Tranquil and cool and especially beautiful at night — all this may be said of the white garden. Add the quality of fragrance to many, though not all, flowers, and it becomes enchanting.
It is reasonable to devote a whole garden to white-flowered material on a large property with room for more than one garden. However, on less extensive grounds, it is more practical to give a section to them.
As few flowers are pure white, many being cream or ivory, or flushed with pink flecked with red, or tinged with green, interesting variations in “color” may be enjoyed.
A background of evergreens further enhances the beauty of such a garden. This may be a mixed planting as a setting for an informal garden or a clipped hedge of yew or hemlock as an enclosure for a formal one.
Trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and bulbs can be selected for their choice of white blooms.
Aquatics In White
If a formal or informal pool is included in the garden plot, aquatics in white are also available as, for instance, the fragrant, day-blooming water lily Mrs. George IT. Pring and the night-blooming Missouri.
These are tropical kinds. There is also the hardy and fragrant water-lily Marliac White and the Egyptian lotus, which has a creamy white, sweetly scented flower.
I am also partial to Japanese iris near water, and some of the beautiful white varieties are Orion, Betty F. Holmes, Gold Bound, and White Swan.
White-Flowering Trees
Heading the list of white-flowering trees in popularity is the dogwood, its showy branches a familiar feature of the landscape in May.
Magnolias steal the march on the dogwood by blooming in late April. M. stellata’s fragrant flowers, with ribbon-like petals, appear in early April in favorable seasons.
M. soulangeana’s rose-pink buds open two weeks or so later to reveal the satiny-textured, white inner side of the petals.
Delightful as magnolias are, they can be exasperating when they fail to flower or when late frosts blast their buds.
For this reason, they should be planted in full sun in a sheltered spot. A nearby building affords the slight but necessary protection. Drainage is important, too.
Japanese Flowering Cherries
Fragrant, white varieties of Japanese flowering cherries may be selected for the white garden.
Even those varieties described as “blush-pink to white” would not be amiss, lending a touch of warmth to the whiteness. These small trees make excellent specimens in almost any situation.
Flowering Crabs
Flowering crabs form another popular group because of their showy blossoms and bright fruits.
Someone once suggested that crabs and hawthorns do not belong in a white garden because of their colorful fruits.
That, I think, is taking the purist’s attitude a little too seriously. The Manchurian crab, Mains baccata mandshurica, has deliciously fragrant, pure white flowers, while M. floribunda’s may be snow white or soft blush pink.
The horticultural variety, known as the Dolgo crab, is said to be outstanding with its large, beautiful white flowers and edible fruits. Crabs begin to flower in May and continue into June.
Hawthorns
Hawthorns are very ornamental and attractive in May and June when bearing their white blossoms in such profusion that they literally smother the leaves and again in September and October when laden with fruits.
While they grow in almost any soil, they prefer open, sandy loam, somewhat on the limey side, and an exposed sunny location.
Three fine species are the Arnold hawthorn, Crataegus arnoldiana, Cockspur hawthorn, C. crus-galli, and Washington hawthorn, C. phaenopyrum.
Two trees, different in character from any of the previous, merit consideration for an informal white comer.
These are Oxydendrum arboreum and Cladrastis lutea. The former is slow-growing, rarely attaining the height of 20’ feet which it reaches in its native haunts.
But the panicles of small white flowers are very welcome in midsummer against the slender, pointed, glossy green leaves which change to a brilliant autumnal scarlet.
The fruits, small gray caps, persist through winter, the arboreum, also called sorrel tree and sourwood, does best in light shade.
Cladrastis Lutea
Cladrastis lutea, another North American native, bears drooping panicles of pea-like white flowers in May and June.
They are both showy and very fragrant, scenting the air for some distance. Drought resistant and not particular about soil, I wonder why the yellow-wood is not more frequently planted.
Forced to narrow the selection since it is impossible to include all the desirable white-flowered shrubs, I have picked lilacs and mock oranges for the beauty and fragrance of their blooms.
While all the lilacs named here are white, they range from the snow-white of Mont Blanc to the rich creamy white of Jeanne d’Arc. Others are the lovely Edith Cavcll, Ellen Willmott, and Mme. Lemoine and Vestale.
What Keeps Lilacs Happy
A sunny situation, good drainage, slightly alkaline soil, and an early spring feeding of bonemeal will keep lilacs happy.
Top-dressing every year or so with well-rotted cow manure is also beneficial. And, of course, the blossoms must be removed as soon as they have faded.
Much of the same treatment satisfies the mock oranges or Philadelphia profuse bloomers. P. coronarius starts in late May.
The lilacs are flowering, and Virginal, Innocence, and Enchantment fill the air with the perfume of “orange blossoms” well into June.
For Informal White Comer
In seeking material for an informal white comer, I would be sure to include Azalea arborescens and viscosa and Clethra alnifolia.
The tubular white flowers of the Azaleas, both very fragrant, appear in June. On the other hand, the erect flower clusters of the strongly scented sweet pepperbush are evidence from late July well into August.
Azalea ledifolia (indica) alba, also kurume Snow and kaempferi Star Dust, although unable to contribute to the fragrance of the garden, more than makeup for their deficiency in this respect with the wealth of their pure white flowers.
These shrubs lend themselves to any type of planting; they fit into a formally designed white garden or blend gracefully into an informal arrangement.
Viburnum burkwoodi retains the luscious fragrance of V. carlesi but is a more shapely bush. The flowers are a very pale blush white.
I’ve noticed that V. burkwoodi and carlesi scent the air, especially at twilight, and the same is true of Daphne cneorum.
While the sweet odor of the latter would be appreciated, its color throws it out of the white garden.
Late-Flowering Shrubs
Daphne Somerset might be considered — a dense, 3-foot-tall shrub, not dwarf as is cneorum.
Very few late-flowering shrubs meet the qualifications of fragrant, white flowers, but buddleia Peace and White Bouquet do.
The long sprays of glistening white blooms, which are sweetly scented, are produced in the latter part of August and until frost strikes them.
Of course, Buddleias die back to the ground, but they come up vigorously the following Spring. While not fussy as to soil, they prefer a rich, well-drained loam.
Dressing them with well-rotted cow manure annually assures a prolific display of flowers.
Roses in a fragrant white garden — and I immediately think of the famous Frau Karl Druschki, one of the best of them all.
Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria is a lovely white, too, with a hint of lemon in its heart. Both these roses have been gracing gardens for almost 50 years.
Frau Karl Druschki can be kept low as a bedder or allowed to develop into a strong 6-foot tall bush; it can also be trained as a pillar rose.
Beautiful Hybrid Teas
The Minnesota State Department of Horticulture recently introduced a hardy everblooming white climber named White Dawn.
This results from a cross between New Dawn and the beautiful sub-zero hybrid tea Lily Pons.
Floribundas give a good account of themselves from June on, generously bearing their attractive flowers.
They must lie planted in groups to make an effective showing and arc useful as foreground subjects in the shrub border.
For Edging Garden Paths
In edging garden paths and beds by themselves, Snowbank, Summersnow, Little Swan, and Dagmar Spaeth are varieties for the white garden.
Shasta daisies, asters, and chrysanthemums all have good white forms. Bleeding-heart and coral bells now come in white dresses, and there is the new white Liatris.
Delphiniums raise lofty spires of white in the Pacific coast strain, appropriately named Galahad Series.
These are clear white with white bees. In the Percival Series, the bees are black or very dark blue.
But my favorites among perennials for a white garden are peonies, double and single, early, midseason, and late.
They are blessed with fragrance, too, strong in some varieties, faint in others. Outstanding white doubles.
There is a difference in the whiteness from the creamy Le Cygne to the white flecked with carmine of Festiva Maxima — are, in addition to these two, Mrs. A. M. Brand, Kelway’s Glorious, Mrs. Frank Beach, Baroness Schroeder, and Mrs. A. B. Franklin.
Dianthus In Fragrant Garden
And what would a fragrant garden be without the spicy odor of Dianthus? Yes, there are white garden pinks — Snowbird, Silvermine, and White Reserve.
The last is one of the finest, a free bloomer over a long period if the dying blooms are promptly removed.
On a sultry day in August, a border in partial shade will have a cool and refreshing appearance if planted with Hosta plantaginea grandiflora.
The yellowish green leaves are large and handsome, the lily-like flowers pure white and fragrant.
Lilies For A Fragrant Garden In Summer
Lilies, too, adorn the fragrant white garden in summer: the exquisite madonna lily, L. candidum, in June, the regal lily, L. regale, in July, and the gold band, L. auratum, in August.
I can think of no lovelier June border for the garden under discussion than a companion planting of madonna lilies and delphiniums of the Galahad Series.
With phlox Miss Lingard and dianthus White Reserve in front of them, white peonies as accents at the corners, and a clipped yew hedge as the background.
44659 by Dorothy Ebel Hansell