CHAPTER XII 



SOME HARD-WOODED PLANTS 



IT is so generally recognised that hard-wooded plants are 

 more difficult to grow than those that are called, by way of 

 distinction, soft-wooded, of which Pelargoniums may be 

 taken as a type, that, with the few notable exceptions, they 

 have well-nigh disappeared from our greenhouses. They are 

 slow-growing, but, on the other hand, under proper treatment, 

 they are long-lasting, for one difference between the two 

 classes is this, that while soft-wooded plants seldom flower 

 well when they are old and have therefore to be constantly 

 renewed, the others, well grown, flower better and better in 

 their age than in their immature youth. Probably many old 

 gardeners can well remember some enormous specimens of 

 the yellow- flowered Heath (Erica Cavendishi), of Hederoma 

 tulipifera, studded all over with waxy pink and white bells, 

 of Aphelexis macrantha, a sort of pink everlasting from New 

 Holland, and others, all typical hard-wooded plants and the 

 pride of their grower's heart, which used to travel to town 

 from Staffordshire in their own comfortable van, year after 

 year, to win their annual prizes at the metropolitan shows. 

 Splendid examples they were, of which the like are seldom 

 seen now, and though we may not wish to own such 

 leviathans of their race, yet it would be a great pity to let 

 such fine things be forgotten. 



Perhaps when we remember that Azaleas and Camellias may 

 both be included in the ranks of hard-wooded plants, the 



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