Round the Year in the Garden 



In the Rock Garden. No time should be lost in 

 completing the planting of the rock garden, otherwise 

 the plants will scarcely have time to become sufficiently 

 established to produce a satisfactory show of flowers, for 

 most of them blossom in April, May and June. At this 

 late planting season it is of great advantage to obtain 

 alpines in pots, then root disturbance is slight, and there 

 is no check to their progress. Well-drained, gritty soil 

 is essential to success with most kinds, and a general 

 compost consists of two-thirds loam or turfy soil, one- 

 third peat or leaf soil, with an addition of grit or sand. 

 Such a mixture will suit many Alpine Pinks, Cushion 

 and Silvery Saxifrages, Campanulas, Sedums, Aubrietias, 

 Alyssum, Veronica, Geranium and other showy kinds. 

 The lovely blue-flowered Lithospermum prostratum 

 thrives best in peat, so too do Epimedium, Rarnon- 

 dia pyrenaica, Trillium or Wood Lily, some of the 

 Primulas for instance, frondosa, farinosa, sikkimensis 

 and rosea Cypripediurn, Haberlea rhodopensis and Lin- 

 naea borealis. The addition of lime to the soil greatly 

 benefits many alpines, such as Silvery Saxifrages, Edel- 

 weiss, Alpine Poppy, Androsace lanuginosa, Acanthol- 

 imon, Potentilla nitida, Primula Auricula, Aethionema, 

 and others. 



It is wise when putting in choice alpines, and especially 

 if the soil is not really well-drained, to make a sort of 

 moraine for each plant or group of plants. This is 

 accomplished by digging out a hole some 12 inches deep, 

 filling the lower 6 inches with stone or broken brick, and 

 the remaining 6 inches with a mixture of prepared compost 

 and stone chips. The glass covering may now be removed 

 from those alpines that were protected in this manner 

 during winter as a precaution against damage by excessive 

 wet. Such a covering seems in some cases to induce 

 alpines to flower that otherwise might not do so ; this 

 is especially noticeable with the charming little purple 

 Snowflower, Soldanella alpina. 



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