CHOICE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS 143 
tramping the moors. The second point, and it is every 
bit as important as the first, is that unless an Erica has 
sufficient young fibrous roots to enable it to be lifted 
without baring the main, hardened roots, the chances of 
successful transplanting are very feeble. Frequently a 
good peat bed is made up, and an order is given for plants 
with insistence that they must be good strong clumps. 
That means, that plants of several years’ growth are 
raised, and almost wrenched from their root hold, and 
are planted in the newly made peat bed. For awhile, 
they appear to be all right, but the hard, woody roots 
take no hold, and in a few months the branches became 
defoliated and eventually die. The eagerness to secure 
big plants is the cause of failure. 
Start with the smallest plants possible, and when they 
come to hand, plant in such a manner that all the lower 
part of the branches, as well as the roots, shall be below 
the surface. Do not merely make a hole and cram the 
whole mass into it, but spread out the growths to cover 
the greatest possible area, working peat between the 
branches with the fingers, and ramming it firm with a 
blunt-ended stick. Soak the bed thoroughly with rain 
water, and then let well alone. 
Thus treated, colonies of hardy Ericas are an endless 
delight, and they may be made a great feature, because it 
is possible to have some species or variety in bloom at 
every season of the year. 
E. carnea, bright red, and its white variety, carnea 
alba, blooms throughout the first four or five months of 
the year. E. mediterranea, and mediterranea hibernica, 
