IRISH GARDENING 



3 



aa old-fashioned sweet poa, but the standard is 

 bent back so as to form a line with the keel. The 

 colour is a brilliant scarlet, with the faintest sug- 

 gestion of purple in it, and the pigmentation is 

 so dense that it looks as if it had been put on 

 with a brush. The foliaec is slender and the 

 leaves narrow, but in its natural habitat the 

 plant will climb twenty feet. 



These are but a few rand(im jottings that occur 

 to me, and if they contain nothing that is new 

 or interesting, the fact that they are written by 

 one who has not seen California for seven years, 

 and who has not by him a note or a book from 

 which to refresh an indifferent memory, must 

 be a partial excuse. 



I have seen cyclopena excavations undertaken; an 

 area dug out to the depth of a yard, a drain 

 carried down all rnund the margin for a couple 

 of feet more, with an outlet at the lowest level 

 to take right away water percolating in from the 

 surrounding soil. Yet in ten years the treasured 

 Rhododendrons wliich had been planted in the 

 imported peaty soil were turning yellow — a sure 

 sign of lime poisoning. 



Thiwilling to be deprived of Erica and Bryan- 

 thus, I argued this way : in our wet climate, the 

 general movement of soil water is downward, not 

 upward; peat spread on the surface of the ground 

 instead of shot into ,i hole wall, therefore, not tend 

 to draw up the limy water from below; the 



CAMr.\NUL.\ PULLA (page 5). 



Notes from a Small Garden. 



Bv R. rj.oYD Praeger, B.A., B.E. 



Ericacegc on a Limestone Soil. 



A LIMY soil is the best for a good many good 

 plants, but gardeners whose lot it is to live on 

 one — like us about Dublin — lose, I fancy, more 

 than they gain. Without special preparation, they 

 find themselves cut off, for instance, from practi- 

 cally the whole of that lovely family, the Eiica- 

 cct — lilioilodendionx. Ilenths, Androinechix, Arc- 

 iustaph ijlns, (rduTtlieritis. Cassiopes, Bi)/(inthus, 

 K'llmia-'', Lrdinnx, &c. These genera include not 

 only big things which need a correspondingly big 

 root-run, but many beautiful small things, down to 

 liny alpines. In the latter cases, at least, it is 

 feasible to provide an imported lime-free soil. 

 How is this to be done ? How is the taint of lime 

 to be excluded and lime water to be kept away? 



Ericacefe are mostly shallow-rooting things, and 

 do not require a deep soil; and, finally, our damp 

 climate will mostly prevent heaped-up peat from 

 getting too dry. So I mixed the half-foot of sur- 

 face soil, out of which most of the lime had been 

 long since washed, with a foot and a half of peat 

 and leaf-mould, and put my plants in the raised 

 beds thus formed, the situation chosen being one 

 where the hot afternoon sun was cut off. The 

 result was quite satisfactory. After eleven years 

 the plants are vigorous and of a healthy, dark- 

 green colour, and flower splendidly. The growth 

 they have made may be shown by a few ex- 

 amples : — Ericn ai harea, 12 feet high (10 years' 

 growth); E. austrdUs, 6 feet high; Fhododendion 

 prxcox, a round bush, 4 feet high, covered with 

 bloom every February; 7?. micranthum, ditto; 

 Biihrrcia and the smaller Heaths grow rampantly, 

 and, among more difficult things, Bryanthiis 

 ererttix and B. fn.rifoUiis have done extremely 

 well. Never until this year has drought been 



