ROCK AND ALPINE GARDENS 3 



anything but artificial, and in the designing of rock- work 

 we are making but a feeble imitation of the great forces 

 of Nature. And yet we must certainly study natural 

 effects and natural laws if we are to achieve any measure 

 of success in the growing of Alpine flowers. 



An entirely erroneous idea exists that the plants usually 

 found on high mountains cannot be grown successfully in 

 lowland gardens. It is not so much the altitude that suits 

 these miniature flowers, but rather the absence of plants 

 of robust habit and coarse growth. There are no trees 

 or shrubs on these wind-swept wastes, no succulent leaf- 

 age, none of those plants which on the plains quickly 

 smother their smaller neighbours out of existence. And 

 so we find an altogether smaller race of plants has taken 

 possession of the barren slopes, secure from molestation, 

 and unmindful of the struggle for existence in which they 

 are always worsted. Here there is ample space for all, 

 sheltered crannies in which Silene and diminutive mosses 

 find a home ; sunny corners where the roots of the Alpine 

 Poppy can secure a foothold. Cutting winds and the 

 rigours of winter are hardly felt by these true children of 

 the wilderness, for whose safety the smallest crevice will 

 suffice, and for whose warmth there is a mantle of snow. 



Thus a simple lesson is brought home to us. The 

 rock garden is no place for overcrowding, or for the 

 indiscriminate mixing of plants, large and small. Each 

 plant should be carefully tended, and not left to battle 

 for existence with others of stronger habit. Nine rock 

 gardens out of ten are hopelessly overgrown, not so 

 much from the inclusion of too many varieties, but as a 

 result of undue prominence being given to Aubretias, 

 Arabis, and kindred plants. This does not imply that 

 only the smallest flowers should be grown ; that would be 

 carrying natural conditions to extreme. The rock garden 

 may contain representatives of most of the Alpine families, 

 from the tiny Androsace, which clings to the rock face 



