June 22, 1907. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
4*3 
Alyssums. _ 
Beautiful Plants 
for the 
Pock Garden. 
The commoner Alyssums are so largely 
rown for spring bedding and border 
oik, and are so widely appreciated for 
leir glowing golden hues, which render 
lem especially valuable for such woik, 
rat it is needless for me to dilate upon 
iieir value as bedding plants. 
What I particularly desire is that these 
ardy “rovers of the rocks ” should be 
iroperly appreciated as one of the finest 
aces of plants suitable for rock garden- 
ng. On the rocks the golden Alyssums 
.re infinitely more charming than any¬ 
where else. ’ The foliage attains a more 
ilverv hue, the flowers are deeper, richer 
n hue, and the growths generally ate 
turdier, hardier, and well ripened. The 
nasses of gold in May and June possess 
luite a different character than do the 
;ame species, when grown in an ordinary 
301'der. 
A well chosen collection looks glorious - 
vhen draping the jutting crags and 
Doulders of a bold precipitous rock 
warden. Equally effective are they when 
gemming the slow-rising rocks of .a slop¬ 
ing formation, rambling among the nooks 
and crevices, with a freedom of growth 
which is only surpassed by their freedom 
of flowering. Massed along the wide 
ledges of a “terraced ” rock garden, rising 
tier upon tier, the “ drift of gold forms 
a pleasing adjunct to the landscape. 
When the “gold and sulphur” of the 
Alyssums is blended with the blues and 
violets of the Aubrietias, the snowy white¬ 
ness of the Arabis and Iberis, the mauves 
and lilacs of the alpine Primulas, and the 
many hues of the Saxifrages, then the well 
arranged rock garden becomes a Subject 
beyond description. The masses of well- 
toned colourings contrast with each other 
just sufficiently to form a perfectly har¬ 
monious blend of beauty, which should 
satisfy the most fastidious of floral critics. 
How well do these glorious Alyssums 
look when they are roving over a stone- 
edged pathways hiding much of the stone¬ 
work and encroaching even on the path 
itself in their luxuriant style of growth. 
' Once the Alyssums axe thoroughly 
naturalised in their rock-girt home they 
seed freely, and thus reproduce them¬ 
selves in the greatest profusion, and caie 
is ofttimes needed to prevent the stronger 
growing species, from overrunning their 
smaller kindred, but beyond this, and 
keeping the few weeds "down, they wall 
give but little trouble. 
You may point to your massed beds of 
spring-flowering plants and bulbs, which 
may be pictures of good culture and gay 
with blossom, but can they for one 
moment compare with the glory of these 
roving wildlings on the rocks creating as 
they do, veritable cascades of gold over 
the grey, weather-scarred rocks ? 
Alyssum saxatile and its charming 
varieties are all worthy of extended cul¬ 
ture. The type carries a glowing mass of 
rich yellow blossoms. Its double variety, 
A. saxatile flore pleno, is a grand plant, 
and the neat little double flowers are won¬ 
derfully lasting. Citrinum is a soft deli¬ 
cate shade of yellow, charming to look 
upon, dainty in effect. Variegatum is a 
replica of the type, with white marked 
foliage, and Tom Thumb is a useful little 
dwarf plant of approved merit. 
A. alpestre is very dwarf, but is ex¬ 
tremely interesting, the bright yellow blos¬ 
soms nearly covering the prostrate hoary 
foliage. 
A. argenteum, which comes so silvery 
when exposed on the rocks, is a grandly 
effective plant, and its broad panicles of 
tiny golden flowers are light and grace¬ 
ful. 
A. condensatum, the silver-foliaged 
Syrian species, is very neat, and carries 
larger blossoms than any of the preceding. 
The Austrian Alyssum, A. gemonense, 
is somewhat like saxatile in formation, but 
the flowers are decidedly Larger; its variety 
sulphureum is, perhaps, the daintiest yel¬ 
low of the whole group, being very soft in 
hue. 
A. moellendorfianum is yet compara¬ 
tively rare ; it is a native of Bosnia, and 
has silvery foliage and the usual yellow 
flowers. 
The better-known A. rnontanum is one 
of the best; it is very dwarf, sweetly fra¬ 
grant, and bright in colour. Other in¬ 
teresting forms include the strong-growing 
Wierzbickii, an erect-habited species, with 
deep vellow blossoms; serpyllifolium, a 
dainty' little silver-foliaged species ; orien- 
tale, the Cretan Alyssum, with its downy 
foliage and large corymbs of golden 
flowers ; and wulfenianum, a lovely species 
having much in character with A. mon- 
tanum. 
Of white flowering varieties, which are 
very useful, but unknown in many gar¬ 
dens, we must note spinosum, a woody r - 
sub-shrubby gem, with tiny hoary leaves, 
and countless white flowers ; podolicum a 
Russian species with a very dwarf habit 
and little sprays of blossom, and that rare 
native of the Pyrenees, A. pyrenaicum, 
with grev downv foliage, and neat tufted 
habit. To the rock gardener on the look 
out for fresh plants to embellish the 
rockery I advise him to turn his attention 
to the rarer Alyssums. 
P. S. Hayward. 
Kent. 
- +++ - 
Wimbledon Horticultural Society. 
Mr. A. H. Burgess, joint hon. secretary 
of the Wimbledon and District Royal 
Horticultural and Cottage Garden So¬ 
ciety, sends us a copy of the Society’s 
schedule of prizes, which will be com¬ 
peted for at the 35th annual exhibition 
to be held in the Wimbledon Borough 
Football Ground on July 17th. Liberal 
prizes are offered open to all comers, to 
amateurs, to single-handed gardeners, 
cottagers, and children. There will be a 
stall for the sale of flowers in aid of the 
Gardeners’ Orphan Fund, and the Bat¬ 
tersea Borough Prize Band will be en¬ 
gaged for the occasion. Schedules and 
entry forms may be obtained by writing 
to the hon. secretaries, 4, Amity Grove, 
Wimbledon. 
Garden Pests 
And How to . . 
Destroy Them. 
Earwigs are always a source of much 
trouble to the gardener, and one finds few 
gardens in summer without the inverted 
flower-pots on stakes in order to catch 
them. Being night-feeding insects, they 
hide during the daytime, but the above 
means of trapping them do not add to 
the appearance of the garden. A better 
plan is to get some sheets of dark paper 
smear over with sugar and water, and 
place these, well crumpled up, out of 
sight amongst the foliage or near the roots 
of plants. In the morning numbers of 
earwigs and caterpillars will be found. 
The Gooseberry Caterpillar should 
be caught by laying a sheet of paper 
beneath the tree and then shaking the 
branches. Do this several times a day 
for a week, and few will escape. 
The Daddy. Long Legs lays its eggs 
in autumn, and the best plan is to catch 
as many of the insects as possible at that 
time of the year. A dressing of a mix¬ 
ture of soda and-guano well watered into 
the lawn in early summer will usually kill 
the grubs. 
Ants will be attracted by an old bone 
well smeared with treacle, and when this 
is crowded with them it can be dropped in 
boiling water and the pests destroyed. 
Mice, often troublesome in a garden, 
can be caught by the following method : 
Take a large pickle jar with a narrow 
neck and half fill this with water. Then 
rub round the neck and inside of the 
jar some grease or warm toasted cheese. 
Bury the jar in the ground up to the 
neck and you will find, daily, numbers of 
mice in it drowned in their efforts to reach 
the dainty. Mrs. Wrench. 
- +++ - 
Burbank’s Creations. 
Luther Burbank, often called the Cali¬ 
fornian Magician, is credited with some 
wonderful creations in plant life. 
Amongst these is the thornless and edible 
Cactus, whereby he hopes for the reclama¬ 
tion of the deserts of the world; the 
“Primus-berry,” the union of the Rasp¬ 
berry and Blackberry; the “Phenomenal 
Berry,” created from the Californian 
Dewberry and a Raspberry; the " Plum- 
cot,” the union of the Plum and the Apri¬ 
cot; a larger Blackberry without thorns; 
a white Blackberry, with a new and ex¬ 
quisite flavour; a seedless Strawberry; 
several kinds of Plums without stones; a 
Walnut with a thinner shell and no tannin 
in the meat; a Chestnut which bears fruit 
in eighteen months from seeding, fruit 
trees which will stand frost in bud and 
flower; a Prune four times larger than 
the ordinary' kind ; the “Pomato.” or com¬ 
bination of the Tomato and Potato ; many- 
improved varieties of vegetables and 
grasses ; beautiful new flowers, such as the 
“ Shasta Daisy,” a blossom five to seven 
inches across, made out of the common 
field Daisy, a cultivated variety, and a 
Japanese Daisy; a Lily with the fragrance 
of the Parma Violet ; Gladioli that blos¬ 
som all round the stemj a sweet-scented 
Dahlia ; and countless other strange and 
beautiful things. Over 2,500 distinct 
species of plants and flowers have been 
experimented upon by Mr. Burbank. 
