THE GARDENS OF WARLEY PLACE.
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apple trees, and among them the rarely seen Essex Spice-Apple,
the garden is now given almost wholly to flowering trees and
shrubs, which do well, for the sun can shine upon them, and they
are amply protected from cold wimds. Bushes of various
Himalayan Rhododendrons, growing without peat, in the natural
soil, have attained the height of fourteen or fifteen feet, and
flourish freely. Amongst these are R. arboreum, cinnamomum,
gloxiniflorum, shilsoni, fulgens, barbatum, aucklandi, thompsoni,
and others. Rhododendron falconeri bears a few trasses of flowers
in favourable seasons. These Rhododendrons have accommodated
themselves wonderfully to conditions which here obtain, and
flourish as they rarely do in a bleak country.
Other shrubs in this garden are Citrus trifoliata, which
flourishes well and bears fruit. Colletia spinosa nine feet high,
Pitosporum tenuiflorum fourteen feet high, Raphiolepis ovata ten
feet in diameter, Erica codonodes ten feet high, around which
seedlings come up spontaneously and freely, and a bright coloured
E. mediterranea, nearly as tall. Various Magnolias flourish well
and a tree of Eucalyptus coccifera is forty feet high, and flowers
and fruits every year. It has passed unscathed through all the
inclement weather of the last twenty years.
Against the wall are fine flourishing plants of Rhyncospermum
jasminoides variegatum, which bears myriads of sweet scented
blossoms every year. Billardiera longiflora, Edwardsia micro-
phylla, Clematis cirrhosa, with its varieties balearica and
calycina, Bignonia Mme. Galen, a very free flowering variety of
B. grandiflora.
Herbaceous plants are cultured here in a natural way, which
suits their requirements admirably. All the old favourites are
to be found as well as the novelties which are coming in
almost daily. It was in this garden that the Phloxes showed such
grand vistas of floral colouring when it was visited by the Essex
Field Club in 1911.
The little village of Great Warley is near by, and was in years
past probably of more importance than now. It is a quiet
country village, with its old time green and inn. Roses and
Jasmins climb around the village casements, and wallflowers
edge the paths; there are flowers in the old cottage windows
and glimpses of gay little gardens. The village appears to have
been inspired with a love of flowers by its neighbour, Warley Place.