ALPINE PLANTS FOR ROCK GARDENS 29 



picture. It is best, as in all gardening, to put a good-sized group 

 of one variety before going on to plant the next. A confusion 

 of several kinds jumbled together would probably look about 

 as artistic as the bouquets thrown into carriages by peasant children 

 abroad. A wonderful help can be had from gray-leaved plants, 

 and among rock plants their names are legion: alyssum, arabis, 

 achillea, artemisia, Stachys lanata, and cerastium, to mention 

 a few of the easier kinds. 



The common way of repeating the same plants at intervals 

 along a wall is as fatal to the picturesque or natural effect as it 

 is in the herbaceous border. It must have originated in the entirely 

 unimaginative mind of a hard-working gardener, who thought 

 much more of growing plants by the hundred than of observing 

 the ways nature had with them. Nature usually plants in groups 

 and never in rows, let it be noted by the way. 



Mr. Robinson says there are many alpine plants now cultivated 

 with difficulty in frames, which any beginner may grow on walls. 

 Now that is certainly encouraging to the beginner considering a 

 wall garden, and then it is such fun to see the delicate and lovely 

 little jewel-like plants so close to one's eyes. 



If the retaining wall is not too high, a delightful opportunity 

 is offered by its flat top. In this picture, Cerastium tomentosum 

 can be seen draping the top of a low retaining wall, and it makes 

 a pretty fringe or edging for the upright-growing irises. Here 

 is the cerastium not yet in bloom. You can see how it grows 

 between the stones. 



Growing Alpines from Seed. 



It has been mentioned that among the four principal considera- 

 tions in keeping up a rock garden are the saving and sowing of 

 seed. This seems to be a job particularly suitable for women. It 

 requires some thought and a good deal of time, as it is very necessary 

 to collect seeds at the right moment, when they are dry, and before 

 they begin to drop, but it is not tiring or hard work, and it is 

 very interesting. All the authorities agree that the best and 

 healthiest plants are those raised from seed, and one's own seed 



