IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XVI 



No. 1 88 



Editor— J. W. Besant 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



OCTOBER 

 1921 



Notes from a Small Garden iv^.s>^^^^^^^ 



By R. Lloyd Prakger. ,l.>iV5Hin 



THE POINT OF VIEW, 



THE remarks which Mr. E. B. Ander- 

 son made in the Jvily issne, and espe- 

 cially those in which he referred to 

 my own garden, tempt me to try to 

 justify a certain untidiness — I prefer 

 to call it a fieedom of growth — which 

 seems to me to be allowable in the 

 rock 'garden, and which I admit I 

 rather encourage in my own place. It 

 seems to me that it is worth consider- 

 ing from what point of view one 

 Lrrows one's plants. That there are 

 two points of view, in some ways 

 apposed to each other, is clear. 

 They may be called the Botanical 

 and the Horticultural. According to 

 tlie former, one's interest lies largely 

 in species, developed by nature in the 

 course of thousands of years, rather 

 than in artificial sports and hy- 

 brids produced by the industry of the 

 gardener; in growing the plants as 

 nearly as possible as they grow in 

 iKiture, with a minimum of disturb- 

 iiue or artificial aids; and in en- 

 I Muraging (within reasonable limits) 

 natural spreading and seeding. 



From the other point of view — what 

 1 have perhaps unjustly called the 

 Horticultural— one's object is to giow 

 the plants " well "—i.e., as large as 

 possible. Care is taken that the 

 specimens do not interfere with each 

 mix, and, in fact, the plants are fed and 

 s a farmer might feed and house prize 



animals. 



Now, this latter mode of treatment is (juite 

 proper' where such wonderful artificial produi-ts a.; 

 modern Roses, Sweet Peas, or Pansies are in ques- 

 tion, but I hold that it is out of place in the case 

 of alpines and rock plants. Treat artificuil plants 

 artificially by all means, but for goodness' sake 

 treat natural plants naturally, so far as the neces- 

 sary restrictions of garden conditions allow. I 

 visited a well-known garden not long ago, whcrr 

 alpine plants were .so overfed that it was difficult 

 to recognise in those straggling monsters the 



delightful crisp tufts — just like those which they 

 produce in their mountain homes — which they 

 assume when propeily grown, wedged between 

 stones with a light soil and an exposed position. 



Again, while all treasures must be carefully 

 safeguarded against oppression, natural effects 

 will be produced by allowing the plants to ramp 

 and mix at will, provided you stand by to see fair 

 play. 



The late Mr. Burbidge (whom no one would 

 accuse of being an " untidy " gardener) was an 

 advocate of mixtures : he loved to " marry " (to 

 use his own phrase) plants — to mix their lives in- 

 extricably. 



One can produce delightful mats, with blossom 

 of some kind showing all the time, by this means. 

 I have had, for instance, a couple of square yards 

 of sward formed of Acaena microphyUa, with its 

 red fruits. Wild Thyme, a straggling dwarf Pink, 

 and Sedum se.iangulare — a quite delightful com- 

 bination, in which all the ingredients lived 

 happily together. 



Then, as to seedlings, which often come in de- 

 lightful abundance when those enemies of rock 

 plants — the rake and hoe — are banished; think 

 twice before you pull up any seedlings. The effect 

 of a plant is greatly enhanced if, instead of a 

 single specimen, you have a colony, giouped 

 naturally. If a good thing wants to annex a bit 

 of groiuid, let it annex it : remove other treasures 

 to some different spot, in whole or part. I never 

 pull up a seedling till it lias flowered, for, by wait- 

 ing till then, one may secure some interesting or 

 valuable sport or hybrid; and even then it is 

 allowed to grow on unless it proposes to crowd 

 out some more valuable plant. The general effect 

 of this granting of self-determination is tliat some 

 bits of the rock garden look just like the real 

 rock gardens, the alpine plant associations, of the 

 Alps and of our own wonderful Burron— a popu- 

 lation of species growing as they might in nature; 

 hut it is the plant association of a dream, a vege- 

 table Babel, for here are gathered together 

 natives of all countries — Irishmen and New 

 Zcalanders, dark Iberians and fair Norsemen, 

 Ciinadian backwoodsmen and unfamiliar strangers 

 from the frontiers of Tibet. 



