IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XI 



No. 126 



Editor— J W. Besant. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



AUGUST 

 1916 



Hardy Heaths for the Rock Garden. 



I HAVE often wondered tliat we do not see and 

 hear more about the hardy Heaths. Few plants 

 are so entirely satisfactory when suitably placed 

 and none are less spoiled by the vagaries of the 

 weather. Then their 

 culture j)resen,ts so 

 little diflic ulty, pro- 

 vided ths soil is free 

 from limj, and one 

 or two varieties will 

 even tolerate this. 

 Peat i d esirable, but 

 not necessary, and 

 in any light sandy 

 soil, with a full ex- 

 posure to sun and 

 air, the hardy Heaths 

 will flourish. Verj^ 

 often we see them 

 associated with 

 dwarf shrubs. perhaps 

 as a sort of edging, 

 but I always think 

 that the position par 

 excellence for them is 

 the rock garden, a 

 imrt of it devoted 

 entirely, or almost 

 entirely, to the char- 

 ming family of the 

 Heath which pos- 

 sesses a tjT^e of 

 beauty so distinct, 

 that very few things, 

 unless, perhaps, some 

 of the small shrubby 

 Veronicas, associate 

 well with it. 



EuicA Veitchii. 

 Fine Hardy Hybrid 



Some years ago I was iMthcr ])ii/./I('d how to 

 plant to the best advantage a I'atlicr prominent 

 liart of our small rock garden lying in full view 

 of the house, and whi(-h had previously been 

 laid out in long beds which were gorgeous with 

 Begonias in smumer and early autiunn. 'Wv 



beds were cleared away an 1 the grv)und ro\ighly 

 sloped down to the tennis court below, facing 

 S., S.W., with full exposure except what shelter 

 the house affords from the north. About this 

 time I had some 

 fine plants of Erica 

 vagans alba in flower 

 and a couple of 

 specimens of Men- 

 ziesia polifolia, and 

 it struck me that if 

 more of the same 

 genus could be got 

 together, that part 

 of the garden could 

 be made a very dis- 

 tinct and beautiful 

 feature. I was 

 fortunate in being 

 able to pay a visit 

 to a lovely little rock 

 garden where there is 

 a very fine collection 

 of hardy Heaths, and 

 \\ here I saw and took 

 note of the best var- 

 ieties. Not every 

 nurseryman stocks 

 more than about half 

 a dozen of the best 

 known, but T found 

 one who evidently 

 made a speciality of 

 Fricas. and from 

 him I obtained the 

 sorts I tlK)ughtmost 

 beautiful. Scattered 

 through the rock gar- 

 lad a heady a few, and these I 

 ■iuccessfuUy to their new quartei'S. 

 planting was done during autumn, 

 foiuid that, with a little atten- 



O^, 



den T 

 moved 

 All the 

 and T 



tion to shading during a'few hours 'of^hot sun- 

 shine, they kept on flowering quite gaily, 



