THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. l83 



NOTES ON CAMPANULAS. 



BY JOHK BTJRLEY, F.E.H.S., 

 Hereford Eoad iJfursery, Bayswater, "W. 



jLD-FASHIONED hardy flowers once more coming to 

 the front, I should like to say a word or two in reference 

 to the Campanulas, for they may be grown in the most 

 satisfactory manner possible, and when once planted in 

 ordinary borders the majority of them will take care of 

 themselves. They are, in fact, well adapted for the gardener or the 

 amateur who has no convenience for the cultivation of large numbers 

 of tender bedding plants. They should not be grown to the exclu- 

 sion of other good things, but, on the contrary, be associated with 

 herbaceous phloxes, pyrethrums, and other hardy flowers of a showy 

 character. 



Of the Campanulas there are large-growing kinds, such as O. 

 pyramidal is, that attain quite five feet in height ; and again, there 

 is the carpatica and pumila varieties, and others like them, that 

 grow quite close to the ground. Then, again, there are the choice 

 Alpine kinds, with their neat and pretty blossoms ; many of them 

 being found high up in the Swiss mountains, and on ledges and 

 fissures of rock, where scarcely any soil is to be seen. In such 

 places their tiny roots dive down, clinging to the rock by the way 

 until they find the nourishment that is sufficient to give life to the 

 plant at all seasons. The border varieties make a glorious show for 

 months in the flower-garden, and when allowed to grow in one place 

 year after year, they form large masses of thick herbage. "When in 

 flower, there is no class of plants that will surpass them in gaiety 

 and general efli'ect. Amongst the dwarf kinds there is none better 

 than C. carpatica for general eflect. All that need be done to 

 secure a dwarf gay mass of flowers, either in the geometrical garden 

 or in the ordinary flower border, is to plant this Campanula, and 

 leave it to take care of itself ; it will soon spread, and when the 

 season for its blooming comes round, it will be sure to meet with 

 its admirers. There are three colours of this kind : G. carpatica 

 itself is blue ; C. carpatica. alba, white ; and C. carpatica hicolor, 

 blue and white, the colours very nicely blended, and very attractive. 

 C. Barrellieri is 'also a dwarf variety with pretty blue blossoms ; 

 this kind is admirably adapted for the rockery, as its trailing habit 

 is nicely seen when shooting here and there over a projecting stone, 

 or hanging down over a hollow place. It is quite at home when 

 planted in a sheltered nook of the rockery, and no fear need be 

 entertained of its being destroyed in a hard winter, if the hollow it 

 is growing in is filled up with dry leaves. The soil best adapted 

 for it is a mixture of sandy loam and leaf-mould. G. alpina is 

 another fine dwarf kind with purplish blue flowers, which makes a 

 good plan, for the second row in a flower border. C. garganica is a 

 beautitul kind for the rockery ; it produces its flowers in pendent 

 clusters the plant is literally loaded with them when in bloom ; the 



Jane, 



