Calandrinia Umbellata

Calandrinia Umbellata, the Rock Purslane, is an extremely pretty plant, with magenta flowers, and thrives in hot positions on the rockery. A variety with rosy carmine flowers is procurable, and many will prefer the colour to that of the older plant.

The Campanulas (Harebells, Canterbury Bells, Etc.)

The Campanulas (Harebells, Canterbury Bells, Etc.) are one of the most important of border genera, and one or other of them will be included in every order for seeds of hardy flowers for summer sowing. C. Allioni is a dainty little Alpine species with violet flowers, suitable for the rockery. Carpathica, blue, and its white variety, Alba, are old favourites, used both on the rockery and in the border. They grow about a foot high. Fragilis and Garganica are blue trailers. Glomerata Dahu-rica is a fine Bellflower, rich indigo blue in colour, and growing about a foot high. Grandiflora (Platycodon Grandiflorum), the Chinese Bellflower, has large blue, cup-shaped blooms, borne in bunches on erect stems about eighteen inches high. White and double varieties are procurable. Latifolia Alba is one of the tallest of the border Campanulas, growing to three feet high. Campanula Medium is our old favourite the Canterbury Bell, which we can get in blue, lilac, white, rose, and striped; and Campanula Medium Calycanthema is the cup-and-saucer Canterbury Bell, which we can get in the same colours, but with much larger flowers. Double Canterbury Bells are also procurable. Persicifolia (the Peach-leaved Bellflower) and its varieties form an extremely valuable set. The type is blue, and there is a single white variety of it, also a semi-double white (Moerheimii) and full double blue and white forms, the last one of our finest border plants. Pyramidalis, the Chimney Bell-flower, is seen oftener in pots than out of doors, but it is hardy, and makes an effective border plant. The type is blue, and there is a white variety. Rotundifolia is the blue native Harebell. Trachelium is a three-footer with blue flowers. Turbinata, blue, and its white variety, Alba, are dwarf growers. There are, we see, quite a large number of beautiful Campanulas of which seed is procurable, and they comprise really beautiful plants, some suitable for the border, some for beds (notably the Canterbury Bells), and some for rockeries. They give us, too, a preponderance of blue, which is a comparatively scarce colour.

The pretty white Harebell Campanula rotundifolia alba.

The pretty white Harebell Campanula rotundifolia alba.

Carnations

Carnations are generally grown under names, and these special florists' varieties are kept true by propagation from layers, as described in Chapter VII (July. The Heart Of The Year). But beautiful Carnations, admirably qualified to adorn borders, and to yield abundance of pretty and fragrant bloom for cutting, can be grown from seed. The flowers are not, of course, so large as those which one sees at Carnation shows, nor are the petals so broad and evenly folded, nor the colour markings so pure and well defined, but they are extremely pretty all the same.