406 



COLLOMIA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. CONVALLARIA. 



C. GRANDIFLORA (Chintz Flower) . A 

 quite distinct kind, it gives a very pretty 

 purplish effect, and endures our winters 

 well, thriving from autumn-sown seeds, 

 and often coming self-sown. 



C. VERNA. (Vernal C.). A beautiful 

 kind, native of the colder parts of N. 

 America. Not much in cultivation with 

 us. In my own garden we repeatedly 

 failed to raise it, but still hope on and 

 blame the seeds. 



C. INSIGNIS (Baby Blue Eyes). A 

 beautiful flower easily grown, usually sown 

 in the spring or, often better, in warm and 

 southern districts in September, if good 

 seed can be had then. To make sure of 

 early sowing, it is well to save some of 

 the seeds, as the stocks may not be ready. 

 Sow on Rose or other open beds ; thinly 

 set out. 



C. MACULATA. A spotted kind, distinct 

 and beautiful. Grown easily from 

 autumn-sown seeds, and also seed sown 

 in the spring. It is excellent for carpeting 

 beds and for edgings. Seeds of all kinds 

 are easily raised. 



COLLOMIA. C. coccinea is a bright- 

 coloured annual, i foot to 18 inches 

 high, flowering in summer and autumn. 

 Sow it in April in open ground ; or 

 else in a frame in autumn, and pro- 

 tect it during winter, if good plants 

 are desired, either for pots or planting 

 out. On warm soils it grows best and 

 sows itself every year, surviving the 

 winter, and growing much stronger. 



COLUTEA (Bladder Senna) .These 

 cannot be called choice flowering 

 shrubs, but they are very useful for 

 poor hungry soils, particularly for dry 

 sunny banks, where few other plants 

 can exist ; they are excellent, too, in 

 smoky districts. Like the Gorse and 

 a few other shrubs of the Pea family, 

 they delight in a dry, sandy soil, and 

 when in flower, which is during several 

 weeks in late summer and in autumn, 

 they are pretty, their foliage being 

 light and elegant. They have numer- 

 ous names, but there are only one or 

 two distinct kinds. The commonest is 

 C. arborescens, which, under favourable 

 conditions, grows 6 or 8 feet high, has 

 large flowers, varying in different 

 varieties from yellow to a deep reddish- 

 yellow. C. cruenta, C. halepica, and 

 C. media all natives of Europe are 

 smaller, and have bright yellow flowers ; 

 but all have much the same aspect. 



COMMELINA (Blue Spiderwort) . A 

 charming old garden plant with flowers 

 of a fine blue, C. Ccelestis delights in 



light warm soils. The roots arc 

 fleshy, and in some districts it is well 

 to cover them with coal ashes on the 

 approach of winter. In cold, wet 

 districts the roots may be lifted and 

 stored in dry leaf-mould. On some 

 warm or stony soils, and in districts 

 near the sea where light soil prevails, 

 it grows like a weed. It is so fine in 

 colour that a group or small bed is 

 always welcome. There is a white 

 form. Mexico. 



Comptonia. See MYRICA. 



CONANDRON. C. ramondioides 

 is a small Japanese plant allied 

 to Ramondia, having thick wrinkled 

 leaves, in flat tufts, from which arise 

 erect flower-stems some 6 inches high, 

 bearing numerous lilac-purple and 

 white blossoms. It cannot be relied 

 on as quite hardy, and requires a 

 sheltered position, such as is afforded 

 by a snug nook in the rock garden. 

 Plants placed between blocks of stone 

 thrive if there is a good depth of 

 soil in the chink and the soil is 

 moist. 



CONVALLARIA MAJALIS (Lily- 

 of -the- Valley}. It is well to have a 

 plantation of Lilies-of-the-Valley upon 

 a south aspect, for the sake of earliness 

 and of producing them in succession, 

 for by this means flowers may be 

 gathered a fortnight or three weeks 

 earlier. The best places are those 

 which afford shade and moisture, in 

 which they revel. Give liberal surface- 

 dressings of rotten manure annually in 

 autumn. Frost is destructive to the 

 blooms, which appear with the leaves. 

 Spruce or other evergreen branches 

 placed sparsely over the beds are a 

 protection, and encourage growth. 



The best time to plant is early in 

 autumn, immediately after the foliage 

 decays, selecting plump single crowns 

 and dividing them. For beds likely to 

 remain undisturbed for several years, 

 the crowns should be planted 6 inches 

 apart. Cover the surface after plant- 

 ing with i or 2 inches of rotten manure, 

 thorough maturity being only insured 

 by repeated applications of water 

 weak manure-water being the most 

 effective. Treated thus, with annual 

 surface-dressings of manure, the beds 

 will keep in good condition for years, 

 and bears fine blossoms in abundance. 

 When the plants become crowded with 

 shoots they should be thinned out, 

 or, better still, lifted and replanted. 

 It is now largely forced into flower 



