Chamaecyparis lawsonilina, Lawson’s Cypress, makes a tall tree and is useful as a windbreak or screen to hide some ugly part of the view beyond the garden. I would use a selected forth like Green Hedger for often seedlings show a wide variation in ultimate height. Selected forms include allumii which is often used in tubs or on terraced walks for the growth is upright and the colour glaucous blue, and ellwoodii which is very slow growing, with feathery graceful leaves and an ultimate height of between 8 and 10 ft.

The various forms of the species show the same adaptability. Compressa, a cone-shaped midget, makes an ideal plant for a trough or small rock garden, taking about 18 years to reach a height of 12 in. A wide-spreading, ground-hugging bush, depressa is excellent for clothing steep slopes in the rock garden. Prostrata is of a similar habit.

The Creeping Juniper, Juniperus horizontalis, is a remarkable conifer. A single specimen in 10 years will cover an area of 18 sq. ft. The leaves are a lovely glaucous grey in summer and silver purple in winter. Douglasii and Bar Harbor, a shade taller growing, both have the blue-grey colour which becomes a rich plum purple with the onset of winter. There are few better ways of clothing a steep slope with easy to maintain attractive foliage than by a selection of prostrate dwarf conifers, including always at least one form of J. horizontalis.

C. pisifera plumosa and the aurea form are especially pleasing planted as a group with the greyish-green leafage of the former contrasting well against the soft feathery gold of the aurea.

Pinus cembra makes a reasonable-sized tree which in maturity has a lot of charm. The variety chlorocarpa is a wide-spreading bush with silvered leaves which earns covetous glances wherever it is planted. P. mugo pumilio is just about the ultimate vegetable product. It makes a low spreading bush with tufts of needles stuck out in the most remarkable way. I find it irresistably ugly and wonder how it survives my sometimes pungent comments.

The native Scots Pine, P. sylvestis, is one of the loveliest of conifers, the orange-red bark of the bole is in sharp contrast to the dark green foliage. Pumila is the dwarf form, making a rounded glaucous-leaved bush which is more suitable than its towering parent for the small garden.

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