HEUCHERA. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



HIBISCUS. 



591 



have seen them best grown where there 

 was a yearly transfer of plants from the 

 reserve garden to the mixed border, 

 and the groups look very well. The 

 single Rocket is easily naturalised, and 

 is a showy plant in woods or shrub- 

 beries. 



H. tristis (Night-scented Stock}. A 

 quaint plant with dull-coloured flowers, 

 sweet-scented at night. It is rather 

 tender, and requires a light warm soil 

 and a sheltered position. 



HEUCHERA (Alum Roof}. Dwarf, 

 tufted, perennial herbs, with distinct and 

 sometimes finely-coloured leaves and 

 modest but inconspicuous flowers. Of 

 little value for their flowers, one or two 

 kinds give pretty effects of foliage either 

 as edgings to or beneath groups of shrubs ; 

 the best are also worth growing for their 

 leaves for cutting for the house in winter, 

 lasting as they do fresh for weeks in winter, 

 the foliage being good in form as well as 

 colour. Among the best are H. hispida 

 (Richardsoni], americana, pubescens, and 

 sanguined, the last the only one with any 

 showy bloom. They are North American 

 plants, of the easiest cultivation in ordinary 

 soil. Division. Saxifrage order. 



HIBISCUS (Rose Mallow}. Shrubby 

 and herbaceous perennials and annuals. 

 They are numerous in hothouses, but few 

 are suited for the flower-garden. The 

 splendid hardy Rose Mallows of the woods 

 and swamps of N. America will live with 

 us, but our climate is not warm enough 

 for them, though it would be well to try 

 tufts of them in warm sunny places in the 

 southern parts of England, in deep, moist 

 soil. They have splendid crimson or rosy 

 flowers, as large as saucers, and are from 

 4 to 7 ft. high. The finest are H. Mos- 

 cheutos, H. palustris, H. grandiflorus, 

 and H. coccineus. They seldom bloom 

 in the open air in England, as they 

 flower late in the season. There are two 

 or three annual kinds, the finest being 

 H. Manihot, which forms handsome 

 pyramids 4 to 6 ft. high, the flowers being 

 3 or 4 in. across, and pale yellow with 

 a dark centre. H. Manihot should be 

 treated as a half-hardy annual, sown in 

 heat in February, and in May planted out 

 in good deep soil. H. africanus is a 

 hardy annual with showy pale yellow 

 flowers that only open in fine weather. 

 In light soil it usually sows itself. 

 H. Trionum appears to be extremely 

 variable, and has long been cultivated 

 in gardens. It is widely scattered over 

 all the warm regions of the Old World, 

 and is usually described as a common 

 sub-tropical weed, found plentifully in 



cultivated fields in Afghanistan. It is 

 found in several places in China, and is a 

 very common weed in waste garden 

 ground and rich damp soil throughout 

 the Cape Colony, and has given rise to 

 almost innumerable varieties, a few of 

 which are so distinct as to have at one 

 time been considered species. The great 

 objection to the type is the short-lived 

 flowers, which Gerard says open at eight 

 in the morning and close at nine, and 

 which supposed fact gave rise to the 

 curious appellations, " Flower of an hour," 

 " Good night at noon," or " Good night at 

 nine." 



In a fine form, figured in The Garden, 

 this objection is quite done away with, 

 the flowers opening in the morning, and, 

 on bright days, remaining so until late in 

 the afternoon. Individual flowers do not 

 last very long, but there is a succession on 

 a well-grown plant, and these are large 

 and beautiful. It is quite as hardy as the 



Venice Mallow (Hibiscus Trionum). 



one usually grown, seeds as freely, and 

 much more striking, especially in bold 

 clumps. Simply scatter the seeds in the 

 open on the spots where they are intended 

 to grow, thinning, where too close together, 

 to 6 in. or i ft. apart, and leaving the sun, 

 etc., to do the rest. It will even sow it- 

 self, the seeds coming up in plenty the 

 following spring if the winter has 

 not been too severe, but sowings should 

 be made at different times to ensure 

 bloom all through the summer and 

 autumn. 



H. Syriacus (Syrian Mallow, Rose of 

 Sharon}. A beautiful shrub, bearing 

 showy blossoms in late summer and in 

 autumn. It is a very old favourite, and 

 in good moist 'soils it rises 8 and even 

 10 ft. high. The wild form has bluish- 

 purple flowers with crimson centres, but 

 now there are forms representing every 



