^ «s\ i ex 
f, Gardening World, January 30, 1909. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
‘He who owns the soil, owns everything 
s>ve it to the very sky .”—Latin quot. 
CONTENTS. 
/lateur's Letter to Amateurs . 55 
/pie Peasgood's Nonsuch (illus.) ... 60 
I ugainvilleas and Their Culture ... 61 
Cmpetition Awards .. 5 ^ 
(mpetition, Prize Letter . 5 ^ 
I quire Within . . . 65 
liwer Garden, The (illus.) . 62 
luit Garden, The (illus.) . 62 
(eenhouse, The Amateur’s . 63 
lichen Garden, The (illus.) . 62 
Lies: Their Cultivation in the Gar- 
ien . 6-1 
lliums in Pots (illus.) . 59 
lly of the Valley, The Culture of the 56 
(chids for Amateurs . 63 
Lotography for Garden Lovers 
illus.) ..i. 59 
]>ses for the Greenhouse . 56 
Feet Peas . 64 
dip, The Spotted (illus.) .. 61 
’allflovvers in Pots . 59 
5 he ?wesuU of KeaUh. 
(Gardening is one of the few hobbies 
rich are productive of health.—Mr. 
. T. Bernard.) 
Dnd fools with ills their lots so cram, 
That life must one long sob be; 
it oh! the happy man I am, 
For gardening is my hobby. 
scorn mere lovers, crowned with bliss, 
The famous and the wealthy, 
Dr which can boast like me of this— 
Their hobby keeps them healthy ? 
y legs are both so stiff, it’s true, 
That heavily I step it, 
nd true, my back's so bent in two 
That folk call me decrepit. 
(d gaily do I brave the damp, 
So boldly through the clay go, 
11 night I’ve ecstasies of cramp, 
All daytime of lumbago. 
catch a cold week after week, 
And each worse than the last time, 
et I pursue, for health I seek, 
This health-promoting pastime, 
here could be of like pains, I know, 
That gardening brings much more writ, 
ut I, for doctors tell me so, 
Am much the better for it. 
M. S. in The Daily Chronicle. 
CLXXX. 
Some Good Heucheras. 
This plant belongs to the family of the 
Saxifrages. I remember how astonished 
a keen amateur gardener I know was to 
hear this, and declared it made him re¬ 
gard it in an entirely new light. It is a 
plant that always seems to be regarded 
with favour, and why I cannot say, but I 
notice people always seem a little proud 
of it, and glad to show it in full flower. 
It does well in ordinary garden soil, and 
should not be too parched up in summer, 
otherwise it is easy enough to grow. We 
must not forget that time has not stood 
still with this slender graceful perennial. 
The hybrider’s art has been requisitioned, 
and Heuchera sanguinea hybrida is a 
great improvement upon the older form. 
We have also H. s. maxima, which is 
also an excellent strain. It makes a good 
border plant, but it is never quite so well 
displayed as when seen growing in the 
rock garden or on a raised edging. It 
must not be regarded as a particularly 7 
showy plant, but its qualities are light 
gracefulness, slenderness and charm. The 
scarlet and crimson forms are better 
worth growing from the decorative point 
of view than are the paler or white shades. 
If it is desired for the current year’s 
flowering, plants must be purchased, 
though it can easily be reared from seed, 
but I do want to impress very strongly the 
need for good reliable seed. I have come 
to the conclusion that a great deal of in¬ 
ferior seed is put up of this and many 
other subjects. Those w 7 ho know what to 
expect, what they ought to have, can 
quickly detect these inferior strains, but 
novices buying seeds of plants with the 
appearance of which they are unfamiliar 
will expend extreme care and attention 
on some batch of seedlings, and bring 
them with many hopes to the flowering 
stage; but when the blossoms appear 
small and inferior, though they may be 
disappointed, they do not realise that it 
might have been otherwise, and that, a 
poor strain has been grown. So I say 
emphatically, procure reliable seed - 
good strains of plants require no better 
cultivation and space than poor ones, but 
the difference in decorative value is great. 
The Rock Garden. 
“ Can you give me an idea for a rock 
garden in a small town garden to cost a 
very modest sum, but one that shall add a 
really decorative feature to the garden as 
a whole ? ” There! It is a comprehen¬ 
sive question, and none too easy to an¬ 
swer. However, I wall do my best. 
First and foremost I will say I wish every 
garden, town or suburban or country, 
boasted of its rock garden, so assured am 
I of the intense interest and beauty of 
this phase of gardening, and it need not 
be an extravagant nor expensive item. 
The worst form of rock garden is the 
mound stuck with pieces of rock, as if it 
had been turned out of a huge basin and 
“ decorated ” afterwards. Yet I remem¬ 
ber in a large garden seeing this ugly 
unimaginative heap, and what was worse, 
it was planted with some unusually choice 
alpines. How miserable, how unhealthy, 
and how impoverished this fine collection 
looked even in the few weeks it had been 
established. I came to the conclusion that 
this was a model specimen of how not to 
put together a rock garden. The great 
thing to bear in mind is the health of the 
plants that are to occupy it; having that 
in mind, we shall avoid all steep sides 
and sharp declivities where it is almost 
impossible for plants to derive any bene¬ 
fit from the rainfall. W here it is a ques¬ 
tion of rigid economy, clinkers or burrs 
will have to take the place of sandstone 
or other natural material where this is 
not plentiful in the neighbourhood. In¬ 
ferior these burrs must be, and we will 
never choose to have those glazed lumps, 
but we know that clinkers and burrs 
weather, and in a few years there is a 
mellowness and age over them, and in ad¬ 
dition they will be more or less hidden 
under creeping plants. We need not use 
them too lavishly, but rather for use than 
ornament, and of great use they may be¬ 
come in that they afford cool moist root 
runs for the plants whose roots spread out 
beneath them. A good deal of additional 
soil can be saved if we decide to make a 
pathwav through our rock garden, and 
dig this out even sav a foot or a foot and 
a half, we shall have this to bank up on 
either side. Suppose we decide to place 
the rock garden at the edge of the lawn 
farthest from the house, and put up a 
ridge say 7 three feet wide, the soil for 
which we throw up from a pathway we 
dig" out along the base of the ridge, and 
on the other side of the pathway we make 
a similar ridge, both extending across the 
garden. In these ridges we firmly imbed 
our rock, or stone, or clinkers, and by 
that I mean plant them a quarter of their 
bulk beneath the soil, so that they shall 
appear to be pointing naturally 7 from the 
subsoil. Never simply lay the material 
on the soil—there is nothing to suggest 
Nature’s work in that — and always work 
from the base upwards. 
F. Norfolk. 
-b A- 
Cattleya Maggie Raphael. 
The sepals and wavy petals are of a 
warm rose. The lip, on the contrary, is 
crimson with an orange throat netted 
with yellow. Award of Merit by the 
R.H.S. to Lieut.-Col. C. L. Holford at 
the recent meeting. 
Cattleya percivaliana Charlesworth’s Var. 
The sepals and petals of this distinct 
variety are w r hite. The lip, on the con¬ 
trary,' has a large crimson and purple 
blotch with a broad white margin and 
orange in the tube. First-class Certifi¬ 
cate by the R.H.S. recently when shown 
by Messrs. Charlesworth and Co., Hay¬ 
wards Heath, Sussex. 
