My Garden in Spring 



It is too early in the year to fully enjoy this bank of 

 prickly things, so turn and look at the opposite side of the 

 path, for here one of the corners of the triangular main por- 

 tion of this rock garden has its commencement. A northern 

 slope is crowned with tall growing plants to give more shade 

 lower down. A fine specimen of silver-leaved Rue is now 

 very effective, the young leaves as white as ivory. A fine 

 purple effect is given by Clematis Pallasii fol. purpureis. 

 It has the habit and flowers, later on of course, of C. recta, 

 but is as rich in colour as a Copper Beech while its leaves 

 are young. The large spherical heads of Allium Rosen- 

 bachianum rise up beside it, and their mauve colouring is 

 charming against its purple leaves. The double Welsh 

 Poppy Meconopsis cambrica fl. pi. is rather inclined to play 

 the weed on the lower slope, and tries to smother Saxifraga 

 sarmentosa, which is as happy here round the feet of the 

 stones as it is in cottage windows, where it is known as 

 " Mother of Thousands." Ranunculus nyssanus runs about 

 freely, and its large varnished Buttercup flowers are good 

 with the deeper orange of the Poppy. Orchis sambucina 

 from Mt. Cenis is giving me half a dozen lovely sulphur 

 spikes charming in contrast with a colony of a good blue- 

 lilac form of Phlox divaricata, var. canadensis. Of course 

 my usual space-grudging views have led me to pack a hun- 

 dred and one other plants among these, so that the ground 

 is full of bulbs, Dianthus species, Primula marginata, P. 

 Auricula and several others, Saxifrages, Potentillas, and too 

 long a list to remember, let alone to write out, but at this 

 moment the effect is produced by those I have named as 

 being in flower. Such totally different styles of shrubs as 

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