A YEAR'S GARDENING 



ERICA {Heath). The cultivation of hardy heaths has hitherto 

 been much neglected in our gardens, yet with judicious planting they 

 produce a fine effect and are eminently suited for the Wild Garden. 

 The Cape Heaths are especially beautiful, and the writer, when 

 visiting Cape Town, was astonished and delighted at the great 

 variety shown at a Wild Flower Exhibition which he attended. 

 Heaths are essentially hardy and may be, raised from seed or pro- 

 pagated by division in autumn; among the hardiest may be reckoned 

 the Dorset Heath {E. ciliaris), the Scotch Heath [E. cinerea), which 

 may be had in various colours — ^white, purple, rose and bi-coloured — 

 and the Alpine Forest Heath {E. carnea), which is specially valuable 

 as one of the first to flower. 



ERIGERON (Stenacfis). This is a hardy perermial which will 

 flourish in any garden soU, and its showy flowers — orange Daisies, 

 as they are sometimes called — are very effective in a suitable position. 

 Some of the family, however, are of a weedy growth and are best 

 relegated to the Wild Garden. One of the most suitable for groups in 

 borders is E. speciosus, of vigorous growth, reaching from 2 to 

 2^ feet high, and bearing a profusion of large purpUsh flowers with 

 an orange centre; whUe another is E. Macranihus, of compact habit, 

 growing about i foot high and yielding an abundance of summer 

 bloom. There are also some dwarf varieties, such as E. alpinum 

 grandiflorum and E. Roylei, which are well suited for the Rock 

 Garden. 



ERINUS. An Alpine plant which will readily make itself at 

 home in the Rock Garden or on an old wall, where, if allowed to run 

 wild it wfll soon establish itself permanently. Both the blue and the 

 white flowered varieties are charming, and that called hirsutus has 

 a beauty of its own, its leaves (as its name implies) being covered 

 with fine down. 



ERIOGONUM. A beautiful family of Alpine plants but some- 

 what difficult of cultivation. E. umbellatum, however, will often 

 thrive in the Rock Garden in sandy soil, when its many stems of 

 bright yellow blooms present a charming appearance. 



ERITRICHIUM {Fairy Forget-me-not). An Alpine plant of 

 much beauty but not very easily acclimatized to our winters. In its 

 natural environment it is covered with dry snow throughout the 

 winter, and in the chilly moisture of our winter it is liable to damp 

 off. But by planting it in fibrous peat mixed with broken hmestone, 

 and protecting it from the winter rains by means of an overhanging 

 ledge of slate or glass, it will thrive in the Alpine Garden. 



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