THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



999 



SOLDANELLAS. 



Delightful alpines are th^ soldanellas, or 

 blue alpine moonflowers, which are beloved 

 of everyone who owns a rock garden, and 

 can induce them to flower. But, alas! 

 this latter condition is not easy to secure, 

 and too many have reason to lament the 

 fact that these delightful plants never 

 deign to favour them with their exquisite 

 blooms. These are lovely enough to send 

 the spectator into the seventh heaven of 

 delight, so perfect are these flowers in their 

 form and 'colouring. Tliese charms of 

 theirs are combined with an almost per- 

 fect habit also, so that it is hardly possible 

 to picture anything in the world of alpine 

 flowers more bea utif ul . This is ra re 

 praise, yet it is amply deserved, and those 

 who know the soldanellas best will agree 

 with the writer in this assertion. Authors 

 have given us glowing pictures of the 

 charms of these daintiest of flowers, as they 



contrary, with us they have to undergo 

 many vicissitudes. One day the soldanellas 

 are soaked with rain ; the next, or even the 

 same evening, they are frozen hard with- 

 out any protecting snow; and so the tale 

 continues, our manv alternations of 

 weather telling sorely upon them, and ren- 

 dering them flowerless. The solution is 

 not usually difficult to adopt, once it is 

 known, and it lies in covering the plants 

 with glass for the winter months, but not 

 coddling them in heat or keepi»)g them 

 from the fresh air. A sheet of glass lield 

 over them by a wire support, or other con- 

 trivance having -the same effect, will sufl^ce, 

 this being placed above the ]>lants towards 

 the end of September or the beginning of 

 October, and allowed to remain until the 

 flowering is over. This will supply all that 

 is required in most gardens. provide<l that 

 the soil and position are suitable. 



With the writer thev do best in a shel- 



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t>ered place, low down in the rock garden, 



certainly with it. Then^ S. montana, var. 

 hungarica, usually sold as S. Ciussi, comes 

 next, and with these two one might almost 

 feel content were it not for the presence of 

 S. pusilla and S. minima, the smallest of 

 the set, or the knowleilge that there are 

 white soldanellas, which have an innate fas- 

 cination to the alpinist. 



It seems needless to give a long descrip- 

 tion of these alpine moonflowers. They 

 are well known throngh illustrations, but 

 to those "vvho know them not, no descrip- 

 tion will serve a really useful purpovse, inas- 

 much as they are so full of tharm that 

 vei-l)al description forms only a delusion 

 and a snare. Dainty little bells of purple 

 and wliite, beautifully fringed or notclHKl, 

 suspended over the leathery, glossy, 

 rounded little leaves on slender stems, will 

 serve as well as, or even better than, ]>rolix 

 statements of a botanical kind. The spe- 

 cies in cultivation include S. alpina, with 

 its varieties alba and pyrolieflora, already 



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AN EFFECTIVE GROUPING OF SPECIMEN CHRYSANTHEMUMS AT GT^XNKRSBURY HOUSE. 



The variety represented is the bright yellow October-flowering variety, Horace Martin, and. the tree under whose tihadoAV the 

 ttpccimens are placed is the mulberry tree, the leaves of whicli had assumed the rich golden hue characteristic of autumn. 



have seen them piercing the virgin snow 

 with the approach of spring, and peering 

 amid the snowy coverlet which has pro- 

 tected the plant so long. 



Those of us who know the soldanellas in 

 cultivation can seldom enjoy this picture 

 in our gardens, but we have one little less 

 fascinating in the appearance of our 

 plants, with their bonnie tufts of rounded, 

 glossy leaves, whence rise the delightful 

 slender stems carrying their exquisite blue 

 or purple bells, either fringed or notched 

 in the most delightful way. How to obtain 

 these flowers is a problem for many, yet 

 with most cultivators they can be secured 

 with a little consideration and trouble. 



In our climate the soldanellas have not 

 the protection of frost and snow in win- 

 ter they have at homo, where they are dry 

 and snug until leii<2;t}ienin*r davs and 

 the strengthen itiij; sunshine call them to 

 W'ake from their winter's rest. On the 



and in a soil which has plenty of sand 

 and grit, with leaf-soil or peat about it, 

 with full drainage, yet where an ample 

 supply of water can be given in times of 

 drought. Here the soldanellas, with this 

 glass roof, generally flower well, although 

 they have still another enemy to encounter 

 in certain gardens. This foe is to be found 

 in the shape of the field mouse, which 

 seems to take a delight in gnawnng through 

 the dainty stems, w^hen the flowers ar<^ 

 undeveloped, leaving our hearts saddened 

 by the havoc they inflict upon these 

 yearned-for flowers. It is always safe to 

 set a trap or two near the soldanellas if 

 mice are prcvsent in the garden. 



Yet there are soldanellas and soldanellas, 

 so far as flowering is concerned. The best, 

 perhaps, is the variety of R. alpina which 

 is calUnl pyrola^ilora , and is the most 

 useful of all, sometimes flowering, indeinl, 

 without the aid of the glass, but more 



alluded to; S. minima, a very small spe- 

 cies; S. montana, a vigorous one, with its 

 variety hungarica or Clusi ; and S. pusilla, 

 with its variety alba. There is also one 

 called hybrida, a hybrid between alpine 

 and pusilla. 



The soldanellas may still be planted, es- 

 pecially out of pots, and are incTeased by 

 division or bv seeds. 



S. Arnott. 



The Pyracantha.— As with mc^t 



berried trees and shrubs, this has been par- 

 ticularly fine during the autumn of 1912, 

 wet and dull as was the summer. It is more 

 than probable that the sunny autumn of 

 1911 had somethino- to do with the matter. 

 Though so generally trained to a wall the 

 value of tlr- jiyracantha for growing in open 

 positions is worth jnore consideration than 

 it usually receives.- — W. 



