BUSH BLOOMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20112, 24 November 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

BUSH BLOOMS.

THE EDGE OF THE FOREST.

BY HILDA KEANE.

In tho bush toropapa is holding up its glossy leaves, and inviting tho bees to gather honey from its so fragrant, rosy bells. Never has it been so thickly massed along tho stems; never has its perfumo so richly perfumed tho leafy bowers. Ilangiora and her cousins aro white with bloom, with yet another delightful scent. Under gaultheria stems hang little fairy flowers, on the mahoe tiny green trumpets ; tho open spaces aro gold with flowering of kumarahou. Liko snow is spread tho net of clematis, and yellow hang tho kowhai cups. At every turn a new perfume, in every nook a new flower. Tho ground orchids, white and pink, are ready to burst from their sheaths. As soon as tho garden ixia is finished these, so similar, will open wido under tho sun, will cjoso with evening chill. Rauriki, in a few weeks, will throw her high white canopy, am! then summer will bo really with us.

It is interesting to garden on the edge of tho forest; ono learns to compare the ways of tamo flowers and wild. Some fraternise quito well; no care will induco others to mako friends. I have tried to grow blue-bells (scilla) under tree ferns and tall manuka, tried to have a carpet of daffodils. After years of effort tho blue-bells havo put out some halfdozen flowers; though, at tho edge of tho path, some planted last October aro already lush and bluo. Theirs is a lovely serenity of colour against tho dark of trees. Daffodils decline to flourish at tho roots of kauris and manuka; but in an open spaco well dug, they mako a dehcato mass of blue-green foliage and pale, long-stemmed, largo flowers.

Some Garden Favourites. I liavo tried hydrangeas, imagining the delight of their cool globes in tho warmer days: but though odd blooms come, they lose heart away from tho light. Callas (so called arums), down in the gully, send up a tiansparency of veined leaves, but few flowers, too ethereal for satisfaction. Lilies of the valley will grow down there, but aro apt to be lost: forget-me-not makes tho ground pretty, but does not persist. Ono of my successes is tho small mauve iris, with tho flexible, narrow leaves: at tho edge of tho bush it is happy, flowering with abandon. I am asked often why we do not grow rambler roses about tho bush. To my mind a rambler should bo on a garden fence or a pergola, somewhere in the orthodox garden; it is not tbo right note of colour for tho bush; it would not mass its flowers in tho same way when shaded; it is distinctly a garden flower, so scorning tho leafy temples of the forest that I cannot persuade it to twine about the trunks. But I would liko rhododendrons, with their rose-hued crowns to mako a screen against dark stems; the difficulty is to get tho necessary shelter with tho cool aspect. Our hills dip suddenly into gullies; these are apt to havo draughty openings, which do not please the petted exotic.

It was necessary for me to move some rhododendrons which wero on a cleared bank with bush below. They had already bloomed well. They were carefully transplanted, but their new situation was just beyond the lino of shelter, and for four years not a bud have they put forth. Colour in the Bush. Lilac, if it would only consent to blossom, would be exquisite at the forest edge. Imagine its silky leafago and its feast of perfumed beauty! That is a dream; but pale pink camellias should do, and I still persevere with a purple jacaranda. I would liko to trail wistaria into arches set about our beautiful forest boles, and, for the sake of its evening fragranco, I would nurse the datura-white trumpet lily. Along the paths, if not too far in, tho cowslips grow, as long as one restrains the grasses and rushy growth. Freesias, too, soon run wild. Violets are hopeless. As with tho natives, it is interesting to note that tho fainter-tinted exotics do best in tho bush. Tho shade probably accounts for so many of our native flowers being white or greenish or pale yellow. To get any colour, a treo must push its head very high, like tlioso gorgeous rewasrewas, which just now are gigantic goblets of claret wine; like tho brilliant scarlet ratas which paint the mountain sides of Westland; like the crimson pohutukawas which faco our northern seas, and the golden kowhais, which lovo tho winding river banks. But wo have a few pinks and some bright yellows tucked away in the recesses, even some clear blues, though wo have to admit a predominance of creamy white. Along the bush roads now you will find abundance of lawyer vine—little whito single roses curtaining many a tree—you will notico tho wax-liko sprays, sweet-scented, of many a titori. You will see a tree-daisy, with handsome, shining leaves. But you will find no clematis. That has been dragged down, and it grows so slowly. Soon you may see tho soft palo crown on. tho liinau trco; it is worth looking for. Each to its Own. On tho whole, it is best to have gardens separate. Grow imported flowers in the cleared spaces where tho sun can shine on them, and where tho gardener may easily till tho soil. Many do quite well in hill country. Hoses, staked against tho winds, succeed, liliunis increase; bulbs of all kinds are happy. Geraniums flourish none too well; but chrysanthemums givo fine blooms, mako splendid root systems. Irises arc satisfactory enough, and on sunny banks, verbeneas and petunias grow in profusion. Gardening is interesting in theso places, for it is full of surprises. Many aro tho disappointments; certain pets just rcfuso to respond to any coaxing. There aro bitter laments about carnations and dclphiuiums. but azaleas bloom magnificently. I havo seen a fine display of azalea mollis, flame, apricot and orange—.l splash of telling colour for .weeks. Japanese cherries aro beautiful; tho flowering eucalypti lend gay notes to the scrub. But tlieso are not produced in a year. Wind, heavy rains, which wash tho soil away, rabbits and tho pestiferous opossum, all conspiro against tho gardener.

Then it is so easy to reflect upon tho folly of a garden, when tho wealth of trees is about 0110. Still, tliero are those who cannot bo denied tho joy of planting, and, with persistence and patience, these extract their pleasure, even so near the groat domain of forest which is waiting all tho timo to swoop down and take the land back to nativo wildness.