i68 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



have many ; and hence this chapter must deal with other and better 

 ways. 



The fashion of leaving beds of Roses and choice shrubs bare of 

 all but one subject should be given up. The half-bare Rose and 

 choice shrub beds should be a home for the prettiest spring flowers — 

 Pansies, Violets, early Irises, Daffodils, Scillas, and many other dwarf 

 plants in colonies between the Roses or shrubs. Double Primroses 

 are happy and flower well in such beds. The slight shade such plants 

 receive in summer from the other tenants of the bed assists them. 

 Where Rhododendrons are planted in an " open way (and these 

 precious bushes never ought to be jammed together), a spring garden 

 of another kind may be made, as the peat-loving plants (and there 

 are many fair ones among them) wil] be quite at home there. The 

 White Wood Lily of the American woods (Trillium), the Virginian 

 Lungwort, the Canadian Bloodroot (Sanguinaria), the various Dog's- 

 tooth Violets, double Primroses, and many early-flowering bulbous 

 plants enjoy the partial shade and shelter and the soil of the beds for 

 " American " shrubs. 



In the kitchen garden, in its usual free and rich soil, simple beds of 

 favourite spring flowers, such as Polyanthuses, Bunch Primroses in 

 their coloured forms, self-coloured Auriculas, and Pansies of various 

 kinds, are a good way of enjoying such plants, and more easily managed 

 than the " bedding out " of spring flowers. That may follow the 

 fashion of the hour, and with such plants as Forget-me-nots, Daisies, 

 Silene, Pansy, Violet, Hyacinth, Anemone, and Tulip showy effects 

 may be formed ; but without any of these pattern beds under the 

 windows, fair gardens of spring flowers may be made in every place, 

 and the problem of the design for the few set beds of the " spring 

 parterre " will not be so serious a matter as in the past, there being so 

 many aids in other ways, as we shall see. 



Rock and Alpine Plants. — There are so many hardy plants 

 among these that flower in spring (many alpine plants blooming as 

 soon as the snow goes), that there is not room to name them all in an 

 essay devoted to the more effective groups and their best garden use. 

 We must omit any detailed notice of plants like Adonis, Cyclamen, 

 Draba, Erodium, and the smaller Rockfoils and Stonecrops, Dicentra, 

 Fumaria, Orobus, Ramondia, Silene, and many other flowers of the 

 rocks and hills, which though beautiful individually do not tell so 

 well in the picture as many here named. 



Rock Cresses and Wallflowers. — Among rock plants the 

 first place belongs to certain mountain plants of the northern world, 

 which, in our country, come into bloom before the early shrubs and 

 trees, and among the first bold plants to cheer us in spring are those 

 of the Wallflower order — the yellow Alyssum, effective and easy to 



