PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



165 



ANTIRRHINUM (Snapdragon). 

 Rock-plants and perennial herbs, 

 mostly hardy and many of them from 

 mountainous regions, but none so 

 popular in gardens as the handsome 

 Snapdragon (A. majus) which, like the 

 Wallflowers, often grows on walls and 

 stony places. Among the many 

 species, some few are seen in cultiva- 

 tion from time to time, but they do not 

 take a large place in gardens, among 

 the best being A. Asarina, A. rupestre, 

 glutinosum, and sempervirens, throwing 

 in poor soil and dry spots. It is pro- 

 bable there are not a few of these plants 

 of much beauty not yet in cultivation. 



AQUILEGIA (Columbine). Alpine 

 or mountain copse perennials, often 

 beautiful in habit, colour, and in form 

 of flower, widely distributed over the 

 northern and mountain regions of 

 Europe, Asia, and America. Among 

 them may be found great variety in 

 colour white, rose, buff, blue, and 

 purple, and intermediate shades even 

 in the same flower, the American kinds 

 having yellow, scarlet, and delicate 

 shades of blue. Though often taller 

 than most of the plants strictly termed 

 alpine, they are true children of the 

 hills, and the alpine kinds, living in 

 the high bushy places in the Alps 

 and Pyrenees, and North Asian moun- 

 tain chains, are among the fairest of 

 all flowers. Climbing the sunny hills 

 of the sierras in California, we meet 

 with a large scarlet Columbine, that 

 has almost the vigour of a Lily, and 

 in the mountains of Utah, and on 

 many others in the Rocky Mountain 

 region, there is the blue Columbine 

 (A. ccerulea), with its long and slender 

 spurs and lovely cool tints. Although 

 many cottage gardens are alive with 

 Columbines in early summer, there is 

 some difficulty in cultivating the rarer 

 alpine kinds. They require to be 



carefully planted in sandy or gritty 

 though moist ground, and in well- 

 drained ledges in the rock-garden, 

 in half-shady positions or northern 

 exposures. Most wild Columbines, 

 however, fail to form enduring tufts 

 in our gardens, and they must be 

 raised from seed as frequently as good 

 seed can be got. It is the alpine 

 character of the home of many of the 

 Columbines which makes the culture 

 of some of the lovely kinds so difficult, 

 and which causes them to thrive so 

 well in the north of Scotland, while 

 they fail in our ordinary dry garden 

 borders. No plants are more cap- 

 ricious ; take, for instance, the charm- 

 ing A. glandulosa, grown like a weed 

 at Forres, in Scotland, and so short- 

 lived in most gardens. Nor is this 

 an exception; it is characteristic of 

 other alpine kinds. The best soil for 

 them is deep, well-drained, moist loam. 



It is probable many of the species 

 are biennial, and that it is well to 

 raise them from seed frequently ; and 

 to avoid the results of crossing, it is 

 better to get the seed, if we can, from 

 the home of the species. The seeds 

 should be sown early in spring, and 

 the young plants pricked out into 

 pans, or into an old garden-frame, as 

 soon as they are fit to handle, remov- 

 ing them early in August to the 

 borders ; select a cloudy day for the 

 work, and give them a little shading 

 for a few days. 



Mr Whittaker, of Mosely, near 

 Derby, has been very successful with 

 both A. glandulosa and the blue 

 variety of A. leptoceras, and he grew 

 them in a thoroughly drained, deep, 

 rich, alluvial soil ; the same were the 

 conditions of Mr Grigor's success. 



Mr Brockbank speaks hopefully of 

 growing the finer kinds from seed. 

 He says : "I attribute failures to 



