106 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN 



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

 ways. 



The fashion of having beds of Roses of but one kind 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) will 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. 



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. We must omit any 



Rock and alpine detailed notice of plants like Adonis, Cyclamen, 



plants. 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. 



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 



Purple Rock first bold plants to cheer us in spring are those of 



Cresses. the Wallflower order the yellow Alyssum, effective 



and easy to grow, the white Arabis, even more 



grown in Northern France than in England (it well deserves to be 



spread about in sheets and effective groups), and the beautiful purple 



Rock Cresses (Aubrietia), lovely plants of the mountains of Greece 



and the countries near, which have developed a number of varieties 



even more beautiful in colour than the wild kinds. Nothing for 



gardens can be more precious than these plants, the long spring 



bloom being effective in almost every kind of flower gardening 



banks, walls, edgings, borders of evergreen rock plants, or carpets 



beneath sparsely set shrubs. The white evergreen Candytufts are 



also effective plants in clear sheets for borders, edgings to beds, tops 



of walls, and the rougher flanks of the rock garden. These are 



