For Augusi, 1'I23 



199 



Notes from an Old Country Garden 



ARTHUR T. JOHNSON, F.R.H.S. 



IN the Jutu' issue of the Gardexers' Chronicle Wil- 

 ham X. Craig' has some interesting" notes on azaleas, 

 and I am glad to hear that that fine American species, 

 ^'aseyii, is as popular in its native land as it is with us. 

 There is. as Mr. Craig' says, something extremely charm- 

 ing about this beautiful shrul), -with its Ijlush-pink, or pure 

 wliite, blossoms, and it is a reliable bloomer every April 

 with us. A. viscosnm, the Swamp Honeysuckle, a com- 

 ])atriot of \'aseyii, is hardly less lovely and exceedingly 

 fragrant. This fine species was very Inrgely used by the 



Roiniwya Coiillcri 



old hx'bridists, and many of our sweetest and best garden 

 fornis we owe to it. Much later in flowering than the 

 foregoing, the blossoms of A. viscosum synchronize with 

 those of the latest of all, the Californian A. occidentale. 

 Being a deciduous species and one that flowers in July 

 this azealea should prove as hardy as most of those usually 

 considered frost-proof, and it makes a most delightful, 

 loose-habited bush bearingf good-sized, fragrant blossoms 

 in a pure white, sometimes shaded with a rosy flush. I 

 cherish many glorious memories of California's flower- 

 filled vallevs, but none of them are more vividly recalled 

 than those of shoulder-high thickets of A. occidentale 

 whose thronging masses formed the greater part of the 

 undergrowth of a vast forest of deciduous oaks. Like so 

 many of North American azaleas this Californian species 

 has proved a first-rate "breeder" and to it also we are in- 

 debted for many of our most delightful late-flowing hy- 

 brids. 



Another most fascinating little shrub among the Sum- 

 mer-blooming azaleas is Rhododendron azaleoides, and 

 this again, though partly evergreen in some districts, may 

 be considered deciduous and hardy enough for the bleakest 

 climate Western Europe aftords. Indeed, when one con- 

 siders that the parents of R. azaleoides were Rhododendron 

 maximum, the Great American Laurel, and the above- 

 mentioned A. viscosum, one has a combination which sug'- 

 gests extreme hardiness and reliability. This pretty shrub, 

 which grows up to three to four feet, usually opens its 



flowers here abiiut mid-June or later, and the large and 

 bold trusses of white, lilac-tinted blossoms, which are 

 most deliciouslv scented, then "carry-on" for many weeks 

 during full Summer. 



i\merican shrubs are so much in evidence in my garden 

 just now that I could hardly do better than refer to one 

 or two moi'e. C)ne of these is that old favorite Kalmia 

 lati folia. Though introduced two centuries ago this mag- 

 nificent shrub is not yet commonly known. But it holds its 

 own amid the influx of novelties and nothing' will ever 

 imperil the foremost position it occupies among the 

 choicest of our .Summer-blooming" evergreens. The wax- 

 en, rosy-pink, pentagonal flowers are singularly lovely and 

 this species is the only one of the Kalmias which is really 

 prosperous in our rather dry, loamy soil, the others ap- 

 ])earing" to be more dependent upon a peaty medium. The 

 flowers of K. latifolia are as interesting as they are beauti- 

 ful, for if the point of a pencil is inserted into the centre 

 of a blossom it will be noticed that one or more of the 

 five stamens, each of which is bent back against an angle 

 of the corolla, will be released and, recoiling like a steel 

 spring, send a little puft" of yellow pollen into the sunlit 

 air. 



Carpentaria Californica is hardy enough for any of our 

 counties which enjoy a sea-influence and its rich green 

 foliage and large, anemone-like, fragrant flowers make a 

 rare combination. This is a lime-loving shrub which likes 

 a warm, freely-drained soil no less than do its near rela- 

 tions the Philadelphuses (Mock Orange). We grow a 

 goodly number of these latter, for they come into flower at 

 a time when all the Spring things are over and, being 

 practically drought-proof, they suit our light land. Here 

 one can not do more than mention a few of the best, and I 

 think the pure white, doub'e-flowered, P. virginal must be 

 accorded first place. This is a most striking" shrub of 

 some eight feet in height, the leafage is a deep green and 

 the very large flowers, with their prettily incurved petals, 

 are extremely chaste and refined. P. grandiflorus of the 

 .Southern States of America might be described as a great- 

 ly improved coronarius, the blossoms being whiter and the 

 slight fragrance more delicate than those of the latter. 

 Then there is the excellent hybrid, P. voie lactee, with 

 single, milk-white blooms of great size and firmness of 

 texture, and several varieties with purple-blotched petals, 

 suggesting a Cistus, which are ofif shoots of the Mexican 

 species, P. Coulteri. P. Lewisii is a N. W. American 

 species whose great and distinct merits have not yet been 

 fully appreciated on "this side," and the prettv P. hirsutus 

 of California appears to be a more tender form of the same 

 thing". 



When Fremontia Californica goes over towards the end 

 of July the great Romneya Coulteri opens the first of its 

 superb blossoms, and from that time onwards to the sea- 

 son's end it stands unrivaled among the noblest subjects in 

 the garden. I need not point out to American readers the 

 outstanding magnificence of R. Coulteri, nor the singular 

 beauts' of Dendromecon rigidum which blooms at the same 

 time. But there is another sub-shrubby plant which is 

 grouped with the above in this garden, and which also is 

 in flower at the time of writing, and that is Lavatera olbia. 

 This is probably the most beautiful of all the mallows, a 

 robust, sub-shrubby perennial which makes a large bush 

 some four feet in height and five feet through with thick 

 and hairy vine-like leaves. The flowers which crowd the 

 elegant growths of this plant and which bear no little re- 

 semblance to those of a single Hollyhock are a fresh, sil- 

 very-pink deeply rayed with a rosy carmine. L. olbia will 



