SOILS AND CULTIVATION IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 38? 



soils people often take much trouble to get peat, in the vain hope 

 of growing a few Rhododendrons, labour which would be better 

 bestowed on improving the staple of the natural soil of the place. 



The most hopeless soils are the true clays, but the word " clay " is 

 used in a loose way by many who have never seen a real clay. In 

 the east of England and in Ireland, for example, the term is often 

 used for dark free soil. The true clay which occurs in the northern 

 suburbs of London and near Horsham, Sussex, is not a soil on which 

 a man could get a living, or if he does so he will get one anywhere ! 

 With such a soil our only hope is to cart good earth on to the ground. 

 Whatever the nature of the soil in a given garden, it should to a large 

 extent govern what we grow. If happy enough to have a sandy peat, 

 how easy it is to grow all the lovely evergreens of the northern moun- 

 tains, which rejoice in such soil things which, if they live on loamy 

 and heavy soils, are never really happy thereon. On such soil, too, 

 all the most beautiful kinds of hardy shrubs may be grown without 

 trouble, and planted among these shrubs the Lilies and hardy bulbous 

 flowers of Japan and America. If a deep and at the same time poor 

 sea sand comes in our way, we can make perfect bulb gardens on it, 

 and also grow trees and flowering shrubs very well after a time. 



LOCAL AND NATURAL SOILS. Soil must not always be blamed 

 for failure with certain plants, because rainfall, elevation, and, very 

 often, nearness to the sea will affect plants very much. Thus shrubs 

 that do well near the sea will, on the same kind of soil, perish far 

 inland. It is essential to study the secret of the soil and find out 

 the plants that thrive best on it. Once free from the limits and needs 

 of the flower garden proper, the best way will often be to use any 

 local peculiarities of soil instead of doing away with them : A bog ? 

 Instead of draining it keep it and adorn it with some of the often 

 beautiful things that grow in bogs ; A sandy knoll ? Plant with Rose- 

 mary or Rock Roses ; A peaty, sheltered hollow ? Make it into a 

 beautiful Rhododendron glade, and so get variety of plant life in 

 various conditions. 



Then, as regards the soil and the natural habitats of plants, there 

 is no doubt that it is useful to know where they come from, whether 

 plains, valleys, or rocks, and what soil they grow on ; but it is a know- 

 ledge that may sometimes mislead, because rainfall and elevation and 

 other causes may lead us to suppose results due to soil which are 

 really owing to accident of position. Many of the beautiful plants of 

 the mountains of the East, such as Aubrietia, and a number of rock 

 plants which grow in any soil, would do no better if we tried to imitate 

 their actual conditions of life in their native habitats, which are often 

 absolutely different from the soils of our lowland gardens in which 

 many rock plants thrive and endure for years. 



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