IRISH GARDENING. 



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victorious way over and under and lhrou_y:h vour 

 choicest plants until you be in despair. You may pull 

 them up, dig them out, and imag"ine you have seen the 

 last of them ; then if you are deluded enoug"h to think 

 you may safely take a holiday of a {^\\ weeks you will 

 come back, as I did, to find a new crop of cenlaureas 

 triumphantlv blooming; in October, while for the sun- 

 flowers let not theirgfolden gflorv tempt you oryou will rue 

 the dav you first saw them. So take a woyi of warning- ! 

 Continuing the list of good things, and coming towards 

 the middle of the border plant, such flowers of medium 

 height as Iceland poppies, crimson potentilla, the 



stylis with its small gladioIi-like blooms opening out in 

 October. Gaillardias can mingle with the handsome* 

 striped foliage of the funkias. Carnations are the most 

 choice of plants, but require much attention if they are to 

 give any return, so may be omitted in a general border. 

 Coming quite to the front there is room for a free use 

 oi the dwarfer Alpines, such as Gentiana acaulis, to 

 blend its intensely blue blossoms with those of the yellow 

 auricula, double arabis and its variegated form, and 

 golden masses oi Lysttnachia aurea — a rare form of the 

 Creeping Jenny. The lovely little white and blue hare- 

 bells, Campanula carpatica^ must not be forgotten, nor 









The Making ok Oi k Homi: 



I 111 i:\KRVARvixG, Ever \\'eiM)KKFi L Shannon. 



graceful pink henchera, all blooming in June, not 

 forgetting^ the new and lovely hybrid pseonies, 

 with, perhaps a group of Hyacinthus candicans to 

 break the monotony, as the tall plants must not all be 

 planted at the back. 



As the painter brings his most beautiful objects and 

 brilliant colours into the foreground of his picture, so 

 must the gardener bring his choicest and loveliest 

 flowers toward the front of the border, where Lobelia 

 cardinalis can glow its brightest in company with such 

 beauties as the white Spirea japuiiica and S. filipcn- 

 dida and the crimson form brunalda, gypsophila and 

 scarlet geum, with mimulus of \'aried hues, anemones 

 of sorts, notably the scarlet fulgens,and the lovely schizo- 



the finer sedums, such as Kamtschaticuni and the Star- 

 fish sedum, the fine Saxifraga pyramidalis with its 

 tall, white blooms. Alyssum saxatile is too well known 

 to need description, being simply a sheet of gold in April, 

 and later on the starry Saponaria ocymoides will bear its 

 pink blossoms in the same profusion. If an edging of 

 flat stone is used, irregularly, these Alpines will revel in 

 such a position, sending their roots deeplj' under the 

 stones for moisture and covering them over with 

 masses of foliage and flowers. 



It goes without saying that the delicate sedums and 

 saxifrages must have a light sandy soil, and it is still 

 more important that the silvery-leaved and variegated 

 plants must also have a poor soil else they will quickly 



