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. 
Amena hexe and A. Hinodegiri are both brilliant evergreen 
varieties ; while A. roseflora 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. Vaseyz, 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 
