CHAP, in VILLA GARDENING 2i 



The Pamiias Grass associates well with water, and does excellently 

 ou a raised mound in the midst of the bog. 



The Hardy Fernery and Alpine Garden. — There is 

 plenty of scope for taste in the arrangement of the hardy fernery. 

 The site should be a secluded one, sheltered by shrubs, and if par- 

 tially shaded the wants of the different species can be better pro- 

 vided for than if fully exposed. The rockery or alpine garden and 

 the fernery may be separate and distinct features, and with these 

 may blend the American garden, employing the American shrubs 

 to form groups and backgrounds for the Fern and alpine mounds. 

 Many of our British Ferns, as well as the exotic alpines, will thrive 

 in borders ou the natural level, yet their culture is made more 

 interesting when collected together in some picturescpie arrange- 

 ment. The surface of the ground when flat can be thrown into 

 irregular mounds, Avith winding paths intersecting the various 

 groups, and rustic steps to form the connecting links between the 

 different levels. Logs and rough billets of wood, or roots of large 

 trees when they can be obtained, may serve to give character to 

 the fernery, reserving the stones to form the rockery for the choice 

 alpines. The summits of the mounds may be apjjropriately clothed 

 with American i^lants. Where there is a good depth of soil Rhodo- 

 dendrons and Azaleas will thrive, and both the American and 

 Japanese conifers will be at home. 



Much can be done by judicious planting to tone down that 

 bare, bald appearance ferneries and rockeries have when nothing 

 but Ferns and alpines are grown, and shrub and tree growth are 

 quite appropriate in such positions. Abies Clandbrassiliana is 

 well suited to crown a Fern or alpine mound, and the names of 

 other suitable subjects will be given in a list hereafter. Most of 

 the designs of rockeries that I have seen in books somehow dis- 

 appoint me. They carry in their outlines too much of the impress 

 of the professional builder. If it is not possible to imitate in 

 some simple way the geological formation of a district, it is better, 

 I think, to cast the stones down as if placed there by some erup- 

 tion of Nature than build up an elaborate affair such as one 

 frequently comes across in suburban gardens. It is a matter of 

 taste, I know, and if the plants will grow well, it may, perhaps, 

 be immaterial how the work is constructed. Some of the more 

 delicate-rooted alpines require a mixture of rock debris to grow in. 

 Again, some of the Ferns require a dry bank ; others, such as the 

 Marsh Fern and the Royal Fern, must have moisture; all the 

 Harts'-tongues, for instance, require shade and a moist atmosphere, 

 yet there must not be too much moisture at the root. In the 

 matter of soil the same variation exists. Most of the Ferns and 



