edgings around beds of big roses. It is a true “shorty” and
seldom exceeds five inches in height. But the buds, rose-pink,
are so exquisite one wishes to put them into a setting for a
ring to be worn on the finger.
‘Scarlet Gem’--This is what is known as a newcomer among
miniature roses. But it has so much charm, I know it will be
called an old favorite in the years to come. The flowers are
an orange-scarlet, and fairly cover a handsome bush of nice
conformation. Remember when setting it out in your garden, it
may grow an inch or so taller than some of the others.
‘Sunbeam’--From the very name you may guess that this is a
yellow rose, literally, a beam from the sun. It is a cheerful
little dwarf, and has a tea-rose type of bloom. You’ll love it.
‘Sweet Fairy’--This is something out of a book of fairy tales,
delicate and fanciful. It has pinkish blooms and a fragrance
that will charm you.
‘Thumbelina’--Looking at this rose will bring back the memories
of that delightful story “Thumbelina” which we all loved as
children. As a rose, and not a story, it is semidouble and has
lovely red flowers that open from delicately pointed buds. It
flowers freely, and the blooms are most enchanting in small
vases.
‘Wayside’s Garnet’--As I first bought this rose from the
catalogue of Wayside Gardens, I’ll let them describe it for
you: “... a neat, compact small plant with many perfect,
fully-double, garnet-red little flowers. It is a prolific
bloomer and a good grower ... much like Oakington Ruby, which is
one of its parents. It probably has the brightest, darkest and
deepest red to be found among miniature roses.”
‘Yellow Miniature’--This is a charming little rose, yellow, with
a cheering tint. Many consider it to be the most attractive of
all yellow miniatures. I will not argue with them. I’ve always
been enchanted with it.
_CHAPTER 8_
MINIATURE SINK GARDENS
Take the concept of dish gardens and model landscapes, but execute it
with miniature garden plants. Take the outdoor plants of bonsai, but
don’t dwarf them unduly or train them into unusual shapes. There you
have the mixture that makes up these specialized miniature gardens,
called “sink” or “trough” gardens for the old-fashioned stone sinks and
horse troughs they were planted in when the fad first swept England,
some thirty years ago.
Now, the old sinks and troughs are practically nonexistent, and the
name is anachronistic. But I have been totally unable to dream up
anything better. “Sink garden” is a specific title for a composition
of plants or a landscape scene in small scale, planted in a sturdy,
sink-like container, grown outdoors and used in limited ways to
decorate the garden and grounds. No other phrase seems to define it.
My interest was originally aroused by the books of Anne Ashberry,
England’s sink-garden specialist, and by the warm affection she has
for her specialty. But it was not until I began to work with miniature
plants in our Connecticut gardens--and to find out what a great variety
is available--that I was inspired to plant a sink garden of my own.
Originally, I was intrigued; soon, I was fascinated; now, I’m an
addict. With the flimsiest excuse I’d have so many of them it would
look as if our grounds had broken out with measles.
These sink gardens are not for big, burly gardeners who like cabbage
roses and gaudy shrubs. They’re for connoisseurs who appreciate the
minuscule perfection of a tiny plant, more effectively displayed at eye
level. They’re for those who grow alpines and other difficult plants
and find them less finicky under these controlled conditions. They’re
for gardeners who can’t, or don’t want to, squat in the hot sun for
hours, weeding or transplanting; who want the pleasure of creating
gardens, but take the accompanying chores in small doses. And sink
gardens are for people, like me, who simply find irresistible charm in
the miniature.
If our grounds were spacious, I’d find a place where I could have a
collection of sink gardens, set up on pedestals and arranged in neat
rows, so I could move easily from one to the next with the watering
can. But they’re probably much more ornamental and distinctive if used
the way the few we have now are.
Instead of a sundial at a break in the shrubbery border, we have a sink
garden set on a two-foot column of mellowed brick. Two narrow gardens
outline the corner of the small patio by the front entrance. A small
sink garden enlivens a shelf beside the door to the lath house. There’s
one at the end of an old stone bench.
Or you can display one of these gardens against the wall at the end of
a garden walk; as a centerpiece on the lawn or terrace; on top of a low
wall or at the edge of a balcony; in place of an inanimate statue or
urn. If possible, let the background be light and not bright-colored;
neutral shades show off the plantings to best advantage.
CONTAINERS
Picturesque old sinks are obviously not available to us, and any horse
troughs I’ve seen have been much too monstrous. Miss Ashberry casts her
own containers of concrete (its porosity is excellent for plants), and
we can do the same.
Sometimes I think the sinks and troughs look a little heavy in
relation to the plantings. Certainly they _are_ heavy, and
almost impossible to move, when filled with soil. But I’ve found a
goodly number of acceptable substitutes. First, of course, I shopped
my favorite junk yard and found the round concrete planter and the
wash-tub lid that served as containers for my first sink gardens. I
also saw possibilities in a big old butter tub that could be cut down,
and in a leaky birdbath.
Some of today’s building tiles are perfectly beautiful and, if shallow
enough, could be fitted with a metal or wooden bottom. They come in all
sizes, shapes, and colors. Thick, old wood is another possibility. I’m
thinking of some weathered planks we found at the seashore last summer;
they’d make a handsome and sturdy container for a wind-blown, woodsy
garden.
[Illustration:
Miniature garden of dwarf evergreens, _Cyclamen neapolitanum_,
and tiny trumpet narcissi not yet blooming]
In designing or selecting a container, you have few rules to go by. It
should be strong and weather-resistant, of course, because it is to be
placed outdoors. It must have drainage holes in the bottom, so fallen
rain won’t stand in it. It should be deep enough (six to eight inches)
to give small trees and plants root-room. And artistically, it should
be in harmony and proportion with the garden to be planted in it, not
as a feature in itself, but as a subordinate element in the picture.
Unless a sink garden is to be placed on top of a wall or some other
existing support, it will probably need a base to hold it two or three
feet off the ground. This can be made of cement blocks, rustic brick,
tile, or concrete, according to the design of the container itself.
PLANTS FOR SINK GARDENS
Unlike bonsai, these plants are not to _be_ dwarfed, they _are_ dwarf
by nature. Miniature perennials, such as _Calceolaria biflora_, never
top two inches, nor do some of the tiny narcissus species. Some trees
have never been known to grow taller than six inches. And if you can’t
find trees that are small at maturity, you can find many that grow so
slowly they’ll stay in proper scale (even without pruning) for five
years or more. There are miniature garden plants of all habits and
shapes--stiffly erect, tufted, bush-like, sprawling, creeping, hanging,
climbing--and even pinhead-size water plants for tiny pools.
Actually, there are miniature plants in every horticultural
category--annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbs, shrubs, trees, aquatic
plants, and wildlings--and most of them are suitable for sink gardens.
You have only to select those that are in scale and sympathy with your
design, and that are culturally compatible, one with the other. You
can grow many of them from seeds or cuttings. Miniature perennials
are available in widest variety from growers of alpine and rockery
plants. Trees and shrubs can be bought by mail from suppliers of small
plants for bonsai work. Native and aquatic plants are plentiful from
mail-order wild-flower houses.
ACCESSORIES
The worst thing you can do with one of these little outdoor gardens
is to clutter it up with little artificial props such as benches,
bridges, and old oaken buckets. At all costs, avoid the cute and the
trite. Practice moderation and the utmost restraint.
One prop--a hand-carved well-head, an alabaster birdbath, a
lichen-covered rock--is usually plenty for any one garden. If it is
handsome in its own right, the whole garden may be designed to set it
off. If it’s a supporting element, play it down and let the plants
stand out in the picture.
The same is true of streams, pools, walks, walls, and other miniature
landscape constructions. They’re pretty and they’re fun to make; but
just one too many can spoil a garden.
Naturally, any accessories and props to be used in a sink garden
should be sturdy and weather-resistant. And as in any other miniature
composition, proportion and scale are terribly important.
THEMES AND DESIGNS
Many of the principles and suggestions for dish gardens and model
landscapes in Chapter 3 are equally applicable to sink gardens. The
design needs, first, a basic idea or theme. Will the garden be formal,
or informal and woodsy, or simply an artistic arrangement of living
plants with or without a piece of tree stump or rock? Should it be
built around an important accessory, or will one plant or a group of
plants be the center of interest? Does the style of the container
suggest the style of the garden to go in it?
Since a sink garden is usually planned to have some permanency, it is
particularly important to plan the design in every possible detail and,
if at all possible, to put the plan on paper--and in proper scale. You
can tell, before it’s too late, whether a tree will be too large, a
fence too high or prominent, a grouping of plants too far off balance.
When you plan the planting, keep proportion and perspective clearly in
mind. If the design is to have formal balance, arrange pairs of trees,
clipped hedges, straight walks, and other elements with geometric
precision. If the effect is to be informal, make sure the center of
interest is off-center, with a large airy area or low planting to
balance it at the other side.
In crowded plantings the beauty of the form of individual plants is
lost. Be sure to space them so that they have room to grow without
becoming entangled with their neighbors. To blend the garden with its
container, plan to have a creeper or trailer dangling over the edge.
Artistic plant compositions are arranged, like dish gardens, with
outstanding accent plants, low growers often around the base, usually
arranged naturally at the base of a rock or around a piece of log or
stump. Colors and textures of flowers and foliage are contrasted and
blended as they are in arrangements of cut flowers. Setting the plants
in the empty container and rearranging them until the best effect is
achieved may save shifting them about during planting.
All kinds of landscape designs can be re-created, in miniature, in
sink gardens. And the scenes can change naturally with the seasons
of the year. One of my informal gardens has a basic arrangement of
rocks, small evergreens, and ground cover. In spring, miniature
narcissus species bloom; in summer, tiny annuals such as _Ionopsidium
acaule_ and perennials such as _Erodium chamaedryoides roseum_;
in fall, small cyclamen species.
Woodsy wild gardens can also have basic, permanent plantings--seedling
evergreens, moss, foliage plants such as small ferns, rattlesnake
plantain, and pipsissewa--through which spring-blooming squirrel corn,
hepatica, and spring beauty can push up their flowers.
One of the most effective formal-garden designs makes good use of
miniature roses as a flowering hedge in front of a high wall at the
back, or as twin specimens on each side of an arch. Other formal
gardens adapt the designs of the Victorian age, or the Colonial gardens
of Williamsburg.
Someday I want to try an Oriental garden featuring a bonsai-style dwarf
tree and planted sparsely, in the Japanese manner, with tiniest shrubs
and perennials and a ground cover of fine moss or sand, and perhaps a
curved bridge over a still stream.
With a suitable container you could do an outdoor desert garden. Many
miniature desert plants are hardy or semihardy and would live through
the winter with some protection. There are many other possible themes,
and many types of plants and containers with which to carry them out.
PLANTING AND CARE
Unless you can control watering (which means keeping the garden out of
the rain), make sure that the container has plenty of small holes in
the bottom for drainage. And for extra insurance that drainage will
be perfect, start out with a layer of pebbles or sand. A covering of
burlap or sheet moss will keep soil from sifting down into it.
Soil should be light and porous, capable of holding some moisture but
not too much. The standard recipe of one-third garden loam, one-third
humus, and one-third sharp sand is a good basic mixture to start with.
Add extra sand if the plants are succulent-like, extra humus for
woodsy plants, a sprinkling of lime for plants that dislike acid soil.
A slow-acting organic fertilizer such as bone meal can be mixed in,
but in very small amounts. Run the mixture through a coarse sieve, to
remove stones and debris.
As you place the plants, firm the soil gently around the roots. Don’t
fill the container so full that the soil is level with the rim; leave
an inch or so to hold water while it seeps down to the roots below.
Place the ground-cover plants, and those to dangle over the edge, last.
Some gardens are finished with a thin mulch of stone chips or sand,
some with a carpet of moss.
_Location_
A sink garden planted in a real trough or sink is a mighty heavy thing,
once it’s filled with soil and planted; and so may be many others. If
you can place the empty container in its permanent spot and plant it
there, you may save someone an aching back.
These gardens are meant to grow out in the open air, but not where
searing sun and hot dry winds can dry the soil too fast and burn the
plants. If the plants are all of the type that need sunlight, give them
only the dappled shade of a high-branched tree or the windbreak and
slight noonday shade of a low wall. Woodland plants and others that
like shade can be grown in more protected spots. Naturally, the two
types are not combined successfully in the same garden.
Don’t place sink gardens where they will receive the drip from eaves
or an overhanging tree. Don’t set them tight up against a wall. Newly
planted gardens need some special protection--a cheesecloth tent or
newspaper on a temporary frame overhead--until plants are well settled
in their new home.
_Watering_
A safe general rule is never to let the soil dry out all the way
through, never to water so much that it is soggy and sour. For most
plants, you can scratch into the soil surface with your fingers. If
it feels moist, don’t water; if it feels dry, do. However, succulent
plants should be grown drier, boggy plants more constantly moist.
Frequency of watering depends upon type of plant, size and type of
container, the soil, the weather--depends, in fact, upon how often each
individual sink garden needs water.
_Fertilizing_
If a fertile soil mixture is used in the first place, and particularly
if it is enriched with a slow-acting fertilizer such as bone meal, most
gardens will not need extra feeding for many months after planting,
often not for the first year. The point is to give the plants just
enough food to keep them healthy, not enough to make them grow out of
proportion to the garden.
If you see signs of malnutrition--few, small leaves with poor color;
failure to bud and flower; sickly, stunted growth--feed quickly but
lightly. A weak solution of organic food such as fish emulsion or
liquid manure is usually recommended. Established gardens can take this
light feeding once in spring when active growth begins, and once or
twice during the early summer, without outgrowing their bounds.
[Illustration:
Rock garden set in an old wash-boiler lid]
_Pruning and Grooming_
Pick off all faded flowers promptly, so the plants will not exhaust
themselves by setting seed. Remove any dried or fallen foliage so it
will not rot and invite disease. Pinch the growing tips of plants that
threaten to grow too tall and lanky. Shear hedge plants regularly and
nip back creepers that spread out too far and strangle other plants.
Refresh and renew any mulch or moss carpet as needed. In a garden so
small, the least imperfection seems magnified.
_Insects and Disease_
Once a week, all summer long, my sink gardens get a quick treatment
from an all-purpose aerosol bomb, used according to label directions.
So far, with one exception (the mysterious plague of “inchworms” we had
in the spring of 1961), this has kept insects and disease at a safe
distance.
_Winter Care_
In mild or warm climates, sink gardens should not need any special
protection in winter. But in Connecticut, the deep-freeze is so long
and severe, I move my gardens to the cold frame. To make sure that
the soil does not freeze and crack the container, I sometimes sink it
to the rim in the soil. I’ve also packed salt hay tightly around them
successfully. Or a garden could be wintered over on an unheated porch.
But most of the hardy plants used in sink gardens should not spend the
winter indoors or in a warm greenhouse. They must have a cool rest
period for several months to complete their natural growth cycle.
_CHAPTER 9_
MINIATURE PLANTS,
BONSAI-STYLE
Only in the true Oriental bonsai do art and horticulture combine
in such an extreme state of perfection--and in miniature to boot.
Paintings may be as magnificent, but they’re inanimate. Ancient trees
of the forest may have equal artistic virtue, but they’re not shaped
by the hand of man. Living bonsai trees, sometimes centuries old,
become masterpieces because, says Claude Chidamian, “they’re planted in
philosophy, shaped by art, grown with love.”
If that sounds as if I am awed by bonsai--I am. I would never have
the talent and patience to prune and shape, trim and train, in minute
detail year after year, so that every branch, twig, and tiny needle
or leaf would be perfectly placed and proportioned. Even if I were
an artist, I doubt that I could create the illusion of grandeur in
minuscule scale. Nor would I ever dare assume the responsibility for
caring for these priceless, age-old plants.
But that doesn’t mean that bonsai is beyond me, or any other gardener
who admires it. Without committing the sacrilege of inept imitation,
we can have our own version of these miniature trees and make them
artistic and satisfying in our own way.
The original bonsai trees look old and weather-beaten because they
_are_ old and weather-beaten. The Japanese adopted this art from
the Chinese many centuries ago. Our trees in bonsai-style are not
likely to have that venerable age, but they can have character. They
can have the lines of trees that have held a precarious footing on the
side of a rocky slope, have been bent by the wind or twisted by mighty
storms.
Because every part of it is in perfect proportion to every other part,
a fine bonsai tree creates an illusion of tremendous size--as if you
were looking through the wrong end of a telescope to a giant more than
a hundred years old. Our dwarfed trees can be perfectly proportioned
and create the same illusion. Although there is no substitute for true
antiquity, our dwarfed trees can be artistic in their own way without
pretending to be ancient.
By making some concessions (without desecrating the art) we can take
suitable trees and turn them into “Orientalized” garden ornaments, and
do it in one year, not ten. If the pruning and training is done with
care and artistry, the result will be a bonsai which is a distinguished
ornament and particularly appropriate for contemporary architecture,
and also for landscape architecture.
I have seen a bonsai of Sargent’s juniper set beside a garden pool, its
twisting branches swaying out and over the water, and reflected in it.
Twin (but not identical) bonsai trees are startlingly effective; for
example, one on each side at the top of a set of formal steps. Bonsai
can be used as a center of interest on a patio or terrace to accent an
entrance, on top of low walls, or against the wall at the end of a path.
Last summer, in our wild garden, my husband dammed up a tiny stream at
a point where it began to run down a short but rather steep and shaded
slope. This created a small pool from which the water trickles over
the dam and drops onto a series of rock ledges below. We planted the
banks on both sides with ferns, wild ginger, bloodroot, trillium, and
other wildlings. But something was needed at the top, some small tree
or shrub that would integrate the dam into the picture and would be in
harmony with the woodsy surroundings.
We considered all the dwarf, shade-tolerant evergreens our local
nurseries had to offer, but nothing seemed just right. We scoured our
woods, but the only low-growing trees (which are mighty few in our
area) were too straight and erect. The mountain laurels and other
shrubs with interesting lines would eventually grow too large. So we
decided to try what, for us, is an experiment.
We found a white pine less than two feet tall with a suggestion of the
irregular shape we had been looking for. We lifted it carefully, took
it home, root-pruned it, and planted it in the best bonsai tradition,
in a sturdy box just large enough to hold the roots but leaving a
little room to spare around the edge. Then we took the tree to the top
of the dam and planted it by sinking the box in the soil. After some
weeks, when the pine showed no sign of ill effects from being moved,
and was making new growth, we shaped and pruned it, and then wired
it, bonsai-style, along the lines of the tree we had been hunting for.
[Illustration: Streptocarpus--this variety is the delightful
little Weismoor hybrid.]
With sensible care and winter protection, pruning and root-pruning when
it threatens to grow too large, and training in the way we think it
should grow, the little pine will, we hope, mature into a gnarled gnome
in proportion and harmony with its woodland setting. Of course, we plan
to provide a new box at root-pruning time before the old one can rot
and set the dwarfed roots free to roam the soil around it.
INDOOR BONSAI, HARDY OR SEMIHARDY
The real Japanese bonsai is an outdoor inhabitant, usually one of a
collection that is brought indoors for display purposes and for only a
few days at a time. But by using tender plants that want more warmth,
growers are beginning to create bonsai that can be used decoratively
indoors the year round. In a shadow box, on a coffee table or special
stand, even as a table centerpiece they should always be alone and with
no accessories to detract from their unique style.
Last winter I thoroughly enjoyed starting a collection of indoor
miniatures, frank copies of Japanese _name_ bonsai, and even
the wee fingertip _shinto_ type. These are a special challenge
because to preserve proper proportion, leaves and needles must be extra
small, and pruning and training are particularly crucial. Water is
applied with an eyedropper; fertilizer is administered in microscopic
amounts. To provide protective humidity and warmth, and to help keep
the small amount of soil in tiny containers from drying out, we rigged
up plastic-covered quarters on a window sill, with a layer of moist
vermiculite. Our tray was also improvised from a double layer of
heavyweight aluminum foil. Now, all but the youngest, and the very
smallest, miniatures are strong enough to grow on glass shelves outside
the plastic tent.