IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XI 

 No. 129 



Editor— J- W. Besant. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



NOVEMBER 

 19.6 



The Alpine Garden* 



During this month any alterations or rebuilding 

 required may be carried out, as at this time of the 

 year one does not mind a httle disturbance and 

 consequent untidiness, the days being short and 

 the season of flowers over. A great many of the 

 commoner showy jolants may be planted quite 

 safely still, such as Aubrietias, Arabis, Phloxes, 

 &c., but the choicer kinds of Saxifrages, 

 Androsaces, Wahlenbergias and the smaller 

 Camj^anulas and such like plants will be far 

 better in pots or the nursery beds till spring. 

 ^Meanwhile, during rebuilding, choice places 

 may be left for them. Not the least of the joys 

 of a rock garden lies in occasional reconstruction 

 and planning places for favourite plants which 

 hitherto may have failed to realise our best hopes. 

 In all rebuilding provision shoidd be made for 

 ])erfect drainage. The amount of artificial 

 drainage necessary can only rightly be determined 

 on the spot, but the bulk of the soil into which 

 the stones are being placed should be made quite 

 gritty by the addition of abundance of stone 

 chips. There is often a behef that aljDines will 

 grow in any poor soil if it is well drained, but 

 this is not always the case. I rather incline to 

 the belief, after some years" experience, that what 

 the majority of them prefer is a soil that is good 

 and griUy : and they all like a deep soil into 

 which the roots can ])enetrato at will. One 

 reads very often of certam alpines which in 

 nature have long taproots which penetrate 

 many feet into fissures in or between rocks, but 

 it does not follow that the same ])lants propa- 

 gated in a garden will do the same thing. 

 Growing wild the plants have to produce long 

 ta])roots. otherwise they would not find the 

 moisture and cool conditions they require. In 

 the garden, however, we provide them with these 

 conditions, aiul they have no need to form ta])- 

 roots to the same extent. At the same time 

 inany of them are ill adapted to endure heavy 



wet soil, hence the advice to make the soil gritty 

 and deep, so that superfluous moisture may 

 drain away and the roots get deep enough to be 

 cool in hot sujumer weather. Some may urge 

 that the moraine is an instance of a jioor soil 

 which grows many difficult alpines successfully : 

 but is it ? In the moraines formed naturally, 

 high up on the mountain ranges, there is a 

 considerable proportion of rich mould formed of 

 decayed vegetable matter mixed with the rocky 

 debris. Much of this is without doubt washed 

 down among the loose stones by melting snow, 

 and there provides plenty of food material, while 

 the drainage is perfect. In this connection it 

 has been remarked. I think, by M. Correvon that 

 many of our lovely Euroi^ean Primulas grow high 

 up on the mountains on rocky ledges, not, as it 

 maybe supposed, in poor gritty soil, but really in 

 rich black humus like peat which has accumu- 

 lated there b}' the decay of leaves and lowly 

 forms of plant hfe. During summer this mould, 

 or soil as we may call it, is quite wet, but not 

 sour, since of course the moisture is always 

 moving downwards. When winter comes again 

 the movement of the water is stopped by frost, 

 and the plants are kept warm and dry by snow, 

 which remains there till the spring and early 

 summer sun begins the movement once again. 

 It is the want of the warm dry covering of 

 siu)w that makes it so difficult to cultivate many 

 of the higher al))iiu>s. es|)ecially in Ireland, wlu-re 

 too often our winters bring only rain aiul a dull 

 grey sky. Plants which are fouiul to sufl'cr from 

 too much wet in winter should now have a sheet 

 of glass arranged over them. Woolly lea\ed 

 plants, such as the Androsaces, are usually 

 treated so, l)ut there are others which might 

 equally beneflt by such treatment, among others 

 the Kabschia Saxifrages, \\hich have a liabit of 

 making Hue plants during summer and then 

 rotting off in the centre tluring winter. The 



