70 WOOD AND GARDEN 



land. The surrounding ground is copse, of a wild, 

 forest-like character, of birch and small oak. A wood- 

 path of wild heath cut short winds through the planted 

 group, which also comprises some of the beautiful 

 white - flowered Californian Azalea occidentalis, and 

 bushes of some of the North American Vacciniums. 



Azaleas should never be planted among or even 

 within sight of Rhododendrons. Though both enjoy 

 a moist peat soil, and have a near botanical relation- 

 ship, they are incongruous in appearance, and impossible 

 to group together for colour. This must be understood 

 to apply to the two classes of plants of the hardy 

 kinds, as commonly grown in gardens. There are 

 tender kinds of the East Indian families that are quite 

 harmonious, but those now in question are the ordinary 

 varieties of so-called Ghent Azaleas, and the hardy 

 hybrid Rhododendrons. In the case of small gardens, 

 where there is only room for one bed or clump of peat 

 plants, it would be better to have a group of either 

 one or the other of these plants, rather than spoil the 

 effect by the inharmonious mixture of both. 



I always think it desirable to group together 

 flowers that bloom at the same time. It is impossible, 

 and even undesirable, to have a garden in blossom all 

 over, and groups of flower-beauty are all the more en- 

 joyable for being more or less isolated by stretches of 

 intervening greenery. As one lovely group for May I 

 recommend Moutan Pseony and Clematis mtmtana, the 

 Clematis on a wall low enough to let its wreaths of 



