PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



177 



colour. A. grceca is simply a variety. 

 Aubrietias vary a good deal from seed, 

 but their little differences make them 

 all the more valuable as garden-plants, 

 and they all agree in carpeting the 

 earth with dense cushions of compact 

 rosettes of leaves, profusely clothed 

 with beautiful purplish-blue flowers 

 in spring, and, in the case of young 

 plants, in moist and rich soils, almost 

 throughout the year. There are one 

 or two pretty variegated varieties. 



AZALEA (Swamp Honeysuckle). 

 Thinking as I do, that the 

 most satisfying and enduring kind 

 of rock-garden cannot be made with- 

 out the aid of mountain shrubs, or in 

 which they take the main part, such 

 lovely mountain bushes as the Azaleas 

 cannot be left out of our view, as they 

 are true mountaineers, and of splendid 

 value for their flowers in summer and 

 foliage in the autumn, and even in 

 habit, if naturally grown. Their hardi- 

 ness, fine colour, and ease of culture, 

 should almost give them the first place 

 with the happy people who have rocks 

 of their own, as so often happens in the 

 north, and in Scotland, Wales, and 

 Ireland. There is scarcely a plant 

 among the Azaleas that is not worth 

 growing, but I am now thinking more 

 of the wild kinds, chiefly American, 

 which deserve to be grown, and grouped 

 each kind by itself, these wild kinds 

 being, I think, more beautiful, and 

 more worthy of a place on the shrubby 

 rock-garden than the hybrids, though 

 all are good. More brilliant than any 

 other shrubs, they are lovely in flower 

 in early summer, in some cases continu- 

 ing into midsummer, and hardy as the 

 mountain, rocks. They are much 

 varied, coming from European, Ameri- 

 can, Chinese, and Japanese species, 

 both in their wild forms and in the 

 varieties raised. It is not only the 



often brilliant flowers they give us we 

 have to think of, but the finest leaf 

 hues in autumn, especially when massed 

 in the sun. They are not so difficult 

 to grow as the Rhododendron, owing 

 partly to that being on their own roots 

 they can be grown in a greater variety 

 of soils. From an artistic point of 

 view, their form in winter is better 

 than that of rhododendrons, and they 

 do not run into heavy dark masses 

 like the commoner Rhododendrons. 



A great advantage is that they are 

 tender to life below them, and, instead 

 of devouring all other plants, like the 

 Rhododendrons, they are very kind to 

 all sorts of beautiful things, such as 

 Blue Anemones, Trillium, Double Prim- 

 roses, and a great variety of bulbs and 

 choicer hardy flowers, growing beneath 

 them, the effect of which below the 

 bushes is far better than when by 

 themselves, the inter-relations of 

 colour being so much better than 

 from solid masses of green. It is 

 usual to regard them as only to be 

 grown in peat soils ; but it is by no 

 means necessary, and the absence of 

 peat should never be a bar to their 

 growth. Even if they do not on sands 

 or loams grow as rapidly as on good 

 peats, the beauty is none the less, 

 especially on the rock-garden, where 

 we seek beauty of form and colour, 

 shown in no matter how small a scale, 

 rather than the too vigorous vulgarity 

 of shrubbery growth. My Azaleas are 

 grown in soil and situation wholly 

 different from what is usually and 

 rightly supposed to favour Azalea 

 growth, and the growth of my plants 

 is certainly less vigorous than in good 

 peat soil, but I enjoy the beauty of 

 the plants just as much. 



Although from a botanical point of 

 view there is no distinct line between 

 Azalea and Rhododendron, and the 



M 



