i8o 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



PURPLE ROCK CRESSES 



{Aubretia). 

 There are many so-called carpet plants 

 which, as tender exotics, have little value 

 and no lasting beauty, but here we have 

 carpet plants of the finest effect, hardy, 

 easily raised and grown, and enduring 

 for many seasons with only the smallest 

 a mount of care. There are good and bad 

 Aubretias, and some are of poor, washy 

 colour and not worth growing; but if 

 the best, whether of seedlings or named 

 kinds, are rightly used in broad masses, 

 their constant bloom from spring far in- 

 to early summer makes them among the 

 most useful of hardy plants. And where 

 will not the Aubretia thrive ? Scatter a 

 few seeds within the fissures of yon sul- 

 len wall and watch its grimness melt 

 away before the springing life, until its 

 sombre face is wreathed in flowers. Or 

 on that sun-burned crest where the bare 

 ribs of Mother Earth stand forth, bare 

 and unlovely, give but a footholdand its 

 garlands drape her nakedness with ten- 

 der green and folds of vivid blue. See 

 how it ripples, a cascade of colour, from 

 bank and rocky ledge, or how it veils 

 like modest charity the crumbling ruin 

 of a vanished day. Giving much and ask- 

 ing little, careless of cold and happy in 

 the sunlight, never drooping from the 

 storm, but gazing wide-eyed out upon 

 the world, come fair or foul, adorning 

 the mountain solitude or smiling at the 

 cottage door, the Aubretia may well be 

 loved of all for its colour, its hardiness, 

 and constancy. It is best seen as a hang- 

 ing plant and grows better thus in many 

 gardens, particularly those of heavy soil 

 with a large rainfall. Though perfectly 



Culture. 



hardy the plant sometimes suffers from 

 wet in a long, sunless winter, when its 

 trailing stems rest constantly upon cold, 

 saturated soil, and the water stands 

 thickly on its dense tufts of foliage. 

 With stems hanging vertically or nearly 

 so the risk of damping is removed, and 

 when in flower the blossoms are not 

 spoiled in the same way by the mingled 

 showers and sunshine of an English 

 spring. 



No garden need be without 

 its patch of Rock Cress, for 

 no Alpine plant is more easil y raised from 

 seed, and many sorts come fairly true. 

 The best-named kinds are grown from 

 cuttings of young shoots about an inch 

 long,madein]uly;iftheplantsarelightly 

 cut back after flowering, tender shoots 

 are freely thrown out and root readily 

 where old shoots fail completely. In 

 gardens of heavy soil or where very vi- 

 gorous plants are desired, it is best to 

 scatter seed during April or early May, 

 in broad patches of several feet, thinning 

 the young plants to \ inches apart as 

 they develop, and rejecting those of poor 

 colour. Thus they grow on without 

 check, increasing in beauty, season by 

 season, and needing little or no carebe- 

 yond a little clipping if the shoots be- 

 come bare. It is not uncommon to find 

 plants of fifteen or even twenty years, 

 grown into tufts many feet across and 

 still vigorous ; old plants, however, do 

 not move well and rarely recover. There 

 is difference of practice as to the clipping 

 of Aubretias, some gardeners preferring 

 to leave them alone, while others pass 

 them all with shears or scissors after 

 flowering. In such matters local expe- 



