DECEMBER 



IRISH GARDENING 



smells, to my mind, abominable, and is very gloomy : 

 still, one or two will make variety. Perhaps the most 

 g-enerally useful plant, after Lawson's Cyprus, is the 

 common female Aucuba. You can hardly have too 

 much of it. It is good in all stages, from the baby with 

 only her six or eight mottled leaves, in the foreground, 

 to the big spreading bush 4 feet high by 5 or 6 feet 

 through, to fill a big gap in the middle of your border. 

 It adapts itself most perfectly to pot culture. Then 

 there are all the Ivies, green, silver, and golden, and 

 some kinds which take on the exquisite crimson and 

 yellow-brown tints more readily than others; all of 

 them are useful, and with care — but mark this well, 

 Ivies do want care and attention to train them into 

 nice pot-plants — but, with careful training, they make 

 charming specimens. The best, I fancy, is the great 

 heart-shaped leafed one which I know under the 

 nime of ' Algerian ! Ivy. though I am doubtful whether 

 it is that \ariety or i/cii/ata, or Roegner's, but all three 

 are good. 



" Having thus made up a good stock of these and 

 many other common things which will at once occur to 

 you — Berberis Aqiiifolium and Retiiwspora plutuosa, for 

 example — you must begin to think about laying in your 

 gems, the little beauties which are to attract the chief 

 attention in your borders, like the diamonds and 

 amethysts and rubies in a jewel. And first of all 30U 

 must have one or two specimens of Refinospora 

 iibtiisa nana, a shrub on which the light and shade 

 glints more artistically than on any other plant I know. 

 It is quite perfect, with its soft, flat, spreading branch- 

 lets. Then, amongst the other Retinosporas, there are 

 plumosa aurea, obtusa aurca, obtusa gracilis aurca, and 

 pisifera aurea, all with a charming golden hue upon 

 them ; R. ericoides, with a claret-brown mossy appear- 

 ance ; and R. leptoclada, a dark purply green, and one 

 of the most quaint, old-fashioned looking and slow- 

 growing shrubs possible. Amongst the Cypresses there 

 is also pyraniidalis alba, a very pretty feathery and 

 slightly variegated shrub ; Laivsoniana aurca, by far 

 out and away the best golden shrub I have yet met 

 with ; L. nana, a perfect little ball of vivid green, and of 

 \ery slow and stunted, but most healthy- looking growth ; 

 and Z. argenfea, with a most lovely weeping habit. These 

 I fancy are the best. Thujopsis coinpacta is another 

 charmingly soft-looking, feathery plant, much in the 

 same way as the last named Cypress. I pass on to the 

 Hollies ; and amongst the common green many 

 varieties will at once be seen in an}- nursery plantation 

 raised from seed, varying in colour from bright green 

 to almost black, and some with a bronzy hue upon 

 them, varying also not inconsiderably in the breadth of 

 the individual leaves. Here, again, as with Lawson's 

 Cypress, make a good selection of all sorts. Amongst 

 the variegated Hollies there stand out pre-eminently 

 Golden Queen and Silver Queen, the leaves of which 

 are perfect pictures in themselves, but Waterer's Golden 

 I find of better and more compact growth, though not 

 quite so beautiful ; you must have all three. Then 

 there are Ilex myrtifolia and laurifolia, both with leaves 

 of most vivid, shining green, and Hodgin's and Shep- 

 herd's Hollies, both with magnificently broad and 

 almost black-green leaves; none must be missing. 

 Osmanthus ilicifolius must by no means be omitted. 

 It is of slow ant! compact growth, and some of its 



varieties have leaves of a most glorious bronzy purple 

 colour, and shine with a perfectly metallic lustre, like 

 br-own steel. The (Jolden Yew makes a very fine pot 

 plant, and so does the Irish — better, indeed, than the 

 common Yew does. There is one plant which I like very 

 much, but have left till last because I am told that it is 

 not frost proof, and this obviously is a sine qua non 

 in winter gardening; but with me it has stood and 

 flourished during five winters, which have sufficed 

 to kill down to the root the common as well as the 

 variegated Euonymus japoniciis, so that I think you 

 may rely upon its hardiness, south of the Thames at 

 least. It is Elceagnus japoniciis variegatus ; it has 

 loveh- olive-green leaves, edged and blotched with a 

 rich cream colour, and the wood part of the shoots is 

 thickly clothed with rich chocolate brown hairs or 

 scales ; altogether I think it a delightful plant to have 

 just one or two specimens of. There is no suggestion 

 of disease in its variegation, a fault which, to my mind, 

 utterly ruins so many variegated plants. Time would 

 fail me to tell of Rhododendrons, Andromedas, and 

 Kalmias, Bays and Laurustinus, the Chinese Juniper 

 Thujopsis Borealis, and many others, all of which do 

 excellently for pot culture, and may be had at very little 

 cost. 



" Hitherto I have only incidentally remarked that small 

 specimens, especially baby Aucubas and small Berberis 

 Aquifolium in tiny pots, do well for the front row ; but 

 there are a few excellent things that do permanently 

 for front places. Amongst these the two best plants, 

 by far, I know of (and both are propagated with the 

 greatest ease, the first from layerings, the second from 

 spores) are Erica herbacea carnca, with its soft mossy 

 cushions smothered with bright pink flowers in 

 February and March, and the Shield Fern {Polystichiun 

 aculeatuni), with its long graceful leaves swaying with 

 every wind ; of these you cannot have too many. One 

 or two of the white variety of E. herbacea are very use- 

 ful for variety, and the flowers are charming in mid- 

 winter. Gaultlieria Shallon makes a good pot plant for 

 midway between the front and second rows ; so, too, 

 do the varieties oi Menziesia polifolia, or Irish Heath ; 

 but the white one is the only one whose flowers I care 

 for, and they are charming, but I am not sure that the 

 plant is alway frost-proof. The common Hart's 

 Tongue Fern {Scolopeadriuni vulgare) I use a great 

 deal of for quite the front, bur it is not altogether 

 satisfactory, as an early wet frost is apt to take the 

 colour in blotches out of its glorious broad, green 

 leaves. Arabis albida, Iberis cori folia, and such like, 

 serve for a pleasant change, and Christmas roses in 

 pots are ever welcome. I do not mention Snowdrops, 

 Crocuses, Daffodils, &c., as they belong niore to the 

 subject of spring than of winter gardening. 



"And now a word or two as to culture, &c. The 

 plants having been procured are potted into the smallest 

 sized pots they will conveniently 'jZ.o into, and in the 

 end of October when frost has reduced the Dahlias, &c., 

 to pulp they are plunged very carefully in between the 

 P.-eonies. perennial Sunflowers, Irises, Phloxes, Spirseas, 

 Asters and other herbaceous rootstocks. Great care is 

 taken in plunging ; we rather leave a gap than injure 

 in the smallest degree a stool of any good hardy plant ; 

 but where the Dahlias, Paris Daisies, Calceolarias, 

 Geraniums and such like come out, and where the 



