CHAPTER XI 



The Rock Garden 



Region adapted for Rockeries — Japanese Gardens — Construction 

 of Rock Gardens — Material for Rock Gardens 



THOSE persons who like imported products of every kind will 

 prefer to call these Alpine Gardens. There are so many parts 

 of the United States where rocks abound that it is very peculiar 

 that more really good rock gardens are not to be seen. 



We do not wish to advocate the establishment of a garden of 

 this sort where the rocks must be moved a great distance. We feel 

 that such a feature as this in the prairie region is rather incongruous; 

 besides, the cost is prohibitive. There are, however, certain regions 

 which are well adapted for informal rockeries. Central Park, at the 

 center of New York City, has wonderful outcrops of granite, in which 

 are all sorts of crevices and holes for plants. Rochester, N. Y., has 

 an abundance of peculiarly weathered limestone formations which 

 are very useful. Each vicinity has a different sort of native rock 

 formation, so that the type of planting will greatly differ. Rocks 

 should hardly be placed for a defmite display of themselves, for they 

 should be the background. 



We have only to visit Japan or read of her gardens; they are rock 

 gardens; they are really rock landscapes. In them we find that rocks 

 are as important as plants. We discover their arrangement studied. 

 We hear that imperial edicts have been sent out from time to time 

 prohibiting the price which may be paid for rock. It seems that 

 during one of the dynasties the interest in foreign rocks was so great 

 that such an edict was necessary. If we should remark to the Japan- 

 ese gardener that a collection of rocks such as he has in his landscape 

 is mere geology, he would ask us what difference it made so long as 

 the whole was beautiful and meant something. He would continue 

 to say that our own American gardens do not have any real significance. 

 Few of the Japanese gardens in America have the real essential featiures. 

 The American wants to use the Japanese material, but not underst£ind- 

 ing the Oriental arrangement he prefers an arrangement which he has 

 imagined is the real way the Japanese gardens look. For one who 

 cannot read Japanese, two pages of a Japanese book look enough 

 alike to be equally well covered with interesting characters. So with 

 a garden; one which is American using Japanese plants and receptacles 

 looks superficially like the real Japanese arrangement. 



155 



