THE JUNE GARDEN
Beyond the lawn and a belt of Spanish Chestnut I have a little cottage
that is known as the Hut. I lived in it for two years while my house
was building, and may possibly live in it again for the sake of
replenishing an over-drained exchequer, if the ideal well-to-do invalid
flower-lover or some such very quiet summer tenant, to whom alone I
could consent to surrender my dear home for a few weeks, should be
presented by a kind Providence. Meanwhile it is always in good use for
various purposes, such as seed-drying, _pot-pourri_ preparing, and the
like.
The garden in front and at the back is mainly a June garden. It has
Peonies, Irises, Lupines, and others of the best flowers of the season,
and a few for later blooming. The entrance to the Hut is through Yews
that arch overhead. Close to the right is a tall Holly with a _Clematis
montana_ growing into it and tumbling out at the top. The space of
garden to the left, being of too deep a shape to be easily got at
from the path on the one side and the stone paving on the other, has
a kind of dividing backbone made of a double row of Rose hoops or
low arches, rising from good greenery of Male Fern and the fern-like
Sweet Cicely. This handsome plant (_Myrrhis odorata_) is of great
use in many ways. It will grow anywhere, and has the unusual merit of
making a good show of foliage quite early in the year. It takes two
years to get to a good size, sending its large, fleshy, aromatic roots
deep down into the soil. By the end of May, when the bloom is over and
the leaves are full grown, they can be cut right down, when the plant
will at once form a new set of leaves that remain fresh for the rest
of the summer. Its chief use is as a good foliage accompaniment or
background to flowers, and no plant is better for filling up at the
bases of shrubs that look a little leggy near the ground, or for any
furnishing of waste or empty spaces, especially in shade. From among
the Ferns and Myrrhis at the back of this bit of eastern border rise
white Foxgloves, the great white Columbine, and the tall stems of white
Peach-leaved Campanula. Nearer to the front are clumps of Peonies. But,
as one of the most frequented paths passes along this eastern border,
it was thought best not to confine it to June flowers only, but to have
something also for the later months. All vacant places are therefore
filled with Pentstemons and Snapdragons, which make a show throughout
the summer; while for the early days of July there are clumps of the
old garden Roses--Damask and Provence. The whole south-western angle is
occupied by a well-grown Garland Rose that every summer is loaded with
its graceful wreaths of bloom. It has never been trained or staked,
but grows as a natural fountain; the branches are neither pruned nor
shortened. The only attention it receives is that every three or four
years the internal mass of old dead wood is cut right out, when the
bush seems to spring into new life.
Passing this angle and going along the path leading to the studio door
in the little stone-paved court, there is a seat under an arbour formed
by the Yews; the front of it has a Dundee Rambler Rose supported by a
rough wooden framework. On the right, next the paving, are two large
standard Roses with heads three and four feet through. They are old
garden Roses, worked in cottage fashion on a common Dog-rose stock. One
is Celeste, of loveliest tender rose colour, its broad bluish leaves
showing its near relationship to _Rosa alba_; the other the white
Mme. Plantier. This old Rose, with its abundant bunches of pure white
flowers, always seems to me to be one of the most charming of the older
garden kinds. It will grow in almost any way, and is delightful in all;
as a pillar, as a hedge, as a bush, as a big cottage standard, or in
the border tumbling about among early summer flowers. Like the Blush
Gallica, which just precedes it in time of blooming, it is one of the
old picture Roses. Both should be in quantity in every garden, and yet
they are but rarely seen.
The border next the paving has clumps of the old garden Peonies (_P.
officinalis_). By the time these are over, towards the end of June,
groups of the earlier orange Herring Lilies are in bloom. A thick and
rather high Box edging neatly trims these borders, and favours the
cottage-garden sentiment that is fostered in this region. At the back
of the Yews that form the arbour is one end of the Hidden Garden.
Going along the path, past the projection on the block-plan of the Hut,
which represents the large ingle of the studio, we come to the other
bit of June garden behind the little cottage. Here again, the space
being over-wide, it is divided in the middle by a double border of
Rosemary that is kept clipped and is not allowed to rise high enough to
prevent access to the border on each side.
On the side next the Hut the flowers are mostly of lilac and purple
colouring with white. Pale lilac Irises, including the fine _I. pallida
dalmatica_ and the rosy lilac variety, Queen of the May, perennial
Lupines, white, bluish lilac and purple--one of a conspicuous and
rare deep red-purple of extreme richness without the slightest taint
of a rank quality--a colour I can only call a strong wine-purple;
then a clump of the feathery, ivory-white _Spiræa Aruncus_, the large
Meadowsweet that is so fine by the side of alpine torrents. There
are also some flesh-pink Albiflora Peonies and lower growths of
Catmint, and of the grand blue-purple Cranesbill, _Geranium ibericum
platyphyllum_; with white and pale yellow Spanish Irises in generous
tufts springing up between. At the blunt angle nearly opposite the
dovecote is a pink cloud of London Pride; beyond it pale yellow Violas
with more white Spanish Iris, leading to a happy combination of the
blue _Iris Cengialti_ and the bushy Aster _Olearia Gunni_, smothered in
its white starry bloom. An early flowering Flag Iris, named Chamæleon,
nearly matches the colour of _I. Cengialti_; it is the bluest that
I know of the Flag Irises, and is planted between and around the
Olearias to form part of the colour-picture.
[Illustration: _ROSE BLUSH GALLICA PLANTED ON THE TOP OF DRY WALLING._]
[Illustration: _SPANISH IRIS._]
Beyond this group, and only separated from it by some pale yellow
Irises, are two plants of the Dropmore Anchusa, marked A on the plan,
of pure pale blue, and another clump of _Spiræa Aruncus_, marked S, and
one of a good pure white Lupine, with some tall clear yellow Irises and
white Foxgloves. Now the colouring changes, passing through a group or
two of the rich half-tones of Irises of the _squalens_ section to the
perennial Poppies; _P. rupifragum_ nearest the path and, next to it,
_P. pilosum_; both of a rich apricot colour. Backing these is a group
of the larger hybrid that nearly always occurs in gardens where there
are both _P. rupifragum_ and _P. orientale_. In appearance it is a
small _orientale_ with a strong look of _rupifragum_ about the foliage.
As a garden plant it has the advantages of being of an intermediate
size and of having a long season of bloom, a quality no doubt inherited
from _rupifragum_, which will flower more or less throughout the summer
if the seed-pods are removed. A plant of Oriental Poppy of the tone of
orange-scarlet that I know as red-lead colour, and some deep orange
Lilies complete this strongly coloured group.
In the north-western clump, where there are some Thorn-trees and
two Thuyas, the dominant feature is the great bush of an old garden
rambling Rose that looks as if its parentage was somewhere between
_sempervirens_ and _arvensis_. I can neither remember how I came by it
nor match it with any nursery kind. It stands nearly opposite the Hut
kitchen window, and when in full bloom actually sheds light into the
room. I know it as the Kitchen Rose. The diameter of the bush is even
greater than the plan shows, for it overwhelms the nearest Thuya and
rushes through the Thorn, and many of its shoots are within hand-reach
of the back path. The rest of this clump is occupied by plants of tall
habit--the great Mullein (_Verbascum orientale_), the Giant Cow-Parsnip
(_Heracleum_), and white Foxgloves.
The plan shows how the border of early bulbs, described in a former
chapter (now a mass of hardy Ferns, as shown at p. 7), lies in relation
to this part of the garden. There is also a grand mass of Oriental
Poppy and Orange Lilies in half-shade on the other side of the path,
where it turns and is bordered with Berberis. This makes a fine distant
effect of strong colour looking north-west from the southern end of the
bulb-border.
I greatly wish I could have some other June borders for the still
better use of the Flag Irises, but not only have I quite as much
dressed ground as I can afford to keep up, but the only space where
such borders could be made has to be nursery-ground of plants for sale.
But though I am denied this pleasure myself, I should like to suggest
it to others, and therefore give plans of two borders of different
colourings. There would be no great harm if they came opposite each
other, though perhaps, as colour-schemes, they would be rather better
seen singly and quite detached from each other.
[Illustration: _THE JUNE GARDEN._]
[Illustration: _IRIS AND LUPINE BORDERS._]
It must be remembered, as in all cases of planting flower borders,
that they cannot be expected to show their full beauty the year after
planting. Irises will give a few blooms the first season, but are not
in strength till their second and third years. China Roses must have
time to grow. Tree Lupines must be planted young, and, though they make
rapid growth, they also do not fill their spaces till the third year.
Lupine Somerset is a desirable hybrid, not quite a true Tree Lupine,
though it has a half-woody growth. Its best colour is a clear, lively
light yellow, but it readily varies from seed to whitish or washy
purplish tints. As the seedlings often show bloom the first season in
the seed-bed, the colours should be noted and marked, for some of the
light purples are pretty things, with more refinement of character
than the same colourings in the old Tree Lupines. Both the tree and
hybrid kinds may have their lives much prolonged--for if they are not
specially treated they are short-lived things--by judicious pruning.
After flowering, each branch should be cut well back. It is not enough
to cut away the flowers, but every branch should be shortened about
two-thirds as soon as the bloom is over and the seed-pods begin to form.
The plans show the two schemes of colouring. The upper is of white,
lilac, purple and pink, with grey foliage; the lower of white, yellow,
bronze-yellow and, for the most part, rich green foliage. They will
show mainly as Iris and Lupine borders, and are intended to display
the beauty of these two grand plants of early summer. The kinds of
Iris are carefully considered for their height, time of blooming, and
colour-value. In the yellow border is one patch of clear, pale pure
blue, the Dropmore Anchusa, grouped with pale yellows and white.
In the purple border are some important front-edge patches of the
beautiful Catmint (_Nepeta Mussini_), a plant that can hardly be
over-praised. The illustration shows it in a part of a border-front
that is to be for August. For a good three weeks in June it makes this
border a pretty place, although the Catmint is its only flower. But
with the white-grey woolly patches of Stachys and the half-grown bushes
of Gypsophila, and the Lavender and other plants of greyish foliage,
the picture is by no means incomplete. Its flowery masses, seen against
the warm yellow of the sandy path, give the impression of remarkably
strong and yet delightfully soft colouring. The colour itself is a
midway purple, between light and dark, of just the most pleasing
quality. As soon as the best of the bloom is done it is carefully cut
over; then the lateral shoots just below the main flower-spike that has
been taken out will gain strength and bloom again at the border's best
show-time in August. In another double flower border that is mostly for
the September-blooming Michaelmas Daisies the Catmint is cut back a
little later.
* * * * *
One of the joys of June is the beauty of the Scotch Briers. On the
south side of the house there are Figs and Vines, Rosemary and China
Roses; a path and then some easy stone steps leading up to the strip
of lawn some fifty feet wide that skirts the wood. To right and left
of the steps, for a length equal to that of the house-front, is a hedge
of these charming little Roses. They are mostly double white, but some
are rosy and some yellow. When it is not in flower the mass of small
foliage is pleasant to see, and even in winter leaflessness the tangle
of close-locked branches has an appearance of warm brown comfort that
makes it good to have near a house.
[Illustration: _WHITE TREE LUPINE._]
[Illustration: _CATMINT IN JUNE IN THE GREY AUGUST BORDER._]
June is also the time of some of the best of the climbing plants
and slightly tender shrubs that we have against walls and treat as
climbers, such as _Solamum crispum_ and _Abutilon vitifolium_ and the
hardy _Clematis montana_; but some notes on these will be offered in a
further chapter.
One is always watching and trying for good combinations of colour that
occur or that may be composed. Besides such as are shown in the plans,
the following have been noted for June:
In rock-work the tiny China Rose Pompon de Paris, also the tender pink
Fairy Rose, with pale lilac tufted Pansy and _Achillea umbellata_.
The pretty pale pink dwarf Rose Mignonette, with the lilac of Catmint
(_Nepeta Mussini_) and the grey-white foliage of Stachys and _Cineraria
maritima_.
In a cool, retired place in a shrubbery margin, away from other
flowers, the misty red-grey-purple of _Thalictrum purpureum_ with the
warm white foam-colour of _Spiræa Aruncus_.
On bold rock-work, a mass of a fine-coloured strain of Valerian
(_Centranthus_) with a deep scarlet-crimson Snapdragon. This is a
success of reciprocally becoming texture as well as colour; the texture
having that satisfying quality that one recognises in the relation of
the cut and uncut portions of the fine old Italian cut-velvets.
[Illustration: _SCOTCH BRIARS._]
[Illustration: _GERANIUM IBERICUM PLATYPHYLLUM; THE BEST OF THE
CRANEBILLS._ (_See page 42._)]