298 



GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



Notes From An Old Country Garden 



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



IN both rock-garden and woodland at all seasons, save 

 Winter, the Foam Flower (Tiarella cordifolia) is a 

 delightful plant. At the time of writing (mid-Novem- 

 ber) its pretty foliage, which so tastefully adorns the stony 

 clefts in the rock-garden and the margins of the wild gar- 

 den paths, is still gay with the crimson and bronze of its 

 autumnal coloring. Nor shall we have to wait very long 

 before the l'"oam Flower begins to thrust up its flesh-pink, 

 budding spires, for it is one of the earliest of Spring 

 flowers to break into activity. As for the fluiify heads of 

 blossom which last far into .Summer, few flowers can 

 create more pleasing effect in the half -shade with a back- 

 ground of green than these. But, being familiar to Ameri- 

 cans as a native, one need not dwell further upon the 

 charms of T. cordifolia. It has, however, a near relative 

 in T. unifoliata (also American) which may not be so 

 well known to my readers. This makes spikes of bloom 

 three or four times as high and as large as those of T. 

 cordifolia. Its broad, palmate leaves are some four inches 

 across and they grow in a bold tuft and here have an 

 inclination to remain green all Winter. T. unifoliata dif- 

 fers also from the above in one important particular, i, e., 

 it never runs, but remains in one clump. It makes quite 

 a good plant for the border where cool conditions can be 

 provided and it is by no means averse to good living in 

 the way of an occasional top-dressing of old cow manure. 



Another little woodlander hailing from the New World 

 which is very happy here is Cornus canadensis, the Bunch 

 Berry, a creeping Dogwood of the Rockies and elsewhere. 

 We have established this plant in one or two cool corners 

 and, though not a showy subject, one's interest in it never 

 seems to wane. In Spring and nearly all Summer it pro- 

 vides a succession of its creamy-white, four-pointed stars 

 in their ruffles of green, and in the Fall the leaves develop 

 rich shades of plum-red and maroon. 



The Bunch Berry is associated in my memory of good 

 days in many a forested defile of the Rockies with that 

 daintiest of trailing plants, the Twin-flower ( Linnrea 

 borealis ) . Strictly speaking, I believe, L. borealis actually 

 belongs to Northern Furope, the species (or form of the 

 same thing) common to America and Canada being L. 

 canadensis. .-\t any rate, there is no doubt that the latter 

 is much the finer of the two, being not only larger in all 

 its parts, but the elegant, fragrant flowers, nodding on 

 their hair-like stems, are a fuller-toned pink. In our 

 gardens L. canadensis also has the rejiutation for being 

 more easily established than the European form. We 

 find but little difficulty in satisfying this delightful plant, 

 all it seems to require being a half-shady nook with its 

 roots in light vegetable soil and a mossy rock or stump to 

 ramble over. The Linnaeas are allied to the Honeysuckle 

 Family and their flowers have a faint odor of almonds. 



To my mind one of the mf)st attractive ])lants in bloom 

 in our Autumn garden is the Winter-flowering Periwinkle 

 fVinca difformis). This has a habit and foliage some- 

 what after those of Y. major, but it is not nearly so 

 rampant a grower and in every way a much choicer 

 species. \'. difformis (media) comes from Portugal antl 

 the flowers it bears so liberally during spells of open 

 weather from Sei)tember to .Spring are a cold, icy white 

 with just a thin wash of palest blue to intensify their 

 whiteness. These blossoms, with their sharply-pointed 

 segments, are singularly lovely against the dark, glossy 

 green of the foliage, and they are even more beautiful 

 in shade, to which the plant is by no means averse, V. 



acutitlora. though similar in all other respects, has its 

 flowers tinged with pale lavender instead of blue. This 

 is probablv a geographical form of the above. 



A Periwinkle that is entirely herbaceous may make an 

 appeal to those who have to give all but the hardiest sub- 

 jects a heavy Winter covering. I refer to V. herbacea, 

 a pretty little trailing plant which throughout the Summer 

 will adorn any sunny or half-shady ledge in the rock- 

 garden with its long, prostrate branches and leathery, deep 

 green leaves, and maintain a long succession of clear blue, 

 star-like flowers. This appears to be quite hardy any- 

 where here in a well-drained soil. But as it propagates 

 itself freely by rooting its creeping runners, small plants 

 can always be lifted in the Fall, given Wititer protection 

 and put out again in Spring. 



Though one of the first shrubs to assume its autumnal 

 coloring Azalea pontica (Rhododendron flavum) has been 

 among the last to yield. Thus, for some ten weeks the 

 groups of this fine old species have been flaming with 

 brilliant shades of crimson and scarlet, orange-yellow and 

 bronze. I often think we do not value this splendid sub- 

 ject as highly as we ought to do, for it has merits which 

 should give it a place among the very best of its race. 

 It is perfectly hardy, easily grown almost anywhere, it 

 flowers profusely, the large yellow blossoms are deliciously 

 scented and then, to wind-up, there are those gorgeous 

 Fall tints to which I have alluded. 



It is by no means uncommon for A. pontica to attain the 

 height of 10 feet and to have a diameter, of equal dimen- 

 sions. These old specimens may be rather smaller in the 

 blossom than the younger ones, but when every twig 

 terminates in a truss of flowers, the bush being lit from 

 top to base with a flame of yellow, A. pontica can have 

 few rivals, and the delightful fragrance of that mass of 

 blossom will pervade the air of the whole garden. We 

 find that this old favorite prospers and blooms well in 

 very light, porous loam that burns hot in dry Summers, 

 a feat that few of its kind can accomplish. 



A little shrub that is always extremely attractive not 

 onlv at this .season but throughout the year is Pernettya 

 mucronata. This is a dwarf evergreen from the ^Magellan 

 Straits and it is probably the hardiest of all South .\meri- 

 can shrubs. It does not exceed much more than four 

 feet in height with us, but it makes a dense thicket of 

 growth with its thin, wiry stems and innumerable, small 

 pointed leaves which are a very dark glossy green. P. 

 mucronata belongs to the ericaceous family and if the 

 little flowers that are produced in May are incons])icuous, 

 the sjjecies makes amends for this short-coming by bear- 

 ing a crop of berries of extraordinary size and in a wide 

 variety of colors. The.se fruits ripen in early Fall and re- 

 main on the shrub until the following Spring — sometimes, 

 indeed, until the succeeding crop apjiears. They are 

 round, often one-half inch in diameter and afford almost 

 c'\ery cimceivablc shade of color from white through 

 blush to ])ink: from pink to lilac, purple and mauve and 

 s(i nil In rosy-crimson, blood-red and plum-black. I'.ven 

 little bushes of 6 inches in height are at the time of writ- 

 ing heavily clustered with fruit, and though so near the 

 ground, birds and nu'cc do not seem to touch their amaz- 

 ing yield. 



These Pcrnettyas, flistiiiguished by the color of the 

 berries, are, as I have indicated, all varieties of the one 

 sjjecies. They are hardy enough to stand 25 to 30 degrees 

 (Cov'hiucd (w /T/.c 302) 



