16 MY SHRUBS 



Zermatt. The pure white form of this clematis is also a good 

 thing. 



Atraphaxis, or Tragopyron, I still seek in vain ; but these 

 Siberian shrubs should be hardy enough. Perhaps their scarcity 

 argues that they are no great catch. 



Azalea is a countless host in herself, and one might fill the 

 garden with the hardy new crosses of these invaluable shrubs. It 

 is enough here to name a few that I best like, and to advise Azalea 

 mollis, on half standards. Thus grown, it will be found a very 

 great success in small and formal gardens such as mine. A. 

 Amcena hexe and A. Hinodegirii are both brilliant evergreen 

 varieties ; while A. rosaeflora is really a treasure and worthy of 

 a snug corner. The swamp honeysuckles from America are all 

 good ; but A. occidentalis, a late flowerer which opens in snowy, 

 fragrant trusses during July, and A. Vaseyi, another fine thing with 

 palest rose-coloured blossoms in April, are my favourites. Azalea 

 nudiflorum, a North American, is a great beauty too, and still 

 rare in cultivation. 



One is moved at the dreadful slaughter of Azalea indica which 

 obtains in this country. Thousands of this cheerful plant come 

 annually to us in autumn, and make bright our conservatories 

 during spring. Then they are cast out and suffered to perish, 

 whereas if they were plunged in a sunny corner of the kitchen 

 garden, well-watered through the summer, and taken back to the 

 cold house or vinery in October, they would flourish and come up 

 to the scratch gaily for another year. Re-pot every third year, and 

 the kindly things, asking for no more, will probably last as long as 

 you do. Indeed, one cannot assert their limit of life. That prince 

 of horticulturists, Herr Sander, recently told me that he has Azalea 



