·
A GARDEN IS A place for shaping a little world of your own according to your heart’s desire. (GOTM, 40)
THE WHOLE ESSENCE of a garden is that it becomes an old friend, or rather, a host of old friends. Will the irises be as good this year as they were last? How well will the delphiniums have stood being divided? Will the phloxes have ‘established themselves’ in the coming summer? These are the things that matter, that really move the heart. (GGTC, 106)
·
A GARDEN IS A mistress whose beauty, far from fading or failing, increases every year. With every passing season she reveals some fresh charm, some new allurement, and one of the greatest delights of gardening—particularly if you keep a diary—is to set down a record of the latest loveliness that time has written on her face. (MH, 239)
·
EVERY LEAF THAT taps against the attic window, every thorn that nestles against the bricks, is part of a barrier that keeps the twentieth century at bay. I have always taken a dim view of the twentieth century, so that I consider this to be a laudable ambition. (MH, 235)
·
ONE OF THE many reasons why gardens are increasingly precious to us in this day and age is that they help us to escape from the tyranny of speed. Our skies are streaked with jets, our roads have turned to race-tracks, and in the cities the crowds rush to and fro as though the devil were at their heels. But as soon as we open the garden gate, Time seems almost to stand still, slowing down to the gentle ticking of the Clock of the Universe. (FFF, 19)
HIGHER POWERS
WHENEVER I GO out into the garden in late November, and look down at the soil from which the tobacco plants have just been uprooted, and see the tens of thousands of tiny seedlings which are already stretching out their small green hands to the dying fires of the wintry sun, I feel puzzled and faintly oppressed by the profligacy of Nature. If it is true that every sparrow falling to the ground is duly registered in a heavenly account book—and I like to hold to this comforting thought—it must equally be true that there is a similar check on every seedling nicotiana. (GOTD, 112–113)
·
THE OBSEQUIES OF flowers, the manner in which they leave the world, slowly divesting themselves of the glories in which they have clothed themselves—these are among the most precious reasons for which we love them. (TAOFA, 137)
·
I HAVE AN idée fixe—psychiatrists please note—that it would be pleasing to die to the sound of the wind sighing through the branches of a pine which oneself had planted. (SOTL, 248)
·
I SHOULD NEVER be happy unless some part of me were in the earth—that I must have roots—and that if one foot at least was not in the soil, the other most assuredly would be in the grave. (GGTC, 52)
·
WHATEVER WE MAY find behind the dark curtain, when it falls with our falling lids, when there is silence and the bird-song is stilled, whatever we may find when we step on to the stage where all must play their part—we shall find flowers. (AVIAV, 287)
LIFE LESSONS
IT IS ONLY to the gardener that Time is a friend, giving each year more than he steals. (MH, 187)
·
IT SEEMED TO me that a great many fences had been put up all over the world, in the long course of history, that were not necessary. Fences round nations, fences round property. They were supposed to be symbols of security, but they were cheating symbols. They had a precisely opposite effect from that which was intended. They did not prevent crime, they incited it; they led not to peace but to war. A world without fences would be a better world. (SOTL, 218–219)
·
WHEN YOU ARE concerned with really important things, such as the dew on a spider’s web, or the first fragrance of a freesia on a shelf—when you are dealing with such matters, which are infinite and everlasting, it is difficult to look over one’s shoulder, as it were, and remind yourself of such shadowy and transient details as the Red Army. In the scale of eternal values, a hundred military divisions are outweighed by a single pinch of thistledown. (MH, 211)
BACKACHE IS AN essential ingredient of success in all the arts, and not only the art of gardening. I doubt if you can even take the backache out of the art of love. (GOTM, 53–54)
SOME PEOPLE FIND importance in the photographs of those titanic mushrooms of atomic poison which are periodically exploded over the world’s deserts; I find greater importance in one very small mushroom which mysteriously springs up in the shadow of the tool-shed. (SOTL, 151)
·
WE BOTH KNOW, you and I, that if all men were gardeners, the world at last would be at peace. (GGTC, 285)
INDEX
The following index lists key words and plant names. In the main text, common names and scientific names have been left as Nichols used them, without corrections or updating. In this index, Nichols’s alternate or obsolete spellings of common names appear in parentheses after the currently accepted spelling.
A
aconite 59, 60, 61
advertisements 55
advice 115
alyssum 54
amiability 93
angels 28
Anne, Queen of Great Britain 19
apple 97
art of gardening 67, 87
artificial flowers 100
arum 29
asparagus 33
atomic bomb 128
Austen, Jane 66
Australia 54
Azara microphylla 94
B
backache 127
ballet 26, 33
balustrades 97
bamboo 88
barometer 72
Baudelaire, Charles 43
beech 56, 69, 90
Beecham, Sir Thomas (conductor) 97
bees 38, 74
Beethoven, Ludwig van 97
begonia 45, 48
berberis 37
birth control 54
blondes 41
blood 118
blooming year-round 62
bluebell 80
bonfires 74, 75
borders 16, 85
bougainvillea (bougainvillaea) 24
bravery 61
braziers 77
buttercup 59, 67, 103
butterflies 27
C
cactus 36, 37
camellia 41, 80
campanula 55
carillon 38
carnation 101
caryopteris 88
caterpillars 116
cathedral 56
cats 71
caviar 41
ceanothus 104
centaurea 31
Central Park (New York City) 43
chance 15
cherry
double pink (Prunus ‘Kanzan’) 46
double white 41
chestnut 42, 69
chorus girl 20
Christmas rose 100
chrysanthemum 28
claret 77
clematis 23, 24
Clematis tangutica 23. See also clematis
Cleopatra 47
clouds 90
comfort 94, 121
confetti 42
Congress, U.S. 95
conifer 19, 56
Constable, John 45
Corydalis lutea 50
cowslip 32, 67
creation 16, 66
crocus 27
cruelty 79
cupid 92
cuttings 16
cyclamen 27
cypress 100
D
daffodil 30, 79, 88
dahlia 28, 101, 112
Daily Herald (London newspaper) 91
daphne 94
datura 45
daydreams 20
D.D.T. 66
dead-heading 38
death 59, 76, 111, 125, 126
Debussy, Claude 97
defeat 96
delphinium 123
destruction 123
devil’s walking stick 46
Dianthus 33
digging 17
Dior, Christian 101
discipline 59
Disney, Walt 33
disposition 57
dock 48, 101
drunkenness 18, 71, 75
duties 18, 119
E
earth 17, 18
ecstasy 16, 19, 74
elm 45, 74
elves 76
Embothrium coccineum 112
eucryphia 42
extravagance 54
F
fans 95
feet 86
fellow man 24
femininity 36, 93
fences 126
fern 31
fertilizer 119
fire 41
focal point 84
forsythia 88, 104
foxglove 31
freesia 127
friendship 20, 87, 104, 121, 123
fritillary 29
fuchsia 38, 87
G
Galtonia candicans 28
gardenia 93
gentian 50
geranium 16, 87, 106
ginkgo 43
gloves 50, 80
God (Lord) 18, 28, 80
grape vine 93
green/black fingers 119
Guelder rose 74
H
Hallelujah Chorus 69
heart’s desire 123
heather 40, 85, 109
winter (Erica carnea) 40, 62
hedges 35, 67, 74, 113
hide-and-seek 27, 30
holly 39
honeysuckle 16
hosta 89
House of Commons 95
houses of gardeners 112
humanness of flowers 119
hyacinth 17, 109, 115
hydrangea 40
hymns 60
I
ice 76
ice cream 94
impatience 17, 61
infants 81, 112
informality 21
insects 66, 90
inspiration 67
iris 29, 60, 106, 119, 123
Iris sibirica 29. See also iris
Iris unguicularis (I. Stylosa) 29, 60, 106. See also iris
ivy 92
J
jasmine 24, 61
jewels 75
joy 17, 57, 76, 122
judgment 19
K
kalmia 39
Kew Gardens 19, 51
L
lack of a garden 122
laundry 27, 45
lavender 95
lawns 16, 48, 69, 108
leases 17
lemon-verbena 93
light 79
lilac 67
Lilliputian size 54
lily 27, 28, 88, 90
liquidambar (liquidamber) 74
lobelia 48
loneliness 55
lotus 34
Louis XVI, King of France 31
love 79, 80, 127
luck 79
lupin 117
M
magnolia 37, 43
maple 74, 75
Matisse, Henri 46
may (shrub) 67
mesembryanthemum 37
millionaire 20
mimosa 41
mirrors 28, 76, 90, 101
mistress 16, 124
Monet, Claude 38, 73
monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus) 34
moods 122
moonflower 96
mountain ash 75
mozart, Wolfgang 97
mushroom 67, 128
music 38, 69, 72
N
neighbors 104
Nerine bowdenii 28
noise 69
notebooks 79
nuns 29
nursery staff 19
O
oak 80
odd numbers 86
old age 34, 57, 95, 117
orchid 35, 112
Oxalis floribunda 50
Oxford University 29
P
pampas grass 46
pansy 33, 37, 79
Park Avenue (New York City) 43
parks 48
parties 27, 43, 75, 119
patents 66
paternity 16
paths 83, 104
peace 57, 103, 128
pear 80, 93
Pennisetum villosum 33
penthouses 21
peony (paeony) 31
periwinkle 24
perpetuation 18, 34, 57, 59
phlox 123
phosphorescence 36
pine 125
planning 53
Pleione formosana 35. See also orchid
politicians 72
polythene 91
pneumonia 29
poodle 43
pots 17
powder (makeup) 76
power 58
prettiness 112
prolificacy 54
protection 55, 56
pudding 53
pulsatilla 34
purgatory 92
R
rabbits 33
Rachmaninoff, Sergei 97
rambling 116
Red Army (Communist) 127
red hot poker 86
regularity 84
rhododendron 37, 38, 107
Rosa gallica 36. See also rose
rose 35, 36, 47, 54, 74, 80, 89, 114, 116
rosemary 107
rules broken 15
rush 72
S
saxifrage 54, 55
secrets 103, 111
seed 16, 107, 114
Senecio cineraria 32
Senecio leucostachys 32
sensitivity 118
Sheraton, Thomas (furniture designer) 103
shops (flower and garden) 20, 114
shows (flower and garden) 21, 65, 114
sketching 66
small gardens 81, 85
snowdrop 26, 60, 76
soil 17, 53, 79, 81, 125
spaniel 34
speed 124
spindle tree 42, 75
splodges 86
stress 33
sumac (sumach) 74
T
theatricality 60, 71, 73
thorn tree 74
time 124, 126
tobacco (nicotiana) 125
touring a garden 104, 113
treasure hunts 73
trees planted 80
tulip tree 19
twentieth century 124
U
underwear 91
urns 92
V
valerian 50
viola 54
visualization 53, 86
W
walls 50, 84, 109, 116
walnut tree 56
war 58, 127
watering 113
water-lily 100
weeds 51, 58, 65
weeping trees 85
willow 41, 46
wind 69, 71
windows 36, 60
winter heliotrope 62
wisteria (wistaria) 60, 118
witch-hazel 60
wives 21
Wolfenden Committee 40
workmen 91, 113
writing 16