MY SHRUBS 3 



good things are, of course, indifferent and tolerate it, while some 

 fruit bearers, such as Diospyros Kaki and Eriohotrya, and perhaps 

 Feijoa, appreciate lime ; but, for the most part, my plants can do 

 exceedingly well without, and I have, little by little, carted the 

 local soil away from my garden and substituted beds of leaf and 

 sand and peat. The native loam is so full of lime, and so largely 

 composed of coarse red clay, that I feel happier without it, and 

 escape many discomforts. My beds are always sweet and clean. 

 There is no mud, and mud is a thing that neither self-respecting 

 plant nor gardener appreciates. It is the same with shade. 

 Certain flowering shrubs do their duty in shade, and many insist 

 on half-shade ; but no shrub tolerates stuffiness, or deprivation 

 from rain and light. I like plenty of shadow cast from south or 

 west, but overhead shade is much to be avoided. Speaking 

 generally, the Chilians are all peat and shade-lovers, and all ex- 

 ceedingly thirsty. You can hardly over- water them in the summer, 

 and they are quite content to bid farewell to the sun at noon. 

 They thrive on the east side of my house, but they are protected 

 from the east by a high wall and some yews and hollies. Many 

 Australians are hard to please, and must be watched in winter ; 

 while high level New Zealanders for the most part face our 

 weather bravely enough. The Chatham Island plants are also 

 not hardy even in the West, but the comparative smallness of their 

 habitat and their propinquity to the sea mean that they would 

 naturally be more tender than those from New Zealand's moun- 

 tains. Does Corynocarpus Icevigata stand in the open anywhere 

 in England, for instance ? Perhaps in Cornwall — certainly no- 

 where else. My little piece lives out of doors from May till 

 October ; then it sneaks into a cold house. Doryanthes excelsa 



