ALPINE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS 



27 



and vigorous to plant among alpines. Heather, on the other hand, 

 can well be used in both ways. For a formal edging near a house 

 Erica carnea has no rival, where box is not hardy. It can stand 

 any amount of winter sun if a few evergreen branches are put over 

 it from December to April, and it can be clipped into a formal 

 shape and is never more than six inches high. Its greatest quality, 

 however, is in the flowers, and the picture shows how freely these 

 are produced. The buds form in September and are plainly to be 

 seen all through the winter, while in April, after the first warm day, 

 they burst into bloom, a lovely warm pink. After a couple of 

 weeks, the flowers turn magenta and are less pretty, but if one is 

 careful to have no clashing color near, they are a joy for nearly a 

 month, and all this during terribly cold and often snowy April days. 

 They are often seen blooming bravely through two inches of snow 

 and seem none the worse when the warm spring sun melts it away. 

 In the rock garden, they are just as valuable. 



The same rule applies to these stone edgings as to plants in the 

 rock garden proper, the stones protect the plants from drought 

 and frost and give them a chance to show off their flowers to the 

 best advantage, especially if the stones are gray and the flowers 

 pink. 



Wall Gardens. 



In laying out a place, if it is larger than a small suburban plot, 

 there are usually slopes more or less steep to be dealt with. These 

 are often ignored, treated as if they were flat, and planted with 

 grass, shrubs, and trees. If the slope is at all steep the water 

 drains off it too fast to allow grass to be green very long in our 

 dry summers. Then one often sees trees and shrubs look as if 

 they were slipping down these banks. Nothing is less repose- 

 ful or less satisfying than this effect, and it is far better to face 

 the fact of the slope in laying out the place, and to put in re- 

 taining walls. If several such walls are used, one below the 

 others, small terraces are formed, such as one sees in Switzerland 

 and in Italy, and these give far better foothold to whatever plants 

 one desires to grow than a sloping bank with the earth continually 

 washing away from the roots. It is the same principle which we 



