CHOICE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS _ 173 
the beneficial results in growth of the young plants amply 
repay the effort. 
Established colonies of Primulas—the plants should, 
whenever possible, be planted in groups rather than dotted 
about singly—will appreciate an annual mulching with 
a mixture of leaf mould and thoroughly rotten manure 
which has been passed through a sieve. Pot-grown plants 
may be nourished with liquid manure, but only during 
the period of active growth and flowering. 
RAMONDIA.—Every one who has the slightest knowledge of 
alpines learns to speak with special terms of appreciation 
of the Ramondias, and it is not to be wondered at, for they 
are undoubtedly among the most bewitchingly beautiful 
subjects we can possibly grow in our rock gardens. 
Forming broad flat “ plates” of foliage that is thick, 
tough, and crumpled almost like a savoy cabbage, the 
plant has a distinguished appearance at any season of 
the year, and when from the centre of the rosettes the 
flowers arise, their form and softly beautiful shades and 
blends of colour hold us in rapt admiration. 
Ramondias like shade, like peat, like moisture during 
their growing season, but they cannot stand stagnation 
and cannot endure saturation of the foliage during humid 
spells of weather whilst growth is at a standstill. At Kew 
and in a good many well-built rock gardens, the Ramondias 
have been planted sideways on the perpendicular face 
of a rough rock formation. This is undoubtedly a very 
good plan, but only if the building and planting is so 
carried out that the plants will find moisture behind the 
stones. R. pyrenaica with its pinky lilac blossoms, and 
