For April, 1922 



125 



CLOTHING THE GROUND BENEATH TREES 



IN' gardens where large trees are growing the ground beneath 

 them is too often regarded as useless, and in the consequent 

 neglect it is frequently allowed to become more or less an eye- 

 sore. It is certainly not always easy to beautify these shady spots, 

 especially in the case of ground beneath old Yew-trees, or similar 

 subjects where the numerous roots occupy the whole of the surface- 

 soil. But with proper treatment, accompanied by the necessary 

 patience, even these unpromising places may, to a certain extent, 

 be beautified by a suitable selection of plants. The first steps to 

 be taken are to fork over the ground, and where the mat roots 

 are particularly abundant put a layer of soil. To this may be 

 added some decomposed manure or leaf-mold. Any old dis- 

 carded soil from the potting-shed or elsewhere will serve the pur- 

 pose quite well. It should, of course, be remembered that the 

 innumerable tree roots are always greedily absorliing nourishment 

 from the freshly-added compost, so that it is advisable to renew 

 the top-dressing every twelve months, or even oftener if the oc- 

 casion shall demand it. 



The Butcher's Broom, when once established, is an excellent 

 dwarf shrub for growing in hungry soils. It will stand the drip 

 well, it does not object to shade, and it will fiourish exceedingly 

 well in time of drought. Ivy, of course, makes an ideal evergreen 

 clothing for ground under trees, neither is it at all difficult to 

 establish. The gold and silver variegated forms of Euonyinus 

 radicans may also be relied upon for the purpose under consider- 

 ation. They are beautiful trailing plants, and look most attractive 

 at anv season of the year. Then there is the handsome Bcrbcris 

 (Mahonia) aquijoVmin. It is worth while taking special care in 

 planting this shrub. Give it a good rooting medium to start with, 

 and water it well in. .Afterwards it will take care of itself and 

 well repay any pains taken with it. Whether in the Spring, when 

 the bright golden blossoms are showily asserting themselves, or in 

 the Autumn and Winter during the period of rich leaf-coloration, 

 this charming plant always has some special attraction. Peri- 

 winkles and St. John's Worts, too, may be freely employed to 

 beautify the ground beneath trees, and they will both flourish in the 

 poorest of soils without any sunshine. 



Among bulbous subjects there are a few which will give a 

 good account of themselves in the position indicated. Snowdrops 

 and Scillas, Ornithogalums, and Eraiithis Itxcmails will all do 

 well under trees. Special mention might be made of the lovely 

 hardy Cyclamens. These are easily established even among the 

 active roots of trees, and they luxuriate abundantly in the shade 

 which the branches afford. The foliage of these little woodland 

 gems is quite effective, while the dainty flowers last for a con- 

 siderable time. The tubers should be put in just below the soil 

 surface. These, together with the other bulbs mentioned, should 

 be planted in bold, irregular groups, and they will multiply and 

 spread in their own fashion and duly gladden the earth with their 

 gay blossoms. Then, of course, there are Primroses and Polyan- 

 thuses, while even Foxgloves may be coaxed into bloom in certain 

 localities. 



This list is not by any means a complete one, but a careful 

 planting of those sorts mentioned will, at any rate, do much 

 towards beautifying those spots which neglect has previously 

 allowed to remain bare and unsightly. — Gardiviing Illustrated. 



PLANTS THAT ARE PESTS 



IT must, I suppose, be admitted that a plant which behaves as a 

 pest in one soil or climate may be quite orderly and charming 

 in another; also that a plant which is a nuisance in the rock 

 garden may be a most desirable subject somewhere else. That be- 

 ing so, there must inevitably exist a number of opinions as to the 

 moral character of various plants whose reputations have at one 

 time or another been called in question. Notwithstanding, it is 

 always permissible to make observations on subjects of which 

 one personally has had painful e-xperience : this so that those who 

 are planting may at least take due warning. 



One of the earliest of my errors in this respect was the chance 

 planting of a root or two of the Welsh Poppy (Mccoiiopsis caiii- 

 brica) in some steps. This pretty thing, so admirable for wood- 

 land, has not yet been extirpated, and I doubt if it ever will, so 

 firmly is it entrenched in the masonry, so grimly holding ground 

 that might be occupied by something better. I am assured, how- 

 ever, that the beautiful bronze (single) form does not ofifend 

 like the type. 



Oxails spcctabilis (?), lovely in flower and foliage is even a 

 worse pest than the Poppy, i. e., in the wrong place. It spreads 

 by underground runners, probably by seed and by begetting 

 legions of little bulbs which, on lifting a plant, scatter all over 

 the place and are small enough to be carried on one's boots and 

 tools from place to place. O.ralis spcctabilis. once you get it in 

 a soil that it likes, is a very murrain, and on the knees of repent- 

 ance have I besought it these many years to take its spawn else- 

 where. 



As for the creeping Linarias, I have yet to meet the one I can 

 contemplate without distrust. L. cy)nbalaria (Kenilworth Ivy) 

 has never had much opportunity of doing its worst here. The 

 admirable pallida was put in a few years ago on the assumption 

 that it was not a rampant colonizer, but it, alas ! is also branded 

 with the same family curse. Even pretty little hcpaticwfolia is 

 displaying symptoms of energy which arouse suspicion, and I 

 am not unduly fidgety in regard to these things. 



Helxinc Solicroli will swarm over anything witli the rapidity 

 of a fungus, but one can here rejoice in its wonderful glossy green 

 and flowers like gold dust, knowing that a sharp frost or two 

 will clip its wings and bring it back to moderation before another 

 Spring. Not so Epihlnuin numinnlarifolium, w^hich, though 

 hardly so difficult to weed out, is too lively and prolific for the 

 rock garden. Nor can I suffer gladly another of its genus, called, 

 I think, E. glabclliim, despite its more attractive appearance. But, 

 whereas these only creep on the surface and sow the parish with 

 their feathered seed, what shall one say of Convok'utus attlucioides 

 (properly C. tciiiiissiinus) of most catalogs? No more beauti- 

 ful plant lives than this one. with its big rose-satin trumpets and 

 finely cut, pale gray foliage. (The true leaves are green and 

 almost exactly like those of a young Ragwort.) Yet it is the 

 most rampaging, fighting, overwhelming weed that ever burrowed 

 into forbidden ground. The couch-like roots know no obstacle, 

 recognize no limitation. They will push under a gravel path or 

 flight of steps without showing a sign until, 4 ft. or 5 ft. away, 

 you will one day observe a little rosette of green, crinkly leaves 

 and realize in sackcloth and ashes that C. althmoides has not only 

 "got there," hut fully secured his lines of communication. Still, 

 one cannot be too severe on a plant so lovely and one so generous 

 with its flowers. 



O.ralis corniculata nibra, I am ready to believe, may be a pleas- 

 ing object where one can afford to let it have its own way, but 

 I know nothing so diflicult to get out once it is established, nothing 

 that spreads so rampantly. It has no compensations to offer me 

 in return for the depths of woe into which I have been cast by its 

 unwelcome persistence. The exquisitely beautiful Cardamine 

 prtrtcusis fl.-pl. can be troublesome too, in some places, for, in 

 forfeiting the usual means of procreation by adopting the double 

 form, it has ingeniously devised another means of increase, i. e., 

 by layering its leaves. Thus, every lower leaf that rests on 

 moist soil sends down a tiny rootlet from its midrib and a new 

 plant is born. This youngster immediately follows suit, with the 

 result that a single plant of C. prcctcnsis will soon swarm over a 

 square yard. But, again, one cannot be too hard on a plant so 

 attractive, and its surplus offspring are easily uprooted. 



Some of the Cotulas, squalida to wit, will give trouble if 

 allowed too much license, and Accciui Nozrx Zcalandia is not only 

 too boisterous for a rock garden of moderate size, but its burrs 

 are an intolerable nuisance. For these reasons the latter has been 

 banished, and the old Red Valerian (C cntmnthus rubra) has also 

 had to go. even the one clump which for long was spared and 

 suffered for the sake of the butterflies. With Crucianella stylosa 

 one must also be careful, for it is often much too vigorous for the 

 rock garden and a plant that cannot be dislodged without remov- 

 ing the stones which it enmeshes. 



The old St. John's Wort (Hypcriciiin calycinum) would hardly 

 be planted in the rock garden by the simplest of tyros, but as there 

 are doubtless some who may be tempted to put it in as a carpet- 

 ing for shrubs, I can advise them to make sure that it is kept at 

 a safe distance. An average- path, for example, will not keep 

 this pushful plant within bounds, nor will a stone wall. Its 

 hydra-headed root-stems are more diflicult to stop than those of 

 any other plant with which I am acquainted, the wild white Con- 

 z'olvulus not excepted, and for having given it too much quarter 

 in the past we are being punished by H. calycinum no less con- 

 dignly than the indiscreet deserve. — The Garden. 



To read without reflecting is like eating without . digesting. — 

 Edmund Burke. 



