IN A DUNEDIN ROCK GARDEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20964, 1 March 1930, Page 7

IN A DUNEDIN ROCK GARDEN.

i AUTUMN FLOWERS. Everyone with a rock garden knows that the greater flower wealth of that department is to be found from October to December, but there is an increasing number who desire as much flower beauty as is possible during the autumn months. We should be very grateful to the gentian family, as it provides a number of good plants which are well worth growing. Some of them are more particular about composts than others, but a little extra trbuble is often recompensed with good results. Gentian Sino Ornata is rather uncommon in gardens, this fact being undoubtedly due to its newness. It is one of the loveliest of its race, and of great merit. Coolness at the root is a great help towards success in the growing of this plant, and it likes a mixture of peat, leaf mould, and silver sand in equal parts. The plant is of prostrate habit, and makes a mat of narrow dark green leaves. Prom the tips of the six-inch stems the flowers appear in largo trumpet form, of an Ox-ford-tylue shade, beautifully striped on the outside, with distinct lines.

The late Reginald Parrer Has added fresh charm to the autumn rock garden by discovering and introducing the sky blue gentian that bears his name. An extract from his book, “The Rainbow Bridge ” will best describe his finding of this plant 10,000 feet up on the Da Tung Alps in Western China.

“ Hardly had I started when in a fine turf that crowned the top of a sloping boulder there stared at me a new geutian —a gentian that instantly obliterates all of its race, and sinks even G. Verna and G. Acaulis into a common depth of dullness. A fine, frail, tuft-like g«nss, radiating seme half-dozen stems —that is G. Parrcri, quite inconspicuous and obscure in all the high lawns of the Da Tung Alps until it flowers. Every day in early September it brings a fresh crashing explosion of colour in the folds of the lawns. Por each of these weakly stems concludes in one enormous upturned trumpet more gorgeous Jian anything attained by G. Acaulis, but in the same general style and form. In no other plant, except perhaps Ipomea Loarii, or Nomophila, do I know such a shattering acuteness of colour. It is like a clear sky soon after sunrise, shrill and translucent, as if it had a HMn inside._ It literally burns in the alpme turf like an electric jewel—an incandescent torquoise.”

Such a glowing description of the plant naturally caused a mild sensation among alpine enthusiasts, and the wish to acquire G. Farreri was taken wp by thousands of people. Unfortunately in the majority of cases the purchasers were doomed to disappointment. The plant not receiving the necessary treatment, sulked, and eventually went out altogether. G. Farreri must have moisture at the roots and plenty of sunshine with a compost of leaf mould, turfy loam and sand.

Gentian Freyniana is another beautiful autumn Gentian from China with deep blue trumpets. It seems to be more at home in a half shady position. The prophet flower, Arnebia echioides, is another plant which blooms in autumn. Apart from the interest of

the legend that Mahomet left the marks of his finger tips upon the flowers, this plant possesses a great charm. It has narrow leaves and clusters of open yellow flowers, marked with the spots alluded to in the legend. These are black when the flowers open first, but gradually fade away to almost lemon yellow. Astilbe simplicifolia is a first rate subject for the rock garden, coming into bloom when most alpines are over. It is a native of Japan f r inches high. The blossoms, born in graceful plumes, are about double that in height. They are white and lace like, and so delicate and profuse that a plant in full bloom seems to sparkle with crystal foam.

Cyclamen hedenefolium is a beautiful variety of the e-'+umn flowering species, the leaves are large and shaped like the ivy as the nam-- indicates, and they are marbled in a most beautiful manner with shades of grey and light green. The flowers appear before the leaves in February and March, and vary in colour from red to white.

Zauschncri" Californica blooms just now with great freedom. This plant must be grown in a position fully exposed to the sunshine. In the poorest of soils, where other plants would be baked and ■-'v—" l - ■' it will flourish and flower freely and the flame coloured tubular flowers are as brilliant as a burning bush.—W.P.