Gardening for Amateurs 



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Photo: R. A. Mally. 



The Edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinum), one of the most popular of rock garden flowerSo 



Rock Gardening 



THE rock garden offers peculiar 

 attractions to the amateur. It can 

 be made in limited space, and the 

 owner of quite a small garden obtains 

 an immense amount of pleasure from 

 its flowers. Once the rockery is made, 

 it entails less strenuous labour than most 

 other forms of gardening. Rock gardening, 

 after the initial outlay, which need not be 

 great, is also inexpensive, and does not call 

 for heavy annual expenditure, unless the 

 owner is an enthusiast who is resolved to 

 go in for novelties whatever the - cost. 

 Many of the oldest and cheapest flowers are 

 still among the best, and by their aid a 

 rockery may be made a perpetual source of 

 delight. 



Site for the Rock Garden. The situa- 

 tion of the rockery first claims attention. 

 An ideal position is in the open, yet sheltered 

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from cold winds ; in full sun, yet so arranged 

 that shade-loving plants may be accommo- 

 dated. A site away from a wall affords the 

 best choice of exposures ; by means of careful 

 building and by the provision of large stones, 

 shade-loving plants can be suited. The 

 worst of all positions is under trees, both 

 shaded and exposed to drip in wet weather. 

 For even such an undesirable site plants can 

 be selected, but they will never grow so 

 well as those in more congenial positions. 

 The size and height of the rockery are deter- 

 mined by local conditions and circumstances. 

 A small rock bed will grow most alpines as 

 well as the most expensive rock work, and we 

 know of many gardens where a low bed, 

 raised not more than 2 or 3 feet above the 

 surface, and set with large stones, produces 

 plants which are the envy of owners of costly 

 rock gardens. 



