If the rock garden contains a somewhat moist corner, it would be worth an effort to grow the Cyclamen Daffodil (N.cycla­mineus). The flowers are   bright golden, the leaves a vivid green. On peaty soils it would almost certainly succeed.

Beside the Narcissi with their note of creamy yellow, we may place the Scillas and Muscari, giving us a pro­cession of blues from porcelain to deep indigo. Scillas are of the simplest culture, and when once established merely require an occasional top dressing.

The best known and perhaps most beautiful form is the Siberian Scilla (S.sibirica), with flowers a delicate shade of pale blue. It is a vigorous kind, and the clumps should be divided every few years. On a warm, sandy soil it blooms in February.

One of the most delightful ways of growing this Scilla is to plant bold colonies near the margins of Alpine shrubs. The sight of the blue drifts of flowers escaping from the shelter of dark foliage, and in small colonies descending the rock slopes, is a spring picture of true charm. Later in the year the Spanish Scilla (S.hispanica) raises its stout racemes of pendent bells. It is a vigorous kind, and is suitable for natural­ising in grass and on the outer flanks of the rock garden.

The white variety (Alba) and Rosea, a pink form, are also good. For association with choice Alpines it is a trifle too vigorous. S.bifolia, with deep blue flowers, is the type from which several handsome varieties have been evolved. S.b.taurica, S.b. praecox, flowering very early, and S.b.alba, are all worth growing.

The Italian Scilla (S.italica) combines extreme hardiness with brilliant coloring and sweet perfume; in semi-wild places we must not forget the improved forms of the Woodland Bluebell (S.nutans). Deeper shades among the Scilla blues may be provided by patches of Grape Hyacinths (Muscari botryoides), which will answer to the same treatment.

Other blue flowers are the Chionodoxas (Glory of the Snow), of which C.luciliae and C.sardensis are desir­able. They are at their best after they have had time to become thoroughly established. The Bulbous Fumi­tory (Corydalis bulbosa), with purple blossoms produced in April, may be included in large rock gardens, and in really warm localities the lovely Chilian bulb Teco­phylaea Cyanocrocus gives us a shade of blue hardly to be equalled.

Finally, there are the Dog's Tooth Violets (Erythronium), with spotted leaves and single, drooping flowers. E.dens-canis, the best known of the family, thrives in fairly moist sandy soil, but requires a sunny position. The white, tooth like bulbs should be planted deeply, and division every few years will increase the stock. This variety is of European origin; others come to us from America . E.giganteum and E.grandiflorum are large, white flowered, and succeed on slightly peaty soil.

Blue is a color which in garden pictures calls for contrast. In the spring rock garden, patches and drifts of Snowdrops and Leucojum should be associated with the Scillas and Muscari.

There are many varieties of Snowdrops, but we need ask nothing better than Galan­thus Elwesii, with its pure, shapely flowers and bright spikes of green leaves. In close, retentive soils it is disappointing, but is perfectly happy in a mixture of good loam, leaf mould, and sand. Snowdrops should never be grown in open beds, when such ideal positions as shrubbery and woodland, close turf and, above all, the rock garden, are available.

The Spring Snowflake (Leucojum vernum) may be regarded as a large and handsome form of the common Snowdrop. It grows well in similar positions, and with the same class of soil. In a shady corner, with peaty soil, a clump of Wood Lilies (Trillium) display their pure white three petalled blossoms above rich shining leaves.

Other small bulbous plants there are in plenty. The Cyclamens, Europaeum, Atkinsii and Coum; the Spring Star-flowers (Triteleia) and Fritillaries, Anomatheca and the American Cowslip (Dodecatheon).

Several of the smaller varieties of Tulips are com­monly recommended as suitable for rock garden planting, such kinds as Greigi, Sylvestris and Kaufmanniana especially. To my mind, however, they never look well in such positions. Their stiffness and formality are not in harmony with the wild freedom of mountain plants, and their blaze of color, glorious though it be, blinds us to the beauty of many a dainty flower and shrub.

The wild Tulips are delightful in woodland clearings, meadow sides and shrubbery margins, and nothing can exceed the suitability and charm of old world Tulip gardens, in the Dutch style, ­a formal arrangement for purely formal flowers. They even look well in borders, so that it seems unreasonable that they should occupy valuable space in the rock garden, which affords a home for many plants that will not thrive elsewhere.

The same feeling applies to the dwarf Liliums, Elegans, Tenuifolium and others. These noble flowers are so much better suited to border grouping, or the peaty soil among Azaleas and Rhododendrons, that despite the opinions of others, I never recommend them for the rock garden.