with its glossy bright-green
foliage. Of the many good plants from Japan, this is the best that has
reached us of late years. The Himalayan _Rosa Brunonii_ is loaded with
its clusters of milk-white bloom, that are so perfectly in harmony with
its very long, almost blue leaves. But of all the free-growing Roses,
the most remarkable for rampant growth is _R. polyantha_. One of the
bushes in this garden covers a space thirty-four feet across--more than
a hundred feet round. It forms a great fountain-like mass, covered with
myriads of its small white flowers, whose scent is carried a
considerable distance. Directly the flower is over it throws up rods of
young growth eighteen to twenty feet long; as they mature they arch
over, and next year their many short lateral shoots will be smothered
with bloom.
Two other Roses of free growth are also great favourites--Madame Alfred
Carriere, with long-stalked loose white flowers, and Emilie Plantier. I
have them on an east fence, where they yield a large quantity of bloom
for cutting; indeed, they have been so useful in this way that I have
planted several more, but this time for training down to an oak trellis,
like the one that supports the row of Bouquet d'Or, in order to bring
the flowers within easier reach.
Now we look for the bloom of the Burnet Rose (_Rosa spinosissima_), a
lovely native plant, and its garden varieties, the Scotch Briars. The
wild plant is widely distributed in England, though somewhat local.
It grows on moors in Scotland, and on Beachy Head in Sussex, and near
Tenby in South Wales, favouring wild places within smell of the sea. The
rather dusky foliage sets off the lemon-white of the wild, and the clear
white, pink, rose, and pale yellow of the double garden kinds. The hips
are large and handsome, black and glossy, and the whole plant in late
autumn assumes a fine bronzy colouring between ashy black and dusky red.
Other small old garden Roses are coming into bloom. One of the most
desirable, and very frequent in this district, is _Rosa lucida_, with
red stems, highly-polished leaves, and single, fragrant flowers of pure
rosy-pink colour. The leaves turn a brilliant yellow in autumn, and
after they have fallen the bushes are still bright with the coloured
stems and the large clusters of bright-red hips. It is the St. Mark's
Rose of Venice, where it is usually in flower on St. Mark's Day, April
25th. The double variety is the old _Rose d'amour_, now rare in gardens;
its half-expanded bud is perhaps the most daintily beautiful thing that
any Rose can show.
[Illustration: DOUBLE WHITE SCOTCH BRIAR.]
After many years of fruitless effort I have to allow that I am beaten in
the attempt to grow the Grand Roses in the Hybrid Perpetual class. They
plainly show their dislike to our dry hill, even when their beds are as
well enriched as I can contrive or afford to make them. The rich loam
that they love has to come many miles from the Weald by hilly roads in
four-horse waggons, and the haulage is so costly that when it arrives I
feel like distributing it with a spoon rather than with the spade.
Moreover, even if a bed is filled with the precious loam, unless
constantly watered the plants seem to feel and resent the two hundred
feet of dry sand and rock that is under them before any moister stratum
is reached.
But the Tea Roses are more accommodating, and do fairly well, though, of
course, not so well as in a stiffer soil. If I were planting again I
should grow a still larger proportion of the kinds I have now found to
do best. Far beyond all others is Madame Lambard, good alike early and
late, and beautiful at all times. In this garden it yields quite three
times as much bloom as any other; nothing else can approach it either
for beauty or bounty. Viscountess Folkestone, not properly a Tea, but
classed among Hybrid Noisettes, is also free and beautiful and
long-enduring; and Papa Gontier, so like a deeper-coloured Lambard, is
another favourite. Bouquet d'Or is here the strongest of the Dijon Teas.
I grow it in several positions, but most conveniently on a strong bit of
oak post and rail trellis, keeping the long growths tied down, and every
two years cutting the oldest wood right out. It is well to remember that
the tying or pegging down of Roses always makes them bloom better: every
joint from end to end wants to make a good Rose; if the shoots are more
upright, the blooming strength goes more to the top.
The pruning of Tea Roses is quite different from the pruning required
for the Hybrid Perpetuals. In these the last year's growth is cut
back in March to within two to five eyes from where it leaves the main
branch, according to the strength of the kind. This must not be done
with the Teas. With these the oldest wood is cut right out from the
base, and the blooming shoots left full length. But it is well, towards
the end of July or beginning of August, to cut back the ends of soft
summer shoots in order to give them a chance of ripening what is left.
When an old Tea looks worn out, if cut right down in March or April it
will often throw out vigorous young growth, and quite renew its life.
[Illustration: PART OF A BUSH OF ROSA POLYANTHA.]
[Illustration: GARLAND-ROSE, SHOWING NATURAL WAY OF GROWTH.]
Within the first days of June we can generally pick some Sweet Peas from
the rows sown in the second week of September. They are very much
stronger than those sown in spring. By November they are four inches
high, and seem to gain strength and sturdiness during the winter; for as
soon as spring comes they shoot up with great vigour, and we know that
the spray used to support them must be two feet higher than for those
that are spring-sown. The flower-stalks are a foot long, and many have
four flowers on a stalk. They are sown in shallow trenches; in spring
they are earthed up very slightly, but still with a little trench at the
base of the plants. A few doses of liquid manure are a great help when
they are getting towards blooming strength.
I am very fond of the Elder-tree. It is a sociable sort of thing; it
seems to like to grow near human habitations. In my own mind it is
certainly the tree most closely associated with the pretty old cottage
and farm architecture of my part of the country; no bush or tree, not
even the apple, seems to group so well or so closely with farm
buildings. When I built a long thatched shed for the many needs of the
garden, in the region of pits and frames, compost, rubbish and
burn-heap, I planted Elders close to the end of the building and on one
side of the yard. They look just right, and are, moreover, every year
loaded with their useful fruit. This is ripe quite early in September,
and is made into Elder wine, to be drunk hot in winter, a comfort by no
means to be despised. My trees now give enough for my own wants, and
there are generally a few acceptable bushels to spare for my cottage
neighbours.
About the middle of the month the Virginian Cowslip (_Mertensia
virginica_) begins to turn yellow before dying down. Now is the time to
look out for the seeds. A few ripen on the plant, but most of them fall
while green, and then ripen in a few days while lying on the ground. I
shake the seeds carefully out, and leave them lying round the
parent-plant; a week later, when they will be ripe, they are lightly
scratched into the ground. Some young plants of last year's growth I
mark with a bit of stick, in case of wanting some later to plant
elsewhere, or to send away; the plant dies away completely, leaving no
trace above ground, so that if not marked it would be difficult to find
what is wanted.
[Illustration: LILAC MARIE LEGRAYE. (_See page 23._)]
[Illustration: FLOWERING ELDER AND PATH FROM GARDEN TO COPSE.]
This is also the time for pulling to pieces and replanting that good
spring plant, the large variety of _Myosotis dissitiflora_; I always
make sure of divisions, as seed does not come true. _Primula rosea_
should also be divided now, and planted to grow on in a cool place, such
as the foot of a north or east wall, or be put at once in its place in
some cool, rather moist spot in the rock-garden. Two-year-old plants
come up with thick clumps of matted root that is now useless. I cut off
the whole mass of old root about an inch below the crown, when it can
easily be divided into nice little bits for replanting. Many other
spring-flowering plants may with advantage be divided now, such as
Aubrietia, Arabis, Auricula, Tiarella, and Saxifrage.
The young Primrose plants, sown in March, have been planted out in their
special garden, and are looking well after some genial rain.
The great branching Mullein, _Verbascum olympicum_, is just going out of
bloom, after making a brilliant display for a fortnight. It is followed
by the other of the most useful tall, yellow-flowered kinds, _V.
phlomoides_. Both are seen at their best either quite early in the
morning, or in the evening, or in half-shade, as, like all their kind,
they do not expand their bloom in bright sunshine. Both are excellent
plants on poor soils. _V. olympicum_, though classed as a biennial, does
not come to flowering strength till it is three or four years old; but
meanwhile the foliage is so handsome that even if there were no flower
it would be a worthy garden plant. It does well in any waste spaces of
poor soil, where, by having plants of all ages, there will be some to
flower every year. The Mullein moth is sure to find them out, and it
behoves the careful gardener to look for and destroy the caterpillars,
or he may some day find, instead of his stately Mulleins, tall stems
only clothed with unsightly grey rags. The caterpillars are easily
caught when quite small or when rather large; but midway in their
growth, when three-quarters of an inch long, they are wary, and at the
approach of the avenging gardener they will give a sudden wriggling
jump, and roll down into the lower depths of the large foliage, where
they are difficult to find. But by going round the plants twice a day
for about a week they can all be discovered.
The white variety of the French Willow (_Epilobium angustifolium_) is a
pretty plant in the edges of the copse, good both in sun and shade, and
flourishing in any poor soil. In better ground it grows too rank,
running quickly at the root and invading all its neighbours, so that it
should be planted with great caution; but when grown on poor ground it
flowers at from two feet to four feet high, and its whole aspect is
improved by the proportional amount of flower becoming much larger.
Towards the end of June the bracken that covers the greater part of the
ground of the copse is in full beauty. No other manner of undergrowth
gives to woodland in so great a degree the true forest-like character.
This most ancient plant speaks of the old, untouched land of which large
stretches still remain in the south of England--land too poor to have
been worth cultivating, and that has therefore for centuries endured
human contempt. In the early part of the present century, William
Cobbett, in his delightful book, "Rural Rides," speaking of the heathy
headlands and vast hollow of Hindhead, in Surrey, calls it "certainly
the most villainous spot God ever made." This gives expression to his
view, as farmer and political economist, of such places as were
incapable of cultivation, and of the general feeling of the time about
lonely roads in waste places, as the fields for the lawless labours of
smuggler and highwayman. Now such tracts of natural wild beauty, clothed
with stretches of Heath and Fern and Whortleberry, with beds of Sphagnum
Moss, and little natural wild gardens of curious and beautiful
sub-aquatic plants in the marshy hollows and undrained wastes, are
treasured as such places deserve to be, especially when they still
remain within fifty miles of a vast city. The height to which the
bracken grows is a sure guide to the depth of soil. On the poorest,
thinnest ground it only reaches a foot or two; but in hollow places
where leaf-mould accumulates and surface soil has washed in and made a
better depth, it grows from six feet to eight feet high, and when
straggling up through bushes to get to the light a frond will sometimes
measure as much as twelve feet. The old country people who have always
lived on the same poor land say, "Where the farn grows tall anything
will grow"; but that only means that there the ground is somewhat better
and capable of cultivation, as its presence is a sure indication of a
sandy soil. The timber-merchants are shy of buying oak trees felled from
among it, the timber of trees grown on the wealden clay being so much
better.