Part 5

All the hardy annuals are easy to grow, their requirements being ample sunshine, deeply dug soil, finely broken up and moderately, though not excessively, enriched, and ample space for individual development. Where failure occurs, it may usually be traced to omission of one or other of these conditions--most commonly, perhaps, of the one last named. There are few annuals which will thrive in the shade, though Forget-me-nots, Venus's Looking-glass and Nemophilas will succeed in damp situations if the shade be not too intense.

Personally, although I should not like to grow annuals alone, I should regretfully miss my hedge of Sweet-peas, my Poppies, and the soothingly fragrant, though insignificant, flowers of my Mignonette.

One other annual flower is the prettily and appropriately named Love-in-a-Mist, with the daintiest of blue flowers enveloped as in a green cloud. If our poets were wont to look at flowers for themselves instead of copying one another's natural history, they might be referred to this delightful plant. Mr Swinburne, I think alone among poets, has used it as subject for one of his roundels. Fortunately, the neglect of poets has little influence on the beauty of flowers.

NIGHT IN THE GARDEN

During the heated days of late summer, few but the most enthusiastic of gardeners care to loiter in the open garden until evening. Then, the sun having sunk in the west, we venture forth from the shade of house or of trees, and leisurely walk the round of our paths, refreshingly fanned by the little rippling breeze which makes the leaves flutter as it rhythmically comes and passes. The last bees have reached their hives, laden with the sweet product of their hard labour. The honeyed flowers, which look to their visits and to the visits of other sun-loving insects for aid in fertilisation, have, so far as possible, covered their tempting cups to avoid the damping or loss of the precious pollen within. Snails and slugs crawl from hidden caves, prepared to work in darkness the evil which fear of feathered warders hinders by day. Except for these workers of ill, these foes of beauty, the garden is apparently going to sleep. But wait. Wherefore is this increasing fragrance streaming from the honeysuckle trellis into the cooling air--a fragrance surely not without seductive purpose? Straight as the course of a homeward bound bee, a hawk-moth flies to the expanded blossoms and extracts the honey from the narrow tubes, too deep for bee or wasp to sound. Look, too, at this bed which but an hour ago showed nothing but a green mass of leaves serrated as those of dandelions. Great white flowers, three inches or more across, have now appeared and produce a truly wonderful effect. These are the flowers of one of the evening primroses (_Oenothera taraxicifolia_), originally imported from America. Not so pure a white are the larger blossoms of another evening primrose (_Oe. marginata_) which is just beginning to send forth from the border a fragrance as of magnolias. The old double white Rocket (_Hesperis matronalis_), or Damask Violet, as it was formerly called, smells more strongly as evening draws in, and its scent now takes on the character of the scent of Violets. Even more noticeable is the delicious fragrance which begins to be yielded by the Night-scented Stock (_Hesperis tristis_), a fragrance which will continue until the commencement of the dawn. In the presence of these happenings, we begin to realise that the garden is not after all asleep. Indeed, we see that a part at least of the living beauty of nature only awakes at the approach of night.

Convention rules over us, and in the most unlikely places we see those unadaptive, stereotyped results which mark the realms where she is sovereign. How otherwise can we account for the fact that, although evening is the best time for enjoying the flowers of our gardens during the months of July and August, few gardeners ever think of devoting any part of their borders to the cultivation of flowers which bloom at night? Yet the pleasure to be obtained from them is very great, and the possible variety is considerable. Nearly all are fragrant, as otherwise it would be difficult in the darkness for them to attract the moths which they mostly desire as pollen bearers.

None of these flowers of night are more remarkable than _Silene nutans_, one of our native catchflies (so called from their viscid stems which prevent ants and creeping things from reaching and robbing the honey stores), which may occasionally be seen growing on limestone rocks. This plant bears many large white flowers during June and July, each flower living but for three nights. At about seven o'clock of the first evening, the flower quickly opens and emits a strong scent as of hyacinths. Five of its stamens quickly develop, the pollen ripens and the anthers burst. At three o'clock in the morning, or thereabouts, the scent ceases to be produced, the five anthers wither, and the corolla closes. During the following day the flower looks as though dead or dying. At the same hour as on the previous evening, however, it again opens and again becomes fragrant. Five more stamens develop and ripen their pollen, after which the plant again closes as before. The proceeding is again repeated on the third night, the pistil, however, now developing instead of the stamens. The stigma having been fertilised with pollen brought by moths from another flower, the corolla closes as before in the early morning, and never again reopens. Other of the Silenes, such as _S. noctiflora_, _S. inflata_, _S. vespertina_, and _S. longiflora_, also bloom at night and are equally interesting.

Almost a shrub in size, the Marvel of Peru (_Mirabilis jalapa_) is one of the handsomest of night blooming plants, opening its variously coloured ephemeral flowers at about eight o'clock, and closing them again for good and all before three o'clock the following morning. It is a somewhat delicate plant and will only thrive in warm soils and sunny situations. A plant not often seen in gardens is the fragrant Sand Verbena (_Abronia fragrans_), a Californian perennial of fairly vigorous trailing habit, producing a quantity of beautiful flowers of purest white which open and yield a vanilla-like fragrance at night.

Although too delicate to be grown all the year through in the open air of this country, several of the Thorn apples or Daturas can easily be grown as half-hardy annuals, and during July and August are objects of great beauty. The mauve-tinged white trumpets of _D. Ceratocaula_ which open and afford sweet fragrance at night are especially handsome, but some of the other kinds are almost equally worth growing.

In addition to the evening primroses already referred to, there are several other very attractive species, some being delightfully fragrant. They are quite easily grown in almost any soil, and night-gardeners should cultivate all of them. _Oenothera eximia_, which likes a light soil, is one of the best of the white-flowered kinds, its scent somewhat resembling that of the magnolia. _Oe. speciosa_ (white to rose), _Oe. odorata_ (yellow), _Oe. fruticosa_ (yellow), _Oe. macrocarpa_ (yellow), _Oe. biennis grandiflora_ (yellow), and _Oe. triloba_ (yellow) are but a few names. Some of the evening primroses remain more or less open in the daytime, in which case they are usually visited by bees as well as by their guests of the night.

The catchflies are a family of night-bloomers, and their relative, the Soapwort (_Saponaria officinalis_), resembles them in this respect, for its large rosy flowers open and become fragrant much after the manner of those of _Silene nutans_. The common pinks, too, which are allied plants, yield increased fragrance during the hours between sunset and sunrise, and are then frequently visited by moths.

The petunias are not often capable of being grown as hardy perennials in English gardens, but are easily grown as half-hardy annuals. They lend much beauty and fragrance to the night-garden, the white _P. nyctanigiflora_ being especially good. All the scented pelargoniums are delightful, the night-scented _P. triste_ and _P. atrum_ being as good as any. The hardy terrestrial orchids, _Habenaria bifolia_ and _H. chlorantha_, which yield their spicy fragrance at night, are easily grown in the bog garden, or indeed in any damp shady place if plenty of leaf-mould be mixed with the soil.

Although usually to be seen only under glass, it would be impossible to dismiss the subject of night blooming plants without referring to the ephemeral blossoms of the night-flowering cactuses, _Cereus grandiflora_--with its vanilla scented brown and yellow flowers, often measuring a foot across--and _C. nycticalus_, known as the Queen of the Night. The flowers of these plants open at about nine o'clock and begin to wither some six hours later.

One might go on adding to the list, but, even from the few plants here enumerated, it will be seen that the night gardener has a considerable field in which to work; whilst to those who share Baudelaire's love of scents, the realm of night-blooming flowers should be a very Paradise.

"Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants, Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies, ---- Et d'autres, corrumpus, riches et triomphants, Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies, Comme l'ambre, le muse, le benjoin et l'encens, Qui chantent les transports de l'esprit et des sens."

THE GARDEN IN AUGUST

August is really but July continued, for no important new feature is peculiar to it. July is very distinct from June, as the latter is from May, and that again from April, but July and August are essentially alike. The weather is similar, the flowers are similar, and, as a result, it is probable that the enthusiasm of gardeners reaches a lower point in August than in any other month of the year.

Roses and Carnations are still among the most important flowers in the garden, and the majority of summer blooming annuals and perennial herbaceous plants are still flowerful.

It is somewhat depressing to observe how the beautiful race of Fuchsias has gone out of cultivation since it went out of fashion. I do not know quite when the Fuchsia was introduced into this country, but I believe it was about the middle of the eighteenth century. The Rev. William Hanbury, "Rector of Church Langton, in Leicestershire," in a two volume work in folio, entitled "A Complete Body of Gardening and Planting," published in 1771, of which I possess a copy, says that in his time only one species of Fuchsia was known. "This being the only species of the genus, it is named simply Fuchsia. Father Plumier calls it Fuchsia triphylla flore coccinea. It grows naturally in most of the warmest parts of America." Hanbury included it among stove plants, alleging that it is "very tender at all times," but as a matter of fact _F. coccinea_ can easily be grown in the open air in most districts of England, though it thrives best in the milder parts. The scarlet drops hanging from a tall bush of this plant--and it sometimes reaches a height of five or six feet, or even more--are very attractive, and one can but admire the taste of the humming birds which in its native home the Fuchsia seeks to attract.

Except near the sea and in certain warm situations, Fuchsias can hardly be regarded as thoroughly hardy plants; but, wherever they will succeed, they should certainly be grown, for they are amongst the most beautiful ornaments of the garden in late summer and autumn. Perhaps the hardiest of all is _F. Riccartoni_, with bright red flowers, but the old _F. globosa_ is almost its equal in vigour.

_F. macrostema gracilis_ is of taller and, as its name implies, of more slender habit than the other hardy kinds. It has the further advantage of producing its pretty scarlet and purple drops somewhat later in the autumn. A Fuchsia bush rarely looks shabby on account of dead and dying flowers, for, when their work is done, the petals usually fall before they have begun to wither.

I am sure that gardeners who study the native flora of England derive much more pleasure from their flowers than those who focus all their attention on the cultivated species and hybrids which are grown in gardens. The hedges and woodlands are full of examples and full of suggestions, for they show us the habit and manner of life of the English relatives of our exotic plants. By studying the wild species with their wonderful grace and simple beauty, indicative of adaptation of means to ends, we are less liable to become the slaves of the florists.

The hedges, or rather the wayside patches at the hedgerow's base, are very beautiful just at this season, with the yellow flowers of two of the Cinquefoils, the silky fern-like-leaved _Potentilla Anserina_ (Silver weed) and the creeping _P. reptans_. The Cinquefoil much resembles the Strawberry, producing its honey by means of a dark-coloured ridge which runs round the tube of the flower near its base. Its stamens and pistil however develop coincidently, whereas the stigmas of the Strawberry ripen long before the stamens, and consequently self-fertilisation is far more common than is the case with the latter.

It must have been the quinately leaved _P. reptans_ which was formerly in favor as a heraldic device. Folkard says that the number of the leaves answered to the five senses of man. The right to bear Cinquefoil was considered an honourable distinction to him who had worthily conquered his affections and mastered his senses.

Many species of Potentilla are valuable garden plants, from the little Alpine _P. nitida_, whose leaves shine more brilliantly than our Silver weed, to the showy _P. atrosanguinea_, and the hybrid varieties derived from it, which are the kinds usually seen in gardens. Among these hybrids are a number of single and double sorts, nearly all of which possess good colour--mostly ranging from yellow to scarlet.

Two other races of garden hybrids are of extreme importance in late summer, the Pentstemons and Phloxes, the latter being among the most valuable of border plants. In selecting varieties of either of these flowers one should be careful to avoid the very washy and hateful magentas and purples which are but too frequently seen. The Pentstemons are worthy of greatly increased culture, for they often continue to flower until the frosts of November.

The great race of hybrid Gladioli derived from _G. brenchleyensis_ and _G. gandavensis_ are now fashionable, as they deserve. The scarlet _G. brenchleyensis_ is itself very hardy and should be grown in quantity.

The hybrids require some care and should be planted in March at a depth of three inches and a distance of nine inches apart in deeply dug, rich, well-drained soil, free from fresh manure. About the second week in September, before the foliage has died down, the corms should be lifted and thoroughly dried off in a freely ventilated shed.

But most brilliant of all the flowers of August are the scarlet Lobelias, _L. cardinalis_ (described by Parkinson), and _L. splendens_ with their varieties. They are not very hardy, but with a little protection during winter can be grown in most well-drained gardens. Moisture during summer is essential, so that a slightly shaded position should be selected.

THE GARDEN IN AUTUMN

It is the deciduous trees and shrubs which announce the arrival of autumn. Green leaves take on a colouring of yellow, brown, or red more pronounced than the yellows and reds of spring. As the wind blows, a few of the ripest leaves fall, and one becomes conscious of a feeling of evening, of the end of a play, or of the end of a beautiful poem. If it were but by these autumnal colourings, and by the feelings which the fall of the leaf produces, one would be well repaid for the planting and cultivating of trees and shrubs.

Because the active life of these larger plants is over for a season, however, one need not imagine that the well managed garden is suddenly to become flowerless. Roses and Pentstemons, Potentillas and Phloxes, Sweet-Peas and Nasturtiums, and a host of other summer bloomers still remain and often continue to bear flowers till hard frost pulls down the curtain. But it is not on summer flowers that we need rely, for there are numerous beautiful hardy flowers peculiar to autumn itself. Dahlias, Rudbeckias, Sunflowers, Tritomas, Michaelmas Daisies, Japanese Anemones, Fuchsias and Chrysanthemums are those which immediately rise in the memory.

The common Torch Lily, or Red-hot-Poker, is almost the hardiest of the Tritomas--or Kniphofias, as they are now called--and in a moderately light soil will live year after year with little or no attention. Often, in neglected cottage gardens at about the end of August, a group of these Flame flowers, burning red and glowing yellow, arrest the attention and cheer the landscape. The variety known as grandis is even more effective, often reaching a height of nine feet or even more.

The dark crimson _Kniphofia Burchelli_ is valuable on account of its long blooming period, as also is the orange and scarlet _K. Saundersii_, but all the kinds are good, though not all are distinct. Considering that it was introduced from the Cape nearly two hundred years ago, it is somewhat curious that the Kniphofia is still comparatively a rare flower.

Although it was mentioned by Hernandez in his History of Mexico, as long ago as 1651, the Dahlia was not introduced into this country until 1789, when Lady Bute brought a plant from Madrid. It is scarcely hardy in heavy soil or in the northern half of England, and it will generally be necessary to lift the roots in late autumn, and, having ripened them in a shed, to store them for the winter in a cool dry place, where the temperature will not fall below freezing point. In the spring, the separate tubers may be planted in deep rich soil; or the roots may in February be placed in a hot bed, and as the young shoots which form are about three and a half inches long, they may be separated together with a small piece of the tuber, and potted in small pots which should be placed in the hot-bed until the young plants are ready to be planted out. The old double kinds are much inferior to the single and cactus varieties. Dahlias compass a very wide range of colour, and there are so many good sorts that each grower may well be left to select for himself. In choosing Cactus Dahlias, it is wise to select kinds in which the flowers stand out well beyond the foliage.

The vigorous Sneezeweeds or Heleniums are among the easiest of all plants to grow, and will exist on almost any soil. Like other hardy plants, however, they pay for deep cultivation and manure. They bear yellow composite flowers, and grow to a height of five or six feet. _H. autumnale_ is the most generally valuable.

The Cone-flowers, or Rudbeckias, are also handsome American plants, the best being _R. speciosus_, which bears orange flowers with dark yellow centres, and is a very fine bloomer.

But even more useful and important than Heleniums and Rudbeckias are the various perennial sunflowers, of which _Helianthus multiflorus_ and _H. rigidus_, with their varieties, are perhaps the best worth cultivating.

All these North American composites are such very vigorous growers that they should not be placed in close proximity to small or delicate plants, and it is advisable--except in quite wild places--to take them up every two years and divide the roots.

The Michaelmas Daisies, or tall-growing Asters, are steadily growing in favour coincidently with the growth of the popular taste. Deep cultivation, moderately rich soil, and division every two or three years, are the conditions of their successful culture. _Aster ericoides_, _A. amellus bessarabicus_, _A. acris_, _A. Shortii_ and _A. vimineus_ are a few good kinds.

Both the white and the rose-coloured varieties of _Anemone Japonica_ should be grown, and are of the easiest culture. They may be rapidly increased by division, and should be allowed to develop into bold clumps. _Megasea cordifolia_ and the Pampas Grass are among the autumnal bloomers, as also are the Crocus-like Colchicums, the even more delicately coloured autumn Crocuses, Sedum spectabile, Sternbergia lutea, the late-flowering Gladioli, and the beautiful Amaryllis Belladonna.

Quite unlike all other autumn flowers--indeed unlike all other flowers--the Japanese Chrysanthemum gives us the latest display of brilliant colouring of the garden year. For border decoration, they may be treated much as other herbaceous plants and divided in the spring. Owing to the season at which they flower and the frequent occurrence of violent storms at that period, it is desirable to grow Chrysanthemums against a wall or hedge. The varieties are infinite in number, so that when ordering plants for out-door use it is advisable to instruct the florist as to the purpose to which you intend to devote them. A few very hardy kinds are Madame C. Desgrange, Lady Fitzwigram, Roi des Précoses, and Ryecroft Glory.

The autumn tints assumed by the leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs are very interesting and beautiful. Of such, the following short list may be of a little help:--

Acer colchicum rubrum. Acer platanoides laciniatum. Acer Schwedleri. Azalea pontica. Amelanchier canadensis. Berberis Thunbergii. Cornus (of sorts). Liriodendron. Parrotia persica. Rhus (of sorts). Rubus (of sorts). Spiræa Thunbergii. Silver Birch.

In one of his most suggestive essays, John Burroughs pointed out that in autumn the battles of the spring are fought over again. But, whereas in the spring it is the summer warmth which eventually, in spite of many mishaps and reverses, wins the victory, in the autumnal ebb it is the cold which finally gains the day. This constant strife between succeeding seasons at the points of meeting lies at the root of the peculiar charm of the English climate and of the English flora.

The following lists are borrowed from my _Chronicle of a Cornish Garden_:--

A FEW GOOD TALLEST BORDER PLANTS.

Hollyhocks. Delphiniums. Pæonies. Aconitum napellus. Aconitum autumnale. Rudbeckia maxima. Rudbeckia laciniata. Doronicum plantagineum excelsum. Digitalis. Tritomas. Campanula macrantha. Campanula pyramidalis. Galega officinalis alba. Phlox (in variety). Spiræa aruncus. Helianthus (in variety).

A FEW GOOD TALL BORDER PLANTS.

Anemone japonica alba. Aquilegias (in variety). Papaver orientale. Iris germanica. Lilium candidum. Achillea ptarmica fl. pl. Dicentra spectabilis. Scabiosa caucasica. Campanula persicifolia. Campanula latifolia alba. Campanula Van Houttei. Campanula turbinata. Primula japonica. Coreopsis. Carnations. Helleborus niger. Helleborus orientale. Adonis vernalis. Alstroemeria. Erigeron speciosus. Montbretias. Gladioli. Pentstemons. Lobelia cardinalis. Asters. Chrysanthemums. Geum chiloense. Marguerites.

A FEW GOOD DWARF BORDER-PLANTS.