28 Making a Rock Garden 



plant of Saponaria ocymoides will spread 

 out over four square feet of soil, and thus 

 fill completely a moderate-sized pocket, 

 whereas to conceal the same amount of 

 ground three dozen auriculas might have 

 to be used. The same is true of the white 

 rock cress (Arabis albida). So, too, with 

 a crevice. A single plant of one of the 

 trailing stonecrops would fill it, perhaps, 

 when a number of rosettes of the smaller 

 kinds of house leek would be called for. 



Tall plants, like the foxglove, may 

 sometimes be used, in a small group, at 

 the end of a bay on the level of the path; 

 but they are best placed behind the rock 

 work, as a background, or as dominating 

 features of the entrance or exit of the 

 garden. At the entrance or exit such 

 bold plants make a good bridge between 

 the rock garden and the outer grounds. 

 Spreading and trailing plants should be 



