CHAPTER V 



NATIVE PLANTS IN THE ROCK-WALL 



WHEN a wall-garden has been established for some 

 years one may expect all kinds of delightful surprises, 

 for wind-blown seeds will settle in the joints and there 

 will spring up thriving tufts of many a garden plant, 

 perhaps of the most unlikely kind. Foxgloves, plants 

 that in one's mind are associated with cool, woody 

 hollows, may suddenly appear in a sunny wall, so may 

 also the great garden Mulleins. When this happens, 

 and the roots travel back and find the coolness of the 

 stone, the plants show astonishing vigour. I had some 

 Mulleins ( Verbascum phlomoides) that appeared self- 

 sown in a south-west wall ; they towered up to a 

 height of over nine feet, and were finer than any 

 others in the garden ; while everything that is planted 

 or that sows itself in the wall seems to acquire quite 

 exceptional vigour. 



It sometimes happens also that some common native 

 plant comes up in the wall so strongly and flowers so 

 charmingly that one lets it be and is thankful. The 

 illustration shows a case of this where the wild Stitch- 

 wort (Stellaria Holostea) appeared in the wall and was 

 welcomed as a beautiful and desirable plant. Close to 



this tuft, which has now for five years been one of the 



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