"There ought to be gardens for all months of the year, in which,
severally, things of beauty may be in season. For December and January
and the latter part of November, you must take such things as are
green all winter: holly, ivy, bays, juniper, cypress-trees, yew, pine,
apple-trees, fir-trees, rosemary, lavender, periwinkle, the white,
the purple, and the blue; germander, flags; orange-trees, lemon-trees
and myrtle, if they be stoved; and sweet marjoram warm set. There
followeth for the latter part of January and February, the mezerion
tree which then blossoms; crocus vernus, both the yellow and the
gray; primroses, anemones, the early tulip, hyacinthus orientalis,
_chamaires fritellaria_. For March there come violets, especially the
single blue, which are the earliest, the yellow daffodil, the daisy,
the almond-tree in blossom, the peach-tree in blossom, the cornelian
tree in blossom, sweetbrier. In April follow the double white violet,
the wallflower, the stock gilliflower, the cowslip, flower-de-luces,
and lilies of all natures, rosemary flowers, the tulip, the double
peony, the pale daffodil, the French honeysuckle, the cherry-tree in
blossom, the damson and plum-trees in blossom, the white thorn in leaf,
the lilac tree. In May and June come pinks of all sorts, roses of all
kinds except the musk, which comes later, honeysuckles, strawberries,
bugloss, columbine, the French marigold (_Flos Africanus_), cherry-tree
in fruit, ribes, figs in fruit, rasps, vine-flowers, lavender in
flowers, the sweet satyrian, with the white flower, _herbal muscaria_,
_lilium convallium_, the apple-tree in blossom. In July come
gilliflowers of all varieties, musk-roses, the lime tree in blossom,
early pears and plums in fruit, gennitings, quodlins. In August come
plums of all sorts in fruit, pears, apricots, barberries, filberts,
musk-melons, monkshood of all colors. In September come grapes,
apples, poppies of all colors, peaches, melocotones, nectarines,
cornelians, wardens, quinces. In October and the beginning of November
come services, medlars, bullaces, roses cut, or removed to come late,
hollyhocks and such like. These particulars are for the climate of
London; but my meaning is perceived that you may have _ver perpetuum_,
as the place affords."
[Illustration: LABYRINTH, VREDEMAN DE VRIES]
[Illustration: "A CURIOUS-KNOTTED GARDEN"--CRISPIN DE PASSE (1614)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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