IRISH GARDENING. 



121 



rock, garden should be without one or more of its 

 varieties. It blooms all through the summer. 

 Miss Willmott is equally desirable and i -ioeatly 

 sent out. It is a lovely pale, silvery blue 

 carpeter slightly larger than the old A'hite or 

 mauve pusilla; of easy culture and very flori- 

 ferous, it forms masses of pretty nodding bells on 

 wiry stems. 



C. garganiea hirsuta, faint lilac and star-like, 

 requires in all its varieties a dry position; damp 

 is fatal, and it likes to grow between large atones. 



C. G. F. Wilson, dark blue, wide bells, very 

 dwarf and interesting. Haylodgensis, with lovely 

 clear, waxy bells and yellowish foliage. Kelway's 

 new Dwarf Blue, like a larger Miss Willmott, and 

 Sutton's Giant Blue amongst the larger varieties, 

 will be allowed to live by slugs, but alas ! the 

 utmost protection against slugs, as I know to my 

 cost, must be used if the following beautiful 

 varieties are to be grown, otherwise they are very 

 vigorous: — Isobel, flat, mauve, large blooms; 

 White Star, best white Campanula; pulla, deep 

 violet; pulloides, much darker and larger blooms 

 on very short stems ; a very choice one, well 

 worth struggling for, as, indeed, the others are 

 also. 



There are many more beautiful Campanulas, 

 but there are considerable difficulties in dealing 

 with them. This will not deter me from having 

 another try. C. barbata, not dwarf, but siuiable 

 for rock work; C. abietina requires constant pro- 

 pagation by seeds or off-shoots, as do some others. 

 There are various difficulties; some like lime and 

 others hate it, such as C. Allionii. Many only do 

 grown from seeds. C. barbata will die after 

 flowering luiless grown in a very wrell-drained 

 stony soil. Its still more beautiful miniature, 

 C. alpina, is best from seed and thrives in light 

 limy loam in an open place. These fascinating 

 plants form a most interesting collection. During 

 August Platycodon Mariesi, blue or white, 

 comes into bloom. Its puffed out, balloon, or 

 Chinese lantern-like buds are showing well and the 

 flowers, though of short duration, are most desir- 

 able. Symphyandra pendula belongs to the 

 Campaniila family and is of very rapid growth, 

 but slugs are very partial to it, so that special 

 care should be taken if its interesting bells, like 

 green glass, are to appear. 



Dianthus alpinus is very universally the first 

 favourite amongst Rock Pinks; limy loam and 

 moraine suit it best; its very large, deep-rose 

 flowers, on short stems, rise from masses of dwarf 

 evergreen foliage. 



D. neglectus is now in great beauty, and 

 certainly it is a very choice one, bright carmine, 

 slightly buff-tinted on the reverse. 



D. deltoides and D. graniticus are very useful; 

 the latter is almost imperceptibly the nicer and 

 comes easily from seed ; deltoides alba should be 

 grown to make a contrast, and all are very easv. 



Double Pinks for rock work I rather avoid, 

 though I have tire magnificent border Pinks, 

 Gloria and Anne Boleyne for some time, but there 

 are so many single hy])rids fringed, or with 

 central markings, some of faint Malmaison 

 Carnation tint, sweet and waxy, that except for a 

 few of the easy double varieties, I do not trouble 

 to have them in quantity. 



D. Lady Catherine is a very beautiful single of 

 faintest pink, grown by a titled lady now cele- 

 brated for her rock plants. 



Tliough we depend very largely, and wisely so, on 

 substantial clumps of Dianthus and Campanula in 



our rock gardens, yet we need not imagine that 

 without them we shall find a verdant waste be- 

 cause dense bushes of Barr's dwarf Lavender 

 come m delightfully, and the numerous suitable 

 Pentstemons, such as P. Glaber alpinus, P 

 diifiisus, P. lieterophyllus, and the golden sheets 

 of CoroniUa Iberica mingling with masses of pinks 

 or carmine Sedums, but undoubtedly we cannot 

 afford to do without Dianthus and Campanula in 

 variety. 



Some Indigenous Plants worth 

 Growing. 



Owing to the introduction of so many beautiful 

 plants from China, Thibet and elsewhere within 

 the last few years there is a tendency towards 

 neglecting the gems of our own mountains and 

 bogs, which, as regards intrinsic beauty, can hold 

 their own against all comers. Such is our per- 

 verted taste that a dingy weed from Yunnan or 

 Szechuan is wondered at, and admired and fussed 

 over, and sold at an inflated price, while our 

 native plants are left to " waste their freshness 

 on the desert air." 



It is a characteristic of human nature to worship 

 variety and to rejoice in the possession of that 

 which others have not got. This trait did not 

 escape the notice of Alphonse Karr, still delight- 

 ful in his good humoured ridicule of our 

 idiosyncrasies. I hope that on the score of apt- 

 ness I may be excused for quoting from such a 

 classic as his " Tour round my Garden." 



" There are in our gardens, and among those 

 who pretend to love them, good sorts of folks w^ho 

 are a little like you, my friend. Their estima- 

 tion of a flower rises in proportion with its variety 

 and the distance from which it has been brought. 

 I have often met with these curiosity seekers and 

 amateurs, people who find in possession no other 

 pleasure but that despicable one of knowing that 

 others do not possess — people who have flowers, 

 not for the sake of looking at them, but showing 

 them." 



By all means let us grow rare exotics in our 

 gardens if we can get and grow them. If we can- 

 not visit Thil:)et and see the plants " in situ," the 

 rational thing to do is to grow them in our 

 gardens so that we may see, smell and enjoy that 

 which we would otherwise be unable to. But let, 

 at least, a small corner be reserved for our own 

 beautiful wildlings. 



Our indigenous beauties are not as few as might 

 be supposed. Quite an extensive garden could 

 be furnished fully and beautifully with native 

 plants; not what is commonly known as weeds 

 but many difficult and by no means common 

 species. 



Gentiana verna, of course, heads the list. A 

 native of our western shores and mountains, it 

 is among the first half dozen most beautiful rock 

 plants. Its cultivation is by no means easy, but 

 anyone who has failed with it should not give 

 up" until they have tried the Lissadell suggestion 

 to grow it in raised peat. Dryas octopetala is 

 another beauty which should be grown by all. 

 The dainty Anemone-like flowers are set off to 

 perfection by the beautiful green of the little oak- 

 like leaves, and after the flowers come ornamental 

 fluffy heads of seed which keep the plant ]:)eauti- 

 ful till late in the year. It flourishes in a lime- 

 stone moraine. A near companion to the Mountain 



