Catalogue
‘Now is the time for planting shrubs.’
Shall I plant shrubs? ‘Shrubs’ is an ugly word!
When one says shrubs, I think of suburbs,
Damp villas, desert isles, detective stories.
(’Bank’ is an ugly word – and yet one said
‘I know a bank where the wild thyme grows’)
Come, let me read this catalogue of shrubs,
And choose out those with lovely-sounding names.
Adenandra uniflora, Aloysia Citriodora,
Iochroma Tubulosa, Podalyria Grandiflora,
Melaleuca, Santolina, Lasiandra,
Cantua, Cassia, Felecia, Luculia,
Daphne – – –
Shrubs. I am planting shrubs.
.
From a Garden in the Antipodes (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1929)
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