90 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



The flower-lover will not, of course, exclude Rock 

 Cresses, Snow-in-summer, Rockfoils, Stonecrops, 

 Houseleeks (Sempervivums) and Candytufts from his 

 rock garden because they are given to trespassing. 

 Plants like these, free in growth, charming in blossom, 

 pretty in habit and full of vitality, have a value of 

 their own. It is simply a case of finding the best place 

 for them. There may be some flower-loving reader 

 of these remarks who is in the happy position of 

 having more than a small made rockery. He may 

 have natural rocky decHvities and slopes, giving much 

 freer scope for effective planting than a special con- 

 struction. Here cheap, showy, virile plants which 

 can be bought or raised in quantity are a real boon. 

 Where the area and the configuration of the ground 

 permit it is worth while to take them into special 

 consideration, and have whole waves and swells of 

 flowers. By placing smaU groups of stones to form 

 mounds, colonies of special plants may be estabhshed, 

 and such effects are produced as one sees in Nature. 



This kind of rock gardening is essentially different 

 from the formation and planting of " rockeries.*' 

 It is gardening for general effect, just as bedding-out, 

 and planting with flowering shrubs, are. The differ- 

 ence is that its effects conform more closely to those 

 seen in Nature, where the colony system is general. 

 Where a plant feels itself at home it spreads if it has 

 sufficient inherent vigour, and therefore we find 

 groups. No doubt all plants were originally annuals, 

 increased only by seeds ; then some kinds learned to 

 form offsets, or buds on their roots, thus acquiring a 



