PLANTS SUITABLE FOR WASTE PLACES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 21, 20 November 1912, Page 39

PLANTS SUITABLE FOR WASTE PLACES.

In almost every garden of any proportion there will be found spots where it becomes a difliuiilt matter to establish

plants, and such places have often marred the appearance of the whole garden. Perhaps the following may prove of some interest: 1. For covering a wet clay bank 1 know of nothing better than the Cotoneaster microphylla. It is a native of Nepaul, a plant that will grow close to the ground and Hower continuously throughout the summer months. The flowers resemble that of the hawthorn, to which rder and tribe it belongs. During tue winter months it is covered with a profusion of intense scarlet berries, rendering it a conspicuous object. Not only will it flourish in wet places, but will adapt itself to dry, hot places and thrive where most plants would soon perish. There is also a very pretty upright variety named Simonsii, which attains a height of 9ft. and well worth growing as a specimen shrub. 2. The plume poppy Bocconia cordata is another good plant for his purpose, more especially for planting large areas. It is specially suited for massing when a noble picture is secured. The plant requires some time to become established and attain its rightful proportions, but when once thoroughly naturalized is indifferent to soil. It will throw up a mass of close growing stems often to a height of ten feet, these being clothed with silvery grey, deeply veined leaves. The tall steins are terminated by panicles of creamy white flowers: some of the terminal panicles are often 3ft. in length. After the blossoms fade they turn to a reddish brown, being unique in tint and form, while the dark green of the upper surface of the deeply lobed leaves contrasts pleasingly with the silvery white of their woolly reverse. It is not a plant I would recommend for planting in a flower border as it is a veritable land grabber and if unrestricted its suckers would soon encroach on the .surrounding ground and smother its neighbours. The nut brown stems of the withered blossoms should never be cut away, but allowed to 1 ema in when they will provide an autumn picture as pleasing as the gradations of tones one gets earlier in the flowers. 3. I’hvllostaebys nigra, the black bamboo. one of the handsomest of the genus, with its ebony black stems and light feathery foliage will also be found suitable for sueh localities, and will in a short space of time form magnificent clumps. The long straight canes will provide neat garden stakes that will last for years. Arundinarias metake and falcata are also very ornamental as isolated tufts. They provide excellent garden stakes for tying up small plants such as earnations, stocks, etc. The variety faleata will form a lovely arch when planted at a gateway or beside verandah posts. The Cape honey-flower Melianthus major may also come under this category. 4. The dwarf trailing plants, such as Mesemforyant hemums, Lotus peliorhynchus. Grazania splendens. sedums and vincas, revel in dry loamy or sandy soil in hot situations where very few plants would thrive. H.W.D.