ALPINE PLANTS IN BRITISH GARDENS. 31 



The conditions being thus favourable as a whole, 

 we are not surprised to meet with many charming 

 examples of rock gardening in Great Britain, and have 

 no difficulty in prophesying a rapid extension of this 

 delightful phase of gardening in the near future. 

 Flower-lovers cannot realise all at once that the huge 

 boulders so Hberally used in some public examples of 

 rockwork that they see are not indispensable. It does 

 not always occur to them that a ton of stone, costing, 

 perhaps ten, perhaps fifteen, shillings after freight has 

 been paid, can be used in a hundred pieces as well as 

 in one. They are chilled by the evidence that ponder- 

 ous rocks, perched at dizzy angles, are the principal 

 components of rock gardens, and that flowers are a 

 minor consideration. 



Whoever is capable of arranging stones, however 

 large or small, in such a way as to form a natural 

 home and foil for colonies of beautiful flowers is a 

 successful Alpine gardener. Flowers are the first 

 consideration. It may be that Nature put stones 

 in the Alpine regions before she put flowers there, 

 but we may be sure that organic life was the ultimate 

 consideration with her. It is the one that should 

 sway us first and last. There is undoubtedly an art 

 in arranging rock-work, but it is aU wasted if it does 

 not favour beautiful plant life. We have to " make 

 the dry bones live.'' 



The untrained rock gardener cannot make a serious 

 mistake if he arranges his stones in such a way that 

 beautiful flowers grow happily among them. That, 

 after alL is the real art. The flowers will be the best 



