To read a page from the garden diary of Elizabeth von Arnim is to read of the beauty of a lush garden, blooming and fragrant in its revelry. Elizabeth so loved her garden that she wrote a book, Elizabeth and Her German Garden, which became a bestseller when it was first published in 1898.

She went on to write twenty more novels, several of which were adapted for the silver screen. Elizabeth was also a talented musician. She studied at the Royal College of Music in London and even performed for the daughter of Franz Liszt.

As much as she loved the arts, Elizabeth’s true love was her garden, as today’s passage from Elizabeth and Her German Garden makes evident. It reads more like a garden diary entry than a book, beginning with a date: May 16.

“There has been rain in the night, and the whole garden seems to be singing,” she writes. Her language and descriptions feel alive and vivid. She says of the lilac bushes, “—oh, those lilac bushes! They are all out to-day, and the garden is drenched with the scent. I have brought in armfuls, the picking is such a delight, and every pot and bowl and tub in the house is filled with purple glory.”

Her writing is absolutely gorgeous, and I hope you enjoy reading this passage as much as I did.

Beautiful Stories From a Garden Diary, Historical Views of Fruits, and Explorations of Gardens Past Are All Here in GreenPrints

This story comes from our archive that spans over 30 years and includes more than 130 magazine issues of GreenPrints. I love pieces like these that teach me some interesting facts, but also bring those facts to life and make them relevant for my daily trip to the garden. I hope you enjoy this story as well.

So Much Loveliness

by Elizabeth von Arnim

May 16.—On some very specially divine days, like to-day, I have actually longed for someone else to be here to enjoy the beauty with me. There has been rain in the night, and the whole garden seems to be singing—not the untiring birds only, but the vigorous plants, the happy grass and trees, the lilac bushes—oh, those lilac bushes! They are all out to-day, and the garden is drenched with the scent. I have brought in armfuls, the picking is such a delight, and every pot and bowl and tub in the house is filled with purple glory, and the servants think there is going to be a party and are extra nimble, and go from room to room gazing at the sweetness, and the windows are all flung open so as to join the scent within to the scent without; and the servants gradually discover that there is no party, and wonder why the house should be filled with flowers for one woman by herself, and I long more and more for a kindred spirit—it seems so greedy to have so much loveliness to oneself—but kindred spirits are so very, very rare; I might almost as well cry for the moon. It is true that my garden is full of friends, only they are—dumb. ❖

From Elizabeth and Her German Garden, by Elizabeth von Arnim, a 19th-century countess who found happiness in her garden. This exquisitely written garden memoir is the first book we ever sold, back in 1996, published originally in 2020, in GreenPrints Issue #121. Illustrated by Linda Cook Devona

Do you keep a garden diary?