26 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Edgings. 



A rock construction is not by any means the only place in which 

 alpines may be grown with pleasure and success. The larger and 

 more easily grown varieties can be very effectively used for edging 

 plants, and as most of them are more or less evergreen, they look 

 extremely well in that position. Edgings are very important, and 

 a beautiful border without a satisfactory edging is about as pleasing 

 as a beautiful dress without a collar. In Europe, where turf and 

 lawns are very much at home because of the damp climate, and 

 where labor is so cheap, grass edgings are commonly used, but here 

 lawn grass is not at home. It is an artificial and highly expensive 

 decoration, and if it is in narrow strips with edges, which must be 

 constantly trimmed, it hardly seems worth the trouble and expense 

 it costs, especially as it is brown and ugly for nearly half the year 

 here, while in Europe it is always green. 



Near a building, as has been said, formal lines are necessary. 

 In such positions cut stone edgings look well and hold up small 

 plants perfectly. Cut stone edgings are expensive, but the expense 

 ends when they are bought. The clipping and trimming of grass 

 edgings never ends. For the greater part of the garden, native 

 stone partly buried and carefully chosen to look more or less even 

 in height will serve perfectly, and as one wishes to cover the edgings 

 with flowering and often evergreen plants, minor irregularities in 

 the stones are soon hidden. Many varieties, such as the evergreen 

 candytuft, double arabis, Dianthus ddtoidcs, and Dianthus phima- 

 rius, forget-me-not, Campanula carpatica, Alyssum saxatile, etc., etc. 

 do splendidly as edging plants and these are too easy and free grow- 

 ing for the rock garden. They nearly all seed freely and would be a 

 danger to tiny plants one or two inches high. "While the rock 

 garden is new, and before many plants have been gotten together, 

 some of these coarser plants could be carefully used on the less 

 desirable parts of the construction, the highest part for instance, 

 which is the most exposed to heat and cold and drought. But care 

 should be taken not to allow them to seed down among the treasures. 



Some people think Oenoihera spcciosa a suitable rock plant, but 

 though lovely as edging for a herbaceous border, it is far too free 



