C. recta, another herbaceous plant, is taller and in June a mass of small white flowers, very effective, very useful. #gardening

The same applies to herbaceous clematis, less often seen than the climbing sorts, although at least one of them C. integrifolia has been known in this country since 1596. About 2’ high, the blue form, to my thinking, is preferable to the white. #gardening

Now to be practical. This month of August is the time to take cuttings. They root very readily especially if taken between the nodes. This may sound odd, but the clematis prefers an inter-nodal cutting. It looks most unconvincing but it does work. Try it. #gardening

And where a chance seedling of the lavender-coloured C. macropetala turned up pink and was given the name C. macropetala Markham’s Pink in honour of the great gardener's great head-gardener. #gardening

Mr Markham was William Robinson's head gardener at Gravetye, where they made such imaginative use of clematis. #gardening

It seems simpler to grow the kinds that are apparently immune. I have found the species C. viticella, the Vine Bower, far less liable to wilt and am glad to read that Ernest Markham shared my opinion. #gardening

12 August ‘56 The big clematis hybrids make an imperial show in July and August but are distressingly liable to the disease called wilt. . . when there is nothing for it except to cut them down to the ground and hope that they may spring up again next year. #gardening

Unlike Mr Bunyard, however, Mr Thomas recommends that albas should be closely pruned in December or January, leaving the long shoots at 1/3 their length, so between these two authorities we can take our choice and make our own experiments as to pruning. #gardening

According to Mr Thomas albas are resistant to all diseases; they enjoy such vigour and longevity as to survive neglect for hundreds of years; will grow in damp, cold, north-country gardens; and can be successfully planted against a north wall. #gardening

Mr Graham Thomas, whose book The Old Shrub Roses, I am constantly recommending, goes even further. #gardening

And added that albas could either be pruned or left unpruned, according to the taste of the grower, the space available, and the time that could be devoted to them. #gardening

Albas would tolerate difficult situations, thriving in soils penetrated by the roots of trees (he instances woodland walks); he claimed that they were resistant to mildew; #gardening

Mr. Edward Bunyard, who did so much to restore the historical roses to favour and circulation, was of the opinion that the alba roses were very useful in many unusual ways. #gardening

Queen of Denmark—an Alba rose—with a quartered flower looking as though someone had taken a spoon and stirred it round, as a child might stir a bowl of strawberries and cream. #gardening

Then I look up into the tall bush of Queen of Denmark and think that she is possibly even more lovely, in a deeper pink than alba Celestial #gardening

There are other alba roses which make my delight. Sometimes I think that alba Celestial is one of the loveliest shrubs one could ever wish to contemplate with its shell-pink flowers amongst its grey-green leaves. #gardening

We, in our Puritanical England, acknowledge no truck with the thighs of nymphs, so under the name of Maiden's Blush it remains and a very pretty and innocent looking pink and white debutant she is. #gardening

The old Maiden's Blush of cottage gardens is an alba; the French called it Cuisse de Nymphe. And when it appeared in an even rosier variant they called it Cuisse de Nymphe émue. #gardening

Although it is true that Rosa alba semi-plena may have been the White Rose of York and alba maxima the Great Double White or Jacobite rose #gardening

11 August ’57 To continue on the subject of roses, I will now write about Rosa alba. This sounds as though it were invariably a white rose. Make no mistake. The adjective is misleading. #gardening

My own plant is young and small; but I am told by people who have seen it growing fully developed that Viburnum x carlcephalum makes a huge bush in course of time. #gardening

Viburnum x carlcephalum is a hybrid of Viburnum carlesii, which we all know and grow, and it is a far better thing. Its flowers are tighter and denser; its scent is stronger; and its habit is vigorous. #gardening

Have you got Viburnum carlcephalum? If not, please get it at once. #gardening

Relations of our native Guelder Rose and of the Snowball Tree, they are of easy cultivation provided that the ground is neither too poor nor too parched. #gardening

Whether it be the intensely sweet scented Carlesii, or the straggly Burkwoodii, or the loosely graceful bitchuense, or the winter-flowering Farreri. There are many others but these are perhaps the ones most commonly seen. #gardening

August ’54 There can be few people who do not grow at least one or two varieties of viburnum. #gardening

Ideally, the Wand-flower should be grown near water. You would then get a duplication: the flowers blown gently by the breeze and the flowers reflected in the water, moving about within the ripples and going right down into apparently black depths. #gardening

This, to me, is the charm of the Wand-flower: it is always moving. Even on a breathless summer evening when there is no stir in the leaves of the poplars, its pendulous bells shake slightly. It is alive to an imperceptible breath of the merest zephyr. #gardening

The Wand-flower is an untidy grower. It comes up amongst a clump of reedy-looking leaves, wiry; and throws its wands of wine-coloured flowers in lovely curves, bending this way and that, never upright and never still. #gardening

I would not myself describe the Wand-flower as most beautiful because the flowers I like best are the flowers requiring a close inspection before they consent to reveal their innermost secret beauty, and the Wand-flower does not come up to so exacting a standard. #gardening