April 6, 1912. 



THE GARDENERS* MAGAZINE. 



275 



THE BEST TWELVE 

 SAXIFRAGES FOR THE 



ROCK GARDEN. 



To select t\^'elve saxifrages from the host 

 of species and' varieties of the numerous 

 classes of the beautiful family is hardly less 

 difficult than that of choosing ''the hun- 

 dred best books," and an effort to do- so is 

 certain to meet with considerable criticism. 

 Yet it iiS often needful for the «mall gar- 

 den, or for those who are desirous of em- 

 barking upon the cultivation of a few only 

 of the choicest alpine flowers that at- 

 tention should, so to speak, be focussed 

 upon a few of the best. With the 

 proviso, therefoi-e, that the selection is a 

 somewhat arbitrary one, and is not made 

 in a dogmatic fashion, the twelve which 



Faldonside, the most satisfactory of the 

 yellow ones at the present time for all- 

 round culture is S. Elizabethae, named, it 

 is said, after Qiieen Carmen Silva, of Rou- 

 mania, and a plant even royalty might be 

 pleased to have its name associated with. 

 It is a charming pUnt, forming a low car- 

 pet of grey-green leaves surmounted by 

 'bright, yet soft yellow flowers.. It is an 

 easy " plant to grow, but seems to prefer 

 a dry, hard, poor soil, iwitli tlie reservation 

 that it mav require some water in a summer 

 like that of 1911. I find it likes full ex- 

 posure. 



S. Wallace!. 



Of its class there is no saxifrage to equal 

 S. Wallacei, frequently said, by the way, to 

 be synonymous with S. C'aniposi, but this 

 is an error, as S. Wallacei was raist^l in 



the failing that it makes few offsets, and 

 that seeds saved from flowers grown near 

 other saxifrages have a tendencj' to yield 

 plants not of the true type. Yet S. longi- 

 folia, with its symmetrical rosettes of long 

 narrow leas es and its fine plumes of flowers, 

 is one of the elite plants which every 

 rockery should possess. It and the other 

 silvery saxifrages name<l like a small pro- 

 portion of lime in the soil, and a goml 

 amount of sun. 



S. Aizoon. 



One cannot well omit to name two of 

 the Aizoon saxifrages among our twelve 

 elect. It is difficult to choose tliese, but 

 we must make the selection, and in this 

 case it will light upon 8. Aizoon Rex and 

 iS. Aizoon rosea. The first is the finest of 

 the white Aizo'(mSj giving charming rosettes 



SAXIFRAGA BUESERIANA GLORIA AND 



S 



OPPOSITIFOLIA SPLEXDENS. 



A tasteful arrangement of these two fine .saxifrages, 



exhibited by Mr. C. Elliott3 Stevenage, at a r.rout meeting of the Royal 



Horticidtural Society. 



follow are suggested as the best for the 

 garden and as plants that every rockery 

 should possess. 



Saxif rasa Burseriana 



Gloria. 



Tndoubtedly in the first rank of the 

 beautiful Burseriana rockfoils we have the 

 variety Gloria, which was sent out from a 

 xorkshire nursery a few years ago, and 

 ^;hich has received the highest commenda- 

 tions. It is a lovely plant with a close car- 

 Pet of small spiny foliage, above which rise 

 in earliest spring dainty little flowers of 



fK "^^'^ character is w^ell displayed in 



tne dlustration here reproduced. 



S. Eiizabethae. 



Iliough there are several charming yel- 

 »ow jiaxifrages of much the same character, 

 *^^^t'h as S. Boydi, 8. Cherrytrees, and S. 



Edinburgh, and is a hybrid plant. It is a and 



the 



great beauty, being praetK-ally a large 

 mossy" one, appearing to liave some ot 

 ^..^ blood" of the S. ceratophylla class 

 in it, and affording a profusion of large 

 white flowers. Hanging over a stone, it is 

 exquisite in its season, while it is so easily 

 cultivated that it is certainly one of the 

 best. My finest plant is on a north-west 

 exposure well up on a rockery, and some 

 six feet or more above the ground level. 

 S. Wallacei is figured in the accompanying 

 illustration. 



S. longifolia. 



When we come to the silvery >^^ix if rages 



choosing -i few out of the many gems in- 

 cluded in this section. Yet S. longifolia 



are vonfronttnl with the difficulty of 



lovely white flowers on good-sized 



^ les, and they are really of a decidedly 



better colour than those of most of its 



sister flowers. 



S. Aizoon rosea is another one not too 



well known, although it is not such a 

 novelty as S. Rex. It has lovely panicles 

 of rose-coloured flowers. 



S. lantoscana superba. 



Another silvery saxifrage nobody should 

 be long without is S. laiitoNcana . and I 

 prefer the fine variety, superba, which is 

 of (beautiful habit in every wii y. witli liaiul- 

 some rof^ettes and lovely plumes ot white 

 flowers. It is a gem. and will yield but 

 little even to S. lonj-ifolia. If anvbody 



omitted 



selects S. cotyle<lon, a well-known one, i/i 

 preference to S. lantoscana superba 1 

 cannot well complain. 



