TREES FOR THE ROCK GARDEN 133 



at no great distance below the ground-level, and 

 must be dug out when any deep trenching has 

 to be done. There was no time to be wasted in 

 facing the stones, which would have made them 

 more sightly, and they had to be used as they were. 

 Fortunately a large consignment of the best hardy 

 Heaths had lately arrived from the Darley Dale 

 Nurseries, and were immediately seized upon to 

 cover up the ugliness of the hastily-built-up barricade. 

 Boulders and Heaths, however, took to each other 

 kindly, in spite of a soil by no means specially suitable, 

 and with the addition, later, of a few good kinds of 

 Cistus and other shrubs, the bank still remains as 

 happy a bit of rough planting as could be desired. 



Of the taller Heaths, E. arborea is somewhat tender, 

 and is not so generally useful as E. mediterranea or 

 E. codonodes. A hybrid form — E. mediterranea X E. 

 camea — is excellent, and comes into flower about 

 Christmas, in advance of either of its parents, when 

 its pale-purple spikes are very welcome, and are quite 

 distinct from the rosy-red flowers of E. camea. The 

 foliage of hardy Heaths is never unsightly, but the 

 persistent dead flowers are, and these should always 

 be clipped off as soon as their beauty is over, or the 

 new growth will break away above the withered 

 flowers, leaving, in many cases, straggling and un- 

 clothed branches. The omission of this needful 

 work every season is a fruitful source of the ragged- 

 ness which brings some discredit on these otherwise 

 attractive plants. 



Many flowering shrubs of the same natural order 



