io ROCK AND WATER GARDENS 



the surroundings should be as informal as possible ; the 

 intervention of shrubberies, woodland planting and wild 

 garden preparing the eye, accustomed to beds and shaven 

 lawns, for a change of scene. Nor should distant views 

 from the rock garden itself embrace any sections of highly 

 cultivated ground. The untrammelled wildness of Alpine 

 flowers, their freedom of growth, and the natural way in 

 which they spring from the rock fissures, unfits them 

 for association with plants of staid habit. The proximity 

 of well-gravelled paths, of mown turf and trim borders, 

 robs the rock garden of all its significance and charm, 

 making it appear but an untidy heap of stones overgrown 

 with straggling vegetation. Isolation, then, should be the 

 first thought when planning an ideal home for rock plants 

 and Alpines. The worst positions would be found in the 

 neighbourhood of walls, buildings and fences, which 

 evidences of the habitations of man are as far as possible 

 removed from the wild spirit of the mountain solitudes. 

 Trees should not be found near the rock garden, not 

 merely for aesthetic considerations, but because their roots, 

 far reaching and greedy, will impoverish the soil. Alpines, 

 and indeed most rock plants, demand the fullest exposure 

 to sun and air ; the damp, still atmosphere which pre- 

 vails in tree sheltered spots, is not conducive to their 

 welfare. Besides, the association of Androsace and 

 Saxifrage, children of the barren uplands, with trees 

 and shrubs of our lowland woods, is in itself a fatal 

 anachronism. 



Then, again, it is generally possible by taking advan- 

 tage of suitable conformation of the ground, to impart 

 a certain meaning and expression to rockwork, merely 

 artificial though it be. Thus the side of a sloping earth 

 bank suggests itself as a not unnatural site for a rock 

 garden ; in Nature such places frequently exhibit rock 

 strata, which have become exposed owing to the washing 

 away of the surface soil by rain and winter snows. 



