iE Gardening World, April 20, 1907. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
Fair flowers are not left standing long by the wayside .”—German Proverb. 
An Amateur’s Letter to Amateurs. 
CONTENTS. 
am’s Needle, A Hardy (Illus.) . 267 
pine House at Kew, 1 he (Illus.) ••• 270 
vssum maritimum prostratum .271 
lateur's Letter to Amateurs, An ... 265 
gonias (Tuberous) for Exhibition ... 272 
rds. Protecting Fruit Bushes and 
Peas from (Illus.) . 275 
rnations : Work for April . 271 
nerarias from Wordsley . 271 
ematis orientalis tangutica . 268 
mpetition Awards . 266 
repetition (Name) No. 2 .. 270 
mpetition, Prize Letter . 268 
iffodil, A Fine Nosegay (Illus.) ... 271 
lquire Within . 275 
ewer Garden, The . 273 
uit Garden, The . 274 
apes, The Culture of (Illus.) . 279 
eenhouse, The Amateur's . 274 
:ath, The Portugal (Illus.) . 269 
itchen Garden, The .•". 274 
chids for Amateurs . 274 
itato Duchess of Cornwall (Illus.) ... 267 
imulas (Double), Propagation and 
Culture of . 266 
lf-Sown Seeds . 269 
ot as Manure . 272 
-eet Pea Nora L T nwin . 268 
eeds and their Eradication . 266 
ork of the Week .'. 273 
-*+♦- 
ie earth was bound with icy chains, 
The sun was clouded o’er, 
tere were no birds to chirp and sing, 
All shivering were the poor; 
ie flowers were dead, the trees were 
bare, 
The grass was hid by snow; 
he air was cold, the wind was keen, 
All things had ceased to grow. 
rake ! Arise ! spring's trumpet cried ; 
The earth responsive shook, 
ie ice and snow soon fled away, 
And danced each happy brook, 
ie sullen clouds the sun rolled up, 
And put away once more; 
ie birds and beasts began to sing, 
Thrice happy were the poor. 
vake ! Arise ! the trumpets pealed ; 
Responsive from the ground, 
he flowers and plants shook off their 
bonds, 
With life all things abound, 
ie trees put on their choicest robes, 
The fields green carpets spread, 
he fairies came to dance thereon, 
For winter’s gloom had fled. 
Baynton-Taylor. 
LXXXVII. 
The Rock Garden. 
If it flowered at no other season than 
spring it would still be worth while to have 
a rock garden, as it is one of the most 
decorative features the garden could con¬ 
tain. But it does far more than this ; with 
careful selection of plants the Rock Gar¬ 
den should, and may be, in flower nine or 
ten months in the year, though at no time 
is it so beautiful as from mid-March to the 
end of June. I spoke of some of the 
spring subjects last week, and to-day I 
should Tike to call attention to some of 
those plants that can be established at the 
present time to produce flowers during the 
last half of the year. Certain of "the 
Potentillas are grandly showy and reli¬ 
able : thus, P. formosa bears dazzlingly 
brilliant cherry-red flowers, so that a well 
grown patch of it shows from afar, and we 
have this to remember, a striking bit of 
colour such as this represents, furnishes 
(if I may use the word in this sense) a far 
larger space than it covers. I mean that 
it draws the eye to it, so that it does not 
matter if the surrounding patches are past 
their flowering season, and this makes me 
say that such a plant should be established 
amid a group of spring flowering subjects. 
There are other Potentillas not so strik¬ 
ing, but still very good: P. clusiana is 
wonderfully cheery looking, with white 
blossoms and dark centre; P. pyrenaica 
has striking, clear, yellow flowers, and 
good habit; while P. nitida v grandiflora 
is rose colour. 
A Good Dwarf Campanula. 
Campanula carpatica is one of the best 
of the dwarf Campanulas, and its flowering 
season can be retarded if desirable, as if 
the buds are picked off when they first 
appear they will then commence to flower 
about the second week in September, and 
the flowers will be of longer endurance 
than if the first flowers had expanded. I 
learnt this through the depredations of 
hares one year, but it was a bit of know¬ 
ledge that sometimes proves useful to pro¬ 
long the show of blossom in the rock 
garden. 
A Showy Prunella. 
Prunella grandiflora pyrenaica is a 
capital subject, for the substantial looking 
flowers are very showy. It will flourish 
best in rather rich moist soil, but is always 
safer when raised above the level as it 
requires good drainage. 
Beautiful Gentians. 
We are so accustomed to associate the 
word Gentian with the spring flowering G. 
acaulis and G. vema that we sometimes 
forget there are varieties that are at the 
height of their beauty from the middle of 
July and onwards. Thus G. Pneu- 
monanthe makes clumps of rich deep 
blue, and G. septemfida v. cordifolia is a 
plant to be reckoned with as one of the 
finest blue rock plants for summer. 
For Sunny Fissures. 
A grand little plant for sunny fissures, 
with brilliantly green foliage and pure 
white flowers is Hutchinsia. Anyone who 
has seen this established on an old wall 
knows what an effective mass it makes. 
It belongs to the Cruciferae, and some¬ 
times is known as Noccaea. Beside this 
alpine variety there is a variety known as 
H. petraea, but it flowers considerably 
earlier in the year. 
Dwarf Inulas. 
Some of the dwarf Inulas are especi¬ 
ally valuable for carrying on the season of 
flowers in the rock garden late into the 
autumn. They may not be of rare or un¬ 
common beauty, but they are bright and 
cheery, even it they do incline perhaps to 
slight coarseness, and are far too good to 
be omitted. 
Many of the varieties have great powers 
of endurance so that the flowers are ex¬ 
cellent for cutting. I. squarrosa is very 
distinctive and characteristic, and should 
be allowed generous space, as it makes a 
fine mass. I. saxatilis, somewhat dwarfer 
than the foregoing, is one of the be”st rock 
plants procurable at its season. 
Linaria alpina. 
A number of rock plants that produce 
rather small blossoms are yet wonderfully 
effective if allowed to cover sufficient space, 
Take, for instance, the delicately beautiful 
little Linaria alpina; a single small plant 
of this does' not attract very much atten¬ 
tion, but when the parent plant has seeded 
around itself and a second generation of 
plants has grown up round it, so that a 
couple of square feet is dyed pale mauve, 
then it is another story altogether. Thus 
I happened to see it last season, and thus 
seen it is indeed covetable property. It 
flourishes in a sharp gritty soil, and in a 
fairly sunny position, while as a wall plant 
it is uncommonly attractive. I have it 
so growing, and am always glad that I 
established it pretty well at the level of 
the eye, as with its twisting habit, when 
ripening and depositing its seed it is won¬ 
derfully interesting to watch. 
I must find space to mention Plumbago 
Larpentae, with its blue flowers, and 
autumn flowering period, for it is indis¬ 
pensable. Care should be taken when 
establishing it to see that it has a well- 
drained spot, and nice loamy soil, rich, 
but made sufficiently porous and workable 
with sharp sand. F. NORFOLK. 
