GARLAND ROSE, WHERE GARDEN JOINS WOOD.
POLYGONUM COMPACTUM AND MEGASEA AT A WOOD EDGE.
LILIES AND FUNKIAS AT A SHRUBBERY EDGE.
OLEARIA GUNNI, FERN AND FUNKIA AT A SHRUBBERY EDGE.
Rhododendrons are usually planted much too close together. This is a great mistake; they should not be nearer than eight to ten feet, or even further, apart, especially in the case of ponticum and some of the larger growing kinds. It is a common practice to fill up the edges of their prepared places with a collection of Heaths. The soil will no doubt suit Heaths, but I never do it or recommend it because I feel that the right place for Heaths is quite open ground, and there are other plants that I think look better with the young Rhododendrons. For my own liking the best of these are hardy Ferns—Male Fern, Lady Fern and Dilated Shield Fern, with groups of Lilies: L. longiflorum and the lovely rosy L. rubellum towards the front, and L. auratum further back. Some of the Andromedas, especially Catesbæi and axillaris of the Leucothoë[ section are capital plants for this use. Besides Lilies, a few other flowering plants suitable for the Rhododendron walk are: white Foxgloves, white Columbine, white Epilobium angustifolium, Trillium, Epimedium pinnatum, Uvularia grandiflora, Dentaria diphylla and Gentiana asclepiadea. In the same region, and also partly as edgings to the Rhododendron clumps, suitable small bushes are Rhododendron myrtifolium, the Alpenrose (R. ferruginium) and the sweet-leaved Ledum palustre.
When the garden comes on the sunny side of the wood the planting would be quite different. Here is the place for Cistuses; for the bolder groups the best are C. laurifolius and C. cyprius, backed by plantings of Tamarisk, Arbutus and White Broom, with here and there a free-growing Rose of the wilder sort, such as the type polyantha and Brunonis. If the fir-boughs come down within reach, the wild Clematis (C. Vitalba) can be led into them; it will soon ramble up the tree, filling it with its pretty foliage and abundance of August bloom.