In the Garden I tm the fortunate possessor of a
fine example of the blue spruce, Picea pungens. It had a troubled childhood, for after being raised in a Kentish nursery, it served, in 1928.. as a tiny Christmas-tree at Buxton, Derbyshire. It was then planted in the garden there, only to be uprooted to serve the nursery again at Christmas 1929. It was hopefully re-planted, and, finally, was brought back to Kent in 1930. In its native soil it has grown to a height of some twenty feet, for it is the right plant in the right soil. Under economic pressure the farmer long ago learnt this lesson, whereas we often find the gardener working very hard to establish some plant in his garden which requires an entirely different soil. Of course conditions of moisture depending upon artificial or natural drainage are often important, and can be controlled in the garden ; but another and much more difficult factor is the degree of acidity or alkalinity. It is impossible, in practice, to remove lime from a soil, and while every gardener is familiar with the fact that ordinary rhododendrons cannot be grown in a limy soil, it is much less generally realised that comparatively small differences of acidity or alkalinity are frequently of great ihiportance. Horticultural scientists now know accurately the requirements, in these respects, of many garden plants And the range of conditions under which they will either barely survive. moderately succeed or flourish. I am more and more .convinced that the best results in a garden are attained by finding which plants grow
Previous page
