IN A DUNEDIN ROCK GARDEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20312, 21 January 1928, Page 3

IN A DUNEDIN ROCK GARDEN.

■ CAMPANULA TIME. Very delightful about the rock garden just now are the harebells. The various types of Campanula pusilla will no doubt take pride of place, with colours ranging from pure white to all shades of blue. C. pusilla miranda is a very dainty variety, with dome-shaped pendant flowers of a grey blue. C. pusilla Miss Willmott is also a popular variety, with silver blue bells. Other campanulas are C. garganica and its forms, of which C. garganica W. H. Paine is an extremely pretty variety, with crenulated leaves and deep blue flowers with white eye. C. garganica hirsute, with hairy leaves, is a fine variety to grow upwards against a stone. C. raddeana is of neat, spreading habit, about six inches to nine inches high, with deep purple flowers. C. rhombqidalis, with narrow leaves, is very similar in its flowers to C. rotundifolia. C. turbinata is a handsome plant for the rock garden, with large saucer-shaped flowers of purplish-blue. There is also a white variety. Other plants in flower just now are the thymus family. For growing on steps or the base of the rock garden T. lanuginosus is an excellent plant, forming a woolly mat, and covered with little purplish flowers. T. lanuginosus coccinea is an even more showy variety, with bright red flowers. T. nitidus is a charming little plant with pink flowers. Another plant in bloom at present is Wahlenbergia vinceflora, with azure blue flowers. It is very similar to a campanula, and is a very graceful subject for the rock garden. W. dalmatica, which bears no resemblance to the above, has deep violet flowers and grassy foliage. Dracocephalum japonica, another blue alpine, is also flowering. It is about nine inches high, and has lovely blue tubular flowers. The blue flowers of Pentstemon azurea and those of Verbena chamedrifolia, of a fine scarlet tint, make a very pretty setting. Scutellaria alpina is a neat little alpine with purple flowers with white lip. Sempervivums are represented by S. montana, S. triste, and S. anachnoideum. The latter is a unique, interesting little plant with silvery rosettes, which arc covered with a glistening cobweb. If planted between the rocks in a vortical position it soon spreads, and eventually sends up a flower stalk about four inches to six inches high, bearing a few starry, rosy-red flowers, which add much to the summer beauty of the plant. Two new arrivals this week are members of the Silene family. S. Hookeri is a dwarf plant, with pale pink flowers about two inches across. S. Californica, with smaller flowers of a brilliant red, promises to be an acquisition. Both are natives of California. In the bog garden Meconopsis Wallichii (the blue poppy) looks very handsome with its blue pendant flowers and brown hairy foliage. Primula florindo is also in flower. It is called the giant Sikkmensis, but has no resemblance in the leaves to that plant. To ho grown successfully it must have plentv of moisture. W. P.