CHAPTER VI 



ROCK SHRUBS 



IT is strange that the merits of dwarf shrubs should 

 have been so far overlooked by English rock gardeners. 

 Though much is written about the various families of 

 Alpines and herbaceous rock plants, it is seldom that we 

 see attention drawn towards the evergreen and other 

 shrubs which rightly belong to that part of the garden we 

 are now considering. Not only are we depriving ourselves 

 of a very beautiful and interesting class of plants, but 

 without shrubs, a rock garden of any size is bound to 

 present a confused or somewhat monotonous appearance. 

 No doubt the craze for mere botanical collections, as 

 apart from garden picture making, has prevented many 

 from realising the necessity for bold and definite effects 

 even in a garden of Alpines. Rock gardens are often 

 tame and insipid, partly because the foliage and flowers 

 of most Alpines is light in colour, but mainly owing to 

 the fact that in such places there is nothing very definite 

 to detain the eye. A small group of evergreen shrubs 

 comes as a welcome relief, connecting scattered units so 

 that they form one coherent ensemble, and making the 

 colour and form of the smaller rock plants more vivid 

 and distinct by contrast. 



Another difficulty attends the designer of rock 

 gardens who overlooks the value of shrubs. The 

 sudden appearance of a rock-strewn mound covered 

 with dwarf plants, in an ordinary garden scene, is apt to 

 produce a jarring note. It looks as though the rock 



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