96 ROCK GARDENING FOR AMATEURS 



they are very beautiful, and add interest to the garden 

 at all seasons. When the actual planting takes place, 

 provision in the way of special soil mixtures must be 

 made for those plants that need it ; but usually a bushel 

 each of peat or leaf-soil and turfy loam, with some lime 

 rubble, will provide all that is necessary. 



As for the plants one may grow on the rock border, 

 their name is legion. Alpine Pinks will flourish in the 

 chinks of the border peaks, Silvery Saxifrages will rapidly 

 cover stony soil among the highest rocks, with Erinus, 

 Rock Primulas, Alyssum, and Houseleeks as near neigh- 

 bours ; Aubrietia, Mossy Phlox and Mossy Saxifrage 

 will creep over half-shady mounds and smother the less 

 sunny slopes, while the lowlands offer a home for some 

 of the brightest jewels of the mountain flora Campanula, 

 Gypsophila, Primula, Arenaria, Phlox, Flax, Veronica, 

 Geranium, and a host of others that are described in a 

 later part of the book. 



It is possible to associate a moraine with such a rock 

 border as I have described, and thus to taste the delights 

 of growing some of the most difficult and most exquisite 

 of alpines. In fact, one may have several moraines, 

 arranged on slightly sloping ground between low mounds 

 or running right through between two banks and follow- 

 ing the outer edge of the rock border. The moraine may 

 be of the simplest possible description. Having dug out 

 the soil about two feet deep, let the reader fill the lower 

 twelve inches with rough drainage material, the upper 

 eight inches with broken brick chips passed through a 



