IRISH GARDENING. 



any rate, o( these once-flourishing- forests. Not 

 on the deep lowland bogs - on these for several 

 reasons planting could not be undertaken — but 

 on the wide hill-sides and moorlands, under the 

 worthless sedge and heather of which lie 

 millions of tough-rooted pledges that where 

 trees once throve they will do so again. 



i^^ s^* fi^'^ 



Notes from a Rectory 

 Garden. 



By the Rev. Canon HAYES, M.A., Raheny. 



FOR some years past I have been making 

 observations in this garden as to the 

 climatic conditions under which some of 

 our plants exist, with results which I have not 

 seen noticed elsewhere. 



Rather more than thirty years ago a small 

 specimen of Cordyline Australis was planted 

 on the lawn, and ten years later, a few yards 

 off, was placed a Fortune's Palm {Chaviceops 

 Fortunei). They have had no covering all 

 these years, and severe frosts have not hurt 

 them, nor have they suffered any injury from 

 winds. In Glasnevin, Bath, and other gardens I 

 have noticed similar specimens, but they were 

 much the worse of the wear. 



My experience suggests that such things as 

 these are immune from either frost or cutting 

 wind separately, but that a combined attack in 

 any winter may be fatal. It so happens (it was 

 not by design) that a sort of serpentine 

 herbaceous rock border encircles the lawn to 

 the windward ; it is scarcely more than four 

 feet high, but it stands between the prevalent 

 east wind and the lawn shrubs, and makes, I 

 submit, a very material difference in the climate 

 to leeward. 



This may seem strange and, to some of your 

 readers, unsatisfactory. But, I would ask, have 

 they ever watched cattle on a bitterly stormy day 

 standing on the very edge of a cliff, every one 

 of them with their backs to the wind ? One 

 would say they had chosen the most exposed 

 spot on the field for shelter, but their instinct or 

 experience had evidently led them to know 

 better, as anyone on the spot might have 

 proved by tearing up a letter and throwing the 

 fragments over the cliff: it would be found that 

 the papers were carried, not back amongst the 

 cattle, but right away upwards, where the wind 

 itself was being dissipated and its strength 

 scattered, to the evident comfort of the beasts. 



And my contention is that we gardeners 

 should emulate the dumb cattle in their intel- 

 ligent familiarity with the simple facts which 

 nature teaches those who will learn. 



Under such apparently slight protection, 

 cordvlines will thrive in most districts, with 



this proviso, that during the days of snow and 

 frost the leading fronds are tied up with bast ; 

 this will prevent the snow being congealed 

 and thus hurting the tender growth at the 

 centre. 



But I am convinced there is much more than 

 this to be learnt from a rock border — I have 

 described ours as a bank raised three or four 

 feet higher at the back than in the front, 

 interrupted irregularly with boulders, or lime- 

 stone slabs deposited as though they were lying 

 in their own quarry. I have discovered that its 

 advantages are not far to seek ; one of these 

 is the variety of aspects afforded. One has 

 known plants to dwindle and die if placed on 

 one side of a rock, while they will thrive on the 

 other side. A look-out north suits them, or 

 south enervates, as the case may be. 



Some of these experiences are sufliciently 

 obvious ; and a watchful observer of Nature's 

 methods may often discover like results on the 

 mountain side or on the river banks. 



The rock border has, however, reserved for 

 me one of those surprises for which I was 

 unprepared. 



Some six or seven years ago, wishing to 

 extend the flowering season on the border 

 for some weeks after the late tulips had dis- 

 appeared, I ventured to plant some roses— Teas 

 and Hybrids — each right in front of a boulder — 

 made no addition to the ordinary soil such as it 

 was, and just left the rose treesto take their chance 

 with all the other roots and miscellaneous 

 occupants of the ground. Since then they 

 have had no dung of any sort, nor liquid 

 manure ; no more waterings has been possible 

 than the rain could g'ive, and yet no other 

 roses in the garden can compare with them in 

 vigour and productiveness. 



They need each year extra pruning to keep 

 them within bounds. I submit that the secret 

 may be discovered in the fact that these roses 

 have stretched their roots far back under the 

 great stones behind them, where they have 

 found a congenial space between rock and earth, 

 found an equable temperature, a firm hold where 

 the roots may expand, not too moist and not too 

 dry ; impervious to sun and frost and wind — the 

 very environment in fact with which nature 

 herself provides her wild roses in the hedgerow 

 or on the rocky headland. 



5^* 6^^ ^^^ 



Sweet Pea Triai.s.— On the loth and i ith days of 

 last month the floral committee and members of the 

 National Sweet Pea Society inspected the results of the 

 official variety trials carried on at Reading", under the 

 superintendence of Mr. Charles Foster, and of the trials 

 made by Messrs. Hurst and Dobbie in Essex. Medals 

 and certificates were awarded to such of the new 

 varieties as in the opinion of the committee merited 

 distinction. 



