426 HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE l 



The most important event during 1912 in the horticultural world was the great 

 international Exhibition held in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital, London, from May 

 22nd to May 3oth. The exhibition embraced every phase and every department of 

 modern horticulture with the important exception of market gardening, which, however, 

 was represented in some fine exhibits from Belgium and Holland. As an exhibition of 

 the marvellous skill possessed by the British gardener in bringing fruits, flowers and 

 vegetables to the highest perfection, nothing has ever been seen like it before. The 

 exhibits were divided into eleven main groups and four hundred and twenty-eight differ- 

 ent classes. A large area under canvas contained the more tender stove and greenhouse 

 plants from all parts of the globe, as well as roses, carnations, orchids, aroids, crotons, 

 dracaenas, palms, ferns, begonias, foliage plants, hardy herbaceous perennials and 

 alpines, choice fruits and vegetables, etc. 



Rock Gardening. Although specimens of rock gardening have become a feature at 

 exhibitions of late years, no one had any conception of the marvellous popularity of this 

 kind of gardening until the International Exhibition at Chelsea. Several acres were 

 devoted to rock gardens, and hundreds of pounds were spent in their foimation. Thou- 

 sands flocked to admire the rockeries and the charming alpines growing in them, and it 

 was evident that other classes' of plants were for once put in the background by the 

 public. At last people are beginning to recognise that it is possible to beautify with 

 appropriate vegetation any piece of land, whether large or small in area. Indeed, it is 

 possible to make quite a charming rock garden in the back-yard of the humblest subur- 

 ban dwelling, providing one has taste and a certain amount of knowledge of the right 

 kind of plants. 



Wall Gardening. This is of even more recent development than rock gardening, of 

 which, however, it is a variety. It consists in building loose walls with slabs or boulders 

 of stone, filling up the central space between the outside walls with soil, and then filling 

 the outer spaces with plants that naturally flourish in the chinks and crevices of walls. 

 The tops of the walls are, of course, also furnished with suitable flowering subjects, and 

 a quite new garden may be given an ancient appearance by the judicious erection of a 

 wall garden. 



Water Gardening. This may be looked upon as a modern adjunct to the rock garden, 

 and has become very popular during the past few years. At exhibitions, by means of 

 water-tight tarpaulins and a stream of artfully concealed water from the " tap," some 

 exquisite water gardens have been made and have attracted much admiration. A great 

 trade is now done in the beautiful hardy hybrid water-lilies of various shades, and in 

 other water-loving plants that have hitherto been sadly neglected. Closely associated 

 with the water garden is the bog garden, and many plants that love swampy or marshy 

 soil are now grown on the margins of the water garden. 



Moraine Gardening. This is a still more modern phase of rock gardening. It 

 indicates a style of growing alpine plants amidst rocky debris as seen at the foot of 

 glaciers, etc., on the Alps. To make a moraine garden, the natural soil is deported, and 

 its place is taken by a mixture of rock, sand, loam, peat, chalk, lime, etc., so that plants 

 which naturally flourish in one or other of these " soils " may be accommodated as near 

 as possible to their natural surroundings. Moraine gardens are made on slopes or 

 terraces, and the gritty or rocky soil is prevented from being washed down by having 

 the bottom of each slope or terrace shored up with larger boulders of rock. While 

 stagnant water would be fatal, there must however be a good supply of moisture, the 

 idea being to secure a kind of subterranean trickling as from the melting of ice during 

 the summer months. 



Japanese Gardening. This name has now become attached to a particular style of 

 gardening in which an attempt is made to reproduce the peculiarities of Japanese land- 

 scape gardening. Thousands of dwarfed specimens of conifers, oaks, maples, etc., are 



! See generally E. B. xiii, 741 et seq. 



