PAGE FOUR 
and some use them in soups. Does 
well in pots. Needs rather more than 
half shade, but thrives in rather poor 
soil. | ; 
- WOOD BETONY (Betonia). | 
thought this was a Fern until I found 
it in bloom. Yellow flowers about 
the size and shape of Ragged Rob- 
ins, nice clean stems, a good cut 
flower. Does not do well in pots for 
me. Indifferent to soil, but needs a 
damp spot and plenty of shade. The 
young leaves push up dark red, 
changing to dark green. 
PARTRIDGEBERRY (Michella 
repens), also called Buckberry and 
Twinberry.. A small-leaved ground 
cover, with tiny pinkish white, fra- 
grant flowers. in spring, always 
borne in pairs. Red berries in fall 
which hang on all winter. Does 
fairly well in one-pound coffee cans 
for me, if I lift a slab of moss with 
the little vines growing through it; 
divide by breaking moss apart; set 
moss and all on top of soft ground 
and pull dirt around the edges to 
keep out the air. Seems to need the 
moss for inoculation as [ cannot get 
it to live at-all without the moss. 
This plant furnishes one of the num- 
erous botanical puzzles I run against 
in my work. Before the coming of 
the white man with his sinful squan- 
dering of God's gifts, the Quapaw 
women depended to a great extent 
upon this berry for winter desserts, 
stewing them with honey .Now, even 
knowing its haunts, and it is plenti- 
ful, I doubt if I could gather a tea- 
cupful of berries in a day's search. 
Hardy into Canada. Must have acid 
soil, and in South, needs deep shade. 
Can stand full sun in Michigan. 
~- FIVE FINGERS (Potentilla) a | 
rock garden plant, vine, does not 
seem to make a big plant. Neat yel- 
low small flowers in early summer. 
Very hardy; needs no _ cultivation, 
likes to scramble over rocks. This is 
a medicinal plant. 
CONFEDERATE VIOLETS, grey 
effect, thrive in poor soil and can 
stand more sun than others. 
THE YELLOW SHEETS 
following Sedums: 
JULY-AUGUST, 1947 
WHITE VIOLETS, force easily 
for late winter blooming IF you can 
keep mice away from the tiny buds. 
Red Tradescantia, so called from 
the winter color of the leaves. 
Mother plants I brought in from clay 
bank hillsides, light shade, had deep 
maroon colored flowers; but only 
the Lord Himself knows what color 
they will be in your garden. Any- 
thing from bluish white through all 
the shades of blue and purple to 
deep maroon, will be entirely nor- 
mal. One of the native Spiderworts. © 
Very hardy. 
oa eens () ee 
HARDY ROCK GARDEN 
_ PLANTS 
HARDY SEDUMS. All Sedums 
I call hardy can survive 15 below 
zero without protection. Some of 
them are hardy in the sub-Arctic. 
Most are fine for rock garden plants. 
Last year my Sempervivums made 
almost no increase This year most 
are ‘hatching’ chicks, and when my 
backlog of orders left from last year 
are filled, I hope to have a number 
of varieties of hardy Semps to offer. 
There is a rock garden plant par ex- 
cellence. Most of the dwarf plants 
listed under other heads, and many 
of the wildlings, are also good for 
rock gardens. 
I have wholesale quantities of the 
Sarmentosum, 
hardy to subarctic, pendant effect. — 
One sent me Glaucum, much like 
album, but different, flowers and 
winter coloring; Album white flow-| 
ers; evergreen with us, an album 
hybrid has never bloomed for me, 
color of foliage slightly different, a 
grey green one which I think is altis- 
sum, good in rock garden, dish gar- 
den or as a pot plant; Acre and 
Sexanfulare much alike but differ- — 
ent, both dwarf and good ground 
cover for clayey spots; Maximoiczi, 
little known in U.S.A.—two varie- — 
ties which are in dispute among the 
botanists Who have seen them. The 
dealer from whom I bought them 
