COLOUR IN THE
FLOWER GARDEN
[Illustration: _WHITE LILIES._]
_THE "COUNTRY LIFE"
LIBRARY_
COLOUR IN THE
FLOWER GARDEN
BY
GERTRUDE JEKYLL
[Illustration: A bunch of flowers.]
PUBLISHED BY
"COUNTRY LIFE," LTD. GEORGE NEWNES, LTD.
20, TAVISTOCK STREET 7-12, SOUTHAMPTON ST.
COVENT GARDEN, W.C. COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
1908
INTRODUCTION
To plant and maintain a flower-border, _with a good scheme for colour_,
is by no means the easy thing that is commonly supposed.
I believe that the only way in which it can be made successful is to
devote certain borders to certain times of year; each border or garden
region to be bright for from one to three months.
Nothing seems to me more unsatisfactory than the border that in spring
shows a few patches of flowering bulbs in ground otherwise looking
empty, or with tufts of herbaceous plants just coming through. Then
the bulbs die down, and their place is wanted for something that comes
later. Either the ground will then show bare patches, or the place of
the bulbs will be forgotten and they will be cruelly stabbed by fork or
trowel when it is wished to put something in the apparently empty space.
For many years I have been working at these problems in my own garden,
and having come to certain conclusions, can venture to put them forth
with some confidence. I may mention that from the nature of the ground,
in its original state partly wooded and partly bare field, and from
its having been brought into cultivation and some sort of shape before
it was known where the house now upon it would exactly stand, the
garden has less general unity of design than I should have wished. The
position and general form of its various portions were accepted mainly
according to their natural conditions, so that the garden ground,
though but of small extent, falls into different regions, with a
general, but not altogether definite, cohesion.
I am strongly of opinion that the possession of a quantity of plants,
however good the plants may be themselves and however ample their
number, does not make a garden; it only makes a _collection_. Having
got the plants, the great thing is to use them with careful selection
and definite intention. Merely having them, or having them planted
unassorted in garden spaces, is only like having a box of paints
from the best colourman, or, to go one step further, it is like
having portions of these paints set out upon a palette. This does not
constitute a picture; and it seems to me that the duty we owe to our
gardens and to our own bettering in our gardens is so to use the plants
that they shall form beautiful pictures; and that, while delighting
our eyes, they should be always training those eyes to a more exalted
criticism; to a state of mind and artistic conscience that will not
tolerate bad or careless combination or any sort of misuse of plants,
but in which it becomes a point of honour to be always striving for the
best.
It is just in the way it is done that lies the whole difference between
commonplace gardening and gardening that may rightly claim to rank as a
fine art. Given the same space of ground and the same material, they
may either be fashioned into a dream of beauty, a place of perfect
rest and refreshment of mind and body--a series of soul-satisfying
pictures--a treasure of well-set jewels; or they may be so misused that
everything is jarring and displeasing. To learn how to perceive the
difference and how to do right is to apprehend gardening as a fine art.
In practice it is to place every plant or group of plants with such
thoughtful care and definite intention that they shall form a part of a
harmonious whole, and that successive portions, or in some cases even
single details, shall show a series of pictures. It is so to regulate
the trees and undergrowth of the wood that their lines and masses come
into beautiful form and harmonious proportion; it is to be always
watching, noting and doing, and putting oneself meanwhile into closest
acquaintance and sympathy with the growing things.
In this spirit, the garden and woodland, such as they are, have been
formed. There have been many failures, but, every now and then, I am
encouraged and rewarded by a certain measure of success. Yet, as the
critical faculty becomes keener, so does the standard of aim rise
higher; and, year by year, the desired point seems always to elude
attainment.
But, as I may perhaps have taken more trouble in working out certain
problems, and given more thought to methods of arranging growing
flowers, especially in ways of colour-combination, than amateurs in
general, I have thought that it may be helpful to some of them to
describe as well as I can by word, and to show by plan and picture,
what I have tried to do, and to point out where I have succeeded and
where I have failed.
I must ask my kind readers not to take it amiss if I mention here that
I cannot undertake to show it them on the spot. I am a solitary worker;
I am growing old and tired, and suffer from very bad and painful sight.
My garden is my workshop, my private study and place of rest. For the
sake of health and reasonable enjoyment of life it is necessary to
keep it quite private, and to refuse the many applications of those
who offer it visits. My oldest friends can now only be admitted. So I
ask my readers to spare me the painful task of writing long letters
of excuse and explanation; a task that has come upon me almost daily
of late years in the summer months, that has sorely tried my weak and
painful eyes, and has added much to the difficulty of getting through
an already over-large correspondence.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION v
CHAPTER I
A MARCH STUDY AND THE BORDER OF EARLY BULBS 1
CHAPTER II
THE WOOD 8
CHAPTER III
THE SPRING GARDEN 21
CHAPTER IV
BETWEEN SPRING AND SUMMER 32
CHAPTER V
THE JUNE GARDEN 39
CHAPTER VI
THE MAIN HARDY FLOWER BORDER 49
CHAPTER VII
THE FLOWER BORDER IN JULY 58
CHAPTER VIII
THE FLOWER BORDER IN AUGUST 65
CHAPTER IX
THE FLOWER BORDERS IN SEPTEMBER 78
CHAPTER X
WOOD AND SHRUBBERY EDGES 83
CHAPTER XI
GARDENS OF SPECIAL COLOURING 89
CHAPTER XII
CLIMBING PLANTS 106
CHAPTER XIII
GROUPING OF PLANTS IN POTS 112
CHAPTER XIV
SOME GARDEN PICTURES 121
CHAPTER XV
A BEAUTIFUL FRUIT GARDEN 127
CHAPTER XVI
PLANTING FOR WINTER COLOUR 133
CHAPTER XVII
FORM IN PLANTING 138
INDEX 143
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
WHITE LILIES _Frontispiece_
IRIS STYLOSA _To face page_ 4
MAGNOLIA CONSPICUA " " 5
MAGNOLIA STELLATA " " 6
FERNS IN THE BULB BORDER " " 7
THE BANK OF EARLY BULBS " " 7
DAFFODILS BY A WOODLAND PATH " " 10
WILD PRIMROSES IN THIN WOODLAND " " 11
THE WIDE WOOD PATH " " 12
CISTUS LAURIFOLIUS " " 13
A WOOD PATH AMONG CHESTNUTS " " 14
A WOOD PATH AMONG BIRCHES " " 15
CISTUS CYPRIUS " " 16
CISTUS BY THE WOOD PATH " " 17
GAULTHERIA SHALLON IN FLOWER " " 18
GAULTHERIA SHALLON IN FRUIT " " 19
WHITE IRISH HEATH " " 20
THE SPRING GARDEN FROM =D= ON PLAN " " 21
PLAN OF THE SPRING GARDEN " " 23
THE FERN-LIKE SWEET CICELY " " 24
THE SPRING GARDEN FROM =E= ON PLAN " " 25
"FURTHER ROCK" FROM =G= ON PLAN " " 28
"FURTHER ROCK" FROM =H= ON PLAN " " 29
"NEAR ROCK" FROM =F= ON PLAN " " 30
THE PRIMROSE GARDEN " " 31
STEPS TO THE HIDDEN GARDEN " " 32
PHLOX DIVARICATA AND ARENARIA MONTANA " " 33
MALE FERN IN THE HIDDEN GARDEN " " 34
EXOCHORDA GRANDIFLORA " " 35
PLAN OF THE HIDDEN GARDEN " " 35
EUPHORBIA WULFENII " " 36
IRISES AND LUPINES IN THE JUNE GARDEN " " 37
PART OF THE GARLAND ROSE AT THE ANGLE " " 39
ROSE BLUSH GALLICA ON DRY WALLING " " 42
SPANISH IRIS " " 43
PLAN OF THE JUNE GARDEN " " 44
PLAN OF IRIS AND LUPINE BORDERS " " 44
WHITE TREE LUPINE " " 46
CATMINT IN JUNE " " 47
SCOTCH BRIARS " " 48
GERANIUM IBERICUM PLATYPHYLLUM " " 49
THE FLOWER BORDER IN LATE SUMMER " " 50
THE CROSS WALK " " 51
THE EAST END OF THE FLOWER BORDER " " 52
PLAN OF THE MAIN FLOWER BORDER " " 53
GOOD STAKING--CAMPANULA PERSICIFOLIA " " 54
CAREFUL STAKING OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES " " 55
WHITE ROSE LA GUIRLANDE; GREY BORDERS
BEYOND " " 60
CLEMATIS RECTA " " 61
DELPHINIUM BELLADONNA " " 62
CANTERBURY BELLS " " 63
ROSE THE GARLAND IN A SILVER HOLLY " " 64
ERYNGIUM OLIVERIANUM " " 65
TALL CAMPANULAS IN A GREY BORDER " " 66
YUCCA FILAMENTOSA " " 70
THE GREY BORDERS: STACHYS, &C. " " 71
A LAVENDER HEDGE " " 74
ÆSCULUS AND OLEARIA " " 75
PLAN OF GARDEN OF CHINA ASTERS " " 77
SOME OF THE EARLY ASTERS " " 78
THE SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 79
THE SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 80
THE SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 80
BEGONIAS WITH MEGASEA FOLIAGE " " 80
EARLY ASTERS AND PYRETHRUM ULIGINOSUM " " 81
PLAN OF SEPTEMBER BORDERS " " 81
GARLAND ROSE, WHERE GARDEN JOINS WOOD " " 84
POLYGONUM AND MEGASEA AT A WOOD EDGE " " 84
LILIES AND FUNKIAS AT A SHRUBBERY EDGE " " 84
OLEARIA GUNNI, FERN AND FUNKIA " " 85
FERNS AND LILIES AT A SHRUBBERY EDGE " " 86
GYPSOPHILA AND MEGASEA " " 87
LILIES AND FERNS AT THE WOOD EDGE " " 88
SMALL WIRE-STEMMED ASTER; SECOND YEAR " " 88
SMALL WIRE-STEMMED ASTER; THIRD YEAR " " 88
STOBÆA PURPUREA " " 89
THE GREY BORDERS: GYPSOPHILA,
ECHINOPS, &C. " " 92
OCTOBER BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES " " 92
A SEPTEMBER GREY GARDEN " " 92
THE GREY BORDER: PINK HOLLYHOCK, &C. " " 93
PLANS OF SPECIAL COLOUR GARDENS " " 93
A DETAIL OF THE GREY SEPTEMBER GARDEN " " 100
YUCCAS AND GREY FOLIAGE " " 102
A FRONT EDGE OF GREY FOLIAGE " " 103
HARDY GRAPE VINE ON SOUTH SIDE OF HOUSE " " 106
HARDY GRAPE VINE ON HOUSE WALL " " 107
VINE AND FIG AT DOOR OF MUSHROOM HOUSE " " 108
CLEMATIS MONTANA AT ANGLE OF COURT " " 108
CLEMATIS MONTANA OVER WORKSHOP WINDOW " " 108
CLEMATIS MONTANA TRAINED AS GARLANDS " " 108
CLEMATIS FLAMMULA AND SPIRÆA LINDLEYANA " " 108
ABUTILON VITIFOLIUM " " 108
IPOMŒA "HEAVENLY BLUE" " " 108
SOLANUM JASMINOIDES " " 108
CLEMATIS FLAMMULA ON ANGLE OF COTTAGE " " 108
CLEMATIS FLAMMULA ON COTTAGE " " 109
CLEMATIS FLAMMULA ON A WOODEN FENCE " " 110
SWEET VERBENA " " 111
POT PLANTS JUST PLACED " " 112
PLANTS IN POTS IN THE SHADED COURT " " 112
MAIDEN'S WREATH (FRANCOA RAMOSA) " " 112
MAIDEN'S WREATH BY TANK " " 113
GERANIUMS, &C., IN A STONE-EDGED BED " " 116
MAIDEN'S WREATH IN POTS ABOVE TANK " " 116
FUNKIA, HYDRANGEA AND LILY IN THE SHADED
COURT " " 116
FUNKIA AND LILIUM SPECIOSUM " " 117
LILIUM AURATUM " " 120
A TUB HYDRANGEA " " 120
STEPS AND HYDRANGEAS " " 120
THE NARROW SOUTH LAWN " " 121
HYDRANGEA TUBS AND BIRCH-TREE SEAT " " 124
HYDRANGEA TUBS AND NUT WALK " " 124
WHITE LILIES " " 124
THE STEPS AND THEIR INCIDENTS " " 125
PLAN--THE BEAUTIFUL FRUIT GARDEN " " 129
PLAN--A WILD HEATH GARDEN " " 139
COLOUR IN THE FLOWER GARDEN
CHAPTER I
A MARCH STUDY AND THE BORDER OF EARLY BULBS
There comes a day towards the end of March when there is but little
wind, and that is from the west or even south-west. The sun has gained
much power, so that it is pleasant to sit out in the garden, or, better
still, in some sunny nook of sheltered woodland. There is such a place
among silver-trunked Birches, with here and there the splendid richness
of masses of dark Holly. The rest of the background above eye-level
is of the warm bud-colour of the summer-leafing trees, and, below,
the fading rust of the now nearly flattened fronds of last year's
Bracken, and the still paler drifts of leaves from neighbouring Oaks
and Chestnuts. The sunlight strikes brightly on the silver stems of the
Birches, and casts their shadows clear-cut across the grassy woodland
ride. The grass is barely green as yet, but has the faint winter green
of herbage not yet grown and still powdered with the short remnants
of the fine-leaved, last-year-mown heath grasses. Brown leaves still
hang on young Beech and Oak. The trunks of the Spanish Chestnuts are
elephant-grey, a notable contrast to the sudden, vivid shafts of the
Birches. Some groups of the pale early Pyrenean Daffodil gleam level on
the ground a little way forward.
It is the year's first complete picture of flower-effect in the
woodland landscape. The place is not very far from the house, in the
nearest hundred yards of the copse; where flowers seem to be more in
place than further away. Looking to the left, the long ridge and south
slope of the house-roof is seen through the leafless trees, though the
main wall-block is hidden by the sheltering Hollies and Junipers.
Coming down towards the garden by another broad grassy way, that goes
westward through the Chestnuts and then turns towards the down-hill
north, there comes yet another deviation through Rhododendrons and
Birches to the main lawn. But before the last turn there is a pleasant
mass of colour showing in the wood-edge on the dead-leaf carpet. It
is a straggling group of _Daphne Mezereon_, with some clumps of red
Lent Hellebores, and, to the front, some half-connected patches of the
common Dog-tooth Violet. The nearly related combination of colour is a
delight to the trained colour-eye. There is nothing brilliant; it is
all restrained, refined, in harmony with the veiled light that reaches
the flowers through the great clumps of Hollies and tall half-overhead
Chestnuts and neighbouring Beech. The colours are all a little "sad,"
as the old writers so aptly say of the flower-tints of secondary
strength. But it is a perfect picture. One comes to it again and again
as one does to any picture that is good to live with.
To devise these living pictures with simple well-known flowers seems
to me the best thing to do in gardening. Whether it is the putting
together of two or three kinds of plants, or even of one kind only in
some happy setting, or whether it is the ordering of a much larger
number of plants, as in a flower-border of middle and late summer, the
intention is always the same. Whether the arrangement is simple and
modest, whether it is obvious or whether it is subtle, whether it is
bold and gorgeous, the aim is always to use the plants to the best of
one's means and intelligence so as to form pictures of living beauty.
It is a thing that I see so rarely attempted, and that seems to me so
important, that the wish to suggest it to others, and to give an idea
of examples that I have worked out, in however modest a way, is the
purpose of this book.
These early examples within the days of March are of special interest
because as yet flowers are but few; the mind is less distracted by
much variety than later in the year, and is more readily concentrated
on the few things that may be done and observed; so that the necessary
restriction is a good preparation, by easy steps, for the wider field
of observation that is presented later.
Now we pass on through the dark masses of Rhododendron and the Birches
that shoot up among them. How the silver stems, blotched and banded
with varied browns and greys so deep in tone that they show like a
luminous black, tell among the glossy Rhododendron green; and how
strangely different is the way of growth of the two kinds of tree;
the tall white trunks spearing up through the dense, dark, leathery
leaf-masses of solid, roundish outline, with their delicate network of
reddish branch and spray gently swaying far overhead!
Now we come to the lawn, which slopes a little downward to the north.
On the right it has a low retaining-wall, whose top line is level;
it bears up a border and pathway next the house's western face. The
border and wall are all of a piece, for it is a dry wall partly planted
with the same shrubby and half-shrubby things that are in the earth
above. They have been comforting to look at all the winter; a pleasant
grey coating of Phlomis, Lavender, Rosemary, Cistus and Santolina;
and at the end and angle where the wall is highest, a mass of _Pyrus
japonica_, planted both above and below, already showing its rose-red
bloom. At one point at the foot of the wall is a strong tuft of _Iris
stylosa_ whose first blooms appeared in November. This capital plant
flowers bravely all through the winter in any intervals of open
weather. It likes a sunny place against a wall in poor soil. If it is
planted in better ground the leaves grow very tall and it gives but
little bloom.
[Illustration: _IRIS STYLOSA._]
Now we pass among some shrub-clumps, and at the end come upon a
cheering sight; a tree of _Magnolia conspicua_ bearing hundreds of
its great white cups of fragrant bloom. Just before reaching it, and
taking part with it in the garden picture, are some tall bushes of
_Forsythia suspensa_, tossing out many-feet-long branches loaded with
their burden of clear yellow flowers. They are ten to twelve feet high,
and one looks up at much of the bloom clear-cut against the pure
blue of the sky; the upper part of the Magnolia also shows against the
sky. Here there is a third flower-picture; this time of warm white
and finest yellow on brilliant blue, and out in open sunlight. Among
the Forsythias is also a large bush of _Magnolia stellata_, whose
milk-white flowers may be counted by the thousand. As the earlier _M.
conspicua_ goes out of bloom it comes into full bearing, keeping pace
with the Forsythia, whose season runs on well into April.
[Illustration: _MAGNOLIA CONSPICUA._]
It is always a little difficult to find suitable places for the early
bulbs. Many of them can be enjoyed in rough and grassy places, but we
also want to combine them into pretty living pictures in the garden
proper.
Nothing seems to me more unsatisfactory than the usual way of having
them scattered about in small patches in the edges of flower-borders,
where they only show as little disconnected dabs of colour, and where
they are necessarily in danger of disturbance and probable injury when
their foliage has died down and their places are wanted for summer
flowers.
It was a puzzle for many years to know how to treat these early bulbs,
but at last a plan was devised that seems so satisfactory that I have
no hesitation in advising it for general adoption.
On the further side of a path that bounds my June garden is a border
about seventy feet long and ten feet wide. At every ten feet along
the back is a larch post planted with a free-growing Rose. These are
not only to clothe their posts but are to grow into garlands swinging
on slack chains from post to post. Beyond are Bamboos, and then an
old hedge-bank with Scotch Firs, Oaks, Thorns, &c. The border slopes
upwards from the path, forming a bank of gentle ascent. It was first
planted with hardy Ferns in bold drifts; Male Fern for the most part,
because it is not only handsome but extremely persistent; the fronds
remaining green into the winter. The Fern-spaces are shown in the plan
by diagonal hatching; between them come the bulbs, with a general
edging to the front of mossy Saxifrage.
The colour-scheme begins with the pink of _Megasea ligulata_, and with
the lower-toned pinks of _Fumaria bulbosa_ and the Dog-tooth Violets
(_Erythronium_). At the back of these are Lent Hellebores of dull red
colouring, agreeing charmingly with the colour of the bulbs. A few
white Lent Hellebores are at the end; they have turned to greenish
white by the time the rather late _Scilla amœna_ is in bloom. Then
comes a brilliant patch of pure blue with white--_Scilla sibirica_ and
white Hyacinths, followed by the also pure blues of _Scilla bifolia_
and _Chionodoxa_ and the later, more purple-blue of Grape Hyacinth.
A long drift of white Crocus comes next, in beauty in the border's
earliest days; and later, the blue-white of _Puschkinia_; then again
pure blue and white of _Chionodoxa_ and white Hyacinth.
Now the colours change to white and yellow and golden foliage, with
the pretty little pale trumpet Daffodil Consul Crawford, and beyond it
the stronger yellow of two other small early kinds--_N. nanus_ and the
charming little _N. minor_, quite distinct though so often confounded
with _nanus_ in gardens. With these, and in other strips and patches
towards the end of the border, are plantings of the Golden Valerian,
so useful for its bright yellow foliage quite early in the year. The
leaves of the Orange Day-lily are also of a pale yellowish green colour
when they first come up, and are used at the end of the border. These
plants of golden and pale foliage are also placed in a further region
beyond the plan, and show to great advantage as the eye enfilades
the border and reaches the more distant places. Before the end of
the bulb-border is reached there is once more a drift of harmonised
faint pink colouring of _Megasea_ and the little _Fumaria_ (also known
as _Corydalis bulbosa_) with the pale early Pyrenean Daffodil, _N.
pallidus præcox_.
The bulb-flowers are not all in bloom exactly at the same time, but
there is enough of the colour intended to give the right effect in each
grouping. Standing at the end, just beyond the Dog-tooth Violets, the
arrangement and progression of colour is pleasant and interesting, and
in some portions vivid; the pure blues in the middle spaces being much
enhanced by the yellow flowers and golden foliage that follow.
Through April and May the leaves of the bulbs are growing tall, and
their seed-pods are carefully removed to prevent exhaustion. By the
end of May the Ferns are throwing up their leafy crooks; by June the
feathery fronds are displayed in all their tender freshness; they
spread over the whole bank, and we forget that there are any bulbs
between. By the time the June garden, whose western boundary it forms,
has come into fullest bloom it has become a completely furnished bank
of Fern-beauty.
[Illustration: _MAGNOLIA STELLATA._]
[Illustration: _FERNS IN THE BULB BORDER._]
[Illustration: _THE BANK OF EARLY BULBS._]