CHAPTER VI 

 The Winter Care of Alpine Plants 



DURING winter, except when the ground is frozen 

 or shrouded by snow, many things can be done 

 profitably in connection with the rock plants. In such a 

 climate as ours, especially in certain districts where 

 there is a heavy winter rainfall, the alpines suffer greatly 

 from wet and from extremes of weather to which 

 they are subject, when frost, snow, rain, hail, and 

 sleet succeed each other rapidly. 



Protecting Alpines from Wet. Plants with woolly 

 or silky foliage, though able to withstand severe cold, 

 suffer from wet, and should be protected by means of 

 some overhead covering. If the foliage is kept dry 

 there is little fear of their being lost or seriously 

 injured. A sheet of glass is the best medium for the 

 purpose. The covering should be secured by pieces of 

 wire hooked at the top, the glass being fixed in the 

 hooks. It is most important that the covering be not 

 so placed as to exclude air, otherwise the plants are 

 just as likely to succumb as if not covered at all. The 

 covering should be about six inches above the low- 

 growing kinds, such as Saxifraga Burseriana, Androsace 



foliosa, A. sarmentosa, etc., but for taller ones the glass 



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