Rock Cress

Rock Cress (Arabis) - A large family of hill-plants, few of which are grown. A. albida (White Rock Cress) will grow in any soil, where its sheets of snowy bloom may open in early spring. The double white form is a favourite. Both are easily increased by seed or cuttings, and are useful for the mixed border, the spring garden, and for naturalising in bare or rocky spots. There is now a pale rose form. It is closely allied to the alpine Rock Cress (A. alpina), so widely distributed on the Alps, but is distinct, and the best kind. A variegated form is the dwarfest and whitest of the Rock Cresses. A. blepharophylla (Rosy Rock Cress) is not unlike the white Arabis, but the flowers are rosy-purple. It varies a good deal, but there is no difficulty in selecting a strain of the deepest rose, its healthy tufts being effective in April. There are variegated forms of the commoner species, but none have much value. A. arenosa, from the south of Europe, is a pretty annual in the spring garden or naturalised on old ruins or dry bare banks. A. petraa, a neat, sturdy little plant, with pure white flowers, is a native of some of the higher Scottish mountains, rare, but very pretty when well grown on a moist well-exposed spot on the rock garden. A. Stelleri, a Chinese species, is a much freer flowering plant than A. blepharophylla, ripening seed freely, and easily grown in the rock garden.