THE FIFTY BEST ROCK PLANTS 



IT is not quite so difficult to make a choice of the 

 fifty best rock plants as of the fifty best hardy 

 perennials; but no list is likely to please any one very 

 much except the maker of it; and even he will proba- 

 bly see the faults of it soon after he has made it. One 

 plant will seem the best of its kind to-day and another 

 to-morrow. Besides, he is sure to forget some of his 

 favourite plants. But still his list may contain some 

 beautiful plants unknown to some of his readers, and 

 it may confirm their liking for others. The list which 

 follows does not pretend to be even the writer's final 

 choice, but it will contain only plants which he has 

 thoroughly tested, and which he knows can be made 

 to flourish without any great amount of skill. Some 

 of them are quite easy, others not quite so easy; but 

 none are inexplicably capricious, and none demand 

 conditions which the ordinary well-made rock garden 

 in the country cannot supply. They are chosen first 

 for their beauty, next for their perfect fitness for the 

 rock garden, and last for their comparative ease of 

 culture. None of the larger shrubs suitable for the 

 rock garden are included among them, and no bulbs. 

 Some are not rock plants in their native countries, 

 but all will look better and probably do better in the 

 rock garden than anywhere else. 



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