My New Zealand Garden 



wiry roots ; but perhaps in the hands of a trained 

 gardener they might have proved themselves 

 amenable to such treatment. There are twenty of 

 these beds, and the other twelve contain Saponaria 

 ocymoides, Phlox subulata, Phlox Nehonii, Campanula 

 rotundifolia, Echeverias, double White Violets, 

 Henchera sanguinea, Rock Arabis, Dwarf Pinks, and 

 last, and greatest, not least, Crassula coccinea, the 

 vivid effect of which was startling. Every piece 

 grew, and as they were put in 6 inches apart, 

 their flowers touched each other and became a 

 platform of dazzling colour, throwing all its 

 brother beds into the shade. These beds have no 

 grass round them, but gravel, and oh horror! 

 shall I confess it at all ? red bricks to separate 

 paths from beds ; these bricks were stood on their 

 ends with their lower halves in the ground. 

 Well, whatever faults may attach to such a gaudy 

 garden, it possesses the counteracting virtue of 

 never looking dull, dismal, or depressing. It is a 

 glowing little fore-court garden, ever bright, ever 

 trim and fresh. The Lithospermums never fail to 

 give a second, though small, display of flowers, and 

 most of the other beds, here and there, cheer up 

 and manage a flower or two sometimes, and are 

 scarcely all out of bloom at once, only indulging 

 in a lull until their general blaze-up. They are 

 all allowed to grow just over the edge, which 

 nearly hides the bricks, and as the beds are raised 



