496 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ June 22, 1893. 
land to have it associated with the inaccessible crags of Alpine 
ranges that they are quite surprised to see it flourishing. It is 
perhaps for these associations a somewhat overrated plant, though 
there is a great beauty about its soft flannelly foliage and flower 
stems. My clump is several years old, and the plants were raised 
from seed gathered here. There are many varieties of Aubrietias, 
the best of them being seedlings from A. grmca. But none of 
them is comparable in beauty to Aubrietia Leichtlini, raised by 
the distinguished hybridist, Herr Max Leitchlin. It is quite as 
vigorous as the type, and is of a beautiful rosy pink colour, the 
buds as they open being nearly crimson. 
Gypsophila repens is a pretty little white-flowered trailing plant, 
running freely over the rockery, and very useful for cutting for 
small vases. After many unsuccessful trials of Campanula pulla, 
which is in many places almost a weed, I have succeeded 
in establishing a good clump of it, which I obtained from my friend 
Mr. Carrington-Ley, on a piece of rockery facing east. Its deep 
purple flowers, borne on slender stems, make it a very pretty 
object in the lower part of the rockery ; but care must be taken 
that larger plants do not interfere with it. 
Dianthus alpinus is one of the most charming of alpine plants, 
with dwarf bright green foliage, which is, however, entirely 
covered when it is in flower, the flowers being of a bright rosy 
pink IJ to 2 inches in diameter. Dianthus neglectus is a bright 
pink flower, produced on stems from 4 to 6 inches high ; but some 
doubt appears to exist as to whether what is known as such in the 
trade is the real neglectus. Dianthus deltoides is one of those rock 
plants which the grower will have to watch very closely, not 
because it is delicate, but for the very opposite reason. It is so 
robust, and so increases by underground growth that it is apt to 
spring up in all places and smother other plants. Dianthus csesius 
is the well-known Cheddar Pink ; a native plant, very fragrant, and 
easily grown. Dianthus fragrans may be called a dwarf single 
form of the common white garden Pink—like it, the petals are 
deeply serrated, and the flower is very fragrant. 
Cypripedium spectabile being in flower at the end of May is a 
remarkable proof of the earliness of the season, for I have seldom 
had it blooming before the end of June. I had also feared the drought 
would have considerably injured its vitality as it is essentially a 
moisture-loving plant, but I am glad to find that this is not the 
case, and that my clump, which I have had now for ten or twelve 
years, has flowered well. Its white flowers with the rosy labellum 
make it a conspicuous object on the rockery, and always attract 
the attention of visitors. 
Campanula turbinata is a well known dwarf free-flowering 
species, comprising many varieties very easy of culture, in fact 
quite taking care of itself. The flowers are sessile and large 
considering the dwarf character of the plant. Many of the 
Saxifragas are noticeable for the beauty of their foliage, others 
for their huge panicles of showy flowers, but I know of none 
of them which for the delicacy of its pencilling equals Saxifraga 
MacNabiana. 
The long period of drought seems to have suited Semper- 
vivum arachnoideum admirably, wet weather to a great extent de¬ 
stroying the beautiful webs which cover its surface ; indeed, it 
does not seem to mind how much it is baked. I recollect finding 
it in the clefts of some rocks on the Mauvais Pas near Chamounix, 
where it was fully exposed to the blaze of the sun, and did not 
seem to have a morsel of earth in which to root, so that this 
summer it has been quite at home. 
Omphalodes Luciliae, whose flowers are the most peculiar 
shade of blue, unlike that of any other plant I know, does not 
seem to be one very easy to manage—not that I lose it, but 
the plant does not seem to increase in size, and it is most difficult 
to propagate by division of the roots, at least I have found it 
so. I tried it once, and it was a most egregious failure. Another 
defect which I find in this beautiful flower is the smallness of 
the trusses, as I can never get more than three or four blooms 
out at the time. 
Heuchera sanguinea has again flowered, but not at all in the way 
in which I am told by some of my brother gardeners it does with 
them. I was advised by somebody (I think it was Mr. Cocker of 
Aberdeen) at the Temple Show to break it up after it had flowered, 
and immediately replant the crowns. I was not to mind the 
flagging of the plant under the process, as it .was its too great 
luxuriance under cultivation which prevented its" flowering, as it 
does in the wild state. There may be something in the theory, 
and at any rate I mean to give it a trial. 
Such is the record of my small rockery in the month of May 
of this year. Of course, it is not such an one as I should have in 
ordinary seasons, for many things have prematurely passed out of 
bloom ; but it will be seen that even in this exceptional season 
there are some things to interest and please.—D., Deal. 
! Rose Show Fixtuees in 1893. 
June 24th (Saturday).—Reigate. 
„ 26th (Monday).—Canterbury and Hitchin. 
„ 27th (Tuesday).—Maidstone and Sutton. 
„ 28th (Wednesday).—Clifton,* Earl’s Court, King’s Lynn, and 
Richmond (Surrey). 
„ 29th (Thursday).—Eltham and Windsor. 
July 1st (Saturday).—Crystal Palace (N.R.S.). 
„ 4th (Tuesday).—Bagshot, Diss, and Gloucester. 
„ 5th (Wednesday).—Croydon, Ealing, Farnham, Hereford, and 
Lee.* 
„ 6th (Thursday)—Bath, Farningham, Manchester, and Norwich. 
„ 7th (Friday).—Ulverston. 
„ 11th (Tuesday).—Harleston and Wolverhampton.f 
,, 12th (Wednesday).—Earl’s Court and Tunbridge Wells. 
„ 13th (Thursday).—Worksop (N.R.S.), and Woodbridge. 
, 14th (Friday).—Helensburgh. 
„ 15th (Saturday).—New Brighton. 
,, 20th (Thursday).—Bedford and Trentham. 
„ 25th (Tuesday).—Tibshelf. 
„ 27th (Thursday).—Halifax and Southwell. 
„ 29th (Saturday).—Bedale. 
* Shows lasting two days. f Show lasting three days. 
During the present month a list of Rose Show fixtures will be issued 
each week, so that I shall be glad to have early notice of the dates of 
any shows not mentioned above, and also of any change of dates.— 
Edwaed Mawley, Itosebank, BerUhamsted, Herts. 
Train AREANasMENTS for the National Rose Society’s 
Provincial Show at Worksop, July 13th. 
The 10.40 p.m., out of King’s Cross, Great Northern Railway, on July 
12th, is to have a special van for Rose boxes, and will stop at Hitchin. 
The 5.15 A.M. will take up at Retford, and have a van from there for 
convenience of those coming from the North. This will enable exhibitors 
to get to Worksop at 8.31. The 7.15 A.M. is to have a special van.— 
J. Mallender. 
The Oldest Rose Tree. 
It interested me to see in last week’s Journal of IlorticuUure 
(page 420) a note about the old Rose tree at Hildesheim, and I thought 
it might interest you to see the accompanying photograph, which I 
brought from Hildesheim in remembrance of my visit (in 1882) to the 
Cathedral there, and to the “oldest Rose tree’’ in the world. Unfor¬ 
tunately I did not see the tree in bloom, as it was too late in the year, 
but we were told it had been a perfect picture that year, so covered was 
it with blossoms. 
The tradition, as I was told it in Hildesheim, was that the King while 
hunting in the forest, lost a precious relic, and vowed if he found it he 
would build a church on the spot. It was found caught by the chain 
on a Rose bush, and he built a chapel there, so that the Rose tree grew 
against the wall. The chapel being added later on, became the 
cathedral, and certainly is of much older date than the rest of the 
building. I think the King who founded it was not Charlemagne, but 
his son Louis the Holy, as he was called. 
The stem of the Jlose is of great size, and has had to be fenced in 
with a high iron railing to preserve it and the tree from the depredations 
of tourists. This is nothing in the way of information, but I thought it 
might interest you to see t’ne photograph.—M abel Major, Cromwell 
House, Croydon. 
[We are obliged by the photograph, which is, however, not suitable 
for reproduction, and for Miss Major’s interesting communication.] 
The Prairie Rose. 
Recently garden literature has much to say of the beauty of the 
wild single form of this American Rose. It has been long cultivated in 
the nurseries of the conductors of “ Meehan’s Monthly,” and they can 
bear testimony to the special beauty of this species. It comes into flower 
just as the ordinary garden Roses are going out, and before the 
autumn Roses appear, and the flowers, though each comparatively 
small, are borne in such immense clusters that the effect from the beauty 
standpoint is very grateful. 
One singular point about the Rose is that when found growing wild 
north of the Potomac, as it often is—indeed, the specimens under cul¬ 
tivation as before cited are from Pennsylvania plants—they seem to be 
perfectly sterile, never attempting to make any seed, and for this reason 
no opportunity has been afforded to endeavour to improve the race by 
seed; but it must produce seed further south, as the Baltimore Belle 
and Prairie Queen were raised in Baltimore from these wild plants by 
the late Mr. Samuel Feast. In native localities further south it seems 
to produce seed freely ; at least, the writer of this noticed it producing 
seed abundantly in the cave regions of Kentucky and round the Kahokia 
mounds in Illinois, near St. Louis. 
