Proportion in Planting 



it. By skilful planting this can be so arranged that 

 it will not be obtrusively visible from any other portion 

 of the grounds, and will, moreover, afford a happy 

 home for many charming little alpine plants, both for 

 dry and sunny or low-lying damp situations. There 

 are no piled up banks of stone therein, and, indeed, 

 the quantity of stone used should be reduced to a 

 minimum, but the rock that is used should possess 

 something that is attractive and picturesque in itself. 

 I do not mean by this that it should be brilliantly 

 coloured, or that white spar, or marble, is suitable, 

 but that it should be natural rock, that shows signs of 

 Nature's work thereon in the form of mossy growth, 

 crevices, and crannies that have been produced by 

 weather action. Then the plants must be selected with 

 due regard to the size of the undertaking. If it is 

 very small only the tiniest of alpine plants and shrubs 

 should be used. There must, indeed, be throughout 

 a sense of proportion. The plants, however, should 

 all be of the class that are associated with rocky land. 

 In commencing these remarks on the rock garden I 

 said there were two distinct types ; as a matter of fact 

 the second I am going to describe hardly answers that 

 description, as it is merely a certain area devoted to 

 the cultivation of alpine or rock plants. That is to 

 say, that it aims at being nothing more than a collec- 

 tion of alpine plants in which such stone as is used plays 

 quite a secondary part. In the construction of the ideal 

 rock garden the stone is just as important a factor as 

 the plants, and it is the two combined that form the 

 pigments wherewith to paint the picture. In this 

 cultivator's garden stone is hardly necessary at all 



7 1 



