HARDY PLANTS AMONG SHRUBS

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 8

HARDY PLANTS AMONG SHRUBS

The introduction of flowers of a certain habit among dwarf shrubs has generally t, pleasing effect, and a bright contrast is often obtained. The plants selected should be lhos& that throw, up a spike more or loss slender, as foxgloves, verbascums, delphiniums, Galtonia candicans, gladiolus, and the like. The suggestion has arisen from a colony ot foxgloves that is jufL now flowering profusely in a fairly large planting of the purple leaved nut, and later Gallonia candicans will toe equally effeclne m a similar position. The so ma flower, as also gladioli in varioty, is seen to advantage when rising from dwarf bushes of Tamrrix gailica, of which a small quantity is grown for the sake of the foliage, and headed back annually to keep them within bounds. I am very partial to a group of Hydrangea paniculata with Fuch&ia gracilis; the heavy heads of the one look remarkably well against the long slender sprays of the fuohoia. Where a considerable space for flowers 13 available in front of long shrubbery borders that ha.vq been carefully planted, both in the way of plenty of variety and of g>od quality, the selection of those flowers that rre to come into immediate contact with ILe shrubs is extremely interesting, and the j result, when both are a f . tl tir best, decidedly pleasing. Thus the plume poppy (Bocconia eardata) shows well against a background of Primus pissardi, and blue and purple delphiniums againsL large bushes of Deutzia crenala or Chionauthus virginicus, the latter ©specially. Apart from the difference in colour, there is suoh a marked contrast between the long, aggressive-looking spikes of the one and the delicate feathery panicles of the other. Small colonies of seedling hollyhocks also look remarkably well in occasional recesses caused by the inequality of the shrubbery front, and in similar positions the tallest of the perennial sunflowers, as H. decapetalup, giganteus, and laetiflorus, may also find % place. I have named these three varieties as about tho most vigorous, but, as a matter of fact, most of the single and semi-double forms go considerably higher, in fairly good ground, than the height given against their names in hardy plant catalogues, and they furnish a long-sustained display. As in the case of many other things, thia will bo much lengthened by the prompt removal of decaying flowars, and, where clumps are retained 'for several seasons, temall, weakly growth should be removed. The observations made earlier in these notes as to the selection of thinas to assooiat© olosalv with shrubs are

applicable to the whole of the larger perennials in planting hardy plant borders. That is, it is not advisable to group together two or more species of dense, heavy habit ; they should be divided by things of lighter growth. In addition to those already named may be suggested aquilegias, montbretias, and Francoa vamosa. Occasional plants of the lastnamed, for instance, look well between clumps of dark phloxes.— E. 8., in the Field.