IRISH GARDENING 



19 



Geranium Travergi, Erodiiim chrysantlium, 

 Lithogpermum graminifolium, Androgace 

 Hedracautha, Drabas and gome particularly 

 fine coloured forms of Lychnis lagacsse, but the 

 glory of this rock-work is a wonderful plant of 

 Viola Valderia wliich, a miff in so many places, 

 here ramps around and never ceases to flower. 

 The path from this portion of the garden 

 drops down to the lake, hugs a cliff base (covered 

 with Osmunda fern and Sax. umbrosa), then 

 leads up through the Rose garden, with its 

 liedges of Sweet Pea, thr(/Ugh the Dahlia garden, 

 round the Lily ponds, where one notices Water 

 Lil'es — p'nk and red — both in the ponds and in 

 the bay, then up agaiii over the heather-topped 

 lake edge and r<.und the ponat, whence a sharp 

 descent brings us to the rock gorge, which is 

 gradually being re- 

 claimed and utilised 

 as a rock garden. 

 This gorge is, where 

 it commences at the 

 top of the hill, alx-ut 

 ten yards wide ; it 

 widens as it de- 

 scends in natural 

 rock terraces till, 

 at the lake shore, 

 it is about thirty- 

 five yards across ; 

 down its centre 

 flows a small stream 

 in cascades : its 

 spring dammed up 

 and diverted into 

 a large reservoir 

 high up out of sight, 

 supply of water. In 

 grow moisture -loving 

 deorum and P. rosea, 

 rock terraces are filled 



Campanulas galore (C. raddeana especially fine). 

 Other plants doing well are Platycodon Mariesii , 

 Nierembergia rivularis, Kirengeshoma palmata, 

 Camp. Waldsteiniana, Wahlenl)ergia Saxieola, 

 Dodecatheon meadia ; higher up were dwarf 

 Rhododendrons, such as R. racemosum, R. 

 Kamschaticum, Ledums, Kalmias, and a fine 

 Lithospermum prostratum, and everywhere 

 Erythrea diffusa — the pink Gentian is a most 

 uncertain plant with me. l)ut at Lisnabrucka it 

 has to be Aveeded out by the basketful. It and 

 Camp. barl)ata and rotundifolia are waging 

 eternal war for the j)ossession of the garden, 

 their seedlings are everywhere. As one descends 

 towards the lake shore one notes bright forms 

 of Dianthus deltoides and D. Grisebachii. The 

 eastern side is very exposed and suffers from 



drip, nevertheless hybrid Aquilegias and Sedums 

 are naturalising themselves freely. Then lower 

 down one passes over a little stream, which winds 

 round a boggy patch in which Iris Koempferl, 

 Gentians and bog Primulas luxuriate ; lastly, 

 just above the lake level, one sees a rubbly bank, 

 and here Saxifrages find their happiest home. 

 Small bits put in last summer are already 

 jostling each other, and in another year this 

 bank should be a magnificent sight. 



Mr. Willcox has been most fortunate in 

 securing such a site for his rock garden, and it 

 has been laid out with considerable skill and 

 judgment, the natural features of the gorge have 

 been retained and worked into the general 

 scheme, and so natural does it apj)ear from the 

 lake that the presence of a garden seat alone 



prevents one from 

 imagining that these 

 welcome patches of 

 colour on the brown 

 hillside have been 

 planted there by 

 nature. 



Although the sur- 

 roundings of this 

 rock garden and the 

 view from it render 

 it in some respects 

 unique, yet the form 

 of its natural site 

 is not uncommon 

 in other hilly parts 

 of Ireland. To 



Vri:\v Tx Till'. (Iai;i)i;ns at I.isxABnrcKA HorsK 



ensuring a constant 

 the bed of tlie stream 

 Primulas, such as P. 

 aiid endless Iris. The 



with choice plants — 



any one jiossessing 

 such a site and 

 wishing to utihse it as a garden the Lisna- 

 brucka rock garden should i)rove a good 

 object lesson. 



Saxifrage cotyledon icelandica. 



In Irish Gardening for Februaiy, 1916, I 

 mentioned that I had grown this Saxi- 

 frage for four or five years, but without 

 flowering it. Last spring I put a vigorous 

 rosette into a four -inch pot, and at the 

 begiiming of May it showed signs of bloom- 

 ing. Eventually it threw up a flower- 

 spike alxjut two feet long, which remained in 

 bloom for many weeks. The individual flower 

 is a solid white, and better than S. longifolia. 

 The sj)ike is more graceful than the somewhat 

 stodgy form of longifoha, but more compact 

 than the ordinary S. cotyledon pyramidalis. 



J. Harper Scaife. 

 Dalkey. 



