ALPINE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS 19 



over it, and it needs none. Now it has been divided, and we have 

 dozens, and it has most amusing ways. In the autumn, the outer 

 leaves of each rosette disappear, and the center, which is where 

 the verbena-hke flowers are to come, puts on a lovely, gray velvet 

 surface. In June, after flowering, this plant puts out runners like a 

 strawberry. In this picture, the first bit is in bloom in a warm 

 corner between the rocks. Here are the flowers more in detail. 

 They are a pretty shade of pink. 



We now have fourteen varieties of androsace thriving, and they 

 vary from vitallina, which is only one inch high and golden and 

 easy, to foliosa, which is nearly a foot high. These plants have 

 all proved hardy and even easy with us, except Androsace lactea 

 and Androsace villosa. These two kinds are very tiny and grow 

 slowly. A. villosa came through last winter without turning a 

 hair and bloomed beautifully. Androsace carnea is a beautiful 

 dark green moss, one inch high, on which appear in April the 

 loveliest rosy flowers. This does better with us than in Mr. 

 Correvon's great alpine collection in Switzerland. It likes leaf- 

 mould and hates lime, and it has even sowed itself. All the andro- 

 saces have interesting and beautiful foliage. In some, it is like 

 the tiniest imaginable juniper; in others, there are gray rosettes 

 like house-leeks. 



In addition to the many charms and beauties of alpine plants, 

 I feel that they will be of special interest to Americans, because 

 they can be grown without employing a gardener. Wages are 

 already so very high here that only the rich can hope to afi^ord to 

 pay them. Yet there are thousands of flower enthusiasts who 

 would like to garden, if they thought it could be done without much 

 labor or expense. Once reasonably made, a rock garden can be 

 kept up by a woman, even if she is not very strong. Weeding is 

 the principal work, and has to be done carefully and patiently. But 

 as the rock plants are usually grown on a slope or bank, the gar- 

 dener is not forced to stoop and tire her back. W^e have rattan 

 seats of different heights, which are kept out of sight, and are 

 most comfortable for weeding. The only other work in a rock 

 garden consists in watering, planting new plants, and saving and 

 sowing seed. This question of sowing seed we will consider a 

 little later. 



