For March, 1921 



497 



American Rock Gardens 



RICHARD ROTHE 



CONFRONTED by rock garden problems, at a time 

 lying beyond a long evolutionary stage abroad, 

 with European books richly illustrated by views 

 of inspiring achievements at hand, we find ourselves more 

 or less at an advantage. The near future is going to 

 reveal whether the growing popularity will prompt our 

 craftsmen to spare no effort in establishing right at the 

 start an artistic standard worthy of the designation Amer- 

 ican, or, whether we leave popularity growing into a 

 mere fad, doomed ultimately to amount to nothing. The 

 best remedy for averting the dangers of the latter alter- 

 native are American 

 object lessons demon- 

 strating the natural 

 possibilities and their 

 limitations within our 

 different States and 

 climates. Our home 

 owners desirous of en- 

 joying a rock garden 

 are at present most 

 eager to know and, if 

 possible see. what we 

 have been doing and 

 what we can do. 



Adopting the rather 

 broad definition of a 

 rock garden as a com- 

 bination of the beauty 

 of rocks and natural 

 rock-compositions with 

 the beauty of plant-life 

 indigenous within 

 mountain regions, it is 

 necessary to say that 

 for perfect develop- 

 ment of the latter we 

 must have a rich por- 

 ous soil and a liberal 

 amount of stone ma- 

 terial as moisture re- 

 taining and cooling 

 component mixed in. 

 The rock-material for 

 the building of the vis- 

 ible surface construc- 

 tion, serving as re- 

 ceptacle and stage for 

 our floral displays, is 

 to be of natural color 

 and shape. As we are 

 expected to attach beauty to the various forma- 

 tions and outlines of rockery constructions, it is obvious 

 that one of the fundamental requisites for eft"ective work 

 consists of the faculty to discern the elements of beauty 

 in rocks and natural rock-compositions. Here initial in- 

 efficiency does not necessarily need to despair. When 

 studying our rock-strewn mountain slopes, the ledgy 

 plateaus, the deep ravines with their gushing .streams and 

 the cliftljound sections of our seashore lines, the novice 

 will be amazed over the abundance of object lessons for 

 gaining the desired subtlety of vision. 



\'isual sensitiveness, the most essential attribute of a 

 genuine rock garden builder, will guide him to adhere to 

 the simple boulder effect on the level or near level ground ; 



Pathway Effect of the Author's Rock Garden, GJcnsidc. Pa 



it will enable him to master the problems of hill and 

 mound by effective distriluition of the masses, and it will 

 aid him in modelling the picturesque ruggedness of 

 ravine and steep slope. 



Rock gardening on a large scale pre-supposes natural 

 conditiotis adaptable for it. Ingeniously designed ex- 

 amples with mountain sceneries en iiiiniatiire, natural 

 cascades and rock-bound pools and lakes, are not very 

 rare in Great Britain. Examples of such magnitude no 

 doubt we may hope to see and enjoy sooner or later in 

 some of our leading public parks. At present it is princi- 

 pally the beauty-loving 

 private home-ground 

 owner who is most in- 

 terested in our subject. 

 ■ Vnd here, right at the 

 very beginning, it is 

 best to admit frankly 

 that within the pre- 

 cincts of the average 

 sized lot the prevailing 

 conditions for the in- 

 troduction of a rockery 

 seem anything but pro- 

 pitious. The cases 

 where an old aban- 

 doned quarry-hole — a 

 most coveted proposi- 

 tion — is waiting for 

 the landscape architect 

 with the soul of a poet 

 and the sensitiveness 

 of an observant nat- 

 uralist to transform its 

 commonplace appear- 

 ance into a nook of 

 fairyland are, indeed, 

 extremely rare. I be- 

 lieve, not until we 

 learn to rid ourselves 

 of the assumption that 

 our work must be a 

 harmonious part of a 

 landscape scheme can 

 we readily and satis- 

 factorily meet the de- 

 sire of a flower-loving 

 suburbanite for enjoy- 

 ing a rockery. When 

 aiming simply to make 

 it a distinct object of 

 beautv out of door, as for instance, a large canvass of a 

 lan(lsca|)e may con.stitute the dominant ornamental feature 

 of a ball or library, the problem is less complicated. Our 

 picture of the rock garden of Atr. Gustave Heckschcr, 

 Strafford, Pa., situated on the front lawn, several hun- 

 dred feet from the residence, seems a conceivable ex- 

 emplification of this. 



A clear, consistent and sincere conception of the origin 

 and pur])ort of rock gardens is the best safeguard against 

 serious mistakes in the selection of the life-material. It 

 also decides the issue regarding the subsequent arrange- 

 ment of plantations. Being in its essential part of a 

 dwarfy, more or less diminutive form, it is often surpris- 

 ing how many of those highly attractive and interesting 



