DRYAS OCTOPETALA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 7

DRYAS OCTOPETALA.

Dryas octopetala is 'an alpine, the great merits of -which cannot'be overlooked by any possessor of a rock garden who aims at having the best. Quite prostrate in .habit, it weaves over soil and rocks , a glossy, dark green carpet of little overlapping, oak-like leaves and wiry branchlets. This, in May and June [November and December in New Zealand] is sheeted with lovely big blossoms, creamywhite and golden-centred, and suggestive of those of some anemone or wild rose. These exquisite flowers gaze upwards at the sun from stalks only 2 inches in length, but when they are over, the latter elongate to six inches or more, and each seed, head becomes a waving fluffet of silvery-rose silk. Any free soil, preferably with some old mortar or limestone, will suit this charming plant, but it should (have full txposure, and may need a little time to get settled down. October [April] is a good month for planting (from pots), re-establishment thus being accomplished by next flowering season. This is one of those rock plants which dislike isolation, and, therefore, it comes away more freely when it has some suitable companions to inspire it with the stimulation of rivalry. Short side shoots rooted readily in pots of sandy soil placed in a closed frame. As D. octopetala has an enormously wide natural range, which includes northern Britain, it is not surprising that It presents several forms. Of these D. o. minor, a native, is a dainty little thing, only half the size of.the type. D. o. .lanata is a. hairy-leaved variety, and there are some high alpine for,ms with blush-tinted flowers. ' Then there is D. Suendermanni, a hybrid between D. octopetala and the yellow-flowered D. Drummondi of the- Rocky Mountains. This hybrid is the most vigorous of all, t and the easiest. -If it does not possess quite the same charm' as its European parent, it is a most useful plant, with flowers of a golden-tinted ivory, and large, feathery seed tassels of the same glistening ..rosy silk.—A.T.J., in Amateur Gardening.