90 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



In the present state of the art of garden design, rock gardens are 

 formed mainly by nurserymen ; these are not men who, as a rule, by 

 the very nature of their business, can give much attention to the study 

 of rocks in natural situations, or learn how the different strata crop 

 out in the ways most happy for vegetation, without which study we 

 think no good work in this way is possible. Simplicity is rarely 

 thought of, or of the rock coming out of the ground in any pretty 

 way, of which we may see numerous examples in upland moors 

 in England, even without going to the Alps. On the contrary, 

 we see pretentious rickety piles of stone on stone, with pebbles 

 between to keep the big ones up, and forty stones where seven would 

 be enough. 



One of the commonest mistakes is piling stone upon stone in 

 such a way that there is no room for grouping anything. If one 

 were to take five or six of the stones one sees in a rock garden, 

 and simply lay them with the prettiest and most mossy sides 

 showing out of the bank in the right kind of earth, one would get 

 a better place for plants than a rock garden made, it may be, of 

 many tons of stone could give, because then we should have room 

 to group and mass them without which no good effect is possible. 



The common " rockery," like the common mixed border, is an 

 incoherent muddle, and can scarcely be anything else so long as the 

 present plan is followed. The plants hate it, and in effect it is very 

 like the rows of false teeth in the dentists' shops. We should seek 

 gardens of alpine flowers, with here and there a mossy stone 

 showing modestly among them not limiting one's efforts to any 

 one idea, but beginning at least with simplicity of effect. Then 

 groups and carpets of rock plants would be easy to form, and their 

 culture would be easier in every way. 



Whoever started the idea of the use of the refuse of the brickyard 



to form the rock garden was no friend of the garden, as alpine flowers 



do not thrive on masses of vitrified brick rubbish. 



Refuse brick And these brick rubbish horrors are put up with 



" rockeries." overhanging brows so that a drop of moisture 

 cannot get to the plants, and a dry wind can 

 sweep through them as easily as through a grill. If the practice 

 were confined to cottages near brickfields it would not much 

 astonish us ; but in Dulwich Park several thousand tons of it have 

 been put about under the pretence of making rock gardens, and 

 also at Waterlow Park, Highgate, which was once a pretty and 

 varied piece of ground. If the County Council waste money in 

 this way, we cannot perhaps wonder so much at the owners of villas 

 doing it, but in any case it is ugly and disgraceful in a garden. 



Artificial rock is formed now and then in districts where the 



