CHAPTER VII

THE FLOWER BORDER IN JULY

Towards the end of July the large flower border begins to show its scheme. Until then, although it has been well filled with growing plants, there has been no attempt to show its whole intention. But now this is becoming apparent. The two ends, as already described, are of grey foliage, with, at the near end, flowers of pale blue, white and lightest yellow. The tall spikes of pale blue Delphinium are over, and now there are the graceful grey-blue flowers of _Campanula lactiflora_ that stand just in front of the great Larkspurs. At the back is a white Everlasting Pea, four years planted and now growing tall and strong. The overblown flowers of the Delphinium have been removed, but their stems have been left just the right height for supporting the growth of the white Pea, which is now trained over them and comes forward to meet the pale blue-white Campanula. In front of this there is a drift of Rue giving a beautiful effect of dim grey colour and softened shadow; it is crowned by its spreading corymbs of pale yellow bloom that all rise nearly to a level. Again in front is the grand glaucous foliage of Sea Kale. A little further along, and towards the back, is a bush of Golden Privet, taking up and continuing the pale yellow of the Rue blossom, and forming a kind of groundwork to a group of the fine Mullein _Verbascum phlomoides_ now fully out. Just below this is a clump of the Double Meadowsweet, a mass of warm white flower-foam. Intergrouped are tall Snapdragons, white and palest yellow. Then forward are the pale blue-green sword-blades of _Iris pallida dalmatica_ that flowered in June. This is one of the few Irises admitted to the border, but it is here because it has the quality, rare among its kind, of maintaining its great leaves in beauty to near the end of the year. Quite to the front are lower growing plants of purest blue--the Cape Daisy (_Agathea cœlestis_) and blue Lobelia.

Now we pass to a rather large group of _Eryngium oliverianum_, the fine kind that is commonly but wrongly called _E. amethystinum_. It is a deep-rooting perennial that takes three to four years to become strongly established. In front of this are some pale and darker blue Spiderworts (_Tradescantia virginica_), showing best in cloudy weather. At the back is _Thalictrum flavum_, whose bloom is a little overpast, though it still shows some of its foamy-feathery pale yellow. Next we come to stronger yellows, with a middle mass of a good home-grown form of _Coreopsis lanceolata_. This is fronted by a stretch of _Helenium pumilum_. Behind the Coreopsis are _Achillea Eupatorium_ and yellow Cannas.

Now the colour strengthens with the Scarlet Balm or Bergamot, intergrouped with _Senecio artemisiæfolius_, a plant little known but excellent in the flower border. A few belated Orange Lilies have their colour nearly repeated by the Gazanias next to the path. The strong colour is now carried on by _Lychnis Chalcedonica_, scarlet Salvia, _Lychnis haageana_ (a fine plant that is much neglected), and some of the dwarf Tropæolums of brightest scarlet. After this we gradually return to the grey-blues, whites and pale yellows, with another large patch of _Eryngium oliverianum_, white Everlasting Pea, Calceolaria, and the splendid leaf-mass of a wide and high plant of _Euphorbia Wulfenii_, which, with the accompanying Yuccas, rises to a height far above my head. Passing between a clump of Yuccas on either side is the cross-walk leading by an arched gateway through the wall. The border beyond this is a shorter length, and has a whole ground of grey foliage--Stachys, Santolina, Elymus, _Cineraria maritima_, and Sea Kale. Then another group of Rue, with grey-blue foliage and pale yellow bloom, shows near the extreme end against the full green of the young summer foliage of the Yew arbour that comes at the end of the border. Again at this end is the tall _Campanula lactiflora_. In the nearer middle a large mass of purple Clematis is trained upon stiff, branching spray, and is beginning to show its splendid colour, while behind, and looking their best in the subdued light of the cloudy morning on which these notes are written, are some plants of _Verbascum phlomoides_, ten feet high, showing a great cloud of pure pale yellow. They owe their vigour to being self-sown seedlings, never transplanted. Instead of having merely a blooming spike, as is the usual way of those that are planted, these have abundant side branches. They dislike bright sunshine, only expanding fully in shade or when the day is cloudy and inclined to be rainy. Close to them, rising to the wall's whole eleven feet of height, is a _Cistus cyprius_, bearing a quantity of large white bloom with a deep red spot at the base of each petal.

Though there is as yet but little bloom in this end of the border the picture is complete and satisfying. Each one of the few flower-groups tells to the utmost, while the intervening masses of leafage are in themselves beautiful and have the effect of being relatively well disposed. There is also such rich promise of flower-beauty to come that the mind is filled with glad anticipation, besides feeling content for the time being with what it has before it. There is one item of colouring that strikes the trained eye as specially delightful. It is a bushy mass of _Clematis recta_, now out of bloom. It occurs between the overhanging purple Clematis and the nearer groups of _Cineraria maritima_ and Santolina. The leaves are much deeper in tone than these and have a leaden sort of blueness, but the colouring, both of the parts in light and even more of the mysterious shadows, is in the highest degree satisfactory and makes me long for the appreciative presence of the rare few friends who are artists both on canvas and in their gardens, and most of all for that of one who is now dead[1] but to whom I owe, with deepest thankfulness, a precious memory of forty years of helpful and sympathetic guidance and encouragement in the observation and study of colour-beauty.

[1] The late H. B. Brabazon.

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One cannot write of the garden in July without a word of the Roses. Besides the bushy garden Roses, and the kinds of special charm, such as Damask, Provence, Moss and China, those that most nearly concern the garden for beauty and pictorial effect are the rambling and climbing Roses that flower in clusters.

In "Roses for English Gardens" I dealt at some length with the many ways of using them; here I must only touch upon one or two of these ways. But I wish to remind my readers of the great value of these free Roses for running up through such trees as Yews or Hollies in regions where garden joins hands with woodland, and also of their great usefulness for forming lines of arch and garland as an enclosure to some definite space. I have them like this forming the boundary on two sides of a garden of long beds, whose other two sides are a seven-foot wall and the back of a stable and loft. Just beyond the arch in the picture (p. 60), and dividing the little garden in two, is the short piece of double border that is devoted to August.

The other long beds in this region are for special combinations, some of them of July flowers. Orange Lilies are with the beautiful _Clematis recta_, a plant but little known though it is easy to grow and is one of the best of summer flowers. One bed is for blue colouring with grey foliage. Here is the lovely Delphinium Belladonna, with flowers of a blue purer than that of any others of its beautiful kind. It never grows tall, nor has it the strong, robust aspect of the larger ones, but what it lacks in vigour is more than made up for by the charming refinement of the whole plant. In the same bed are the other pure blues of the rare double Siberian Larkspur, and the single allied kind _Delphinium grandiflorum_, of _Salvia patens_ and of the Cape Daisy _Agathea cœlestis_. Between the clumps of Belladonna are bushes of white Lavender, and the whole is carpeted and edged with the white foliage of _Artemisia stelleriana_, the quite hardy plant that is such a good substitute for the tenderer _Cineraria maritima_.

Among the best flowers of July that have a place in this garden are the Pentstemons planted last year. We grow them afresh from cuttings every autumn, planting them out in April. They are not quite hardy, and a bad winter may destroy all the last year's plants. But if these can be saved they bloom in July, whereas those planted in the spring of the year do not flower till later. So we protect the older plants with fir-boughs and generally succeed in saving them. Old plants of Snapdragon are also now in flower. They too are a little tender in the open, although they are safe in dry-walling with the roots out of the way of frost and the crowns kept dry among the stones.

Much use is made of a dwarf kind of Lavender, that is also among the best of the July flowers. The whole size of the plant is about one-third that of the ordinary kind; the flowers are darker in colour and the time of blooming a good month earlier. It has a different use in gardening, as the flowers, being more crowded and of a deeper tint, make a distinct colour-effect. Besides its border use it is a plant for dry banks, tops of rock-work and dry-walling.