A well-known French horticulturist, director of many parks, once gave most flattering praise to an English garden. He called it “un jardin intime.” These three words sum up what most of us wish our gardens to be.

We bring to them, from other countries, plants that recall pleasant memories. As we watch these growing happily in our herbaceous borders, thoughts come to us of those who gave them, of happy meetings, and unforgotten scenes. In England we make real friends of our gardens; we confide many secrets to their safe keeping. Owing to a temperate climate, we have long in which to mark the slow development of bud and blossom. The time of flowering is late, and it remains all the longer for our enjoyment. When spring flowers are over, there are lovelier ones to look forward to. We have not to combat the heat and drought which so speedily bring summer beauty to an end in Italian gardens. It is, no doubt, on account of climate that abroad the bedding-out system has been adopted, and thus much of that intimacy with herbaceous plants, which we have, is there unknown. Our English gardens are tended carefully and steadily all the year round; a feeling of rest and peace pervades them.

In Italy a garden is neglected during the winter, whilst the Signoria are away. Beds and paths are left unweeded, all vegetation appears to be dead, and the gardener occupies himself only with vines, vegetables and plants growing in pots, which later will be the chief means of dressing-up the grounds. Most Tuscan villas in winter have the appearance of a Palace of Sleep. We wonder how it will be possible, when the Fairy Prince arrives, to transform disorder into a well-kept, beautiful place. We realise as we see so wonderful a change occur, how valuable a touch of this surprise would be to our old-fashioned English homes. It would improve not only the appearance of our gardens, but enhance the architectural beauty of our houses.

This sudden transformation is brought about upon the first really warm spring day, as if by the stroke of a fairy’s wand. Then the doors of the orangery are flung open, and ornamental pots of all sizes and shapes are brought out by means of rollers and stood in striking positions in the pleasure grounds. During the last few years we have been shown in England, through the good taste and skill of Mrs. Watts and others, what can be done in the way of terra-cotta work for the adornment of gardens. There is nothing new to us in the lovely boxes, sundials, fountains, vases and pots that we see designed, but we have not all, perhaps, succeeded in mastering the art of the Italian in placing these objects, with striking effect, in masses.

With a view to studying this we wandered round many gardens in Tuscany. We were shown lovely loggias overhung with climbing roses; masses of tall graceful arums and many coloured carnations in pots, stood beneath them in cool shade. Flowering bushes outside were carpeted with sweet-smelling violets, walls and arbours were hidden under lavender wistaria, white and pink camellias lit up the borders of shrubberies. Nothing, of all this luxuriant vegetation, was arranged quite in accordance with our English taste. We were dissatisfied, until one day we chanced upon a garden which seemed to combine successful herbaceous arrangement with ornamental pot decoration.

A narrow country lane, hedged in on either side by cypresses, led to the front of the villa. The terrace, with old-fashioned stone seats built into the corners of the wall, invited the passer-by to rest beneath the shade of an overhanging sycamore and look down upon a lovely stretch of country below. Near by, dense box hedges sheltered some plantations of fruit trees, all pink and white with blossom, while beneath grew delicious scented narcissus. The shadows played upon the grey and green of the olive gardens, and deep blue in the distance were the hills round Fiesole. Florence itself was hidden, but close to us the stately Certosa crowned her dome-shaped hill. To the left, an opening in the hills showed us the misty plain of Prato, looking like a still lake in dreamland dotted with small white ships. The villa door stood temptingly open, and ascending a flight of stone steps we entered the small, cool, paved court.

It was different from most courtyards. In the place of orange trees in pots there were flower beds amidst the paving. Each was round in shape and contained a graceful lilac bush carpeted with mauve violas. In the centre of the court was a well with ornamental ironwork railings, against which stood handsome Amaryllis lilies in pots. The walls of the house had roses climbing up them; so robust were they that their stems had twined around the iron window gratings, making, with their thorns, a double security against attack. The whole effect was cool and quiet—a good preparation for the blaze of colour which met us, as we passed under the dark archway into the garden itself.

What struck us most, when first we saw it, was the height above the ground to which colour had been raised, by planting shrubs in large ornamental terra-cotta pots. It will be seen upon the plan, that these not only stand upon the paths and walls, but are arranged at intervals, in the very midst of the herbaceous borders. Large grey stones, about a foot above the level of the flower bed, are placed for the pots to stand upon. A groove, in the form of a cross, is cut in the stone, to allow the drainage from the pot to run off easily. These stones and the lower portion of the pots are partially hidden by groups of irises, pæonies, aquilegias and roses, growing in the border. Just a touch of the terra-cotta flowerpot with its handsome ornamentation of wreaths, is seen above the blue and white of the irises or the many-coloured ranunculuses, and then, above, high up, we get the foliage and colour of the shrub which is planted in the pot. It is certainly a most effective way of giving height and variety to a flat, rather uninteresting piece of ground.

Most of the pots had lemons or oranges growing in them. In our country it is possible to have these only in the more sheltered parts, but laurustinus, box trees, bays, lilacs, hydrangeas or roses could be used instead. Even should the pots occasionally have to stand empty, they are so exceedingly handsome and decorative in themselves, that they only improve the general appearance of the garden. They are made in different shapes and sizes. Some are very elaborately ornamented, but the kind of which a sketch is given are the simplest and most dignified.

No one who has seen an Italian garden, so arranged, can dispute the beauty of it. It may be suggested that in England it would be difficult to protect the terra-cotta from cracking in frosty weather. Experience in southern counties has been favourable, and should it not be so in colder places, they can be put under cover for the winter months.

The plan which is given is from drawings made by the kindness of Miss M. G. Campion. Although it is rather elaborate, it could easily be modified for a small garden. It represents about an acre of land, which is cleverly arranged to allow of the combined cultivation of fruit trees, flowers and vegetables. It is closed in upon every side. The house shelters it from the east wind, the long orangery casts a shadow upon the south side and makes it possible to have a lovely bed of lilies of the valley near by. On the north, besides the trees, is a high wall. The west is the most exposed, as it has a hornbeam hedge through which small openings are cut, to show the hills with vineyards outside the grounds. Against the hedges stand large, empty oil jars, in terra-cotta, their graceful shapes showing well against the dark green. Round the central fountain is a 3-ft. wall, wide enough to have pink Bourbon roses, in pots, standing upon it. Each of the four smaller fountains forms the centre of a little plot of ground. These plots are divided into four beds. Each bed is large enough to have several pink and white blossomed fruit trees and some gooseberry bushes. Amongst them are planted spring-flowering bulbs such as narcissus, tulips, etc., for cutting. Other beds have smaller fruit trees, or currant bushes and roses alternate. The dark red-green foliage of the rose bushes contrasts with the fresh green of other plants. A few plots are reserved for vegetables, but, as a rule, these are close to a border of flowers; therefore, the garden, although small, is ornamental as well as useful. From below the windows of the house comes a delicious scent of freesias, and as we look more closely, we see orange-red tulips planted amongst them, the deeper notes of orange in the freesias corresponding with the colour of the tulips.

The plan, if carefully studied, will give a good idea, therefore, of a successful combination of permanent herbaceous borders, improved, dressed up, and heightened by the addition of ornamental terra-cotta pot decoration.