Startling Jungle: Color and Scent in the Romantic Garden

Stephen Lacey is a British gardener and not to be confused with Allen Lacy the prolific American garden writer who gardens and writes in New Jersey. Allen Lacy wrote the introduction to Stephen Lacey's book THE STARTLING GARDEN. Stephen Lacey takes the title of his book from Vita Sackville West, who wrote in 'The Garden' "Follow my steps, oh gardener, down these woods. Luxuriate in this my startling jungle." Lacey's book is a wonderful treatise on the relationship between the senses of sight and smell and the garden. For Lacey, the object of gardening is to engage and hold the senses through the use of startling elements. Perhaps you recall the English poet Alexander Pope suggested the use of elements of "surprise" in the formal garden--a statue placed in an opening you chance upon in a walk down a garden path? Well, Pope was writing about formal gardens, and Lacey is taking this as a starting point, but Lacey is writing about leaving the straight and narrow path of the formal garden and following the teachings of the romantic gardeners like Gertrude Jeckyll and Vita de Sackville West. In their gardens less attention was paid to architecture and shape, and more attention was paid to the effect of the garden on the senses. Sackville-West built the garden at Sissinghurst. I can recall one October strolling through the garden when most of the plants had been killed back by the frost. Every now and then I would stumble on a patch of not yet frostbitten flowers, and be "startled." One section in particular took my breath away. Just off the path in a niche of garden wall stood several large rose buses. All that remained of their summer glory were exceeding large red rose hips. Mixed in with the hips were Asters, just as tall as the rose bushes. The Asters were still covered with hundreds of small lavender-purple flowers that juxtaposed with the hips created a "startling" effect. Lacey says the use of startling elements is not to be confused with gaudy. If it were physically possible to plant a magenta Bougainvilla and a bright yellow Alamanda so they would intertwine and grow over a Hampshire rectory, you still wouldn't want to do it. On the other hand, a walkway consisting of overhanging bright yellow Laburnum blossoms underplanted with orange wallflowers is a magnificent thing. Why are these two combinations so different in their effect? One shocks and the other startles. Lacey says it has to do with the use of color. Some colors when combined can overwhelm the sense of sight while others stimulate without overpowering. Lacey also discusses the use of scent as a "startling" element. His garden year culminates in June-July when the roses are at their peak in England. Though the growing seasons are different in the states, the effects he describes can be achieved albeit at different times of the year depending on your growing zone. In my area (Zone 7) the peak for roses is usually May-early June, though I can have other peaks later in the summer