IRISH GARDENING 



Winter in the Alpine Garden. 



By R. A. Malbv. 



ONIC of the many charms of the Alpine garden is 

 tlio "furnished" appearance wliich it presents at 

 all limes of the year. 

 While many of these litlle mountaineers die down 

 more or less in the autumn, there are quite a large num- 

 ber of them thai do not, and by careful selection in 

 planting these can be so dislribuletl ;ibout the garden 

 as to g'ive it a cheerful appearance all llirough the long 

 winter months. 



How welcome in dull December day^ are the deep 



I'holu bj'i 



lIoAK l'"Knsl iiX Si F.MS OK Si.lilM EWKRSU 



green cushions of.Xcanlholimon und .Armeria, soil tlowny 

 leaved cascades of .\rabis and Cerastium, while inter- 

 spersed among them tlie quaint Conifers which so 

 happily break the line by Iheir vertical or horizontal 

 branches. How well, loo, at this time of year the lovely 

 cushions of the mos.sy Saxifragas show themselves, 

 and what charming contrasts they make, from the more 

 shady portions of the garden, with the silvery hiuiimocks 

 of the encrusted section, such as S. aizoon. Cotyledon, 

 Cochlearias, anil the more dignified and solitary rosettes 

 ol S. longifolia. Even in our wet winters these I.iller 

 soon dry with any feeble ray of sunshine, and then how 

 white the lime spols are upon them ! 



Then again among the many litlle slicllered corners 

 formed by adjacent rocks some early-tlowering bulb 

 peeps forth — such as Crocus chrysanthus, C. Sieberi. Iris 

 reticulata. Narcissus Bulbocodinm monophyllus, Scillas, 

 Bulbocodium veniiim. and Chionodoxas. In these 

 sheltered corners they often apjicar considerably before 

 the usual lime of flowering in tlu- more open wind- 

 swept places. 



How dilTercnl and infinilely more cheering is this 

 prospect throughout the winter than that usually pro- 

 vided for us in any other kind of garden ! .At least 

 w-here the space available is small, and, afler all, most of 

 us have small gardens. 



The average villa garden, with its border ilown each 

 side and its soddencd patch of grass in the centre, 

 terminated by a turf bank, is indeed a sorrowful outlook 

 compared with an .Alpine garden suitably arranged in a 

 similar space. 



.All this winter cliarm of the .Alpine garden, however, 



pales into insignificance before the fairy-like touch of the 



hoar frost. Tlien, indeed, it is a thing of beauty, with 



all the hummocks of Dianthus, and patches of Saxifraga 



and Arabis. crystal-clad and 



sparkling, like so many diamonds 



in the sunshine. 



The most lowly fragments of 

 withered foliage or seed stems 

 become ropes of glittering facets, 

 while the lime spols on the en- 

 crusted .Saxifragas seem to have 

 a special attraction for the hoar 

 frost, where the crystals arrange 

 Uiemselves upon the leaves like 

 fringes of silver. Old seed pods 

 assume a beauty hardly rivalled 

 by the flowers which piecedcd 

 them in the full flush of summer. 

 .Sedums. especially S. turke- 

 staiiicum or Ewersii, with its 

 woody flower slems half re- 

 clining on the ground, lake on 

 in a single night ihe appearance 

 of a piece of coral. Then, too, 

 1>_\' the waterside, if we have 

 .'I pool, we find a similar trans- 

 formation. 



The Iris growths, though 

 broken down, are all encrusted 

 with glittering particles, and 

 if any of the branched seed 

 slems of the Waaler Plantiiin yet 

 rem.-iin their delicale outline has secured a heavy de- 

 posit of these frost crystals and send back the 

 light ill myiiad dancing points, claiming attention 

 much more emphatically ihaii it ever did while in 

 flower. 



.Snow, too, has its charm, and adds a beauty of another 

 kind to the rock garden, though usually the appearance 

 is hardly as graceful and delicale as hoar frost. 



Doubtless the snow blanket is much more acceptable 

 to the plants themselves, as it is undoubtedly the absence 

 of such a covering which renders it dilHcult to winter 

 some of our little treasures, since in our erratic clim.ite 

 they have to wilhsland frequent changes in tempera- 

 lure— quite warm growing weather for a few days and 

 then cold spells which check them, consequently pre- 

 venting them ever getting the perfect rest they obtain 

 during many months in their mountain homes. 



The accompanying photographs give a faint idea of 

 some winter studies in the .Alpine garden, and illustrate 

 how the hoar frost crystals attach them.selves to the 

 Saxifraga rosettes and outline the Dianthus leaves. 



