Wfc. ^lOSlfo Wfc AfclOS-ANGElty %^^' *! %WM^ y o-\mm wo* ^ UBRARY ^ sclOSlr %a3MHfl-3V^ IrORO I tOF-CAlll ^E-UNIVER%. ^**^ l | ^ZQAINO-WV 1 ANGEUES, CHILDREN'S GARDENS UOS , CHfc, MY MOTHER'S GARDEN CHILDREN'S GARDENS THE HON. MRS. EVELYN CECIL (ALICIA AM H ERST) WITH ILL USTRA TJONS 3L0nt)on MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1903 Ifct 09 All rights reserved First Edition 1902 Reprinted 1903 Betucateto TO MY DEAR CHILDREN MARGARET AND ROBERT iAlfiHORMALSOlUyL, l*OS ANGBUHS, PREFACE THE idea of writing this little book occurred to me because numerous people have frequently asked me, "When did you take up gardening ? " and seemed surprised at my reply, that I never remembered being without a garden. The fashion of " taking up " gardening is now so prevalent, that I thought it might be a help to have some simple book that would form a sound foundation of the rudiments of gardening for children and beginners of all ages. I hope this little volume may be fortunate in directing their ideas to the work required to produce bright gardens, and that by pointing out a few of the endless attractions of the pastime, it may increase in the young the taste for practical gardening, which I myself, in common with thousands at all times of life, have found to be one of the surest sources of happiness. This ix CHILDREN'S GARDENS book is only intended as a sketch, and gives the merest mention in unscientific language of some of the most obvious plants and necessary work in each season of the year. More com- plete and scientific works should be referred to for following up the threads of knowledge in the lines here indicated. I have to thank all kind friends who have assisted me by sending photographs or draw- ings for illustrations ; and I am specially grate- ful to Sir Thomas Hanbury for reading the final proofs of these pages. ALICIA M. CECIL. 10 EATON PLACE, LONDON, S.W. August, 1902. CONTENTS PAGE I. THE GARDEN II. SPRING . 35 III. SPRING WORK . IV. SUMMER 8 3 V. AUTUMN I 3 l VI WINTER . .167 APPENDIX INDEX 2I1 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS My Mother's Garden .... Frontispiece PAGE Hard at Work . .5 The Mountain Clematis . . . .11 Wistaria sinensis . . . . .13 Mats protecting Verbena on Conservatory . .16 Mat when being made Mat when put up . .18 Garden by a Wall . . . . -19 Plan of Garden . . . .21 Miniature Formal Garden . . . .22 My own small Formal Garden . . . .24 Gardens laid out by Queen Victoria for her Children . 26 Cyclamen in shady "Declivity" . . .29 Corner in a Wild Garden . . . .30 Snowdrops . . . . . 38 Iris in a Wild Garden . . . .44 A mass of Primroses and Polyanthus . . .51 Crown Imperials . . . . -55 Lent Lilies . . . . . -58 xiii CHILDREN'S GARDENS Preparing for Summer . . . .65 The Thick-leaved Saxifrage . . . 7 1 Watering Seeds . . . . .76 Summer Garden . . . . . 86 The White Peach-leaved Bell Flower . . 90 Jerusalem Sage and Goat's-beard Spiraea . -93 A kind of Perennial Sunflower . . -95 Globe Flowers and Iris . . . .98 Lilium candidum . . . . 110 Rose climbing on a Tree . . . . 1 1 5 Rose trained on Posts . . . . .118 The entrance to the Island Garden . . .124 Pupils' Gardens at the School, Wycombe Abbey . 133 A Border in early September . . . .136 Seed Packets . . . . . 139 Phlox and Evening Primrose . . . .142 Hyacinthus candicans and Hollyhocks . .148 Grape Vine as a Creeper . . . .156 Ornamental Gourds . . . .163 Wattled Summer House . . . .169 Lilies of the Valley and Foam Flower . . .172 Royal Fern . . . . . .176 Radish, Grass, and Tulip Roots . 180 Rhizome of Solomon's Seal . .181 Stem of a Lime Tree . . . .184 The Scarlet Geranium . . . .186 Rose Wallflower Daisy . .188 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Daffodil . . , . .189 Garden Pea Dead Nettle . .190 Arum Pea Pod Poppy . . . .191 Dandelion Columbine Blackberry . .192 Fig . . 193 Geranium pratense . . . 194 Columbines . . . .195 A Garden in the Snow . 199 Christmas Roses . . .201 ERRATA Page 99, line 5, for Avaria read Uvaria. Page 122, line i \, for "from :; read "or grafted close to." I THE GARDEN Flowers are words Which even a babe may understand. BISHOP COXE. oMIE NORMAL S UOS THE GARDEN A GARDEN, to those who love it, is a never- failing source of happiness. This love of gardens comes naturally to most people ; it is rarely that the sight and smell of flowers excite no joy, and yet it is only those who have worked and lived among their flowers who have felt this happiness to the full. Every one who cultivates this natural taste for flowers early in life will find as time goes on that it. is an y^ever-growing fund of pleasure. A garden will repay with interest all the trouble spent upon ^ it. Flowers are never ungrateful for care, and ^ attentions lavished upon them cannot be thrown away, as is too often the case with thankless friends. The favourite toy may be broken, the wax doll may melt and lose her beauty, but the garden will never disappoint you. If for a minute you are distressed at seeing the flower-stalk of some choice plant broken off, 3 CHILDREN'S GARDENS or the cruel frost nips a delicate treasure, com- pensation soon follows the seeds come up exceptionally well, the pansies are finer and larger than you anticipated, or, in some way or another, your grief is forgotten in a new delight. The garden is full of surprises, some- thing unexpected often happens, a primrose more brave than its fellows opens a pretty bright flower on some cold and dismal autumn day, or a precocious snowdrop pokes through the frosty ground and shakes its little white head as a harbinger of spring. Another and perhaps the chiefest attraction of a garden is that occupation can always be found there. No idle people are happy, but with mind and fingers busy cares are soonest forgotten. There is not a day in the year, however hard the toil may have been, but that some employment can be found. " Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do," but will not trouble hands actively at work in a garden, for, as Bacon, the statesman and writer, said nearly three hundred years ago, it is "the purest of all human pleasures." There is much good to be learnt in our gardens. The book of Nature, and the world of wonders she unfolds, are open to all who seek. Every seed that falls into the ground- and dies and then springs forth into some HARD AT WORK CHILDREN'S GARDENS green blade or lovely flower has its lesson of immortality Emblems of our own great resurrection, Emblems of the bright and better land. LONGFELLOW, Flowers. And the countless starlike daisies in the grass are as marvellous and have as great truths to teach as the myriad stars in the heavens. Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, God hath written in those stars above ; But not less in the bright flowerets 'under us, Stands the revelation of His love. LONGFELLOW, Flowers. One virtue which perhaps children find more difficult to exercise than older people is patience, but that must be learnt and practised from day to day and year to year if gardens are to be made to flourish. The habit of hurrying and not taking pains, is a very common one, whether it be over lessons or employments more amusing, such as painting, music, or needlework. But a flower cannot hurry; a regular process of growth goes on from the time the little seed begins to germinate, slowly but steadily, always doing its best, until the plant gradually reaches per- fection. Winter after winter the trees wait patiently for the spring, and then gently and carefully unfold each tiny bud, till they attain THE GARDEN their full beauty in the summer. In like manner those who tend a garden must have infinite patience if they would succeed. A whole year, or even two or more, seems long to wait, but to grow many of the things described in the following pages it will take fully that time, and all the while care and trouble must be bestowed, for although a plant will grow steadily if all its surroundings are favourable, it is easily killed by many causes, such as a bad soil, choking by weeds, want of water, or too much scorch- ing sun. It is only by study of the plants or reading about them that all they require can be learnt ; but by a steady attention to rules, even in a child's small garden a great deal can be achieved. If the soil is very sandy and light it can be improved by collecting leaf-mould from some wood, or, if possible, mixing some good soil and manure with the natural earth of the garden. If, on the contrary, it is of stiff clay or loam, children should try and get some sand to mix with it. If the garden is very shady, only grow such things as do not mind the shade; or, again, if there is no shade at all, some must be contrived by placing branches, or a sort of little tent of a sack stretched across sticks, to shade any special flower that flags under a hot sun, if it is to be grown at all. CHILDREN'S GARDENS It has been said that flowers only flourish in the garden of some one who loves them, which is a fantastic idea ; but at any rate it is perfectly true to say that they will only attain their highest perfection in the gardens of those who study and care for them, and children who begin the task will find it a never-ending one, yet of ever-increasing pleasure and instruction. Not a tree, A plant, a leaf, a blossom, but contains A folio volume. We may read, and read, And read again, and still find something new, Something to please and something to instruct. HURDIS (on the title-page of each volume of Maund's Botanic Garden, 1825-1850). Children do not often have the choice of a garden. They must, as a rule, take what is given them and make the best of it. But once the ground is assigned to them, much can be done to make it pretty, attractive, and original. The first step is to decide what kind of plants will thrive best, and to ascertain this several points must be considered whether the soil' is rich or light, the spot sheltered or exposed to the wind, whether it is in the sun or shade, or damp or dry, and once having settled these questions, the next stage is to determine whether the garden is to be what is called a " formal " one, or a wild one. Even THE GARDEN if the space is very small, there can be a great variety of ways in which to lay it out. Then again it is important to arrange to have the garden looking brightest when it can be en- joyed. Many children live all the year round in the country, so their gardens must have flowers in them, if possible, during all months of the year. Other children are in a town in the spring or early summer, and want flowers there- fore in the late summer and autumn ; others again go to a town for the winter, so summer flowers are all they need, and it would be only a sad disappointment to plant early spring bulbs that they would never see in bloom. Then some children will find their gardens ready made perhaps a corner in the kitchen garden, or the end of a long border may be given up to them, where the soil is already prepared and dug ; while others may only have a bit of waste ground or a corner in the shrubbery, and will have to do all the prepara- tion of the ground themselves. That may be the hardest work, but it gives perhaps the greatest satisfaction in the end. All these possibilities must be looked at in turn, and a little advice be given about each of them. First consider a garden that is part of a border in the kitchen or flower garden. There may be a wall at the back, and if so it must CHILDREN'S GARDENS not be neglected ; it will look so much prettier with a climbing plant on it than if it is left bare. In a warm part of England the choice of plants that will thrive is almost unlimited, and even in the North some which would die in the open will stand the cold winters against a wall. Once the climber is planted, the work does not end, as it will require training and nailing up every year, unless the small Virginian creeper is selected, which requires no tying up. Ampe- lopsis Veitchi is its Latin name. It will cover the wall with green leaves in the summer, and red in the autumn. If the wall is to look its brightest during the winter months, I should advise the planting of the bright yellow-flowered jasmine called Jasminum nudiflorwn, because the flowers appear in the winter on the bare twigs before any leaves have come. A charm- ing sweet-scented plant, which will flower on a wall in the winter or very early spring, is winter sweet, or Chimonanthus fragrans. The flowers, like those of the jasmine, come out before the leaves as a surprise on a cold January day, and scent the air with the perfume of summer, but the flowers are a pale yellow and not very showy. A brighter yellow flower, which comes out later in the spring, is Forsythia suspensa (or else Forsythia viridissima, another kind), which is extremely pretty. Another brilliant spring THE GARDEN flower is the Japan quince, or Pyrus japonica, THE MOUNTAIN CLEMATIS Clematis montana which covers a wall with bright red flowers. Mezereon or Daphne Mezereum will grow as a CHILDREN'S GARDENS bush, and is quite hardy, but if there is not much room and you want bright colours from February to April you could plant it at the back of the garden patch against the wall. . The flowers are a purplish pink, and very sweet. In the warmer parts of Britain, and especially near the coast, a most useful plant for covering a wall is Escallonia macrantha. It has small evergreen glossy leaves, and pink tube-like flowers which hang in bunches, and is attractive all the year round. The difficulty of choosing late spring and early summer creepers lies in the number of things to select from, all beautiful in their own way. One of the most lovely in May or early June is Clematis montana. Perhaps you know the wild clematis or traveller's joy, which has masses of pale greenish- yellow flowers, small and close together, with a sweet scent, and is covered with fluffy seeds in the autumn. The flowers of Clematis montana also grow in thick masses, but though of course just the same shape as the wild one, with four petals, they are much larger and look like pure dazzling white crosses when closely inspected, and seem at a distance to be a white waterfall of blossom. Then there is Wistaria sinensis, which has long heads of light purple flowers, which hang down like / A THE GARDEN bunches of grapes ; and Kerria japonica, with flowers like orange rosettes ; and honeysuckle must not be forgotten, of which there are many good garden varieties, as well as the wild ones, all deliciously sweet scented, and some of them WISTARIA SINENSIS with evergreen leaves. With the warm days of May some roses begin to open, especially the old-fashioned pink monthly or China roses. These not only begin to flower early, but go on so late that in mild years several blooms come out in November, and I remember once i 4 CHILDREN'S GARDENS \ gathering one as a " Christmas rose." Roses must be mentioned again presently, but in passing I would tell you of one other rose very suitable for a wall, which blooms early and late, and that is Gloire de Dijon, a well-known, strong -growing kind of tea rose, with large pinky-yellow flowers. Later in the summer come other sorts of clematis, such o& Jackmani. These have larger flowers than montana, and are of a deep purple or pale mauve colour. At the same time flowers the Bignonia radicans, which is very different to look at, but is also beautiful, with clusters of small trumpet -shaped scarlet and orange blossoms, and pretty foliage. It has a very tropical or "greenhouse" appearance, but on sunny walls it will grow in most places. Another plant which looks tropical, but will do well on walls, more especially in the warmer parts of England, is the wonderful passion- flower (Passiflora caruled]. As a small child, I had a bitter disappointment in seeing " Constance Elliot," the white variety, quite killed by the frost in my garden. I had no wall, and although I had planted it in a sheltered corner, I could only give it a post to climb on, the result was this sad end. So I would warn all those who do not live in the very warmest parts of England not to expect passion- THE GARDEN flowers to live without the kindly shelter of a sunny wall. It is wonderful how much heat a wall imparts not only does it keep away cold winds, but it retains so much of the sun's warmth that plants get quite a double share of its life-giving rays. But several of the other things I have mentioned will do without walls, so children who have not that shelter can plant them on poles or trellis-work. All the kinds of clematis and honeysuckle will thrive well grown in this way. If you live in the colder, or more especially the damper parts of England or Scotland, there is a very lovely thing you can plant with success, which children in the warm dry South will very likely fail to grow, and that is the Tropa&lwn speciosvim or flame nasturtium. It has bright scarlet flowers in summer, and very pretty leaves, grows in thick trailing masses, and later in the autumn has sapphire-blue seeds. There are still the late autumn months to think of, and the wall must look gay then. If you have chosen to plant Virginian creeper, either the common or the Veitchi kinds, they will turn a gorgeous red, but like the trees these creepers will lose their glory and only their bare stems be left, so it is as well to try and have at least one plant which is evergreen and does not shed its leaves. Escallonia I i 6 CHILDREN'S GARDENS have told you of already, but another leafy thing is the Cotoneaster, with little white flowers, followed by red berries, and brighter still in winter is the Pyracantha, which has large bunches of scarlet berries. In the colder parts of England it is a good plan, if rosemary MATS PROTECTING VERBENA ON CONSERVATORY is tried, to treat it as a creeper, and nail it to a wall. It will not reach very high, so there would be room for some bright flower above it, which would look well in contrast to the soft gray leaves and mauve flowers of the rosemary. Sweet-scented verbena, which is so delicious from early summer until the frost THE GARDEN 17 scatters its leaves, will grow and flourish against a wall, even in cold parts of England, if it has just a little protection in the winter. I used to make such nice warm mats to cover mine that I will tell you how I did it, as it is quite easy work, and a very good protection. Get a stick three or four feet long, or how- ever high the plant is that you want to cover, tie a strong piece of string a few inches from either end, and hang it up. I used to find a nail in the woodwork of an old summer-house a very convenient place. Then get a bundle of straw, tie a stout piece of string about a yard or a yard and a half long (tarred twine is best) a few inches from one end of the stick which you have hung up, another about a foot farther along, and one or two more, according to the length of the stick ; then take a small handful of straw and tie it on to the stick with your first string with a single knot, or what sailors call a " half hitch." The straw will most of it reach to the second string, so tie it again there. A few straws will stretch to the third string, but you will have to add a little more straw, and then tie the third, and if necessary a fourth string, and so on, row after row of straw tied together along the length of the stick, till you get it wide enough to cover the plant, perhaps two or three feet or more; c 1 8 CHILDREN'S GARDENS then fasten on a second stick to make the other upright post, take it down from the nail, I . I II rsi Strew and cover your plant. Mats made in this way will do duty for many winters. Ground ^ Mat when put up. Having settled how to cover the walls, the rest of the plot must be thought of, and again THE GARDEN you must consider if it is to have flowers all the year round, or only some part of that time, and arrange accordingly. Remember the most sheltered part will be near the protecting wall. It depends on the size of the border how the flowers should be planted, so as to show to the best advantage. You want to be able to weed all over without hurting your plants, so you 2. Japan Quince 3- Clematis 4. Rosemary 5- Scented Verbena 6. Jasmine Serfs.- Tall Phlox, Larks Michaelmas Gladiolus. Low Edging Plant Annuals betu/ee Path GARDEN RY A WALL must be able to walk up either side, or, if the patch of ground is wide, you could leave a space to walk up the centre. In either case it will be best to plant the tallest plants farthest from the path, and the low-growing ones near the edge, so that they are seen and not hidden by the taller. The plants which are the best to grow would be nearly the same for each kind of garden ; it is only the arrangement of them that will differ, so I will give you some lists and hints in another chapter. What you CHILDREN'S GARDENS must remember is, that in your garden, if it is a small piece of border, everything must be very neatly kept ; the plants must not get wild and straggling ; some may require " tying up," some "pegging down," so as to . make plenty of room to grow as many nice things as possible. This is very necessary also if your garden is to be a miniature formal one that is, if your piece of ground is laid out in an even, straight way, even though it is not a piece of border, against a wall. There are of course endless variations of the kind of design you can have, but the chief point in all must be that the pattern is what is called symmetrical or regular. My own first garden was a formal one, and though I by no means advise children to copy it as being the best form, still it will be a good example of that style. The size was about 40 feet long and 22 feet at the widest part, and the shape of a half-moon. One side was protected by a high clipped laurel hedge, the other side was divided from the path belonging to the regular garden by a straight strip of grass, which was kept mown, sometimes by the gardeners with a mowing machine, but frequently by tame rabbits or guinea-pigs being penned on it sys- tematically until they had eaten it down. The CHILDREN'S GARDENS paths were gravelled, and the beds, which you see by the design were of various regular shapes, were edged by box. Now a garden like this requires a very great deal of care and attention ; perhaps that is one of its charms ; but it also has a great many disadvantages. Some of its merits are that the beds are small, and MINIATURE FORMAL GARDEN little hands and short arms can reach all over, and so can tend and weed them with ease. If the ground was very uneven, children should try and make it level. This would be hard work, and take them some time ; but, with care, it could be done. The holes would have to be filled up with earth taken off the highest mounds. If the garden was all on a slope, THE GARDEN 23 part could be made flat by digging up some of the earth and heaping it at one end, so as to form a miniature terrace. Even if it took children a whole summer to accomplish so great a task, the result would well repay all trouble. The picture shows what a garden of this kind might look like when finished. The terrace is only a foot to 18 inches high, the bed about 2 feet 6 inches by 5 feet long. A hedge round it would be a great improvement, or any sort of railing or wire netting could be planted with ivy or some other creeper to cover it thickly like the one in the picture, which would have just the same effect as a real hedge. When it is all tidy and full of flowers, the effect is very lovely. Things have to be kept small and neat, and the whole can, even by a small child, be made to look like a miniature of some large formal garden. But its drawbacks are that plants very quickly get too large for the little beds, the box takes so much nourishment from the small patches it encloses that frequent renewing of the soil is necessary, and the box requires a great deal of attention to keep it thick and low, so that there are no ugly gaps and it is not so high as to hide the flowers. The paths also take a lot of weeding ; they are, however, nice and dry to work from in 24 CHILDREN'S GARDENS \ wet weather. Less complicated little formal gardens would have fewer of these faults. There might, for instance, be more grass with only one gravel path down the centre, and straight beds cut in the grass on either side, with an archway covered with roses or some other MY OWN SMALL FORMAL GARDEN creeper at either end of the path, to form an entrance ; or there might be two paths crossing each other, with creepers on arches or stakes where the pathways joined, and many other plans in the same style might be chosen. My mother's garden (see frontispiece) was a THE GARDEN 25 small formal one, and had been the children's garden even before she enjoyed it. The old damask roses standing there now must have grown in that same sunny corner for nearly a hundred years. The gardens laid out by Queen Victoria for the king and the princes and princesses at Osborne were small formal ones. A part of each was devoted to flowers, the remainder to fruit and vegetables. The ground was divided into nine plots, each bear- ing the name of its owner from the Princess Royal to Princess Beatrice ; and these were made up of fourteen straight little beds four for vegetables and asparagus, while raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and strawberries each had two assigned to them, and two were devoted to flowers. Hard by the garden a thatched shed gave shelter to all the tools required to keep them in order, each little wheelbarrow having the name of the prince or princess to which it belonged painted on it. These gardens are still, by his Majesty's orders, kept neat and tidy, and the tools carefully preserved. The next alternative in planning a garden is to make a quite " wild" or irregular one. The way to do this is not to have any exact formal design, but to make use of the natural lie of the ground, and plant the flowers accordingly. This THE GARDEN 27 kind of garden will not require less labour than the formal one, although it is work of a different kind. There will be no box to clip or paths to make tidy, or the grass edges of the beds to keep evenly cut, but instead there will be a great deal of weeding and care, lest the plants should overgrow and hurt each other. The climbers, instead of being planted on poles, arches, or walls, can be put beside trees for sup- port, but they will require tying up all the same, or a high wind would come and blow them away or break them down before they have got firm hold of the tree stem. Bulbs, instead of being planted in beds, can be put into the grass and allowed to find their way to the sunshine with the blades of grass around them. The leaves of the bulbs must be left to wither, and not cut off as soon as the flowers are over, even though they may look untidy. Larger plants can be admitted, as there will be no fear of their reaching over the edge of the bed and encroaching on the path. Instead of arranging the various plants at even distances or in rows, they can be placed so as to look as if they were growing there naturally. If, by chance, there is a stump of a tree, climbers can be made to trail over it, or, if it is very old and tumbled down, ferns could grow from among the decay- ing bark. If there are stones, instead of clearing 28 CHILDREN'S GARDENS \ them away, rock-plants can be planted among them ; little alpines, which are accustomed to growing among rocks, will thrive much better in the crevices and corners thus obtained, and their roots will be quite at home poking their way between the stones. If there is a hollow, it can be filled with low -growing plants, and taller ones put on the higher ground, so as to make the most of any unevenness instead of doing your best to level the ground. The more varied the ground is, the more easy it will be to get pretty effects in a wild garden. Sometimes even a little digging will help to make the hollows deeper and the miniature hills higher. In my own wild garden there was a small shady hollow ; a bank on two sides led from the flat part of the garden, while one end sloped down gradually. Trees on the farther side made the little hollow shady, while the top of the bank caught the sun. I got some old roots and stakes, and planted Virginian creeper, purple clematis, and a white cluster rose (Turner's crimson rambler was given a place years after- wards when it came out) where the sun shone on the level ground at the top of the bank. Then I made three little steps down, and beyond the steps planted two bushes of Rosa rugosa, which I knew would grow fairly tall, so THE GARDEN that when I stood in the hollow at the foot of my little steps these roses and creepers gave additional height. Then below, in the shadow, I planted low-growing things that did not mind the shade, some ferns, primroses, cyclamen, CYCLAMEN IN SHADY "DECLIVITY" Saxifraga hypnoides covering the stones and lily of the valley. There were autumn as well as spring flowering cyclamen, so that I always found something of interest in my little hollow, which I fancifully named the " Declivity." But this is only one of the many hundreds of ways one can make scenery in a wild garden, and find great pleasure and CHILDREN'S GARDENS amusement in seeing one's little landscapes grow. It requires a great deal of real hard work to get things to grow well in a wild garden, especially if it is some outlying bit of the grounds which is given you for a garden, where CORNER IN A WILD GARDEN nothing has been planted before, as then you must dig the soil very well and thoroughly before anything is put in. Only a single spade- depth dug in the ground will not be enough ; you will have to turn over the ground and then go as deep again, and you will find the soil much more hard and stiff to turn than if your THE GARDEN 31 garden is in a part with soil already prepared. It is a good plan, if there is any sort of rough grass, to remove it first, and lay it aside, then, as the trenches are dug out, chop up well the squares of turf and put them at the bottom of the trench. These will decay in time and improve the quality of the soil. My wild garden was mostly such poor, sandy soil that not only had I to dig hard, but I was given a wheelbarrow, and I used to carry away loads of stone and sand and get leaf-mould, from the gardeners' leaf-heap, to mix with the sand that was left. It was hard work taking away the sand, so I made some of it into a sort of mound, and planted sea-thrift all over it, and a yellow horned poppy, as I knew neither of these minded having only sand to grow in, and the result was very charming, especially when the sea-thrift was a mass of bright pink flowers. Weeds are always a sore trial, but more especially in a wild garden. I well remember my fights with thistles and nettles ; and what was even more unkind, the leaf-mould I brought with such care and trouble used to have in it the roots of ground elder, a most tiresome weed, which would grow apace in spite of all my efforts to check it ; but these struggles are now many years ago, and when I come back and look at my old garden, I am 32 CHILDREN'S GARDENS delighted to find my perseverance was really rewarded, for just a little attention in the early spring will now keep these enemies at bay. Now I have told you something about the various kinds of gardens, so that you will understand what is meant when I tell you that a plant is suitable for a wild garden, or that it should only be grown in a bed, and you will be able to know whether it would suit your particular garden or not. But a large number of plants will grow equally well in either kind of garden, in which case I will not tell you to put them in any special place. My advice to children is to be content with the kind of garden they have, and to make the very best they can of it^/All gardens may give an equal amount of pleasure, and nearly all flowers too. There is such an immense number to choose from that every kind of garden can be well supplied with plants suited to it. My own formal garden was rather shady, and by experi- ence I found that the flower which really grew best of all in it was the pansy, so I devoted the " lion's share " of the beds to that plant, and gave it special care. I grew so devoted to my pansies that, although I love all flowers, I think the warmest corner in my heart is still given to the pansy. I grew the violas or tufted pansies, as well as the large handsome THE GARDEN 33 show pansies, and I knew the expression in their faces that the various markings gave them until they were as familiar as friends. One yellow one I was almost afraid of its face was so cross, I fancied I could see the frown, and another soft gray one with a small eye seemed always smiling and kind. There was practical work to do in plenty. I was careful to save my own seeds, and the slugs did their best to prevent me, so I invented the plan of putting white paper collars round the flower which I wished to save, to stop the upward progress of the slug. Then I amused myself by doing some of the other insects' work, which I will tell you more about further on, and with a paint-brush out of my sixpenny colour-box used to take the pollen from one plant to another ; the reds I took to the yellows in the vain hope of producing a scarlet pansy, but was more lucky with the crosses among the darkest shades, and produced a really jet black pansy. This was named "the velvet paw," as it was as black and soft-looking as our black cat's, paw. ^Almost any flower will furnish as much amusement as did my pansies. My mother has often told me of her success as a small child with her auriculas, " dusty millers " or " bears' ears," and any child who cares for D 34 CHILDREN'S GARDENS i flowers and a garden can reap the same kind of pleasure. Be content with your garden, employ every inch of it to the best advantage, and whatever flowers you succeed in growing will tenfold repay your care and tending. I know not which I love the most, Nor which the comeliest shows ; The timid, bashful violet, Or the royal-hearted rose, The pansy in her purple dress, The pink with cheek of red, Or the faint, fair heliotrope, who hangs Like a bashful' maid her head. For I love and prize you one and all, From the least low bloom of spring, To the lily fair, whose clothes outshine The raiment of a king. PHOEBE GARY, Spring Flowers. II SPRING I come, I come ! ye have called me long, I come o'er the mountains with light and song Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth By the winds which tell of the violets' birth, By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass, By the green leaves opening as I pass. FELICIA HEMANS, The Voice of Spring. SPRING SPRING FLOWERS OF all the seasons of the year Spring is per- haps the most charming in a garden. Every- thing is waking up after the long winter sleep ; the buds on all the trees are opening and fresh green leaves peeping out, the ferns are sending up tender soft fronds, all tightly curled and often covered with brown velvety down, and from among the ends of the dead stalks of last year's flowers new growth begins to show. It is very wonderful to watch how daintily all these young leaves come up in the garden, and there is the greatest difference amongst them. The larkspurs have very pale young shoots, the peonies handsome dark red spikes, young phloxes appear in varied hues of green and brown, and every shade of green from pale emerald to a deep olive is to be found among other plants. In mild winters many flowers begin to make 37 CHILDREN'S GARDENS their appearance in January, and it is difficult to define the line between winter and spring. Winter aconites and snowdrops can be claimed by winter, but for our purpose it is best to SNOWDROPS class together all the plants that are busy growing when snow is on the ground, and which burst into flower on the first mild days, and call them all " spring flowers.'' In planning what spring flowers are to.be grown, the arrangement must, as we have said SPRING 39 before, depend on the kind of garden they are to go in, and they must fit in and take their place among the plants which are to make it gay during the rest of the year. In the small formal beds, if there are many perennial plants (those which come up year after year), there will only be a little room for a few bulbs and spring flowering plants in between them in little clumps, or else planted in rows round the edges of the beds. If the garden is wholly for spring flowers, then much more can be done ; some beds can be filled with bulbs entirely, others devoted to such plants as forget-me-not or wallflower, which flower in the spring. In the wild garden bulbs can be planted in groups in the grass, and other spring flowers arranged here and there. One of the earliest things to flower is the pretty winter aconite (Eranikis ftyemalis]. It has bright yellow flowers, surrounded by a sort of frill of green. It loves a wild spot under trees, and will often spread itself so as to form a green and golden carpet from January to March. At the same time appear the snow- drops. Nothing is more beautiful than the dainty white and green bells of the common snowdrop, familiar to all, but in a good garden it would be interesting to have some of the rare kinds as well. Even children might be 40 CHILDREN'S GARDENS n able to get some, as although it is not many years since the newer sorts were brought to England, chiefly from the high table-lands of Asia Minor, some are already becoming fairly cheap and easy to get. Their chief merit is that they are very much larger, and some have quite a sweet scent, but they flower a little later than the common ones. A very pretty one among these is called " Elwesi." The Latin for snowdrop is Galanthus, and this kind is called after a Mr. Elwes, and the " i " at the end is the Latin termination. You may wonder, children, why I trouble you with ugly-sounding Latin names when the dear little flower has such a lovely English one as "snowdrop," which describes so well the delicate flowers, and suggests the time of year they come out. I would not for a moment have you think that I want you to use the long Latin names of these or any other flower ; I love the English ones too well. Daisy, or else " the eye of day," is a far sweeter name than Bellis perennis, and " cowslip " is to me a much more pleasing word than Primula veris, but still there is a great deal to be said for knowing the Latin names as well. , The chief advantage about the Latin words is that they are universal to all botanists and gardeners that is to say, a Frenchman or German would understand SPRING 41 Galauthus nivalis to be the common snowdrop, even if they did not understand English, and you were unable to tell them it was a Perce- neige or Schnee-glockchen, the familiar names in their own languages. I once had a striking instance of this world-wide use of the Latin names. I was travelling in a steamer from Finland to Sweden, and most of the passengers belonged to one of those countries or to Russia, and no one on board could talk English, and many no language at 'all that I was able to speak. It happened that our ship was put in quarantine because she had come from Russia, where the cholera was very bad, and we were kept at some distance from Stockholm, near a small island on which a temporary hospital was being built. By some special luck the doctor allowed us to land and take a walk on the island, while most of the other poor passengers could not leave the ship. I brought back with me a bunch of wild flowers heather, milkwort, and many other common things, and gave them to some of our less fortunate fellow- travellers, and I soon found I could have quite a conversation with a Finnish lady, as she knew all the Latin names, and we settled what variety of Erica and Polygala they were, and spoke of them each in turn by name, although I did not know a word of her language. 42 CHILDREN'S GARDENS It is also sometimes useful also to know the Latin name in order to indentify a particular flower. One very common instance of a pretty English name being confusing or misleading is the word " bluebell/' Some people would only use it if they meant the " Bluebells of Scotland," a kind of Campamtla, while many people always call the wild blue hyacinth, Scilla mitans, which carpets the woods in May, " Bluebells." Suppos- ing you wished to buy one or other of these flowers from a nursery-gardener, you would have to explain which you intended. So my advice to all children is to learn the pretty English names, but never laugh at the long Latin ones, and try and remember them too when you can. But to return to the spring garden and its many flowers. Very like the snowdrop is the snowflake, and one kind (Leucojum vernum) flowers early in the spring, although there is a summer flowering kind (L. astivum) as well. The spring one does well in a bed or border. Blue flowers, which are uncommon at many times of the year, are plentiful in the spring, so it is well to make the most of them. One of the very brightest is the Siberian squill (Scilla sibirica), which will grow contentedly either in beds, borders, or in the grass ; it is about five or six inches high, and should be in every SPRING 43 spring garden. Something like it, but with more star-like flowers and blue and white, not all pure blue, is the " glory of the snow." Some of these lovely spring bulbs are found in Asia Minor, near the place where the large snow- drops came from, and there it grew in quantities and flowered as soon as the snows melted. The most common kind is called Chionodoxa Lucilia, another rather brighter blue is sardensis, while the largest of all, as its name implies, is gigantea. Any of these will grow just as readily as the squills in beds or in the grass. There are some dark blue flowers, too, which, though not so showy, are nice to have, and that is the common grape hyacinth or Muscari. The flowers are like a cluster of grapes round the stem, which is some six or seven inches high ; another taller Muscari, comosum monstruosum, is called the "feather hyacinth," as it looks so soft and fluffy and like a feather. Among the early - flowering iris there are many shades of blues, from pale gray to deep purple. The Iris tribe is a very large one, and from January till far on into the summer some of the many varieties should be in flower in every garden. There are two classes of iris those with creeping roots and those with bulbs. The Spanish belong to the bulbous class, the German to the other ; both have endless con- IRIS IN A WILD GARDEN SPRING 45 trasts in size and colour blue, purple, yellow, brown, and white and they flower from May onwards ; but there are other forms as well. The great big Japanese ones which have lately become well known, called Iris Kaempferi, come out in the summer, and can only be grown in a bog garden, but there are many kinds which do well in ordinary good garden soil ; foremost among these comes Iris reticnlata, which is small and deep blue, with fine grass- like leaves. This blooms very early in the spring, and is therefore most useful. Even earlier still appears the pale blue Iris stylosa In a wild garden it will form large plants with ribbon-like foliage, and its lovely flowers in the south of England are often out as early as Christmas. Another bulbous plant, the " spring star-flower " ( Triteleia uniftora), is white, with a sort of bluish tinge, and has a mauve stripe down each point of the star. It -shows early, and lasts till April, and grows well in any nice sunny spot. Foremost among blue flowers stands the gentian. Among the cold snows of the Alps the gentian comes out " timidly peeping " with the first breath of spring which is able to thaw the ice-bound earth, and in the calm, majestic stillness among those snowy peaks, she 46 CHILDREN'S GARDENS n . . . gazes on high, Till she grew heavenly, Blue as the sky. Mrs. REMANS. And yet this lover of Alpine solitudes will live and bloom for us in our gardens, even on flat beds, in parts of England scarcely above the sea-level. It is not difficult to arrange to give it the soil that suits it, as it will do well in any good garden soil that is not too heavy (in which case mix some sand with it). On the surface of the soil or just below it let there be a few small stones, preferably limestone, or even bits of lime rubbish from some old build- ing. It likes plenty of sun, but not to be too dry, so if it is in a very hot border it must have some water in summer. The easiest to grow and the best -known kind is Gentiana acaulis, the gentianella, but another smaller and vivid blue gentian is verna, which carpets the Alpine pastures in spring. This is more difficult to establish, but on a rock garden or a special corner of a border, where its wants in the way of soil, sun, and moisture are carefully attended to, it will thrive and bloom well. A blue flower which likes the shade and appears in spring is Omphalodes verna, called the "creeping forget-me-not." Its flowers are larger SPRING 47 than those of the meadow forget-me-not, and it is of a more intensely bright blue. The roots creep along the ground, and if planted in a partially shady place in a wood it will soon form large patches and seem quite at home. It will also grow well in beds or borders. The real forget- me-not, or Myosotis, which belongs to the same (borage) family, must, as its name tells us, not be forgotten among the blue flowers for the spring garden. There are several kinds which grow wild in Britain ; the wood one and the meadow one, which grows beside streams, are both familiar, and there is also an early kind, Myosotis dissitiflora, which is largely used for spring bedding. In nurserymen's catalogues varieties which are nice to grow from seed are often advertised. I remember getting one called "Little Jewel" many years ago, and planting a border of it round the largest bed in my garden with very successful results. Another blue spring flower which must find a place is the windflower of the Apennines, Anemone apennina. This will grow either in beds or rock-gardens, but is most charming when planted in woods or in waste places where the wild English windflower would be at home. Anemone blanda is very like it, but with rather larger blue stars. It is not quite so easily grown, but in bright sunny spots flowers very 48 CHILDREN'S GARDENS n early in the spring. The hepaticas, also familiar favourites, are a kind of anemone. The common hepatica does well in simple garden soil, in bed or border or edge of a wood. It does not like being disturbed, but will grow year after year in the same place, the flowers appearing among glossy dark leaves. The single blue or double pink varieties are the best known, but there are also single pink and white. The single blue are very often seen on the Riviera or in woods in the Tyrol and other parts of Europe. Another plant very like it is Anemone angulosa. This kind also comes into bloom about March, but the blue stars, which are larger than the ordinary hepatica, appear with hardly any of the leaves, It should be planted in beds or borders that are not too dry and sunny. Purple rock -cress (Aubrietia purpurea] is useful for bedding or edging, or for planting among rocks, and is of a mauve, and sometimes of a purple shade. It is closely allied to the Arabis or white rock-cress. There are some very good new varieties of Aubrietia, with larger flowers than the old one, to be obtained now, such as ffendersoni, with deep reddish- purple blooms. This is already getting a long list of blue and purple spring flowering plants, and yet there is an all-important one not men- SPRING 49 tioned which it would be indeed sad to go without the violet. Violets ! Deep blue violets ! April's loveliest coronets ! There are no flowers grow in the vale, Kiss'd by the dew, woo'd by the gale, None by the dew of the twilight wet, So sweet as the deep blue violet. L. E. LANDON. Let every garden have its violets, for spring would not be perfect without them. But although nature scatters them in profusion in many of our woods and along the banks and ditches at the roadsides, they want some careful handling to get them as fair and fresh in a garden. To grow violets satisfactorily, whether it is the ordinary sweet-scented one or the grander Czar, or one of its still larger long- stalked relations (such as "Princess of Wales "), they require good soil, and must not be too dry and scorched by the sun; and yet they should not be planted in such a shady place that the sun never reaches them, or they will not flower. If you are given even one plant, you could soon have a show of violets, for they make many "runners" or offshoots, and if these are picked off the parent plant, and are carefully planted in good soil and partial shade in the spring, they 50 CHILDREN'S GARDENS n will be nice plants, ready to move in the autumn and to flower in mild seasons through the winter as well as during the spring. The love of blue flowers must not lead to the exclusion of others. Reds and pinks are not so easy to get, nor is there as great a variety to select from. Among bulbs there are the lovely pink hyacinths. They make a fine show in beds or borders, but would not do to plant in wild or woodland places like the "bluebell." To get good pink or red flowers in the wild garden, in woods, or on banks, there is nothing better than the coloured varieties of the common primrose and polyanthus. There is every shade from pinkish - white to deep crimson, and everywhere primroses are wel- come. Plants will do extremely well in beds or borders, but if they are to remain there, and not to give way to summer flowers, a partially shady place must be found, so that they do not get too dry and scorched by the hot sun. There are very pretty double primroses too, pale yellow or soft mauve or deep red, which make gay posies in the spring, and also a quaint old-fashioned kind, called " hose-in-hose," which look like two flowers, stuck one inside the other. These queer little "hose-in-hose" always had a great fascination for me, in association with the delightful story ii SPRING 51 by Mrs. Ewing called Marys Meadow. The little children in that tale learnt all about the old book on gardens, Parkinson's Earthly Paradise (Paradisus in Sole, by John Parkinson, 1629), and tried to make a meadow near their home into a " Paradise " by planting garden flowers A MASS OF PRIMROSES AND POLYANTHUS in it, and began by putting the " hose-in-hose " among the cowslips; but I will not tell you more of the story, as I hope some day you may read the book. The best way to get a lot of primroses is to raise them from seed the small seedlings soon bear an abundance of bloom ; but if any plant 52 CHILDREN'S GARDENS n has a specially good-coloured flower it is best to increase by division, to be quite certain of having more of the same. Take up the plant when it has done flowering and pull it into as many little plants as you can, putting them carefully into the ground in a cool and shady place. To be certain of keeping a stock of a particular kind of this, or many other flowers, the seeds alone must not be trusted to. The bees carry the pollen so easily from one flower to another that reds, mauves, and yellows get mixed, and the result of growing from seed is to produce plants of almost every shade. It is by careful selection from these that new shades of colour deserving of special names have been obtained. Wilson's blue is one of these newer kinds, with very distinctly bluish petals. Out of the wood and shade, in the sunny beds or borders, there can be a blaze of brilliant red, with one of the showiest of spring flowers, the tulip. When tulips were first introduced from the East into Europe, over three hundred years ago, they created such a sensation that people got more excited over growing them than they have over any flower before or since. The greatest centre of this " rage " was Holland, and "tulip fever," as it is called, reached its height there, and it is still in that country that the greatest number of bulbs are raised, and SPRING 53 thousands come to England every year from Holland. When the first settlers at the Cape went out to South Africa from Holland, the most familiar flower to them was the tulip, and being only ignorant " Boers " or peasants, they could not see that there were no real, tulips growing wild in South Africa at all, but they called all the spring flowers "tulips," and it is curious to this day to hear hundreds of people calling various plants, especially a very common small "morea," or kind of iris, a tulip. But there is no such confusion in the minds of English children, and they know the bright cuplike flowers of the tulip well. I wonder if you know the fairy-tale which tells how if a tulip is kissed when open in the sunshine a tiny fairy will come out of it ? I used often to try the experiment, but perhaps it was want of good enough sight that pre- vented me finding the fairy. There are dwarf tulips and tall tulips, and both early and late flowering ones, little ones that stand erect like small soldiers, and the tall "parrot" tulips, which open their more untidy, but more artis- tic, drooping heads in May. There is a great variety to choose from, as the bewildering lists of names in the bulb catalogues testify, but all of them require care, good soil, and an open sunny exposure ; should they also be sheltered 54 CHILDREN'S GARDENS n from the wind, their petals will last much longer in perfection. If your garden is in a warm part of Eng- land, it would be an interesting experiment to try some of the Cape bulbs in the open, but they must have a very warm, sunny spot, where they get almost baked with the summer sun, or they will not flower well. If you can assure them of this, it is well worth while to plant some of these pretty plants. Sparaxis and Ixia are the best known, and there are many shades of colour among them ; and a more uncommon bulb which can now be bought at a moderate price in England is the Homeria, which has starlike flowers of a rich salmon colour, and would be unlike anything else in your garden. It would be on the safe side to give these a little shelter in a hard frost ; just a handful of litter or bracken might save them from being hurt by the cold. One more bulb I would name among the reds, although its colour is not brilliant and showy, and that is the fritillary, with quaint purplish chequered, bell-shaped flowers. Frit- illaria, the Latin name, is from a word meaning a chess-board, and so describes the funny pattern on many of the varieties. F. Meleagris is a native of Britain, and grows plentifully in some SPRING 55 parts (as in the meadows near Oxford), but it deserves to be planted in gardens as well; and the white one, or "great snow-bell," is very charming too. They flower in May. The handsome tall Crown Imperial lilies are also really fritillaries. Their golden crown is CROWN IMPERIALS formed of bells hanging round the stem, which are just the same shape as the chequered bell of the meadows. They are grand flowers, and if you have a big enough bed nothing looks finer than these kingly lilies, orange (F. imperialis] or yellow {F. imperialis flav a) , but they must be treated royally and given good soil. You are 56 CHILDREN'S GARDENS \i sure to notice in planting them the curious " foxy " smell from the bulbs. Foremost among the pink or red flowers which are not bulbous rooted, but which you can easily raise from seed, are the little crimson buttons, the double daisies (Bellis perennis], It is impossible to write of all the plants that flower in the spring months, but there are three more pink ones you must hear about before we go to the yellow ones Erica carnea, Daphne cneorum, and Saxifraga crassifolia. The first is a kind of heath which comes out very early in the year. It likes best to be planted in peaty soil, but will thrive almost anywhere. The next is called the " garland flower " from the pretty trailing way it grows, with small evergreen leaves and clusters of deliciously scented pink blossoms. The third bears fine pale pink flowers late in spring, and has handsome thick leaves (see page 7 1 ). They would not be so easy for you to raise from seed, so you would have to get plants of all of these to be sure of success, and plant them in a sunny border. Children will easily guess what flower I am going to put first among the yellow glories of spring. It could be none other than the daffodil. Whether your garden is a bit of wilderness, or whether it is a collection of neat little beds or a trim border, try and have "a host of golden SPRING 57 daffodils. " The bulbs are to be bought at a fairly cheap price now, arid you will find no way more satisfactory of spending a half-crown of pocket- money than by the purchase of some for your spring garden. Nothing is more charming than the ordinary wild daffodil, which appears like a golden carpet spread in many an English meadow in April. To learn the names and appreciate the beauties of the hundreds of varieties now in cultivation is quite beyond the capacity of even the wisest child, but still a little could be learnt, and gradually a small collection of some of the finest and more distinct might be got together in your garden. It is quite bewildering to any one not knowing much about daffodils to make out a daffodil catalogue. Without some knowledge or explanation it is indeed a puzzle, and, having experienced the difficulty myself, I will try clearly to define what a few of the many names signify. Daffodils belong to a family of plants (part of the natural order of Amaryllidee) called Narcissus, after a character in Greek mythology, a youth who was supposed to be changed into this flower. It is a very large family, embracing a vast number of species or distinct varieties'; so, to make it less complicated, these are grouped together according to the shape of the flower those with long trumpets, those with cups or CHILDREN'S GARDENS trumpets equal to the length of the petals, and those with short shallow cups. The wild daffo- dil or Lent lily belongs to the long trumpet group, called Pseudo-narcissus (or Ajax), and in the same class there are the large (major), the small (minor), the two-coloured (bicolor), the LENT LILIES &ou\)\e(Telamoniusplenus), and so on. These are all found wild, if not in England, in other parts of Europe, but, besides these, there are numerous garden varieties raised from crossing and select- ing seeds, and every year new ones are added to the list. Some of the most beautiful among them are Emperor, Empress, Horsfeldii, and F. SPRING 59 W. Burbidge, and these are now easily bought. There are still newer beauties, too rare for any child to aspire to. Next come the varieties with a shorter, more cup-like trumpet. The incomparabilis belong to this section, and classed in it is the well-known " butter and eggs." Among the fine garden varieties belonging to this group are Sir Watkin and C. J. Backhouse, and Barri conspicua and Leedsii. Then there are the jonquils, a kind found wild in Spain and deliciously sweet-scented. Next come the Tazetta or polyanthus group, with several flowers on one stem. There are various wild types of this group and many garden ones, such as "Grand Monarque," " Soleil d'or," " Scilly white " and " Paper white " ; and, last, we come to the group with still shorter cups and large petals, the Poeticus varieties. The wild "pheasant's eye" belongs to this type, and other garden varieties, such as Poeticus ornatus, and they too are very sweet-scented. Bulbs of all these kinds must be planted early in the autumn, and they will flower well from March to May. Put them in good soil, and they will increase, and be all the better for being taken up and divided every two or three years. We have thought of pink primroses already, but the real "yellow primrose" of our woods must not be left out, nor another flower, the 60 CHILDREN'S GARDENS n cowslip, associated in all children's minds with a sweetish, sickly-tasting tea, whose flavour was greatly improved by being drunk out of dolls' cups, and with round golden balls of sadly fleeting beauty, manufactured by hanging all the little heads on strings and knotting tight together. When "yellow cowslips gild the level green " in the parks and fields, they ought to be brightening the grassy miniature lawns of every wild garden. I will only tell you of two more yellow flowers which bloom well all through the spring. One is daisy - shaped, and called leopard's bane, or Doronicum. There is a wild kind, which is pretty, but apt to become a trouble in a small garden, as it spreads quickly ; a tall garden variety called Harpur Crewe, which lasts on into the summer; and, best of all, a dwarf one called austriacum, which sometimes begins to send up buds so early in January that they get nipped by frost. The other plant is called Alyssum saxatile, only a few inches high, with shining gold heads of small cross-shaped flowers. It is very easy to grow, and on a warm spring day it is a pleasure to watch the bees busily "improving the shining hour" at its countless little honey-cells. You must not expect at first to have all or even a quarter of these many flowers in your SPRING 6 1 spring gardens, but if you ever did succeed in getting all I have told you about, you could find quite as many more the names of which I have not given you, so endless are the flowers that can be grown. Year by year with patience you must add to your store, and as that enlarges you will find you are able to give away and to exchange plants, so that your collection will increase the faster, and each year there will be more bright and cheerful blossoms to herald the spring. Ill SPRING I see with half-attentive eyes The buds and flowers that mark the spring, And nature's myriad prophecies Of what the summer suns will bring. TOM HOOD. PREPARING FOR SUMMER SPRING WORK GARDENS do not become beautiful of their own accord. It is only by real hard work that they can be made so, and the spring is one of the busiest times of the year, as, if hard work did not begin then, there would be no show of summer flowers. In gardening, busy prepara- tion for the future must be constantly made. Lost time and opportunity can never be re- covered. If the garden is neglected for even a short time it will soon show the signs of that neglect ; and if the future is not looked forward v 66 CHILDREN^ GARDENS in to, when it becomes the present the carelessness will bring its own punishment. But children must not be depressed by these thoughts, for they will find it is the very fact of this hard work, patience, and foresight which gives the greatest pleasure in gardening. You have been hearing a great deal about spring flowers, which to grow and where to plant them, but the work required to produce a bright spring garden with all these things in bloom has to be done months before sometimes a whole year before. For instance, if you want to have a good show of wallflowers, you must sow the seeds one spring, then " prick out " the little plants, with room to grow big, and in the autumn move them to the bed or border where they are to flower the following spring. Then the bulbs of all spring flowering plants must be planted in the autumn. But to learn more of this preparation for the spring, you must read about the work to be performed in the autumn, and follow out all the directions you are given, thinking what spring beauties you want, and planning and working to achieve what you desire. In spring there are two ways of employing the time enjoying the freshness and beauty of new life, and preparing for summer. Oh, the pleasure of the first warm day of spring, when it in SPRING WORK 67 seems as if by magic the grass becomes " pied with daisies," so swiftly does the sunshine awake them and make them open their eyes after the long winter's sleep. The buds on the trees look plump and fat, and soon they begin to burst, and the fresh green to peep out and unfold. The distant landscape appears the softest blue, the grass an almost emerald green ; the trees have a brownish -purple tinge, with pale green on their stately stems. The birds begin to look busy and restless, and carol all day with sweet tunes and cheerful notes that had been silent for long months. Spring is coming, spring is coming, Birdies, build your nest. Weave together straw and heather, Doing each your best. Enjoy the spring, children, to the full, for it is indeed a lovely time, and, like your own childhood, should be full of promise, and fresh, gay, happy innocence. But with new life comes new work ; frost and snow and cold and dull dreary idleness have had their reign, and business must start in real earnest now. It is not only pretty trees and flowers that begin to grow, but the revival comes to weeds as well, and very soon they would choke and kill the more tender plants ; 68 CHILDREN'S GARDENS in so the first duty in spring is to weed. There is a right and a wrong way of doing every- thing, and often a strange instinct inclines the choice to the wrong. Even in weeding this may be the case. A badly weeded garden may look quite nice and tidy for a few days, but if the weeds have not been carefully and com- pletely pulled up by the roots and taken away, they will soon be as bad as ever again. Breaking off the tops will not do. You may have heard of the great poet Shakespeare, who wrote three hundred years ago, and said many things which are just as true now as they were then. In one of his plays he says this of weeds in the spring : Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow rooted ; Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden And choke the herbs for want of husbandry. 2 Henry VI., Act III., Scene i. Take warning, and with your own hands pull up by the roots every weed yousee. The reason it is so bad to let them remain is that every day they are in the garden they are taking nourishment out of the soil, and making it poorer for the flowers. Their roots, too, are often long, and if left they will twine in among the better plants, crushing and pushing the more tender ones, and robbing them of their in SPRING WORK 69 daily food. Some things, like groundsel, which you very likely bring into the house for your canary birds, are easy to pull up, but others want quite a fight to remove them. Oh, how I have tugged and pulled at the twisted roots of nettle in my wild garden, following the stringy yellow fibres a yard or more along the ground ; or worse still have been my struggles with "ground elder," which made its way everywhere. It was a yearly toil, but at last I conquered, and made the weeds understand that although wild, yet it was a flower and not a "bear garden," and they had no place there. Another important reason why much weeding should be done in the spring is because, if left till later in the year, some of the weeds would flower, and then, as you know, follows seed, and for every weed you have one spring, you might easily have a hundred the next. The soft yellow little tufts on the groundsel are the flowers, and very soon, if left to grow, there would be quantities of fluffy white seeds like tiny thistledown being blown all over the garden and taking root and growing in all the best places. It has been said that to be a good gardener you must have " a cast-iron back with a hinge in it," and certainly the aches and pains after a day's weeding make one long for one ; but such trifles must not discourage. I 70 CHILDREN'S GARDENS in had a partial remedy, as I was given by my mother a little hard cushion covered with a piece of old drugget or carpet. It had a loop sewn on one end, so that I could carry it easily, and very useful I found it, for I was able to kneel on the hard gravel paths between, and reach all over the small beds of my trim garden. For the paths themselves, a good hoeing with a Dutch hoe and then careful raking up of weeds will keep them in order. If your little beds are edged with box, February is the best time to attend to them. They may want clipping, or parts may require replanting, if they have been allowed to grow too tall, and any gaps must be rilled up. I found I generally had enough to fill the spaces where plants had died by dividing the thickest places. The miniature bushes come easily apart. But should you want a great deal, and cannot manage enough division, and no fresh boxes can be given you, the best plan is to wait till the autumn, and take cuttings from your best plants. Put them in a partially shady place, and they will soon root and be ready to arrange into your edging the following spring. In setting the box, press the soil very firmly along the rows, as that helps to keep them dwarf. Of course there are many other things besides box for edging, and if your beds are bordered CHE THICK-LEAVED SAXIFRAGE Saxifraga Crassifolia. 72 CHILDREN'S GARDENS in by any of them, such as the evergreen Euonymous (thrift), Arabis (or thyme), in the same way they will require a little tidying up in the early spring. February and March are also the best months for cutting back evergreen shrubs. If any have encroached on your beds or plants, a little careful trimming should be done now. Roses too will require to be pruned. I advise you to leave it rather late. March would probably be better than February, as after they have been cut back they will make youngshoots andbegin to prepare for summer, and if this happens too soon, a sharp frost comes and cuts all the nice fresh growth. The art of pruning is very difficult, and by far the best way to learn is to watch a gardener doing it, or to get him to show you how. Some roses flower on the long trailing branches, such as the Banksian roses, and if you cut them off, you would destroy all the buds. In such cases only old and dead wood should be taken away. Dwarf and standard roses generally require cutting back till only two or three buds are left on each branch. But nothing except practice and experience will teach you exactly what to do. Climbers will in early spring want looking at, to see that the winter storms have not pulled them away from their supports, and may require to be nailed or tied up. Some may in SPRING WORK 73 want a little pruning, but be careful in doing so not to cut off the flowering branches. When the first days of March arrive of course always supposing the weather to be favourable any cuttings of hardy plants that you took in autumn could be planted in the garden. For instance, pansies and violas could go out, and any carnations, to the places where they are to flower. If you look at the gardeners in the hot- houses, if there are any at your home, you will find them now taking cuttings from the dahlias. The roots, which have been dried and stored all the winter, are put with a little earth and sand in heat, and cuttings made of the young shoots that spring up. If you have room in your garden, and are really taking care of it, I feel sure you could persuade the gardener to put in a few more cuttings than he wants and let you have them. It will be May before they could safely be planted out in your garden ; but once you have a few young plants, you can be sure of your dahlias every year. As soon as the frost comes in the autumn, you must dig up the tuberous roots, dry them, and pack them away in an old box, and cover them up with a sack or straw, or such like, to keep away the frost. Then store them in any shelter you can find your own little tool-house if you have one. 74 CHILDREN'S GARDENS in But the greatest work of all in the spring is the sowing of seeds. There are so many kinds of seeds that they cannot all be treated alike. First there are the seeds of perennial plants (those which live for many years), but most of these will not flower the first year. Then there are the seeds of annuals plants which, if sown in the spring, flower in the summer, and die in the autumn. These last are very useful, as they so quickly will make the garden bright and supplement the more permanent plants, and it would be hard to get on without some of them, such as mignonettes or sweet-peas, But the perennials are most satisfactory in the end, as, if no showy annuals were sown for any cause, yet when the summer came the garden would still have the benefit of the work of other years, and there would be some flowers to enjoy. The treatment for plants which will not flower the same year as they are sown (such as larkspurs, lupins, columbines, oriental poppies, etc.) is to sow them in boxes if you can ; failing that, you must put them in the open ground, sowing in rows. The boxes should be well drained with bits of broken pots (or stones) and moss at the bottom, then filled in with some good soil mixed with sand. The seeds should be evenly scattered over the surface and lightly covered with earth. While the in SPRING WORK 75 plants are growing they will require a little careful watering. Never let them get too dry, so that they droop or wither, but never water so violently as to wash away the seeds. When they have grown up, either in boxes or in the open ground, they will be over- crowded and too close together, so they must be "thinned out" that is to say, a great many of the small plants pulled up, so as to leave room for the rest to grow. In time even the remaining ones will be too close if kept in their boxes, and will require what gardeners call "pricking out." Remove them carefully as soon as they have three or four leaves and are large enough to, handle easily, and plant them in rows in some corner where they will not be disturbed, using a "dibble" or pointed stick to make a nice hole for each little root. They will have to remain in these places all the summer, and in the autumn or the following spring you can plant them where they are to live and flower. Annuals will want very much the same treatment ; only when they are planted out from their boxes they must be put straight away into the place where they are to stay. But it is by no means necessary to sow all seeds in boxes ; in fact, some do better if put in the garden to begin with, but they will require thinning out, as a rule, just as if they were in 76 CHILDREN'S GARDENS in boxes, and will have to be watered quite as carefully. Out in the garden they are some- times attacked by one of the gardener's many little enemies, the mice, especially if they are nice, fat, nourishing seeds, such as sunflowers. WATERING SEEDS The best remedy against mice is to get a little red-lead powder, mix it into a thick cream with water, and put the seeds into it before planting. The bright scarlet frightens away the mice and does not injure the seed. This red lead is poisonous to children, so be very careful not to let any go near your mouth or into cut fingers. Sweet-peas often have to be treated like this, or in SPRING WORK 77 they would be eaten up. Birds too are mis- chievous, and will sometimes gobble up the seeds as fast as they are planted. Little bits of stick put upright in the ground, and some cotton fastened from stick to stick, with pieces of paper tied on in places, to form a network above the patches of seed, will scare all but the very boldest bird away. When you buy seed packets, even penny ones, a few directions are generally printed on them, and you cannot do better than follow the advice given. It frequently says to sow on a " hot-bed," or in pans or boxes, in February or March, but out of doors in April, the reason naturally being that the cold weather might come and hurt your young seedlings. Several things are certainly best in boxes, such as stocks, asters, Phlox Drummondi, Indian pinks, or zinnias ; but if you cannot manage the shelter for the boxes, you can get on quite well with- out, as Nemophila, scarlet flax, convolvulus, sun- flowers, marigolds, nasturtiums, corn-cockles, poppies, and many other things,- will all do just as well out of doors. I was very fortunate in having a very small glass frame given me when I was quite a little girl, and it was a great delight to me. It was put on the grass by my garden, on a raised " hot - bed " or heap of manure, which 7 8 CHILDREN'S GARDENS in was turfed over outside the frame. Inside, the manure was covered with good soil. In the autumn I filled it with cuttings, chiefly of pansies, for I was so fond of them ; but I found that much more tender plants, such as calceolarias, would do quite well there all through the winter, if I was careful only to keep the frame open in the warmest part of the day in cold weather, and cover it well with brackens and a mat in hard frosts. In the spring out came the cuttings and in went the seeds, at least all the tender ones, as I always had plenty of hardy ones too. How well I remember the first year of my frame, and the row of seeding godetias that came out of it " Lady Albemarle," a bright pink, and " The Bride," a pure white, and how proud I was of my little beds that year. One question is sure to present itself to any child : " How deep are my seeds to be sown ? " and it is certainly rather a puzzle at first. An old gardener told me once that he was leaning over the railing of a small allotment garden watching a young man at work. He was sow- ing a row of peas. When he came to the end of the row and looked with satisfaction at his work, the old gardener called to him, "You had better say good-bye to them, as that's the last you will ever see of those peas." He had in SPRING WORK 79 sown them all much too deep in the ground. When I remonstrated with my friend, and told him I thought he was very unkind to let the poor man spoil his whole row, and that he should have stopped him and explained near its beginning, he only laughed and said, " He will remember better another time how to plant peas." I hope you will not have such trying experiences while you are learning. " Deep sowing " generally means three or four inches below the surface of the ground, and only such things as nuts or acorns require this. The larger garden seeds, such as peas, sun- flowers, or nasturtiums, require one inch to one and a half inches of earth over them ; for smaller seeds, such as larkspur, nemophila, or mignonette, only half an inch of earth is enough ; while a few seeds are almost as fine as dust some campanulas, lobelias, and many herbs and these only need to be scattered finely on the top of the earth, or what is called " surface sowing." Care must be taken in sowing seeds to drop them evenly, not in lumps all together. You must especially be careful when sowing a border along the edge of a bed, or when they come up the border will be all of uneven widths, and will look bad and betray careless sowing. It is often a good plan not to sow all your seed at once, so as to have a succession of bloom. 8o CHILDREN'S GARDENS Especially with sweet-peas this is desirable, and some can even be sown in the autumn, so as to have them early in summer. Do not forget they will require sticks to climb up, and do not let them get too tall before you give them some support. You will find it takes all your time to keep the garden neat and tidy, and to do all the planting and sowing and watering necessary all through the spring months. Luckily the hardest work in spring and autumn comes when the weather is cool, and the laziest time is just when everything is out in summer, and it is too hot to work until the cool evening, when watering has to be done. In spring you will find the birds a great amusement when you are busy. They are busy too, and will carry off the worms you turn up to satisfy the open mouths in the nest. They get very tame, and your quiet work does not frighten them at all. One day I was working away planting some seedling Portulacas on a sloping bed in the hottest corner of my wild garden, when the gardener, coming by, called out to me, "A ground oven is sitting on your back, Miss." Now to this day I do not know what kind ot bird a "ground oven" is. 1 I can only describe 1 I find that "ground oven" is a local name for a "white-throat," either the "lesser white-throat" or the "garden warbler." in SPRING WORK 8 1 it, as the Cape Dutch do almost every bird they see that is smaller than a hornbill, as " a sort of finch." But this particular ground oven I knew well. His nest was in a bank between a tuft of grass and a primrose plant, and I had often watched my little brown and olive-green friend hopping about, and I suppose he wished to show a like friendly interest in my movements. Birds are only frightened when they are noisily disturbed. I have often peeped at a thrush or blackbird on its eggs so gently that they would not fly away, or would return in a very few minutes, before the eggs were cold or the young birds afraid. It is indeed sad when their nests are destroyed by mischievous children. Hear what the mournful linnets say : " We built our nest compact and warm, But cruel boys came round our way, And took our summer house by storm. " They crushed the eggs so neatly laid ; So now we sit with drooping wing, And watch the ruin they have made, Too late to build, too sad to sing." CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. Children should rather welcome birds and their nests in their gardens, as they add to the beauty and joyousness of them, and also they do their share of work by eating up many G 82 CHILDREN'S GARDENS m naughty insects that might harm the flowers. They are sometimes a little mischievous too, but when there are no fruit-buds to destroy, their other small crimes are easily forgiven, and their presence adds one more delight to the many joys of spring. IV SUMMER The days are clear, Day after day, When April's here, That leads to May, And June Must follow soon. Stay June, stay ! If only we could stop the moon, And June ! CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. SUMMER " THE swallow ! summer comes again," writes the poet Shelley, identifying one of the dearest of birds with one of the sweetest of seasons. It is said that orie swallow does not make summer, but even with many darting about it would hardly be a real summer without the scent of roses and mignonette, the smell of the freshly- mown lawn, the scatter of white petals from the guelder roses, the silvery water-lilies on the still dark pond, or the tall ox-eye daisies and coral- like sorrel in the waving hay, the arching trails of wild roses, and the hum of the bees in the lime blossom. These and a hundred more plea- sant and familiar sights and sounds are conjured up in the mind by the one word " Summer." However small the garden is, let it be full of all that charms and attracts in this most delightful season. The work to produce a gorgeous summer garden must have been done long before, as now is the time for fulfilment, 85 SUMMER 87 not for preparation. The seeds must have been planted in the early spring or the previous autumn, and in late spring the young plants must have taken their stands in good time to pay their tribute of beauty as summer passes by. But summer brings some duties too. Any of the showy half-hardy plants like geraniums are now better in the open than nursed up in- doors, and as soon as all fear of frost is over they should go out into the garden. Be sure that no seedlings are left overcrowding each other through any neglect in the spring. The climbers will grow tall, and must be given supports where it is necessary, and flowers with long stems will want sticks too, such as some of the lilies or the big sunflowers. Then a careful watch must be kept on the blooms as they wither, as you should remember the object of the showy flowers is not solely to look beautiful for our benefit, but to produce seed. If once they are left to come to seed, the plant will get exhausted, and, having fulfilled its mission, no new blooms will succeed the fading ones. If the flowering season is to be prolonged, pick off all the heads before the seeds are ripe, especially the pods on the sweet-peas. A few selected seed-pods can be kept for future use towards the end of the summer, giving them time to ripen before the frosts arrive. Great CHILDREN'S GARDENS care must be taken to leave no weeds, and an occasional weeding in hot sultry weather will have to be faced ; and do not be afraid to use a hoe, keeping the earth nice and loose between the plants. But the hardest work of all, as a rule, is the watering. Except in an unusually wet year, it will exhaust both your time and energy, and yet it must be done. Luckily, the best time to water is the evening, when it is getting cool, otherwise the hot sun dries up the moisture as quickly as it is supplied to the plant. The watering must also be done regularly, not a great lot given one day, and then the poor plants left for days without a drink. In fact, they are even worse off than if they had had none, for the sun dries the soil that has been watered, and it forms into cakes as hard as bricks on the surface. It is very easy to make work in a garden, and if the ordinary routine is over, the way to find fresh occupation is to look round among the flowers and see what can be done. For in- stance, if you have a carnation or pink and want to have more, now is the time to increase them. When the plants have made nice growth about July, select some of the good strong young shoots and layer them. That is, to clear them away from the parent plant, but leaving them still attached to it, peg them down to the SUMMER 89 ground with a piece of forked stick, and cover over part of the stem with the soil. After a few weeks these pieces will have thrown out roots into the earth, and then they can be taken away and planted as separate plants. If by chance you were given a pot of lilies of the valley, forced into flower in the early spring, now is the time to plant them out in a cool place where they would flower out of doors another year, for they will not force well two years in succession. Having disposed of them, the thought naturally comes, What shall I have to flower in a pot and brighten my room next year ? Of course there are many bulbs suitable, such as Roman hyacinths or " paper- white " narcissus, and to have them really early, if you have no greenhouses, they should go into their pots in August, and be buried in a bed of cinders, until the points of the bulbs begin to show through the earth ; then take them into the house to flower. If you prefer to sow seeds of something to flower in your room in the spring, there is nothing prettier than Campanula fragilis. The seeds could go into a box in July, and would want careful watering and watching to see they did not get scorched with the very hot August sunshine. Prick them into single pots when the plants are about three IE WHITE PEACH-LEAVED BELL FLOWER Campanula persicifolia alba grandiflora SUMMER 91 inches high, and only take them into the house when there is fear of frost. Summer is the time for sowing the seeds of some biennials, plants which live for two years. They spend one year in growing, and in the next they flower and seed and die. Many of the hardy ones will seed themselves and come up year after year without trouble, and then you will find instead of planting you will have to pull up the seedlings, or your garden would be overgrown. Foxgloves and honesty are two of the things very likely to serve you so. Other biennials both easy and nice to grow are Campanula Medium (the Canterbury bells), sweet-william, Brompton stock (also the night-scented stock), and French honeysuckle. These few suggestions will show you how much there is to think of and do in a garden, even during the least busy seasons of the year, and I feel sure you will take a pride in inventing work. Now comes the question, What flowers should there be in a summer garden ? and it is indeed a hard one to answer. There are so many, and all with their own special charms, that it is almost impossible to say that any one in particular can be dispensed with, and yet it is quite impossible to have everything even in a large garden, and far less possible in a very small one. Again, children must be reminded 92 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv that they must, as the proverb says, "cut their coat according to their cloth," and plant flowers that will grow best in the particular kind of garden that they happen to have. If it is a wild garden, they will be able to grow more of the tall perennials than if it is made up of little beds. Here are the names of a few of the many flowers suitable for a wild garden or mixed border. They are mostly tall, growing from i to 3 feet or even 5 feet. They could be planted at the back or centre of a small bed, but they take up a good deal of room, and must not be crowded. All flower in the summer, in July and August, while some will linger on until the frosts come in October. Most of them only require ordinary good garden soil, and no very special treatment for sun, shade, or moisture, and all are perennial and herba- ceous plants, and quite hardy. Aconitum Napellus (common monkshood). Dark blue, also varieties shading from white to blue. Will grow well in shade or near water. 2 to 4 feet. A. Istroemeria aurantiaca. Orange flowers ; also ckilensis, several varieties, pinkish buff to orange yellow. This requires good rich soil and a warm sunny place, and has flowers rather like lilies. Campanula persicifolia (peach -leaved bell JERUSALEM SAGE AND GOAT'S-BEARD SPIR/EA Phlomis fructicosa and Spirsea Aruncus 94 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv flower). Stems i to 3 feet high, hung with bright blue or white bell-shaped flowers, double and single varieties. Delphinium (larkspur). Many beautiful florist varieties, 1 from pale sky to deep royal blue. 2 to 4 feet, flowers in spikes of a number of flowers together. Dictamus Fraxinella (Fraxinella). Purple or white, i to 2 feet, several blooms on each spike. Eryngiiim amethystinum (a kind of sea- holly). Round blue flowers and prickly leaves, i to 2^ feet. Funkia japonica or grandiflora (white), and Funkia Sieboldi (mauve) (plantain lilies). i to ij feet, with large handsome leaves. Galega officinalis (goats' rue). Mauve or white, 2 to 4 feet, flowers like large clover. Gypsophila paniculata. Very small white flowers in light graceful bunches, 2 to 3 feet high. The plant forms a round thick bush. Helianthus multiflorus (sunflower). Both double and single, and other varieties, such as " Miss Mellish," 4 to 6 feet, yellow, blooms late in summer. 1 " Florist varieties " means those which have been raised by seed by different nurserymen and gardeners from a careful selection from among the species which are found wild in some part of the world. Generally those raised by florists are better colours or larger than the wild ones, or double, or variegated. A KIND OF PERENNIAL SUNFLOWER MISS MELLISH 96 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv Hemerocallis (day lilies). Several varieties, flava and fulva both yellow and buff, 2 to 3 feet, large flowers, early summer. Hypericum Moserianum (a kind of St. John's wort). Bushy habit, i to 2 feet, yellow. The flowers are not so large as in the common great St. John's wort, but that plant will increase very fast and trail along the ground, and is apt to become a trouble in a very small garden. Linaria dalmatic a (Dalmatian toadflax). 3 to 5 feet. Bright light yellow and orange flowers, like the wild butter-and-eggs. Linum perenne (perennial flax). Bright blue, i to \\ feet. Lychnis ckalcedonica. Scarlet, i to 3 feet, a number of small flowers forming a flat round head. Monarda didyma (red bergamot or bee- balm).- Scarlet nettle-like flowers, and aromatic- scented leaves, 2 to 3 feet. CEnothera fruticosa (evening primrose). Pale yellow, i to 3 feet. The large flowers open towards the evening. Papaver orientale (Oriental poppy). Scarlet, very large flowers, early summer. Also the Iceland poppy (nudicaule), much smaller, with yellow or orange flowers. Pceonia (peony). Many florist varieties, red, pink and white, double and single. Also SUMMER 97 P. tenuifolia, red flowers with soft feathery leaves. There are also the grand Japanese tree peonies. They require good soil and care, and grow large ; they are sometimes diffi- cult to establish and expensive to buy, but are very beautiful. Red, pink, mauve, and white. Once planted, peonies should not be moved. Pentstemon barbatus. 2 to 4 or 5 feet high, scarlet, trumpet-shaped flowers hanging down. Also many florist varieties ; these are not so hardy, but have larger blooms and are not so tall. Phlomis fructicosa (Jerusalem sage). A handsome nettle-like plant, with yellow flowers. Phlox. Many florist varieties. Pink, red and white, 2 to 3 feet, large heads of flowers. They like being well watered. Potentilla. Several florist varieties. Yellow, orange, bronze, and red. Like a tall-growing " silver weed." Pyrethrum carneum. 'Double and single varieties. Red or pink, i to 2 feet. Like double ox-eye daisies. Ranunculus aconitifolius (double variety) (fair maids of France). Small double white flowers, many on each stem, like tiny rosettes, i to 3 feet. Rudbeckia calif ornica, 5 feet, yellow, daisy- shaped flower, with dark cone-shaped centre. Spircea (meadow sweet). Spircea Aruncus ii CHILDREN'S GARDENS (goats' beard), white, 3 to 5 feet ; also Spiraa palmata and Venusta, bright pink, i to 3 feet. GLOBE FLOWERS AND IRIS These will also grow near water and in partial shade. SUMMER 99 Thalictrum aquilegifolium (the columbine- leaved meadow rue). Purplish, i to 3 feet, with pretty fern-like foliage. Tritoma or Kniphofia (red-hot pokers, or flame flowers). Several varieties (Avaria is a common kind), 3 or 4 feet. Scarlet and yellow flowers, late summer and autumn. Trollius (globe flower), Eropceus, Asiaticus, or Napellifolius. i to 2 feet high, flowers like round balls either yellow or orange. The small beds and the front of the borders must now be thought of. The following is a list of summer flowering hardy perennial plants, but unlike those on the last list they are low- growing, and would not take care of themselves in a wild garden unless they were planted in a rockery or Alpine garden, where they would do very well. But any good garden soil will suit them, and they would make a nice edge to a border where some of the taller perennials were growing at the back, or could be grown in small beds, and would make a striking contrast from the violas, carnations, or other things you may be advised to plant in some of the beds. Campanulas (harebells). Alpina, deep blue; carpatica, blue ; turbinata, large dark - blue flowers on a small -sized plant; and many other varieties. CHILDREN'S GARDENS Dianthus deltoides (maiden pink). Pale pink with a dark circle, or white. Geum montanum (mountain avens). Yellow. Heuchera sanguinea. Coral-like pink, many small flowers on slender stem ; early summer. Iberis saxatilis (rock candytuft). White ; early summer. Linaria alpina (Alpine toadflax). Purple, with a little bright orange. Linum alpinum (Alpine flax). Blue. Lithospermum prostratum (gentian grom- well). Very bright blue. Spreads out flat along the ground, or would hang over stones. Mimulus moschatus (common musk). Yellow, sweet-scented. Requires partial shade and moisture. Oxalis floribunda (many - flowered wood- sorrel). Pink. Phlox procumbens (creeping phlox). Lilac. Ramondia pyrenaica. Mauve. Grows somewhat like a primrose, and is best among rocks, in a crevice. Saxifraga Aizoon (everlasting saxifrage). White, with small red dots. 5. cotyledon and pyramidalis. The leaves are only like a small rosette, but the flower-spike is i to 2 feet high, covered with small white flowers. 5". hypnoides. Leaves in mossy tufts, flowers greenish-white. S. longifolia. Leaves form a large silvery SUMMER rosette, tall spike of white flowers ; crassifolia, unlike the others, with large leaves and pink flowers, which come out in late spring (see page 71). 6\ umbrosa (London pride). Useful for edging, will grow anywhere (and there are a very great many other varieties). Sedum kamtschaticum (orange stonecrop). Orange flowers. S. rupestre (rock stonecrop). Yellow (and many other varieties). Sempervivum arachnoideum (cobweb house- leek). The leaves are like little rosettes, covered with white down like a cobweb. Flowers pink (many other varieties). Symphiandra pendula. White campanula- like flower. Thymus (thyme). -- The variegated and lemon-scented varieties. Veronica Candida (silvery speedwell). Pur- plish-blue spikes of flower. Silvery leaves. The two lists you have been given include only perennial hardy flowers. But there is another class, which look very bright and attractive all through the summer, but which require sowing every year, for they are either annual and only live for one summer, or else they are too tender to withstand the cold, and have to die like the annuals, even though they are perennial. It is to be hoped that you have CHILDREN'S GARDENS been at work during the spring sowing the seeds and pricking out the young plants, so that some of these showy flowers are ready to appear among the perennial ones, or even to fill beds assigned to themselves. All are from 9 to 1 8 inches high unless stated to be taller or low growing, and are either annuals, biennials, or perennials, which are best when raised from seed every two years. Alonsoa myrtifolia. Scarlet. Antirrhinum (snapdragon). Red, white, and yellow. Campanula Medium (Canterbury bells). Blue, white, and pink, i to 2 feet. Centaurea cyanus (corn-cockle). Blue. Centaurea moschata (sweet sultan). Yellow. Chrysanthemum coronarium (yellow corn- daisy). Chrysanthemum tricolor. White, yellow, and bronze. Clarkia elegans. Mauve, purple, or pink. Convolvulus tricolor (or minor). Blue. Coreopsis aristosa. Orange yellow. Cosmos bipinatus. Reddish purple, tall. Dianthus chinensis (Indian pinks), (marguerite carnations). Digitalis purpurea (foxglove). Pink, also white, tall. Eschscholtzia calif ornica. Orange or yellow. iv SUMMER 103 Godetia. Many varieties. Lady Albemarle, bright pink ; The Bride, white. Helianthus annuus (sunflowers). Yellow, tall, 3 to 6 feet. Helickrysum (everlastings). Red, pink, bronze, yellow, white. Iberis umbellata (candytuft). Purple, mauve, crimson. Lathyrus odoratus (sweet - pea). White, pink, red, purple, mauve ; tall, requiring sticks for support. Linum grandiflorum (flax). Scarlet. Matthiola annua (stocks). German ten- week and other varieties, white, pink, red, mauve, all sweet scented. Nemesia strumosa, All shades of yellow and orange, and blue also. Nemophila insignis. Blue, 6 to 8 inches. Nigella damascena (love-in-a-mist). Pale blue with feathery leaves. Pafiauer (poppies). French, Shirley, Mikado, and other kinds, all shades of red and pink, white, and deep purple. Phlox Drummondi. All shades of red, purple, and white. Portiilaca. Single and double, red, yellow, orange, low growing, requires rich soil and sun. Reseda odorata (mignonette). Rhodanthe (small everlastings). Pink. io 4 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv Salpiglossis sinuata. Every shade of red and purple, 2 feet. Tagetes (both African and French mari- golds), orange and yellow. Tropceolum (both the nasturtiums, tall and dwarf), orange, bronze, or yellow; and canary creeper, yellow. Zinnia. Every shade of crimson, orange, and yellow. It is difficult to class every kind of flower in lists, so there are a few to tell you about separately. One is the -Marvel of Peru, a very old-fashioned flower, as Parkinson, who wrote about the paradise, or garden of pleasant flowers, as long ago as 1629, told his readers to grow it. The flowers are white and pink or yellow, and are star-shaped, with a long tube, and have a most delicious scent. It grows rather large and has tuberous roots like a dahlia, and in the same way ought to be taken up and kept dry and sheltered during the winter. I raised mine from seed, and have had some of the roots for many years, and every summer they are a delight. Another plant, quite different, but very pretty and bright, is the Montbretia. There are several kinds rather alike. Potsii is the most common. They have spikes of orange and scarlet flowers, something like a gladiolus SUMMER 105 both in flower and leaf, but more feathery. They are about 18 inches high, and increase from the root, and soon make a good patch in a bed. But after two or three years they should be moved and divided, or they will not flower so well. They are improved by a little manure in the autumn. There should be a place too for the gladiolus, with its brilliant flowers and sword-like leaf, from which it takes its name, gladius being the Latin for a sword. In warm parts of England the bulbs can re- main in the ground, but in colder counties it is wise to take them up each winter, and re- plant them in the spring. The scarlet one is called Brenchleyensis, and some of the most lovely shades of white and rose colour and red are among the gandavensis varieties and the French " Lemoine's hybrids." Some of the climbers have already been mentioned * for covering a wall, but a few words more may be useful, as annual ones are easily grown, and will often cover an unsightly corner for part of the year. If you have a little railing or wire netting round your own garden, it will be improved by flowers trailing on it during the summer. I used always to do this in my small garden, and grew Convolvulus major, canary creeper, Tropaolum Lobbianwn, 1 See page 10. io6 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv and tall nasturtiums, for the purpose, and for the more shady part the variegated Japanese hop (Humulus japonica}. Scarlet runners are often a help in making a tool -shed or railing pretty. But of course first and foremost for summer come the sweet -peas. All shades, pink, white, mauve, purple, and red, like many- coloured butterflies, held prisoners by the twining green Here are sweet-peas, on tiptoe for a flight, With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white, And taper fingers catching at all things, To bind them all about with tiny rings. KEATS. The everlasting peas have no scent, but their bunches of white, pink, or red flowers are so fine that they deserve a place, and will flower year after year. The common hop, too, comes up every year, unlike the Japanese one, which is annual. There are many kinds of vine or Vitis which make useful creepers. Besides the grape vine, which is very charming even when it does not fruit, there are several sorts which never have edible fruit, but which are none the less effective. The name of one kind is Vitis riparia, another with a hop -shaped leaf and bright blue berries in the autumn is called Vitis Immilifolia, and there are many others. Allied to the vines are the Virginian creepers, both the common one (Ampelopsis hederaced], SUMMER 107 and the small-leaved Veitchi, and an evergreen one, which is rather more tender, sempervirens. A curious plant, with very large leaves and funny brown flowers like pipes hanging down is called " Dutchman's pipe," or Aristolochia sipho. It is very strong growing, and soon covers a large space. Then there is the deliciously-scented white jasmine, and all the many honeysuckles, some of them evergreen, and some with scarlet trumpet flowers, and a Japanese - kind called ftexuosa, with pink and yellow flowers ; and all the various clematis, with large purple, mauve, white, or small red flowers, besides the wild " travellers' joy." Most of the bulbous plants, you will notice, come in the spring, and mention has already been made of them, but there is one family which belongs essentially to the summer, and far outshines all others I mean lilies. Tall and stately, pure white or crowned with gold, they seem the very essence of balmy summer-time. Lilies have always held a special place among flowers. The lilies of the field, whose beautiful array surpassed Solomon in all his glory, 1 were called upon to teach a lesson of trust and humility, and since then lilies have been used 1 The flower was probably really an anemone, as lilies do not grow wild in Palestine. io8 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv by writers, poets, and painters of all ages to typify all that is pure and beautiful And the stately lilies stand, Fair in the silvery light, Like saintly vestals, pale in prayer ; Their pure breath sanctifies the air, As its fragrance fills the night. JULIA C. R. DORR. Some flowers must always be loved more than others from what they suggest to us, and the good and pleasant thoughts they bring. When we see a daisy " Bright flower! whose home is everywhere " * we think of it, not as a tiresome little weed, but recall the many joys of spring its first coming brings, and the friendly way its eye has looked on and cheered the sad and lonely. It has been said of these "little starry daisies," "The angels have planted them to remind us of the sky." 2 A great many flowers have their special meaning, and have been used as emblems by poets and writers of all ages, though their special significance is not always the same. I remember seeing a French picture of some paper lying on a table with pen and ink all ready to write, and over the paper were scattered pansies for thoughts, as the French word pensdes stands for both pansies and thoughts. 1 Wordsworth. - Read. SUMMER 109 In Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's plays, which you will read some day, Ophelia brings in some flowers, and of one of them she says, " There's rosemary, that's for remembrance," and then "There are pansies, that's for thoughts." Pansies are sometimes said to mean memory too, as in these little lines : Roses blushing red and white, For delight ; Honeysuckle wreaths above, For love. Dim, sweet-scented heliotrope, For hope. Shining lilies, tall and straight, For royal state. Dusky pansies, let them be For memory ; With violets of fragrant breath, For death. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. Although lilies are here said to be for royal state, the same poet, writing of them again, does not forget their other lesson : The lilies say, Behold how we Preach, without words, of purity. If you would have that quiet sermon preached in your gardens, you must learn, as all lessons have to be learnt, in a practical way how to grow lilies there. There are many kinds of lilies, and all beautiful, but some are much CHILDREN'S GARDENS easier to grow than others. Luckily the commonest white lily is one of the most beautiful, and it is very simple to make it thrive. It likes an ordinary garden soil. If the soil is very heavy it must be made to suit it by adding a little sand. The name of this well-known ULIUM CANDIDUM The Madonna Lily white " Madonna lily " in gardener's catalogues is Lilium candidum. All lilies should be planted in the autumn, and care should be taken not to bruise or break the bulbs. A very large number of lilies (chiefly from Japan) are imported every year to this country, and it is generally these imported roots that nurserymen SUMMER offer for sale, so you will find they are often a little crushed and damaged ; and where this is the case, the broken scales should be pulled off the bulbs, or they soon decay in the ground and help to make the bulb itself wither. Lilies should be planted 5 or 6 inches deep. Most lilies like a little protection, especially for the young shoots as they begin to grow, and the best way to give them just enough of it is to plant them among small bushes or herbaceous plants, where the leaves afford the lilies all they need of shelter. Many kinds (especially L. auratum) grow best of all among rhododendrons. The white trumpet lily is L. longiflorum, and is often seen growing in pots, and though some varieties are not quite hardy, in warm places it will grow well in a border. Harrisi is pure white and hardy. L. auratum, the beautiful Japanese white and gold lily, with a strong fragrant scent, is generally easily grown for one or two years, but it is difficult to make the bulbs quite at home. They like a good rich soil, and though they enjoy being among sheltering bushes, they do not like the good soil being robbed from them, and should be given a top-dressing of manure to make up for what the bushes take away. L. speciosum is another lovely Japanese kind, which is hardy in most places, in well-drained not too heavy soil, in CHILDREN'S GARDENS a sunny sheltered place. The flowers are white and rosy pink, and come out late in the summer and last into the autumn. One very beautiful lily is almost beyond the scope of any child's garden. It is very large, as its name implies, L. giganteum. It grows in sheltered woodland situations and bears large flowers, white with a little purple, on stems 6 to 10 feet high. Quite another type of lily among those simple to grow are the Turk's cap or Martagon lilies. The flowers are a dull purplish red, with petals quaintly turned back, and there are both white and yellow varieties, and also a bright scarlet, called /,. chalcedonicum. They like partial shade. I do not know what particular lilies the poet refers to in the following lines, but I will give you the names of three other kinds, any one of which would make a red -gold crown to a summer's day. Clustered lilies in the shadows, Lap't in golden ease they stand, Rarest flower in all the meadows, Richest flower in all the land. Royal lilies in the sunlight, Brave with summer's fair array ; Drowsy thro' the evening silence, Crown of all the August day ! The first name is L. croceum, the orange lily. It is strong and hardy, and has a head of SUMMER 113 several bright blooms. L, umbellatum in vary- ing shades of yellow and orange belongs to the same type. The next group are the L. elegans, or more commonly called T lumber gianum. They do not grow very tall, but they have many leaves on the stem, and large flowers in a great variety of shades of deep orange and crimson, and are very beautiful and striking. Then last, but not least, are the well-known tiger-lilies, L. tigrinum. They are quite simple to grow, and also to increase, as the tiny dark bulblets which come on the stem near where the leaves spring from, will grow and make new plants. To try to grow many of the other lilies you may see described in gardeners' catalogues, such as Browni or Krameri, would only lead to disappointment and failure, unless you really try to study the wants of lilies very thoroughly, so I will not tell you about them. If you even have the first and the last of those I have named (candidum and tigrinum), the Madonna and the tiger lilies, you need not feel dissatisfied. I wonder if you have noticed that, in spite of the many flowers I have been telling you of which adorn the summer, some of them old favourites, and some, it may be, new to you, that I have missed what is perhaps the most important of all. I think you can guess the one I mean for ii 4 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv Of all the garden flowers, The fairest is the rose. MoiR. The lily has an air, And the snowdrop a grace, And the sweet-pea a way, And the heartsease a face ; Yet there's nothing like the rose When she blows. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. But there is so much to be said about the rose even more than about the lilies that it deserves some pages all to itself. The rose is said to be the Queen of flowers, as the lion is King of beasts. For beauty of colour, form, and scent, she stands alone, and she is armed too with sharp prickles to protect her. A poet over two hundred and fifty years ago called her The blushing rose, the Queen of Flowers, And best of Flora's beauty. The rose plays its part in English literature as a type of hope, beauty, or bravery, just as the lilies typify purity or the violet modesty. The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears ; The rose is sweetest washed with morning dew, And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears. Oh ! wilding rose, whom fancy thus endears, Emblem of hope and love through future years. SCOTT. SUMMER The rose is, too, an emblem of life its joys and sorrows ; the bright flowers of the rose are our happy days and sweetest pleasures ; its thorns are our sorrows and tears. But just as every rose has its thorns and flowers, so we try ROSE CLIMBING ON A TREE to find brightness amid sorrow, and spread roses of happiness around us. As on each rose a thorn there grows, Strive that no thorn shall be without its rose. These roses of goodness do not die, but their sweet odours refresh us all through life, and n6 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv their memory lives on, after we have passed away, just as the petals of real roses, even though withered and dead, retain All the fragrance of summer, When summer is gone. MOORE. As the rose is the emblem of England, it must be specially dear to every English child. The only kinds which grow wild in Great Britain are the single dog-roses, pink and white, and the sweet-briar. The many large double roses with which we are now so familiar have all come from abroad, most of them having been brought from China, and from far away in Eastern Asia, during the last hundred years. Long ago in England a few double ones were grown in the old-fashioned stiff-walled gardens, and they were very highly prized, such as the damask, the Provence, and the moss rose. The poets of olden time Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare often sang of their beauty, for said Chaucer I love well sweet roses red. A quaint survival of the time when roses were the badge of the two contending parties in England, during the civil wars, is the striped red and white York and Lancaster rose. The SUMMER 117 two roses, you may remember, were combined in a much more conventional way in 1485, as the badge of the Tudors, and these Tudor roses are often to be seen carved or emblazoned on the buildings of that date. This double rose was formed of Henry the Seventh's Lancastrian badge joined with the white rose of Elizabeth of York, or, as the rhyme puts it King Henry the Seventh did the roses unite ; His own was the red, and his wife's was the white. A very large number of the roses most familiar in gardens to-day have been formed, like the Tudor rose, by combining two of the "type" roses that grow wild in some distant part of the world, and producing what is called a "garden hybrid." Gardeners are so skilful in doing this (especially French gardeners) that every year there are new roses being brought out to add to the many hundreds that already exist. Comparatively few of the roses now grown in gardens are what are called " type roses," or those which have not been altered by cultivation, although some of these types are very beautiful and sweet, such as the cinnamon rose or the Macartney rose. But roses are still classed more or less with the groups under the names of the kind from which they sprang, such as Rosa gallica, or ROSE TRAINED ON POSTS Souvenir de Paul Neron SUMMER 119 R. indica. But to learn all this would be both tedious and difficult for a beginner. The easiest plan is to remember these few distinc- tions the hybrid perpetuals ; the tea- scented and noisette ; China roses and briars ; and I will give you the names of some in each of these classes, and also of one or two good climbing roses (which may belong to one of these or some smaller class) which are suitable for almost any garden ; but at the same time you must remember there are so very many to choose from that you could make several lists of roses, all perhaps equally good, and yet each containing a new set of names. HYBRID PERPETUAL AND HYBRID TEAS Baroness Rothschild . Pale pink. Boule de Neige . * v White. Captain Christy . . . Blush pink. Duke of Edinburgh . Deep bright red. Dupuy Jamain . . Bright red. Glory of Cheshunt . Shaded crimson. La France . . Pink. Madame Victor Verdier . Light crimson. Me.rveille de Lyon . . White. Pride of Waltham . Bright pink. Prince Camille de Rohan Dark crimson. Ulrich Brunner . . Bright red. Viscountess Folkestone . Pale pink. CHILDREN^ GARDENS TEA AND NOISETTE ROSES AND CHINA Anna Olivier Catherine Mermet Hon. Edith Gifford Laurette Messimy L'Ideal . Madame Eugenie Resal Madame Lambard. Marie Van Houtte Perle des Jardins Princesse de Sagan Rubens . Souvenir d'un Ami Pinkish, creamy buff, and flesh- colour. Creamy rose. Creamy white and pink. Apricot yellow. Red, shading to yellow. Coppery pink. Pink, shading to orange. Lemon yellow and pink. Yellow. Crimson. Creamy white. Pale pink. GOOD CLIMBING ROSES Blairii No. 2 Claire Jacquier Cramoisie Superieure Crimson Rambler Duchesse d'Auerstadt (or Reve d'Or or Belle Lyonnaise) Blush pink. Nankeen yellow. Crimson. Crimson. Buff yellow. SUMMER Dundee Rambler . White. Felicite Perpetue . White. Gloire de Dijon . . Buff yellow. Longworth Rambler . Crimson. Paul's Carmine Pillar . Crimson (single). The Garland . . Pink and white. William Allen Richardson Orange. The small Scotch roses. Moss-roses, white and red. Briars, Austrian and Lord Penzance's varieties. Japanese or Rosa rugosa. White and pink. An American kind, Rosa Wichuriana, that creeps flat on the ground. If you want to possess some of the lovely roses in these lists, you must learn something of the cultivation of them. The best time to plant roses is about Michaelmas, but if the weather is open the planting can take place any time before Christmas. They like a good, rather heavy soil, not a poor and sandy one, and in some parts of England will produce much finer blooms than in others, but they will grow almost anywhere if, when planted in naturally poor soil, it is well dug and improved by the addition of some manure. It may be difficult for children to procure rose trees for their gardens, so I will tell you the various CHILDREN'S GARDENS ways of doing so, all of which I tried with success when I was a small child myself. Of course the most simple way is to buy a plant from a nursery gardener. They sell not only every kind of rose, but many forms of plants of each variety. There are what are called "standards" or "half standards," with a more or less tall " stock " or stem, generally a briar with a large bushy head of the choice roses at the top ; or there are "dwarfs," those growing on their own roots from the ground. Which form is best depends on where it is to be planted and what kind of garden it is to go in. Having been given half-a-crown when I was about ten years old, I bought with it a " half standard " "Duke of Edinburgh," a fine deep - red rose which made the centre of the Maltese cross- shaped bed in the middle of the garden, and a "dwarf" pink moss-rose for one of the corner beds. I was extremely proud of the half standard, and I still think it was the most suitable for that position, even though, after flowering for many years, it came to an un- timely end. A very hard winter came, and the frost killed the top of my " Duke of Edin- burgh," and when the roots began to recover and shoot up, great was my grief to find they were only the common briar on which the rose had been grafted. With the moss-rose it was SUMMER 123 different. All the sprouts from the roots bore the same sweet blooms. Children must use their own judgment in buying, remembering the advantages and disadvantages of each form. To make a pair to my moss-rose I was allowed to dig near a Scotch briar which bore tiny little pink roses, with a delicious scent, and to cut off a sucker from the large bush with sufficient fibres to enable it to be transplanted and root in my garden. I still had room for two more rose trees, and those I got in two more different ways. One, a pink rose, I grew from a cutting, and did not know its name at the time, but now I fancy it was " Paul Neron." The other, a Gloire de Dijon, I budded on a briar. One of my sisters had a picturesque wild garden on a small island, and there we grew roses on their own roots, chiefly climbers, one on an arch- way to form an entrance, some on the trees, and let others fall over the banks towards the water, so that their pretty heads were reflected. To grow rose cuttings is sometimes rather disappointing, as they will often grow well through the winter after they are put in early in the autumn, but when cold weather comes in the spring they die. But if you try several, one or two are almost sure to grow. Cuttings must be nice, strong shoots, not old and hard, and yet not the most tender young sprouts. THE ENTRANCE TO THE ISLAND GARDEN SUMMER They should be cut off with a sharp knife just below one of the young leaf buds, and the lower leaves removed. These pieces must be planted in a place that is not too sunny, as they cannot be moved to their permanent homes until the following autumn, by which time the survivors will be well rooted. But of course they will still be quite small, and you must not expect flowers on them at once. The last way of procuring roses is more diffi- cult still, and many failures must be looked for, but the process of " budding " is such a fascinat- ing one, I feel sure every child who tries to do it will be as pleased as I was, especially if the bud "takes "or grows. The first thing necessary is to have some kind of common rose or wild briar on which to "bud" the more beautiful one. In nursery gardens a kind of rose called " manetti " is generally used. I found I could easily grow those from cuttings given me by an old nursery-gardener in the neighbourhood, but some years have to elapse before the cutting has grown large enough to bud, and the bud in its turn grown big enough to flower. The other plan is to use a wild dog - rose for the " stock." One has to hunt about the hedgerows and woods, and notice the most suitable briars of the height required. They can be budded on tall stems to make standards, 126 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv or near the ground for dwarf trees. If you are sure that the briar in the wood will not ]?e disturbed, it can be budded before it is removed to your garden ; but the safer plan is to take the briar up one October and plant it where it is to remain in the garden, and bud it the following July. The briar must be prepared by having its branches cut back, and only those it is intended to bud left on perhaps two or three on one briar. The actual process of " budding " is difficult, and your best way of learning is to get a kind gardener to show you (as I did) ; but if you have no one to help you, you might try by yourself from these directions. Get a "bud" of some good garden rose that is, not a flower-bud, but a small shoot of growth just beginning to sprout at the base of a leaf and cut it out, leaving some of the stem of the rose like a little wedge, and then cut off the large green leaf (Fig. i). Then go to the wild rose, and if you have not prepared it already, select a nice strong branch (remov- ing all the branches you are not going to bud), cut off the end, leaving the branch the length you require, and, at about 6 inches from the cut end of the branch, make a cut across the bark, about half-way round the stem, being careful to go through the bark only and not to touch the hard wood inside (Fig. 2, A) ; then SUMMER 127 make a slit downwards, starting from the middle of the first cut, about i\ inches long (Fig. 2, B), and make another cut across the end of the slit like the first cut, only smaller (Fig. 2, C). Then raise the bark up gently, opening it like two little doors, and put the bud you took from the garden rose inside the little doors, and tie them down, above and below the bud, firmly, but not too tight (Fig- 3)- Tie with matting or wool, but do not use hard string that would cut the bark. If the bud keeps green and fresh, you will know it is going to grow ; if it does not "take," the bud will soon look withered and black. Do not be discouraged if your first bud does not take, as you may succeed another time. Like all other work connected with gardening, budding needs great 128 CHILDREN'S GARDENS iv care and patience, but it will well repay your trouble if you succeed. 1 Although spring and autumn are the busiest seasons, yet I think I have shown how much you can find to do all through the summer months ; but there will be days of idleness too, hot sultry days perhaps, when you see the leaden clouds coming up, and feel you need not expend your energy in watering, as the heavy raindrops will soon do it so much better. Then it is pleasant to sit and watch the flowers, and the busy bees, and the white butterflies fluttering found. The flowers themselves keep regular hours. They are not wide awake all the twenty-four hours of each day. Some of them go to bed very early long before the sun has set they fold up their petals for the night ; others wait till the dew is falling, while others choose that time for waking up. They know the time to go, The fairy clocks strike their inaudible hour In field and woodland, and each punctual flower Bows at the signal an obedient head, And hastes to go to bed. SUSAN COOLIDGE, Time to Go. Daisies are most punctual, and sunset finds them all asleep, and they wake up with the sun. The French name for the "Star of Bethlehem" (Ornithogaluni) is Dame d'onze keures, from 1 Roses will grow from seed, and some, especially Rosa nigosa, do well, but it is too slow to recommend to children. SUMMER 129 their hour of waking, and I have heard them called "eleven o'clocks " in England too. There is a pretty little scarlet starlike flower, 1 which is very common in many parts of Rhodesia. In travelling over hundreds of miles of country there, my husband and I could always tell when it was ten o'clock, as these lazy little flowers, although the sun was scorching hot by six in the morning, were always tightly closed till ten. Nature abounds with such curiosities, but it is much more amusing to find them out for one's self than to read about them, so you must remember to be wide awake the hours you spend in your garden, and notice all you can, or you will not have enjoyed summer to the full. All pleasant (as well as disagreeable) things come to an end, and summer flits by, leaving us richer by the memory of its pleasant days, its glorious sunshine, and its myriad flowers, and it must ever be with a sigh that we say good-bye when autumn's chilly breath first taints the balmy air. Delightful summer ! then adieu, Till thou shalt visit us anew. But who without regretful sigh, Can say adieu, and see thee fly ? HOOD, Departure of Summer. 1 Wormskioldia longipeduncula, K V AUTUMN Blossoms, gentle blossoms, Do not wither yet ; Still for you the sun shines, Still the dews are wet : Nay, but fade and wither fast, Fruit must come at last. ADELAIDE PROCTER. PUPILS GARDENS AT THE SCHOOL, WYCOMBE ABBEY AUTUMN Summer hath a close, And pansies bloom not in the snows, 1 is a pretty sentiment, and the words are true ; but yet they do not seem to contain the whole truth, for they ignore that lovely season of golden sheaves and golden leaves that crowns the year. As spring is a time of hope and expectancy, so autumn is one of fulfilment. Everything in nature has finished its work, and it is the season of completeness and 1 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 133 134 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v perfection before the winter or time of decay. Autumn is like the crimson sunset glow of evening, which comes before the chilly darkness of night. I am very fond of these following lines in a poem by Bryant, called " The Death of the Flowers," although when I learnt them as a child I thought the verses very long to remem- ber, even though they had been specially selected because of my love of flowers. They express so well the beauty of each season of the year : The windflower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the briar rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow; But on the hill the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood, Till fell the frost from the clear, cold heaven, as falls the plague on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland glade and glen. Everything has changed since the spring. The apple boughs are no longer covered with blossom, but laden with rosy-cheeked fruit ; the grass-like blades of corn are now tall ears of grain ; the horse-chestnuts have lost their look of Christmas trees with all the candles lit, and have instead the large green husks bursting and showing the polished brown nuts inside. AUTUMN Although nature has done its work, and the flowers are dying and the seeds are ripening, it is just the very time when the gardener must be busiest. There are many delightful autumn days in which to work, when the air is too chilly to sit out and do nothing, but before the frost has disfigured the waning beauty of the garden. First there are cuttings to be taken, and layers to be removed. The carna- tion's that were layered in July will have rooted, and each little plant can now be cut away from the parent and planted where it is to remain during the winter. A number of flowers are easily increased by making cut- tings, and the majority of these have to be taken in the early autumn. If children are fortunate enough to possess a small frame, they must now make up the soil and prepare it for the cuttings, which must then be planted in rows ; but even without a frame a great many will strike out in the garden, especially if a little protection of branches and brackens is given to help some of the more tender ones through the hardest part of the winter. Chil- dren in the warmer districts of England could in this way grow calceolarias, chrysanthemums, pentstemons, or scented verbenas, and many half-hardy cuttings that would require a frame in the North. Violas and pansies are very A BORDER IN EARLY SEPTEMBER AUTUMN 137 easy to strike anywhere, and the little pieces that are put in now will flower better next year than the old plants. l The way to take a cut- ting is to select a nice young growth, not a hard, straggling old shoot, and cut it straight across, just below a joint where young leaves are sprouting. Cut the leaves off, but do not injure the joint, and nip off any flower-buds. When the end that has been cut off is put in the soil, it will throw out roots instead of leaves, and unless it is kept too dry and gets scorched by the sun, or has too much moisture and gets mouldy and "damps off," it will soon begin to get nourish- ment by its new roots and form a healthy little plant. Very often it is easy to obtain cuttings of flowers and shrubs from other gardens. As a rule, gardeners are very kind in that way, and would not grudge giving you a little slip of a plant you admired, which you could take home and try to strike. Myrtle is one of the most simple things to strike ; it forms roots so readily that it will sometimes do so when kept long enough in water. Several flowering shrubs, such as weigelias, veronicas, or fuchsias, easily strike, also lavender, southernwood, and rosemary, all so sweet-smelling. There are two other ways of propagating plants in autumn by seed or by division. 138 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v Seeds should be collected as soon as they are ripe, as if they are not gathered they will either fall to the ground themselves, when, if they happen to grow, they will probably be in a wrong place ; or they may get spoiled by autumn rain and fog ; or, if large seeds, they will be taken by the birds. This is so much to be guarded against in the case of sunflowers that a very sharp look-out must be kept. The birds will barely allow the seeds to ripen before they perch on the heavy heads so neatly packed full of seed, and pick out every one. They get so bold, or are so absorbed in their work, that they will go on stealing even when the owner of the seeds is close by. I have watched dear, naughty little black-caps hanging upside down on to a sunflower head, tugging away at the seeds, when I have been working only two or three yards away. With a little care children could save enough seed from their annual plants each season to fill the garden the follow- ing year. Marigolds, nasturtiums, sweet-peas, corn-cockles, mignonette, poppies, and many others, would in all probability have enough seed for the purpose, and then money would only have to be spent in the spring on newer or more choice seeds or plants. The way to collect seed is generally to pick off the whole pod or seed-vessel as you walk AUTUMN round the garden, then to sit down and shake out the seed on to a piece of paper, blowing away any chaff, and with some of the larger seed-vessels (especially poppies) being careful not to collect an earwig at the same time as the seed! It must then be put into neat little packets, and the name and date written on each, and stored away in some dry place (a box taken care of in the house) for the winter. "k ^ SEED PACKETS The way to make the best kind of seed packet is to take a piece of paper according to the size and quantity of the seed (a half sheet of note-paper torn in two across the middle is a convenient size); fold this in two (Fig. i), and double a narrow piece of the two edges together (Fig. 2), folding neatly twice (as you do when you turn down a hem) ; turn the paper over so that the "hem" is underneath, then fold back a three- cornered piece at one end, so that a small piece CHILDREN'S GARDENS of the "hem" is doubled back (Fig. 3), and then fold over the point left and tuck it under the edge of the " hem." Fill with seeds, and then fold up the other end in the same way (Fig. 4), turn over the packet, and write the name and date on it. It is correct to put a date, as some seeds are better if sown within a shorter time of gathering than others. If you are specially anxious to collect the seed of any particular flower, it will require careful watching. Perhaps it may have to be tied up to a stick to prevent the stem being bent or broken, or it may require to have a small bit of muslin covered over it to keep the greedy birds away. Slugs are a great trouble, and will frequently destroy seeds. They are very fond of pansy seed, and it is necessary to hunt for them very carefully. Even after the most minute scrutiny I used to find they would evade me, and eat up my choicest pansy seed-head, until I hit upon a plan of stopping their pro- gress up the stem by putting a large paper collar round it. There are many dodges for catching slugs, but I used to find one of the most effectual was to put down a saucer of milk, into which they crawled, but could nqt get out. I have killed many dozens by this means not a very pleasant operation. The third way of increasing plants is by AUTUMN 141 division. This of course only applies to per- ennial ones. Far from injuring them, the greater number of plants are all the better for it. There are, however, a few which prefer to be left alone. Peonies, for instance, do not like being disturbed ; but it is only by long experi- ence we can learn all about gardening, and all the various peculiarities of plants, and it would be impossible to tell you all the exceptions. It is best for you to learn that nearly all the plants in a herbaceous bed (or bed of large perennials) are improved by being dug up every few years. When the plants are lifted they can be divided up into smaller plants, according to their size. A phlox, for instance, or perennial sunflower, or a Michaelmas daisy, grows so large that it can often be cut into several fair-sized plants, which soon grow big and equal to the original one. I used to watch a gardener doing this, and be quite distressed when I saw the spade go right into a large plant and chop off two or three little blocks ; I felt they would never survive such cruel treatment. But one day I had a white phlox given to me, just a little square lump chopped off the corner of a large mass, and before three years were gone I was digging up the plant myself, and with all the strength I could muster (for it is a tough job sometimes) I was boldly cutting up my PHLOX AND EVENING PRIMROSE AUTUMN 143 plant and filling a good-sized bed with the pieces to form a group of white phloxes. But all plants will not stand such summary treat- ment ; they must be lifted with care, and gently pulled apart, and in these cases the fingers and thumbs are much more suitable implements than spades. For instance, a large round clump of aubretia could be divided into enough little plants to make a row round a bed, which by another year would form a good wide border, whereas if it were left alone it would grow straggling and with the middle withered and bare, and it would not flower so well. This overhauling of the beds is one of the chief employments in the autumn, but of course it should not be done until the flowering time of the plants is over. If they are not taken up, and the whole bed or border re-dug, it must be carefully weeded, and the soil thoroughly turned, and, if possible, a little top-dressing of good new soil or manure added. This is a great help to many plants. Roses benefit much by this treatment, and some of the more tender plants are carried through the winter by the "top-dressing" they receive in the autumn. The chief object in gardening must always be to have as many things in flower as possible, and to enjoy the early autumn endeavours must be made to have plants which go on flowering 144 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v until the frost destroys them, or, better still, some be grown that even the cruel nipping frost will not altogether spoil. One of the prettiest autumn flowers is the white Japanese anemone. There are some pink varieties, but they are not quite so attractive as the pure white. They grow tall (about three feet), and are suitable for a large bed or in a wild garden. The way to increase them is to divide their roots after they have died down, and if you were given even quite a small piece of root, it would soon make you a nice plant. Another autumn plant which grows easily from a small piece is Sediim spectabile, a very large stonecrop, a foot or more high, with round flat heads of pink flowers. It is curious to see how fond butterflies are of these flowers. I have often seen so many of the handsome Admiral butter- flies sitting on them that they looked like a rich brown instead of a pink flower. Any kind of garden suits these plants. Some varieties of monkshood blossom late in the year. They are large and suited to wild gardens, and do uot mind a little shade. They are rather like the common monkshood, which flowers earlier, and are called the "autumn" and the "Japan- ese" varieties (Aconitum autumnale and A. japonicum}. The bright "red-hot pokers," (Knipkofias) flower in the late summer and AUTUMN 145 autumn, and are very fine in a wild garden or large bed. Other good large plants which the first frost will not hurt are Helenium autum- nale, with a yellow, daisy-shaped flower, and Helenium atropurpureum striata, with red, brown, and yellow streaked stars and purplish black centre. The most useful of all autumn plants, as they are so easy to grow, are the Michaelmas daisies, a kind of aster. There are really good purple ones, and mauve, white, and pinkish varieties. Many of them have names, such as " Mabel," a bright mauve, " Chapmani," a small white, " Arcturus," a deep blue purple, " formosa," a pale pink, "rubra," a reddish purple, but many others with no special names are just as good. They grow easily from divisions, and it is possible to get nice large plants very soon from small pieces begged for, when a gardener is digging over a border. Chrysanthemums can be got in the same way or by cuttings. The great big flowers like mop- heads you may know as chrysanthemums will not do out of doors, as their large size is only obtained by careful cultivation in pots, but the small-flowered kinds, red, yellow, white, pink, and bronze, do quite well, and nothing could be prettier than these bright flowers in the October sunshine. The many-coloured hollyhocks also flower late in the summer, on very large, tall 146 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v spikes, and they can be raised from seed. The dazzling red lobelias, Lobelia cardinalis and fulgens, look splendid late in the year, but it might be difficult for children to grow them, as in many parts of England there is always a risk that the frost will kill them, and in a tiny garden there is no place in which the plants can be stored for the winter. They like a good deal of moisture and rich soil. It is more difficult to name many dwarf or low-growing plants for autumn flowering. There is, however, nothing better for a small, shady garden than cyclamen (see page 29) ; two sorts, the European and the ivy-leaved (C. hederi- folium), keep on sending up dear little pink flowers until late November. The best way to raise plants is by seed, as they form seed very freely and they cannot be divided, as they have little round tubers which must not be cut up. Another plant easily raised from seed, which makes a good show in the autumn and only grows about six inches high, is Silene schafta, which bears a profusion of mauvish pink flowers. In warm dry places a small creeping convolvulus with bright pale mauve flowers will do well until late autumn, and can be raised from a penny packet of seed. It is called Convolvulus mauritanicus. It will also grow from cuttings. Besides these, many annuals go on flowering AUTUMN 147 until the frost cuts them down ; marigolds, eschscholtzia, coreopsis, Phlox Drummondi, zinnias, verbenas, godetias, canary creeper, and everlastings are among the number. One of the best-known autumn flowering bulbs is the saffron or autumn crocus or col- chicum. It has a mauve flower, but there are some named varieties of deeper purple shades, and a white ; the leaves of all of them are large and glossy, come up in the spring, and there are none to be seen at the same time as the flowers. Sternbergia lutea is a yellow flowering crocus- like bulb which is very pretty, but children would find it more difficult to procure. An autumn bulb easy to grow is Hyacinthus candi- cans, which has little white bell-shaped flowers, and grows three or four feet high. There are also late flowering kinds of gladiolus, with tall spikes of brilliant flowers of bright scarlet or many shades of pink. One more plant that I will tell you of is different from all these others, as it is the seed - vessels that are showy, and not the flower the winter cherry, or Physalis. These seeds are enclosed in little bright scarlet bags about an inch long, which hang round a plant about a foot high. There is a new variety with its red bags twice the size, growing on a taller stem, called Physalis franchetti. HYACINTHUS CANDICANS AND HOLLYHOCKS AUTUMN 149 Any one of these seeds will grow if planted in a sunny place. If cut when ripe and dried they will last all the winter indoors. It is very nice to have a few of these dry bouquets when there are no Mowers in the garden, but it is better still to take some little plant into the house and grow it there. If you sow the seed of a marguerite carnation in the early spring, it will grow into a fair-sized plant and flower in your garden in the summer. When the days begin to get cold, you can dig it up and put it in a pot and keep it indoors, and it will go on flowering all the winter. If you have not prepared any plants for transplanting, you might still collect a few horse-chestnuts and acorns when they are ripe and drop off the trees, and put them in a soup plate or a saucer with some moss over them, with just a little earth at the bottom of the plate. Keep them moist, not too wet, or they will get mouldy, and stand the plate somewhere in the house, and they will form a pretty little forest in the spring, and you will find much interest in watching them growing when nature out of doors is asleep. Gardeners must be always looking ahead, as, if they did not prepare for summer and autumn in the early spring, there would be no flowers when the warm weather came, and 150 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v nothing to cheer "the closing days of the year. You must in the same way get ready for the spring months beforehand, and make your pre- parations in good time, if you want to have bright gardens as soon as the sunshine and long days return. All the spring bulbs daffodils, crocus, squills, hyacinths, tulips, snowdrops must be planted now. They should all be put in before the beginning of November. There is an old rhyme which tells us of this, and it would be well to remember it in the autumn : If you want your garden to be bright and gay, Have all your bulbs in before Lord Mayor's day. That is the gth of November the King's birthday so think of your bulbs in October. You can begin planting earlier, even in August, and for some bulbs, especially daffodils, it is far better to do so ; but it is difficult in a small garden, as the ground is covered with annuals, and there is no room, and, if the bulbs are to go in the grass, the ground is often too hard then for children to dig. Bulbs must be carefully planted, and, of course, put in the right way up the pointed part, out of which the leaves will grow, upwards and they must not be buried too deeply. According to the size of the bulb, they will require from one and a half to six inches of soil over them. They AUTUMN 151 should be about the same distance apart ; snow- drops and other small bulbs, two inches ; daffo- dils, six inches or more. A label or little piece of stick should, as a rule, be put to mark the centre of a patch, if the bulbs are planted in groups of from three to a dozen, to warn spades and forks when the beds are being dug that there is danger of cutting a bulb in two. If you want to have bulbs in the house, such as hyacinths or a group of tulips or narcissus, they should be planted early, as you naturally would prefer to have your plants indoors in flower sooner than those in your garden. Put them in pots in August or September, and cover them over out of doors in a warm corner with ashes, if you can get some, and let them remain hidden up until the points of the young growth begin to appear above the pot ; then take them into the house. Not only bulbs should be put in, but almost all planting is best when done in the autumn. Any time during that season is suitable, as long as the weather is mild and open, and the ground not locked up by frost. But do not choose a very wet day or when the ground is soaked by rain, as you might catch cold and your plants might do so also. The ground then is so sticky that plants cannot be properly planted. Their little roots must all be care- 152 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v fully spread out and well covered with fine soil, then filled in with the rest of the earth, and gently pressed down with the foot on all sides. In putting in large bushes or rose-trees you must be particularly careful that good soil is packed under and round all the widespreading roots, so that they do not get crushed or broken when the rest of the soil goes on above and is stamped down. Hold the plant upright with one hand while you are pressing the soil down round it. If you budded any roses away from the garden, Michaelmas is the time to bring them in. Any bushes or creepers, and all the spring and summer flowering herbaceous plants which I have told you about, can be planted now. In short, autumn is the right time to do all that sort of w r ork. A few seeds can be sown too in September for flowering in early spring, such as forget-me- nots, and two cheery little pink flowers, Silene alpestris and saponaria, besides others already mentioned in the lists of spring flowers. There is a great deal of "tidying up " to be done in the autumn, as the annuals which have shown their flowers so bravely all the summer die and wither, and after their seeds have been collected, they must be pulled up by the roots and taken away. All the tall stems of the perennial plants look very rough and wild in a AUTUMN 153 bed, and should be carefully cut away, and any stakes used for supports must be pulled up too, and the best kept for use another year, and the rest carried off to the leaf-heap. In October The trees are Indian princes, But soon they turn to ghosts, and as they shed their golden leaves you must brush them up, and keep the grass and paths clear of them. Sometimes a sharp frost comes suddenly and most of the leaves fall in a few days, but more often each windy day brings down a few : The wild wind bereaves The trees of their leaves, And scatters them over the green ; And then you must rush With basket and brush, And make the place fit to be seen. It is a good thing when the leaves come down in dry clear weather to collect a little heap in some hidden corner, under bushes or any- where that you can keep them fairly dry. If possible, get some withered bracken too, and lay a few sticks on the top to keep them from blowing about. You will find them very handy when the weather gets really cold, and tender plants want protection. It is not a good thing to cover up too early, as the moist foggy days 154 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v rot the leaves, and they in turn cause the plant to damp off. Children's gardens are often so shady that you will have a great deal of work to keep them tidy in autumn, but you will find it a good occupation on some of the wild, sad autumn days. How often I have swept up the chestnut leaves that fell from great patriarchal trees that overlooked my little plot, while the words of Christina Rossetti's nursery song rang in my head : The wind has such a rainy sound, Moaning through the town ; The sea has such a windy sound ; Will the ships go down ? The apples in the orchard Tumble from their tree ; Oh, will the ships go down, go down, In the windy sea ? It is not often that a child's garden is large enough to boast of apple trees of its own, but if there was space enough, it would certainly be a pleasure to have one. My first little garden was much too small, but later on I had room for an apple tree, and I planted also a medlar, a quince, and an almond the medlar because I liked the fruit, the almond for the sake of its blossom, and the quince was a fancy of mine, as the fruit is so rare ; yet how often one sees the picture of it doing duty for O in alpha- A UTUMN '55 betical picture books. But it is not satisfactory to plant, as very many years must pass before it will bear any fruit. Mine took quite ten years. But there are other fruits that do not take so long to grow, or so much room. There are strawberries, which are such pretty -looking plants, and easily managed. If you want them, the best way is to beg for what are called " runners " from the strawberry plants in the kitchen garden. There are almost sure to be some to spare. These, if planted in September, having been rooted like layers of carnations, will fruit the next summer. A fanciful way of growing strawberries has been tried lately, and I think some children might manage it, even if they had no real gardens. An old barrel is all that is wanted, and a piece of drain-pipe. Holes are cut in the barrel all round at intervals like a pigeon-cot ; the drainage up the middle of the barrel ensures the plants at the top and those below having an equal share of water. The strawberries are planted at each hole, and earth put over them till the barrel is full, and they hang out their leaves and then their bright, scarlet fruit, and completely cover the old barrel. In a shady garden, wild strawberries will grow well and fruit, even if there is not sufficient sun for the larger kinds. If children GRAPE VINE AS A CREEPER AUTUMN 157 have a little strip of garden against a wall, they could, of course, have a fruit tree trained against it, instead of any of the climbers I have described, but it requires much care and pruning to get it to bear fruit well, and probably children would have too much difficulty in growing good peaches, plums, or apricots ; cherries or red currants, however, might be managed on a north wall. In a wild garden the new American kinds of bramble are easy to grow. They make pretty climbers, and have much larger fruit than the wild English bramble, and another easy fruit to manage is the Japanese wineberry. The plant is some- thing like a bramble, with fruit more like a raspberry, although not quite such a good flavour, but of a lovely clear red colour when ripe. It could be made to trail over a bush, or else should have a few sticks to support it. Fruit-growing in a small garden has its disadvantages, and not the least of them is that it often spoils the friendly relations between the owner of the garden and the bird visitors. They are indeed mischievous where fruit is concerned, and not only will they peck off the ripe fruit in autumn, but they will often destroy the buds in spring, so that there never is any fruit at all. Bullfinches are really naughty, and if left undisturbed to play about the garden, 158 CHILDREN^ GARDENS ' v there is little chance of a crop. I have had all my medlars taken by them, but I was so fond of the birds that I always forgave them ; they looked so sweet, chirping on the trees or hop- ping about. Robins are the tamest of all birds, and I do not think they do any damage. They will come quite close and beg for worms as the new soil is turned up. If there are none in sight, I have often called a robin down by clicking two coins together a sixpence tapped on a shilling does best ; but of course every child knows that salt on the tail does best of all ! The sound of coins is very like a robin's call-note, and they will generally answer, thinking a friend is looking for them, and will hop near where the sound comes from, hunting about for some strange kind of robin. Hitherto I have only told you about flower gardens, as most children would like to grow flowers best, with perhaps one fruit tree for the fun of eating the ripe fruit. But a small plot might be laid out as a kitchen instead of a flower garden, and afford a great deal of pleasure and work. But there is perhaps greater disappointment in the failure to pro- duce vegetables, as not only is there the sorrow of seeing the plants die or dwindle away if they do not flourish, but there is the regret of not being able to eat them too. AUTUMN 159 In growing vegetables you must look far ahead, in the same way as with flowers, so as to have them ready when they are wanted. Their seeds have to be sown in just the same way, and thinned out to allow room for the plants to grow 7 , and pricked out in rows when they are large enough to handle. It would be very difficult for any child to keep a succession of vegetables. Some would have to be sown every month in the year. For instance, to have a supply of lettuce, seeds should be put in at intervals from January till July, and then again in August and September for the late autumn and winter crops. But to have just enough for good summer salads, sowing in March and then again in April, and perhaps once in May, would be enough. With peas, beans, cabbages, and most vegetables there is the same difficulty a number of sowings must be made to have a regular supply, but in a very small garden one or two sowings would be enough, so as to have just a few vegetables at each time of year. Peas and beans could be put in early in the spring to fruit in the summer. Then in March or April some cauliflower seed could be sown, which would be ready for eating in August or September. In May some broccoli and Brussels sprouts could go in for late autumn 160 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v and winter use. May or June is the time to sow celery, and that would have to be planted in trenches about August and banked up to blanch it in October. In August a few cabbages could be sown, in September rad- ishes for winter use. Thus in a small gar- den it might be possible to have a few vegetables all the year, but it would be difficult work for children, although very interesting, and they would have to be pre- pared for failures. There are three vegetables I must not omit to mention, as they have given me so much pleasure. The easiest of all is mustard and cress. It will grow almost anywhere, and rarely disappoints, and can be planted in all sorts of fanciful patterns or letters. When I was a very small child I sowed the name of one of my sisters in mustard and cress as a surprise for her birthday. The seeds were put in about ten days before, and the salad was nice and green by the required day in September, when all the birthday party were invited to my garden to see it ; but alas ! it was discovered that I had misspelt the word, and there was my fault only too plainly visible in green lines on the brown earth, which no sponge or indiarubber could efface. There was nothing for it but to eat the offending letter first ! Imagine my confusion, AUTUMN 161 and mind, children, you are more careful when you try such experiments. Another failure I would warn you against occurred with artichokes. The artichoke is a kind of thistle, and if left long enough comes to a large purple flower. The first year I grew them the head was not picked until the purple began to show. By that time it is all a "choke," or fluffy flower, and great was my disappointment, when I brought it into the house to be cooked, to find there was nothing left to eat. They must be cut as young buds, unless they are only grown for ornament. They are perennial plants, and it is better not to trouble to sow the seed, but to get a few offsets from large old plants. Put them in about March, and they would be ready to cut in August or September the first year, but earlier still the second year. Like other herbaceous plants, they would have to be cut down when they have done flowering in the autumn, and in cold seasons protected with ferns or litter. There is only one more vegetable I am going to tell you about, and that is the potato. Some children might find more delight in growing them than in all their lovely flowers. It would be a pity to give up a pretty little garden for their culture, but there is sometimes M 1 62 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v a . waste corner that you might be allowed to trench ; even a very tiny corner will grow a good quantity. They have to be planted in the spring, and it is the " eyes " or spots, which are really sprouts, that are put into the ground. If you can get a few potatoes you can cut them into pieces, containing two or three eyes, or even one eye if you have not got many. All the summer you will only have to keep them weeded, and when the tops die down at the end of October or beginning of November, clear away the rubbish and then dig the plants up with a fork, and for each eye you have put into the ground, you may get quite a nice lot of large potatoes. I used to have very success- ful crops. Near my garden there were large heaps of the leaves that had been swept up in the autumn. They were left there until the leaves were decayed and had become good leaf-mould soil. Such heaps are very necessary, but they did not look very beautiful, so I asked if I might make them look better by planting some vege- table marrows on them. As it did the heaps no harm, I was allowed to ; and very fine marrows I- had. I then tried pumpkins, and various kinds of ornamental gourds. One hot summer I grew some fine bottles on a "bottle gourd," and the pumpkins were a great success. I had ORNAMENTAL GOURDS 164 CHILDREN'S GARDENS v many which were far too large for me to lift, weighing two or three stone, and one great triumph was a giant of seven and a half stone, which must have been the kind that Cinderella's fairy godmother turned into a coach. 1 If gourds or pumpkins are grown they must be cut before any frost injures them, or they will soon spoil. If they are gathered before the cold nights at the end of September, and stored in a dry place, they will keep for some time, even till Christmas, if they are not bruised at all. I have now written enough to show you what a very busy season autumn is. First the cuttings to take, and seeds to collect, next the bulbs to be planted, and all the herbaceous plants to be attended to, and then a general tidying up all round. Besides this regular work, countless little jobs will be found necessary from week to week as the season wears on, and the short days of winter approach. The gardener will find the autumn months none to long to finish everything that has to be done, and must work hard so that all should be prepared before winter. The garden must be 1 The seeds of this pumpkin were those of the " Potiron rouge," and were bought at Vilmorin, Quai de la Megisserie, Paris. AUTUMN 165 quite neat and tidy, so that the snow may lie smooth and pure when the year draws to its close and the garden is wrapped in a shining white blanket during its long winter sleep. VI WINTER In fretwork of frost and spangle of snow, Unto his end the year doth wend. EDWIN ARNOLD. WATTLED SUMMER HOUSE Built almost entirely by two children WINTER THE melancholy days are come, " the saddest of the year " ; and what a contrast to the glories of summer or the wealth of autumn are these cold, dark days of winter. The flowers are dead, the trees are bare, the winds are sighing, and the year is dying. The garden looks for- saken, and all nature seems asleep. It is then we are grateful to every green leaf the glossy ivy, shining laurels, and sombre yews, all are welcome now: We wander round the garden, too cold to linger unless we find some work to be done, and even for busy hands there is not 169 1 70 CHILDREN'S GARDENS vi much employment out of doors. After a night of howling wind there may be some poor creeper to fasten up, or broken sticks and branches to clear away. Then comes sooner or later a clear, still evening when the sun sets like a ball of fire, and we know that " Jack Frost," who has only peeped at the garden during the night hitherto, has come to make a stay. If your tender plants have not had shelter before they must have it then. Any- thing you can collect dead leaves, dry bracken, fir branches, straw, or whatever has been pre- pared as a winter coat must now be put on without delay, and might be enough to save a plant which would otherwise perish in the night. Next morning the world seems changed to fairyland. Every branch, every blade of grass, is decked with a myriad white crystals, spark- ling with all the colours of the rainbow, and the pond looks deep and still with its shining surface of clear, dark ice. It is a world of such beauty that no art can excel or even approach it. But I must confess to you, children, that I, as a child, with my little sisters, used to try to reproduce in miniature one of those lovely frosted trees. The Christmas holidays were just the time for such experiments, and we imagined a sma.ll branch of a tree was a good WINTER 171 imitation of the glittering world ' outside, if every twig was carefully wrapped round with white flannel, and steeped in a strong solution of boiled alum, until it was covered with crys- tals. Since those childish days I have seen "asparagus fern" dipped in the same solution with charming effect. This clear frosty weather is very pleasant, but it is more trying to the plants than if they first have a warm blanket of snow. When leaden clouds collect, down come the snow- flakes, and we say that old Mother Goose is plucking her geese. They look and feel so cold, yet they really keep the plants cosy and snug and hidden away from the cruel hand of "Jack Fsost." The garden should have been made all tidy before the fall comes. All dead stalks should be cut off and leaves swept up, and then the snow will lie clean and white. If the ground assigned to children is quite unprepared, some digging could be done during the winter months when the weather is open. Everything will grow much better if the ground is thoroughly well dug before plants are put in. Children's gardens are often under trees, and the roots are a great trouble and make the ground very hard at first ; but all the soil must be turned up and well loosened if anything is to be made to grow. Among the lists I have 172 CHILDREN'S GARDENS given, you will find several flowers that do not mind the shade, such as cyclamen, London pride, hepaticas, Omphalodes verna, and marta- gon lilies ; and there are others Solomon's seal, Trillium, periwinkle, lilies of the valley, foam flower or Tiarella, Polemonium or Jacob's LILIES OF THE VALLEY AND FOAM FLOWER ladder all of which will grow under trees. In very dark places, where flowers would not bloom well, ferns might be grown. The winter could be spent in getting a place ready, and the ferns be planted in the spring. Try and collect a few large stones and bits of old roots and some good leaf mould from the nearest wood, mix up well with the soil, and arrange vi WINTER 173 nice little holes and corners for the ferns among the stones and roots, and fill them up with the good earth. There are numbers of common ferns you might try to grow. The "Male fern" and the "Lady fern" polypody, harts'-tongue, hard fern or blechnum, spleen- wort and ceterach, oak and beech, and among the rarer ones, the holly and ostrich feather ferns, and green spleenwort, Asplenium viridi, that has a green instead of a black "back bone " up each frond, and one of the bladder ferns, Cystopterisfragilis. A very fine one is the royal fern Osmunda regalis, but it requires water. A pretty one, easy to grow and uncommon, is the American maiden hair Adiantum pedatum. When there is no special work to be done among the plants, and all leaves are removed and delicate treasures protected, there is fre- quently an interval which could profitably be devoted to making a garden-seat or some sort of little tool or summer-house. If children can get some strong pieces of wood for the four legs, and a board for the seat, they can very often manage to collect bits of wood and find sufficient material to make a rustic back and arms to it ; or if the sticks are strong enough, they can even manufacture the seat itself out of the rustic pieces twisted and nailed together. A more ambitious work would be a tool or 174 CHILDREN'S GARDENS vi summer-house, and the most simple kind for children to attempt is one made of posts of wood wattled together. The house could be only big enough to hold spades, rakes, and hoes, and if you possess such a treasure a wheelbarrow, or it might be so high as to enable a child to stand upright inside. The way to begin is to get four good stout poles for the four corners, then put between them thinner posts of wood, and afterwards get long pieces of willow or osier and twist them from one big post to the next, in and out of the thinner posts, in the same way as wicker or osier baskets and hampers are made. Osiers can be bought in bundles in most parts of England for a few pence. This work requires no big nails or sawing up of wood, and yet is very durable. The roof is the most difficult part, but it can be made fairly rain-proof with pieces of stick and wattle like the walls, and straw or, preferably, heather woven in. It can be wattled on the ground in one piece to make a flat roof, or two. pieces to make a pitched roof. It can then be put up and bound on to the walls with osiers. The addition of some sort of thatch, such as straw or heather, stuck into the osiers will make it more water- tight. When everything is covered with snow, it is WINTER 175 certain that no work can be done in the garden, but you may perhaps have a few plants in the house to tend through the winter. If so they must be given as much light and air as possible, and children should be careful not to keep them very hot during the day, while the fires are burning brightly, and not to leave them near the window in a room which will get very much colder during the night. I was very disappointed once with one of those pretty "Japanese lilies," or "joss flowers." The bulb was placed on a few stones in a little china bowl kept full of water, and it grew beautifully, threw out roots, which clung round the stones, and long green leaves and flower- ing stalks. I had grown it in my bedroom, where it was fairly cool in the day, but never got very cold at night, until one day when the buds were very nearly out, and its narcissus- like flowers would be open in about two days, I was so proud of it that I carried my plant down to the drawing-room that it might be more seen. It was a large room, facing south, and all day my lily stood on a marble slab near the window, the sun warm on one side and the blazing fire on the other. Sad to relate, I left it there all night, through ignorance, not care- lessness. During the night the fire burnt out, the room grew cold, the large window-panes ROYAL FERN Osmunda regalis WINTER 177 were frosted, and in the morning I found my treasure with shrivelled, limp -looking buds, which never opened. I can remember my grief still. But the lesson was learnt, never to be forgotten. I recollect my successes too ; and conspicuous among them I recall the two bulbs of the " Emperor" daffodil that had been given to me, which reared their proud golden heads and brightened my room during the last days of January. Winter is a good time for reading, and some of the hours you devote to it during the Christmas holidays might be given up to books about gardens and flowers. You would be adding something to your store of knowledge which would be sure to come in useful in the spring when work out of doors began again. You could read about beautiful gardens and the flowers in them, and stories about bird and insect life, or it would add very much to the appreciation of a garden to have even a slight knowledge of botany. If you studied it just a little during the winter months, you could then understand some of the shapes and forms of flowers and leaves, and realise much better how they grow and what they require to make them flourish. Much of this can be learned by observation, but reading or teaching would direct your eyes, and make them notice many N 1 78 CHILDREN'S GARDENS vi beauties which would otherwise escape them. I will only tell you just a few things that botany teaches, and feel sure you would not rest content with such crumbs of knowledge, but would try and get hold of the whole loaf. This science includes all the wonders of the vegetable kingdom, not only of flowering plants, but all about ferns and mosses, fungi, and sea- weeds too. It tells us how to classify or group plants together. Long, long ago botanists classed flowers in a way which now seems very ridiculous, as scientists have learned so much more. They used to put together those that were most like each other outwardly, or made distinctions according to the shapes, colour, size, or medical properties, while now real and important likenesses are found between plants which at first sight appear to differ, and these are grouped together in what are called families, or natural orders. Such a family as this is that called Ranunculacece, to which buttercups, anemones, clematis or travellers' joy, Christmas roses, and the great aconite or monkshood belong, although unless they are carefully studied they appear so different. This system of what is called " natural classification " was not found out quickly or easily, but was the result of centuries of patient study. Other arrangements were made by WINTER 179 well-known botanists, such as Ray (1628-1705), Tournefort, and others ; then came the great Swede, Linnaeus (1707-1778), who founded a system which for many years was the one in use. But after a time this was further im- proved upon by Jussieu (born at Lyons in 1748), and then by de Candolle (born at Geneva in 1778), and introduced into England and settled into " natural classification," as it is now used, by Bentham, Hooker, Darwin, and other great botanists. All the organs or parts of a plant deserve careful study. There are two classes of these organs : those which are called "reproductive," or all the parts which make up the flower and form the seed or fruit ; and those which are called " nutritive," or the root, stem, and leaves, by which the plant lives and gets nourishment. These organs are very varied in form, and the plants which have one or more of them alike are grouped together. To learn all the long names by which these classes are distinguished, it is necessary to study a book on botany, but even without making a special study children would do well to try and notice the structure of the plants they cultivate. First notice the roots ; some have what is called a tap-root, a long straight root with fine fibres like hairs branching off from it, and i8o CHILDREN'S GARDENS sometimes this tap-root is thickened, as it is in the case of carrots or beetroot. Or secondly, a plant has what is called a fibrous root, like a collection of hairs or threads. Any tuft of grass has this kind of root, as it is easy to see ROOT OF A RADISH ROOTS OF GRASS SECTION OF A TULIP BULB zk, modified stem ; xs, scale leaves ; >, terminal bud ; k, young bud ; iv, roots. by pulling up a few blades. A third kind of root is thick and fleshy, and is called a tuber. A good example of this kind is the dahlia. These tubers are stores for the nourishment of the plants. Then children should notice bulbs, which are not roots in the same sense as those vi WINTER 181 already quoted, as can be seen by growing a hyacinth in a glass of water. The true roots soon begin to grow and fill the glass. Potatoes are not really the roots of the plant, although they are dug up from the ground. The fine fibres are the roots, the part that is eaten being really a thickened stem. The marks called " eyes " often sprout if the potatoes are stored in a damp, dark place, and show they RHIZOME OF SOLOMON'S SEAL a, bud of next year's growth ; b, c,