DWAEF AND SLOW-GROWING CONIFERS 



they are even more effective, the procumbent forms 

 flowing down the face of a cliff, and the fastigiate or 

 conical forms surmounting a cliff top or placed just at its 

 foot. In the large Rock Garden at Curragh Grange, Co. 

 Kildare, they have been utilised freely and show to 

 excellent advantage. A wide shallow gully is covered with 

 the glaucous green Juniperus sabina, var. tamariscifolia, a 

 large red sandstone rock is partly covered by the pro- 

 cumbent blue-grey form of Picea pungens, on the edge of 

 a miniature precipice a small fastigiate juniper stands, 

 and so on. 



Possibly the most ideal situation is an old sandstone 

 quarry. I know of one such in the North of England. 

 In every available chink and cranny a tiny conifer was 

 planted, and left to its own devices, and the effect is 

 indescribably charming. I grow them myself wherever I 

 can find room for them, on lawns, and on rockwork. I 

 also grow a certain number in pots, primarily to enable 

 me to transplant them at any time of the year, but grown 

 this way they come in very useful in other ways. I sink 

 the pots in odd spots on the rockwork where the Alpines 

 in flower at the moment are improved by the contrast. 

 I fill up blank spaces on the shelves of the cool greenhouses 

 with them, and they are also much appreciated indoors 

 as pot plants. They could be used far more freely than 

 they are for lawn planting. I have often noticed in small 

 gardens a large corner occupied by a variegated laurel or 

 similar large and spreading evergreen, and thought how 

 much pleasure the owner of that garden would gain if he 

 substituted for the variegated shrub, six to twelve dwarf 

 conifers of varying colours and shapes. They would give 

 him colour and interest winter and summer, and as a rule 

 would harbour neither broken bottles nor cats ! Their 

 annual growth is so slow and so sure that one can plant 

 them freely among flowers with the knowledge that they 

 will not encroach, and wherever one puts them, provided 

 they are not made to look ridiculous by being planted with 



