Stranica 475 [475]
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HISTORIC GARDENS OF VIRGINIA
length the walk divides and embraces a large flower square, so
placed that its point faces the walk, giving it a diamond-shaped
effect. In the middle is a circular bed, the rest of the square being
subdivided into symmetrical beds of diverse form, each bordered
with dwarf box never allowed to exceed a foot, or even less, in
height. The center of the circle was marked by a white crepe
myrtle.
The beds were filled with flowering plants—tea-roses, Canter¬
bury bells, hyacinths, peonies, tulips, iris, violets, pansies, lilies
(including that empress of the garden, the lilium auratum), and
annuals of many varieties. Self-sown cypress vines often flung over
the box edgings their white and crimson stars, and heliotrope,
brought from its winter pots, made the air fragrant from frost
to frost.
But the flower garden proper is a small part of the floral beauty
of the garden. Every vegetable square has its materialistic quality
hidden by a broad border devoted especially to the taller flowers,
such as delphiniums and cosmos—hollyhocks had not then come
into their own and were over the fence in an adjacent lot—and to
flowering shrubs, with every now and then a huge, pyramidal tree
of box. At the intersections of the walks are trees of pink and
of purple crepe myrtle, the glories of the garden during their long
blossoming season. The dear old-fashioned shrubs abound: lilacs,
purple and white; spiraea, calycanthus, Japan quince, snowballs,
mock orange, syringa, flowering almond, white jasmine, and others.
Frames held the yellow jasmine and microphylla roses.
Upon some of the borders the flower square seems to have
spilled over its contents, for iris, peonies, hyacinths, tulips,
crocuses, etc., are to be found, with phlox, verbenas, mourning
bride, love-in-a-mist, nasturtiums, great beds of zinnias, and a profu¬
sion of snow-on-the-mountain. Many of these came up year after
year at their own sweet will, often in most unexpected places.
When this garden was at its best, there were beds of pinks
wafting their spicy incense to a distance of many hundreds of
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