Vita Sackville-West

With that strange adaptability of true genius, she never looks out of place. Rosa moyesii adapts herself as happily to cosy England as to the rocks and highlands of Asia. #gardening

There would be no need for the artist to stylize her for Nature has already stylized her enough. Instead we meet her more often springing out of our English lawns or overhanging our English streams, yet Rosa moyesii remains forever China. #gardening

We might well expect to meet Rosa moyesii on a Chinese printed paper-lining to a tea set of the time of Charles II when wallpapers first came to England with a green parrot perching on her slender branches. #gardening

[Some Flowers ‘37]
Rosa moyesii: This is a Chinese rose, and it looks it. If ever a plant reflected all that we had ever felt about the delicacy, lyricism, and design of a Chinese drawing, Rosa moyesii is that plant. #gardening

Sissinghurst

I kept it in a pot, not knowing what to do with it; and it grew and grew becoming more and more pot-bound, poor thing, but still thriving. It throve so well under these unkind conditions that I felt bound to reward it by letting it out into a damp gully in the middle of a field.

Judging by my own experience from a tiny seedling given to me, it grows fast, about 6' in as many years, especially if planted in the damp situation it loves. I did not plant mine in a damp situation; #gardening

I might as well describe their appearance so you can recognize a Metasequoia when you see one. Pale green and feathery in spring and summer; it turns bright pink in autumn, a really startling sight when the sunshine catches it. #gardening

Seed was collected. And since it germinates readily, Dawn redwood, this extraordinary survivor from a fantastically distant age may now be regarded as safe for future generations in Europe and America.
#gardening

The surprise of a Mr. Z. Wang can therefore be imagined when in the year 1946 three strange conifers were observed growing in a remote valley of northeastern Szechuan. Their foliage corresponded to his fossil remains. #gardening

Metasequoia had been known for some time as a fossil going back to the Mesozoic era, but as no living specimen had ever been seen, botanists assumed that it had gone out of existence at about the same time as its contemporaries the giant reptiles.

9 March ‘53 I have just planted out a Metasequoia glyptostroboides. In case this name should sound unfamiliar I should explain that it refers to a tree whose discovery was one of the romances of plant-collecting. #gardening

What fun it will be to sit on your floor again and stick on stamps. And carry you off in the little blue motor. If you knew what you meant to me, you might be pleased. V.

Began to stammer in Persian. And today’s my birthday [Vita’s 34th].

Wore a silk dress one day and a sheepskin and fur cap the next. Been taken to a party and introduced to about 500 English people, 500 foreign diplomats and 1000 Persians. Dined with the Prime Minister, who has a black beard.

You smile? Well, I have been stuck in a river, crawled between rampants of snow, been attacked by a bandit, been baked and frozen alternately, travelled alone with ten men (all strangers), slept in odd places, eaten wayside meals, crossed high passes, seen Kurds in caravans—

[To VW] Teheran, Persia 9th March [1926]. Now I shall not tell you about Persia, and nothing of its space, colour, and beauty, which you must take for granted—but please do take it for granted because it has become a part of me—grafted onto me, leaving me permanently enriched.

If you don’t kill plants you are not a good gardener

If you have a warm sheltered corner under a house wall where you can build up a little raised bed and fill it with the sort of soil suggested, plant a few rhizomes of Iris susiana the Mourning or Widow iris, a black-and-white enormous flower, a fantastic flower.

You should grow Oncocyclus and Regelia [Aril] irises on a raised bed if possible, under a south wall, in very gritty soil with lots of mortar rubble in it because they like lime and good drainage, and mortar rubble supplies both.

I have written about irises in this column before now but never, I think, have I mentioned the Oncocyclus and Regelia species [Aril irises]. #gardening

Sissinghurst

Most of the irises are the most obliging of plants, putting up with poor treatment, asking for little more than a place in the sun; a modest demand which we should all enjoy if we could get it. #gardening

These reflections have been induced in me by receiving a copy of the Iris Year Book published by the Iris Society. I suppose we all grow irises of one sort or another even if we are neither experts or specialists. #gardening
britishirissociety.org.uk

Sissinghurst

31 December ‘50 This may seem an odd time of year to write about irises, those velvet-warm flowers we associate with June—the very word June warms me as I write it. #gardening

29 December ‘55 Writing last Sunday about flowers to pick for the house, I realized suddenly that never in these articles had I referred to the lily-of-the-valley-scented winter-flowering Berberis now know as Mahonia japonica. #gardening

It is perhaps superfluous to say that they should be protected by a cloche when the buds begin to open, not because they are not hardy but because the low growing flowers get splashed and spoilt by rain and bouncing mud. #gardening

If you already have old-established hellebore clumps, feed them well in February with a top dressing of compost or rotted manure, or even watering of liquid manure and never let them get too dry in summer. #gardening

Christmas roses do not relish disturbance, but if you decide to plant some clumps you should do so as soon as they have finished flowering, which is another good reason for mentioning them now. #gardening

Christmas roses like a rather moist, semi-shady place in rich soil though they have no objection to lime; #gardening

The Christmas rose, although not a native of Britain, has been for centuries in our gardens. Spenser refers to it in the Faerie Queen #gardening

Helleborus niger is described as early as 1597 in his Herball by John Gerard who considered that a purgation of hellebore was ‘good for mad and furious men.’ Such a decoction might still come in useful today. #gardening