Gardenvisit.com The Garden Guide

Book: History of Garden Design and Gardening
Chapter: Chapter 5: Gardens in Asia, America, Africa, Australia

Flower growing in Mexico

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911. Some of the prettiest and most useful annuals in British gardens are natives of Mexico and California; and among them may be mentioned the nemophilas, the gilias, the platystemons, the collinsias, the leptosiphons, the clintonias, and several other extremely beautiful plants. Among the perennial plants which have been imported from Mexico may be mentioned the dahlia, the scarlet aquilegia, and several very ornamental kinds of bulbs ; and among the shrubs are Ribes sanguineum and various other kinds of Ribes, Garrya elliptica, all the mahonias, and several kinds of Ceanothus. Mr. Hartweg, in 1848, added numerous new and beautiful plants to those which had been already obtained from California ; and, among others, Castanea chrysophylla, an evergreen chestnut which forms a shrub from three to eight feet high, of a pyramidal shape, with persistent lanceolate leaves, green above and of a rich golden yellow beneath ; a new Pavia (Pavia californica) ; several new pines and firs, and other valuable plants.