THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 12^^ 



ALPINE PLANTS FOR COMMON BORDERS. 



{With Coloured Illustration of Hepatiea anfftilosa.) 



|LPINE plants are understood to be peculiar in their 

 requirements, and therefore difficult to cultivate. In a 

 very general way this is true ; but the exceptions are 

 so numerous, and the term " Alpine " is so widely 

 comprehensive, that when the most careful and costly 

 arrangements have been made to suit the family, it will be found 

 that very many of them need no such arrangements at all, for they 

 thrive as well in the common border as on the best of rockeries ever 

 constructed in a garden. It happens, too, that a considerable pro- 

 portion of those Alpine plants that are not at all fastidious as to the 

 conditions of their existence, are extremely beautiful and interesting, 

 and it follows, therefore, that those who do not make special pro- 

 vision for these plants may, to souie extent, enjoy their bright 

 presence in an ordinary garden. The lovely plant here figured is 

 an example of the fact. It is a true Alpine, it is a scarce plant in 

 gardens, and almost unknown to the nursery trade. But it will 

 thrive gloriously in a common garden border, if managed as v/e 

 shall presently advise — the main feature of the management con- 

 sisting, as we may as well announce at once, in leaving it undis- 

 turbed to take care of itself. We may find dozens, hundreds of 

 plants equally desirable, by selecting from such genera as epimedium, 

 iberis, saponaria, saxifraga, campanula, iris, and others that will be 

 named presently. 



In our heavy clay land many first-class Alpines thrive without 

 any special aid in the way of rockery or drainage, they thrive as 

 common border plants. One of the very best is Phlox suhidata, a 

 lovely early flowering tufted plant, that in our borders spreads 

 like chickweed, and flowers even more freely. "We name this as an 

 example merely of an extreme case, but we do not advise that Alpine 

 plants should be extensively planted in common borders without 

 some previous consideration of their constitutional requirements. 

 It should be observed, in the first place, that these plants are, with 

 very few exceptions, so hardy that they do not require any iind of 

 shelter, and for the most part a bleak north or east exposure is good 

 for tliem. But some of them, though hardy at home, are tender 

 abroad ; in other words, the bursts of warm weather that occur early 

 in tlie year in lowland districts urge them into growth too soon, and 

 they sulfer afterwards through the reiurn of winter weather. But 

 as a garden is for beauty and pleasure, we must associate with 

 true A Ipines some plants that are not Alpines, and that perhaps are 

 more in need of shelter in spring, than those that properly belong 

 to higii altitudes. Thus we come to the use of sheltered borders. 

 N'ow it will be obvious that for a thorough enjoyment of Alpine 

 plants and their proper associates, several aspects, and as we may 

 say, several local climates are required, and it is easy enough to 

 institute these accommodations in any garden that is not already 



May. 9 



