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aZ = = =< 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, Canterbury 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 profusion 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 [292]
