BORDERS OF HARD^ FLOWERS. 



was not nearly so pretty then as the withered Grass of the plain or 

 copse. But since the revival of interest in hardy and Alpine flowers, 

 and the many introductions of recent years, we have a great number 

 of beautiful plants that are evergreen in winter and that enable us to 

 make evergreen borders. The great white blanket that covers the 

 north and many mountain ranges in winter protects also for months 

 many Alpine plants which do not lose their leaves in winter, such as 

 Rockfoils, Stonecrops, Primroses, Gentians, and Christmas Roses. The 

 most delicate of Alpine plants suffer, when exposed to our winter, from 

 excitement of growth, to which they are not subject in their own 

 home, but many others do not mind our winters much, and it is easy 



Border of hardy flowers on open margin of lawn. (Newton Don, Kelso, N.B.). 



by good choice of plants to make excellent borders wholly or in 

 greater part evergreen. 



These are not only good as evergreens, but they are delightful in 

 colour, many being beautiful in flower in spring, and having also the 

 charm of assuming their most refreshing green just when other plants 

 are dying in autumn. Along with these rock and herbaceous plants 

 we may group a great many shrublets that come almost between the 

 true shrub and the Alpine flower little woody evergreen creeping 

 things like the dwarf Partridge Berry, Canadian Cornel, hardy Heaths, 

 and Sand Myrtles, often good in colour when grouped. 



Among these various plants we have plenty for evergreen borders, 

 and this is important, as, while many might object to the bare earth 

 of the ordinary border of herbaceous plants near the house or in other 



