Evening star., 1925-07-27
NO. I.

No. l.
know a bank whereon the wild thyme
Where ox-lips and the nodding violet
Quite over-canopied with luscious wood
With sweet musk roses and with
-Midsummer Nights Dream
Slightly more than a year ago DR..
David Lumsden, horticultural special,
list of the Department of Agriculture.
bought a house at lis Blenbrook road.
Bethesda, with about a half acre of
barren clay. distigured by recent build
ing operations, behind it.
All his life DR.. Lumsden has
dreamed of a Shakespearean garden.
He has reveled in the verse Of the
Bard of Avon. fra grant with dewy
eglantine and beautiful with the misty
glamour of Summer moonlight en-
balmed in words. DR.. Lumsden also
is an expert on flowers. He deter
mined to create back yard which
would be a work of art, preserving the
color and spirit of fifteenth century
England. With the unpromising ma
terial behind his door he set to work
to realize his dream.
This Summer he is enjoying the
fruits of this labor. The project is
not vet complete. DIR. Lumsden is
proceeding gradually with the final
touches. But already, say those who
have visited the place, to cross the
threshold of his little English cot
tage into his yard is like stepping into
a Shakespearean play. There is the
eglantine, the wild rose of England.
which in the dew Of early morning and
evening exhaleS throughout the neigh
borhood an indescribable fragrance.
He has domesticated in this new real
estate development the curious red and
white rose, the York and Lancaster,
famous for its association nearly 500
years ago with the Wars of the Roses
between the rival houses of York and
Lancaster.
Thyme, Lavender and Rue i'll Evidence
Scattered about is the thyme, the
lavender and the rue whose names
appear so frequently in Shakespeare
and other Elizabethan and Restoration
poets. AS soon as he is able he plans
to edge his borders with old English
lockwood and TO place a ShakeSpearean
sun dial in the center of the garden.
He seeks to create place where
Titania and Oberon can revel in the
moonlight without realizing that they
have strayed into land where there
are no fairies.
While preserving the Shakespearean
effect. however, DIR. Lumsden is pro-
ducing a garden which could not have
been duplicated by Queen Elizabeth
herself in Shakespeare's day. He is
making use Of all the art of the horti
culturist to keep a continuation of
vivid color from frost 10 frost and, as
he says, always within the range of
poor man.
the ground he gets his. Spring color
effects with masses of daffodils, beds
of poets narCissus with tiny white
blossoms, yellow cups and exquisite
fragrance, pansieS, forget me nots.
English daisies. tulips and hvacinths.
When May comes in these fade, but
are succeeded almost Immediately by
a dazzling array of irises, German and
Japanese. These range through al
most all the colors of the rainbow ex-
cept red, and with a captivating iri-
descence. With the fading of the
orchids. DIR. Lumsden's peony beds
come into flower. and the varj-Colored
blossoms fail just in time for the
great flood of the hybrid perpetual
roses late in May and early in June.
He has assembled 50 varieties of rose
bushes. The maj jority of them are
hybrid teas and pernetianas, which
keep up a medium bloom all Summer
and then give another splendid dis
play with the cool nights of mid-Sep-
tember.
Fashioned Perennials Next.
But after the hybrid perpetual bios
SONS fall he depends during the hot
weather on the old-fashioned peren-
malls for his great flood of color. Later
comes the unusual variety of phlox
which he has assembled. and he ends
the year in the garden with asters and
chrysa anthemums.
DIR. Lumsden is not satisfied, how
ever. with merely a Summer garden.
He has had constructed adjoining his
house what he believes is one of the
few cottage conservatories in the
United States. This was built mex
pensively, and is filled with orchids.
ferns. palms and various tropical
plants. He also forces all the bulb