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Tue Rock GARDEN 
The Rock Garden was constructed in the spring of 1916 of 
glacial boulders uncovered in the course of grading operations on 
other parts of the grounds. These boulders were deposited by 
one of the continental ice sheets during the Ice Age and formed 
the terminal moraine known locally as “the backbone of Long 
Island.” One would not select rocks of this nature for rock- 
garden construction if other kinds were available, because their 
rounded contours do not permit them to be built into picturesque 
effects; and their hard, impervious surfaces are far-from ideal for 
the cultural requirements of most rock plants which revel in rocks 
of a rough porous nature. But they are the only rocks available 
locally and it was thought logical and appropriate to use them. 
In its early stages the Rock Garden was often contemptuously 
referred to as a “rock pile” due to the temporary and unavoidable 
obtrusiveness of the boulders; but it did provide fairly satisfactory 
conditions for the growth of alpine and saxatile plants—which, 
after all, is its raison d’étre. In the course of time a certain 
amount of weathering has taken place, and evergreens set out as 
plants in 1916 have grown to such an extent that they now 
rey were planted—that 
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adequately serve the purpose for which t 
of toning down and partially masking obtrusive rocks. There are 
about 500 species of plants in the Rock Garden. 
Alpine plants in general are notoriously intractable in a climate 
like that of New York City, but the careless feet of visitors are 
perhaps equally responsible for the loss of many of our cherished 
alpines and rock plants. [Even with all these handicaps we have 
had a fair measure of success, and such well-known alpines as 
Rock-Jasmine (Androsace) ; Lewisias (from the Rockies and the 
mountains of the Pacific states); Dianthus alpinus; Asperula 
nitida; Edelweiss; Draba aizoides and many others tolerate our 
rather adverse conditions. 
Although it is gay in April with alpine crocuses, glory-of-the- 
snow, squills, and other dwarf bulbous plants, the Rock Garden is 
perhaps at its best throughout the month of May, for at that time, 
in addition to a lavish display of bloom, the foliage is more ample, 
and the Rock Garden seems better furnished than early in the 
year when growth is just beginning. 
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