CHAPTER XV 



PLANTS VALUABLE FOR USE IN ROCK GARDENS, IN 

 JAPANESE GARDENS, AND IN WALL CREVICES 



A FULLY developed estate to-day is not complete without an in- 

 teresting rock garden, not because it gives an interesting physical 

 variety to the landscape, but because it provides an opportunity for 

 the development of one of our most interesting groups of plants, those 

 plants which grow their best and prove most interesting in a miniature 

 landscape of this rocky character. These gardens have been de- 

 veloped to perfection on many English estates. 



The group of plants valuable for the development of rock garden 

 work is comparatively little known to the amateur, and yet there are 

 used in rock gardens many interesting types frequently used for other 

 purposes. It is true that many of the plants grown for rock gardens 

 are very dwarf in their habit of growth and much more sensitive to 

 changed conditions of soil and exposure, and that many of them there- 

 fore require expert labour for their normal development. 



The most interesting group of plants, perhaps, for rock garden work, 

 includes the plants known as "alpine" plants, which are low-growing, 

 very dense, and compact in their habit of growth. Most of these plants 

 have small leaves and the flowers are rather brilliant and marked in 

 their colours. The term "alpine" plants to-day is applied in its 

 general use to that dwarf and low-growing group of plants which have a 

 tendency to compactness of habit, and which in their mature form of 

 development seem to fit into the confined atmosphere of the average 

 rock garden. The true rock garden plants may perhaps be the 

 "alpine" types, but those plants which landscape architects use 

 to-day for rock garden purposes include not only the "alpine" types 

 but many small plants, even though they come from the lowlands, 

 from the woods, or from the more arid desert sections. There are a 

 few of the tall-growing types of plants, such as foxgloves and some 

 of the single roses, which, though not dwarf in character, are ad- 

 mirably fitted to the scale of rock garden work. 



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