GARDENS OF SPECIAL COLOURING
It is extremely interesting to work out gardens in which some special
colouring predominates, and to those who, by natural endowment or
careful eye-cultivation, possess or have acquired what artists
understand by an eye for colour, it opens out a whole new range of
garden delights.
Arrangements of this kind are sometimes attempted, for occasionally I
hear of a garden for blue plants, or a white garden, but I think such
ideas are but rarely worked out with the best aims. I have in mind a
whole series of gardens of restricted colouring, though I have not,
alas, either room or means enough to work them out for myself, and have
to be satisfied with an all-too-short length of double border for a
grey scheme. But, besides my small grey garden I badly want others, and
especially a gold garden, a blue garden, and a green garden; though the
number of these desires might easily be multiplied.
It is a curious thing that people will sometimes spoil some garden
project for the sake of a word. For instance, a blue garden, for
beauty's sake, may be hungering for a group of white Lilies, or for
something of palest lemon-yellow, but it is not allowed to have it
because it is called the blue garden, and there must be no flowers in
it but blue flowers. I can see no sense in this; it seems to me like
fetters foolishly self-imposed. Surely the business of the blue garden
is to be beautiful as well as to be blue. My own idea is that it should
be beautiful first, and then just as blue as may be consistent with its
best possible beauty. Moreover, any experienced colourist knows that
the blues will be more telling--more purely blue--by the juxtaposition
of rightly placed complementary colour. How it may be done is shown in
the plan, for, as I cannot have these gardens myself, it will be some
consolation to suggest to those who may be in sympathy with my views,
how they may be made.
* * * * *
The Grey garden is so called because most of its plants have grey
foliage, and all the carpeting and bordering plants are grey or
whitish. The flowers are white, lilac, purple, and pink. It is a garden
mostly for August, because August is the time when the greater number
of suitable plants are in bloom, but a Grey garden could also be made
for September, or even October, because of the number of Michaelmas
Daisies that can be brought into use.
A plan is given of a connected series of gardens of special colouring.
For the sake of clearness they are shown in as simple a form as
possible, but the same colour-scheme could be adapted to others of more
important design and larger extent.
The Gold garden is chosen for the middle, partly because it contains
the greater number of permanent shrubs and is bright and cheerful
all the year round, and partly because it is the best preparation,
according to natural colour-law, for the enjoyment of the compartments
on either side. It is supposed that the house is a little way away to
the north, with such a garden-scheme close to it as may best suit its
style and calibre. Then I would have a plantation of shrubs and trees.
The shade and solidity of this would rest and refresh the eye and
mind, making them the more ready to enjoy the colour garden. Suddenly
entering the Gold garden, even on the dullest day, will be like coming
into sunshine. Through the shrub-wood there is also a path to right
and left parallel to the long axis of the colour garden, with paths
turning south at its two ends, joining the ends of the colour-garden
paths. This has been taken into account in arranging the sequence of
the compartments.
The hedges that back the borders and form the partitions are for the
most part of Yew, grown and clipped to a height of seven feet. But in
the case of the Gold garden, where the form is larger and more free
than in the others, there is no definite hedge, but a planting of
unclipped larger gold Hollies, and the beautiful Golden Plane, so cut
back and regulated as to keep within the desired bounds. This absence
of a stiff hedge gives more freedom of aspect and a better cohesion
with the shrub-wood.
In the case of the Grey garden the hedge is of Tamarisk (_Tamarix
gallica_), whose feathery grey-green is in delightful harmony with the
other foliage greys. It will be seen on the plan that where this joins
the Gold garden the hedge is double, for it must be of gold Holly on
one side and of Tamarisk on the other. At the entrances and partition
where the path passes, the hedge shrubs are allowed to grow higher, and
are eventually trained to form arches over the path.
In the Gold and Green gardens, the shrubs, which form the chief part
of the planting, are shown as they will be after some years' growth.
It is best to have them so from the first. If, in order to fill the
space at once, several are planted where one only should eventually
stand, the extra ones being removed later, the one left probably does
not stand quite right. I strongly counsel the placing of them singly at
first, and that until they have grown the space should be filled with
temporary plants. Of these, in the Gold garden, the most useful will
be _Œnothera lamarckiana_, _Verbascum olympicum_, and _V. phlomoides_,
with more Spanish Broom than the plan shows till the gold Hollies
are grown; and yellow-flowered annuals, such as the several kinds of
_Chrysanthemum coronarium_, both single and double, and _Coreopsis
Drummondi_; also a larger quantity of African Marigolds, the pale
primrose and the lemon-coloured. The fine tall yellow Snapdragons will
also be invaluable. Flowers of a deep orange colour, such as the orange
African Marigold, so excellent for their own use, are here out of
place, only those of pale and middle yellow being suitable.
In such a garden it will be best to have, next the path, either a whole
edging of dwarf, gold-variegated Box-bushes about eighteen inches
to two feet high, or a mixed planting of these and small bushes of
gold-variegated Euonymus clipped down to not much over two feet. The
edge next the path would be kept trimmed to a line.
[Illustration: _THE GREY BORDERS: GYPSOPHILA, ECHINOPS, PINK HOLLYHOCK,
HELIOTROPE AND SILVER THISTLE._]
[Illustration: _OCTOBER BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES._]
[Illustration: _A SEPTEMBER GREY GARDEN._]
[Illustration: _THE GREY BORDER: PINK HOLLYHOCK, ECHINOPS, ACHILLEA
PEARL, GYPSOPHILA, STACHYS, etc._]
[Illustration: _SPECIAL COLOUR GARDEN--GENERAL PLAN._]
[Illustration: _A QUARTER OF THE GOLD GARDEN._]
[Illustration: _THE ORANGE GARDEN._]
[Illustration: _THE GREY GARDEN._]
[Illustration: _THE BLUE GARDEN._]
[Illustration: _THE GREEN GARDEN._]
The strength of colour and degree of variation is so great that it is
well worth going to a nursery to pick out all these gold-variegated
plants. It is not enough to tell the gardener to get them. There should
be fervour on the part of the garden's owner such as will take him on
a gold-plant pilgrimage to all good nurseries within reach, or even
to some rather out of reach. No good gardening comes of not taking
pains. All good gardening is the reward of well-directed and strongly
sustained effort.
Where, in the Gold garden, the paths meet and swing round in a circle,
there may be some accentuating ornament--a sundial, a stone vase for
flowers, or a tank for a yellow Water-lily. If a sundial, and there
should be some incised lettering, do not have the letters gilt because
it is the Gold garden; the colour and texture of gilding are quite out
of place. If there is a tank, do not have goldfish; their colour is
quite wrong. Never hurt the garden for the sake of the tempting word.
The word "gold" in itself is, of course, an absurdity; no growing leaf
or flower has the least resemblance to the colour of gold. But the word
may be used because it has passed into the language with a commonly
accepted meaning.
I have always felt a certain hesitation in using the free-growing
perennial Sunflowers. For one thing, the kinds with the running roots
are difficult to keep in check, and their yearly transplantation among
other established perennials is likely to cause disturbance and injury
to their neighbours. Then, in so many neglected gardens they have been
let run wild, surviving when other plants have been choked, that, half
unconsciously, one has come to hold them cheap and unworthy of the best
use. I take it that my own impression is not mine alone, for often when
I have been desired to do planting-plans for flower borders, I have
been asked not to put in any of these Sunflowers because "they are so
common."
But nothing is "common" in the sense of base or unworthy if it is
rightly used, and it seems to me that this Gold garden is just the
place where these bright autumn flowers may be employed to great
advantage. I have therefore shown _Helianthus rigidus_ and its
tall-growing variety _Miss Mellish_, although the colour of both is
quite the deepest I should care to advise; the paler yellow of _H.
lætiflorus_ being better, especially the capital pale form of this
Sunflower, and of one that I know as a variety of _H. orgyalis_,
described at p. 69.
The golden Planes, where the path comes in from the north, are of
course deciduous, and it might be well to have gold Hollies again at
the back of these, or gold Yews, to help the winter effect.
In some places in the plan the word "gold" has been omitted, but
the yellow-leaved or yellow-variegated form of the shrub is always
intended. There is a graceful cut-leaved Golden Elder that is
desirable, as well as the common one.
[Illustration: _A DETAIL OF THE GREY SEPTEMBER GARDEN. PERENNIAL ASTERS
AND WHITE CHINA ASTER MAMMOTH IN FRONT._]
Perhaps the Grey garden is seen at its best by reaching it through the
orange borders. Here the eye becomes filled and saturated with the
strong red and yellow colouring. D on the plan stands for Dahlia; the
other plant names are written in full. This filling with the strong,
rich colouring has the natural effect of making the eye eagerly
desirous for the complementary colour, so that, standing by the inner
Yew arch and suddenly turning to look into the Grey garden, the effect
is surprisingly--quite astonishingly--luminous and refreshing. One
never knew before how vividly bright Ageratum could be, or Lavender or
Nepeta; even the grey-purple of Echinops appears to have more positive
colour than one's expectation would assign to it. The purple of the
Clematises of the Jackmanii class becomes piercingly brilliant, while
the grey and glaucous foliage looks strangely cool and clear.
The plan shows the disposition of the plants, with grey-white edging
of _Cineraria maritima_, Stachys and Santolina. There are groups of
Lavender with large-flowered Clematises (C in the plan) placed so that
they may be trained close to them and partly over them. There are the
monumental forms of the taller Yuccas, _Y. gloriosa_ and its variety
_recurva_ towards the far angles, and, nearer the front (marked Yucca
in plan), the free-blooming _Yucca filamentosa_ of smaller size. The
flower-colouring is of purple, pink and white. Besides the Yuccas, the
other white flowers are _Lilium longiflorum_ and _Lilium candidum_ (L C
on plan), the clear white Achillea The Pearl and the grey-white clouds
of _Gypsophila paniculata_. The pink flowers are Sutton's Godetia
Double Rose, sown in place early in May, the beautiful clear pink
Hollyhock Pink Beauty, and the pale pink Double Soapwort. Clematis and
white Everlasting Pea are planted so that they can be trained to cover
the Gypsophila when its bloom is done and the seed-pods are turning
brown. As soon as it loses its grey colouring the flowering tops are
cut off, and the Pea and Clematis, already brought near, are trained
over. When the Gypsophila is making its strong growth in May, the
shoots are regulated and supported by some stiff branching spray that
is stuck among it. A little later this is quite hidden, but it remains
as a firm sub-structure when the top of the Gypsophila is cut back and
the other plants are brought over.
Elymus is the blue-green Lyme Grass, a garden form of the handsome
blue-leaved grass that grows on the seaward edges of many of our
sea-shore sandhills. The Soapwort next to it is the double form of
_Saponaria officinalis_, found wild in many places.
Of Ageratum, two kinds are used--a brightly coloured one of the dwarf
kinds for places near the front, where it tells as a close mass of
colour, and the tall _A. mexicanum_ for filling up further back in the
border, where it shows as a diffuse purple cloud. The Nepeta is the
good garden Catmint (_N. Mussini_). Its normal flowering time is June,
but it is cut half back, removing the first bloom, by the middle of the
month, when it at once makes new flowering shoots.
[Illustration: _YUCCAS AND GREY FOLIAGE._]
[Illustration: _A FRONT EDGE OF GREY FOLIAGE._]
Now, after the grey plants, the Gold garden looks extremely bright and
sunny. A few minutes suffice to fill the eye with the yellow influence,
and then we pass to the Blue garden, where there is another delightful
shock of eye-pleasure. The brilliancy and purity of colour are almost
incredible. Surely no blue flowers were ever so blue before! That is
the impression received. For one thing, all the blue flowers used, with
the exception of Eryngium and _Clematis davidiana_, are quite pure
blues; these two are grey-blues. There are no purple-blues, such as the
bluest of the Campanulas and the perennial Lupines; they would not be
admissible. With the blues are a few white and palest yellow flowers;
the foam-white _Clematis recta_, a delightful foil to Delphinium
Belladonna; white perennial Lupine with an almond-like softness of
white; _Spiræa Aruncus_, another foam-coloured flower. Then milk-white
Tree Lupine, in its carefully decreed place near the bluish foliage
of Rue and Yucca. Then there is the tender citron of Lupine Somerset
and the full canary of the tall yellow Snapdragon, the diffused pale
yellow of the soft plumy Thalictrum and the strong canary of _Lilium
szovitzianum_, with white Everlasting Pea and white Hollyhock at the
back. White-striped Maize grows up to cover the space left empty by the
Delphiniums when their bloom is over, and pots of _Plumbago capense_
are dropped in to fill empty spaces. One group of this is trained over
the bluish-leaved _Clematis recta_, which goes out of flower with the
third week of July.
Yuccas, both of the large and small kinds, are also used in the
Blue garden, and white Lilies, _candidum_ and _longiflorum_. There
is foliage both of glaucous and of bright green colour, besides an
occasional patch of the silvery _Eryngium giganteum_. At the front
edge are the two best Funkias, _F. grandiflora_, with leaves of bright
yellow-green, and _F. Sieboldi_, whose leaves are glaucous. The
variegated Coltsfoot is a valuable edge-plant where the yellowish white
of its bold parti-colouring is in place, and I find good use for the
variegated form of the handsome Grass _Glyceria_ or _Poa aquatica_.
Though this is a plant whose proper place is in wet ground, it will
accommodate itself to the flower border, but it is well to keep it
on the side away from the sun. It harmonises well in colour with the
Coltsfoot; as a garden plant it is of the same class as the old Ribbon
Grass, but is very much better. The great white-striped Japanese grass,
_Eulalia japonica striata_ (EU on the plan), is planted behind the
Delphiniums at the angles, and groups well with the Maize just in front.
From the Blue garden, passing eastward, we come to the Green garden.
Shrubs of bright and deep green colouring and polished leaf-surface
predominate. Here are green Aucubas and Skimmias, with _Ruscus
racemosus_, the beautiful Alexandrian or Victory Laurel, and more
polished foliage of _Acanthus_, _Funkia_, _Asarum_, _Lilium candidum_
and _longiflorum_, and _Iris fœtidissima_. Then feathery masses of
paler green, Male Fern and Lady Fern and _Myrrhis odorata_, the
handsome fern-like Sweet Cicely of old English gardens. In the angles
are again Eulalias, but these are the variety _zebrina_ with the leaves
barred across with yellow.
In the Green garden the flowers are fewer and nearly all
white--Campanulas _latifolia_ and _persicifolia_, Lilies, Tulips,
Foxgloves, Snapdragons, Peonies, Hellebores--giving just a little
bloom for each season to accompany the general scheme of polished and
fern-like foliage. A little bloom of palest yellow shows in the front
in May and June, with the flowers of Uvularia and Epimedium. But the
Green garden, for proper development, should be on a much larger scale.