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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They look so pretty together, the blue trumpets of the gentian and the frail, frightened, rosy, ears-laid-back, petals of the cyclamen: they share something of the same small, delicate quality. It is one of the happiest associations of flowers. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

By one of those happy accidents which sometimes occurs in gardening, I planted my gentians near a group of the tiny pink autumn Cyclamen purpurascens, which flowers at exactly the same time. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

So that I can detach dozens of little new plants in March without disturbing the parent crown, and, in the course of time, can carpet yards of ground with gentians if I wish, and if my supply of leisure, energy and leaf-mould will run to it. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For the gentian has the obliging habit of layering itself without any assistance from its owner, and I have now discovered that every strand a few inches long has developed a system of sturdy white roots. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The boxful of plants I set out last autumn, the gift of a kind friend in Scotland who says she has to pull them up like weeds in her garden (lucky woman) have now grown into so dense a patch that I shall be able to treble it next year; (I have). #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This means that if you have a chalky soil you had better give up the idea of growing these gentians unless you are prepared to dig out a large deep hole and fill it entirely with leaf-mould. I planted mine in pure leaf-mould and sand without any peat and they seem very happy.

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They like semi-shade (I grow mine round the foot of an apple tree which apparently suffices them in this respect). Gentiana sino-ornata like plenty of moisture and they utterly abhor lime. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

2 October ‘49 The blue trumpets of Gentiana sino-ornata have given great pleasure during September. Some people seem to think they are difficult to grow, but given the proper treatment this is not true. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I would certainly order H. paniculata grandiflora to grow in a damp, shady spot next year. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

So you never know where you are with it as you never know where you are with some human personalities but that makes them all the more interesting. Candidly white one moment; prettily pink the next; and virulently green in the last resort. . . #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

And even of fantasy in the colouring it adopts throughout its various stages. It starts off by flowering white; then turns into the pink I have already described as looking like pink lilac. Then it turns greenish, a sort of sea-green #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

H. paniculata grandiflora, in spite of its resounding name, is less offensively sumptuous and has a far subtler personality. It reveals, for instance, a sense of humour—#gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Do not confuse it with H. hortensis [H. macrophylla], the one which sometimes comes sky-blue but more often a dirty pink and which is the one usually seen banked up in Edwardian opulence against the grandstand of our more fashionable race-courses. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

In its native county, Japan, Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora [Pee Gee hydrangea] is said to attain a height of 25' but in this country it apparently limits itself to something between 6 and 8' and quite enough too for the average #garden. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

They looked like the pink lilac. Tall, pyramidal in shape, smothered in pointed panicles of flower, they suggested a bush of pink lilac in May. Yet this was September. Puzzled I stopped to investigate. It was Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, sometimes called the plumed hydrangea

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

1 October ‘50 I know I am continuously grousing about the dearth of plants apart from annuals and herbaceous to enliven the garden in August and September, so it was with a startled pleasure that I observed three bushes growing in a cottage garden as I drove along a secret lane.

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Sometimes Rosa mundi flowers come in red orderly stripes, sometimes in splashes, sometimes in mere stains and splotches, but always various, decorative and interesting. They remind one of red cherry juice generously stirred into a bowl of cream. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Striped and splotched and blotted, this fine old #rose explodes into florescence in June, giving endless variations of her markings. You never know what form these markings are going to take. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

And so long as we are quite sure in our mind that it is Rosa mundi [Rosa gallica var. versicolor] we have acquired, we can depend upon getting something which will increase in luxuriance from year to year. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Rosa Mundi is far more striking. She is of a deeper pink and all the petals are stained with a true carmine. She is also far more free-flowering. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

But in case that classification is not of much practical use to you, here are two other ways by which you may tell them. York-and-Lancaster is very pale pink, almost white; a few petals are variegated, but not all; a washy thing not worth having. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

There is no adequate reason why this confusion should have arisen, for apart from the fact that they both have variegated petals, the two roses are not really very much alike. The Rose of the World (Rosa Mundi) is a Gallica; the Rose of the Wars (York-and-Lancaster) is a Damask.

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The only question is which #rose are we to regard as the true York-and-Lancaster? For the one which most people hail cheerfully by that name in #gardens, very often turns out to be not York-and-Lancaster at all, but Rosa Mundi. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The advantage of trees and shrubs is that they may be underplanted with bulbs—another activity which should not be neglected at this time of year. Daffodils, narcissi and hyacinths should be got into the ground without delay. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Many of them however tend toward a crude pink and those who would wish to avoid this colour are advised to plant the subtler greenish-white cherry called Ukon or the white-blossomed crab Dartmouth with purplish red fruit of remarkable beauty in the autumn. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

And apart from these wall plants, many small trees may be set in convenient places. The flowering cherries and crabs have frequently become a feature of most gardens and how gaily they contribute in the aspect of English villages and cottages during the spring. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

On the south side the choice is even larger—if you want a purely decorative effect, the fast growing Solanum crispum, which is a potato though you might not think it, will reach to the eaves of the house and will flower in deep mauve for at least two months in early summer.

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

On the east side, which catches the morning sun, you can grow practically any of the hardy shrubs or climbers from the beautiful ornamental quinces, Chaenomeles, to the more robust varieties of Ceanothus, powdery-blue or a blue fringing on purple. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Your choice will naturally depend upon the extent of your garden, but any garden, however small, has a house and that house has walls. Against the north and west sides you can grow magnolias and camellias. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

That error is one from which I would wish to save my fellow gardeners so taking this opportunity I implore them to secure trees and bushes from whichever nursery can supply them: #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

How deeply I regret that fifteen years ago when I was forming my own garden I did not plant these desirable specimens in sufficient quantity. They would by now be large adults instead of the scrubby spindly infants I contemplate with impatience as the seasons come round.

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

29 September ‘46 The two great planting months, October and November, are close upon us; and those #gardeners who desire the maximum of rewards with the minimum of labour would be well advised to concentrate upon the flowering shrubs and flowering trees. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The junipers have many advantages. Owners of gardens on an alkaline soil can plant them with every hope of success. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Anyhow, I like the dark background gloomy trees make, reminding me of cypresses in Italy and of stone pines in Spain. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Personally, I like all gloomy trees; perhaps I have a melancholy streak in my character. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Irish juniper is equally valuable as the full stop exclamation mark I recommended for a focal point, but less severe and grim being blue-green, almost glaucous in colour not that dark almost black-green that some people find so gloomy. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

So if people don't like the dark yew in their garden, let me suggest a substitute, the Irish juniper, J. hibernica or fastigiata, which possesses the same rigid columnar shape. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Committed as I am to a more-or-less formal garden, I would strongly recommend the Irish juniper to anyone who wants a full stop focal point where it seems necessary. It has an architectural value of great importance in even the smallest acreage. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

They think them funereal. This is purely a question of association because yews are often found in churchyards, but people have their prejudices and it is no good arguing against them. #Gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

September ‘57 It occurred to me after writing last week about the Irish yew that some people nourish a prejudice against yews. #Gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Mr Cusack writes of his wares in a lively unstereotyped style, starting off grandly, ‘I like them all or I would not have them in my list.’ He is meticulous as to colour: ‘I call mauve mauve,’ he says, ‘not blue.’ #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Year after year I am decoyed into experiments which I know are almost certainly doomed to failure. I cannot resist. Experience tells me that I ought to resist but I fall to every list offering plants I cannot afford and could not cultivate successfully even if I could afford them

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

24 Sept ‘50 Catalogues arrive by every post and are as bewildering in their diversity as in their monotony. What shall we order this autumn? Bulbs, shrubs, flowering trees, herbaceous plants, or what? How tempting the lists are! And how easy they make gardening sound! #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Which reminds me to mention our own Lent Lily [N. pseudonarcissus] still to be seen I believe in certain meadows and on certain hillsides where it has so far escaped the plough. We should plant it in order to ensure its survival. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

These scented things give their best when you can see them closely and smell them closely. Out in the open the scent is lost though their blowing bending delicacy is a lovely sight when ruffled by a breeze. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

This is a very short list and I haven’t yet mentioned the jonquils. Get the single jonquil every time, it is far more sweetly scented than the double varieties. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Narcissus triandrus albus, called Angel's Tears, also lays its ears back. Ivory white about 6" high most delicately pretty, it will grow in broken shade, where it looks like a little ghost, weeping. #gardening

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Bulbocodium does not like to be too dry and the same may be said of cyclamineus, which lays its ears back as though frightened like the small cyclamen.

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Vita Sackville-West @thegardenvsw.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The bulbicodium or hoop petticoat daffodil is an easy one, which you may have seen naturalized in grass almost by the acre at Wisley and very pretty it is, small and tight-waisted, springing out into a crinoline. #gardening

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