32 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



evidence in his defence if he is arraigned for technical 

 sins of construction. We cannot accept as a success- 

 ful rockery that in which, at the season of blooming, 

 the stones instead of the flowers become the topic 

 of conversation. 



Before rock gardening can become completely 

 successful in Great Britain we must learn that it is not 

 a mere appanage of hardy flower growing. We hear 

 the phrase ^^ herbaceous and Alpine gardening " much 

 too often. The fact that an Alpine plant is sometimes 

 grown in the herbaceous border, and that herbaceous 

 plants are often part of a rockery, must not obscure 

 the fact that the herbaceous border and the rockery 

 represent two entirely separate phases of flower 

 gardening, and attempts to combine the two generally 

 end in failure. They should be treated as absolutely 

 distinct. Let the flower-lover have herbaceous 

 borders by all means, especially if he has a fairly 

 large garden. With the best of the bulbous flowers 

 in spring, followed closely by coloured Feverfews 

 (Pyrethrums)y Leopardsbanes {Doronicums), Colum- 

 bines {Aquilegias), Sweet Rocket (Hesperis), Siberian 

 and other early Irises, white mountain Centaury 

 (Centaur ea montana alba), Globe Flowers (Trollius), 

 and orange Avens (Geum) ; and later by Paeonies, 

 perennial Larkspurs (Delphiniums), Phloxes, Goat's 

 rues (Galegas), Michaelmas Daisies (perennial Asters) 

 and other noble plants, he will have much cause for 

 satisfaction. But some of these plants, beautiful and 

 dehghtful as they are, have nothing Alpine in 

 their character, and can no more be associated 



