92 ALPINE FLOWERS AND ROCK GARDENS. 



As most of the rock plants flower in spring it is well 

 to plant them in autumn, in order to give them a 

 good opportunity of getting sufficiently well estab- 

 lished to bloom really well, but they may be planted 

 at almost any period of the year, even in summer, 

 except on very hot, dry sites. It would not be safe 

 to put them into parched soil, and leave them un- 

 watered and unshaded, with the sun to beat down 

 upon them fiercely. One is often surprised to find 

 what the plants will put up with. One thrusts a tuft 

 with a little moist soil squeezed round the roots into 

 a crevice in an almost vertical wall or bank, where 

 there hardly seems room for a mouse to turn, in summer, 

 and finds that it takes hold, makes itself thoroughly 

 at home and begins to spread. But if planting in 

 such circumstances it is wise to give the plants a 

 daily syringing or hosing for a week, in order to keep 

 them fresh, and give them an opportunity of making 

 roots. A great many of the choice Alpines are grown 

 in pots by tradesmen in order to facihtate planting 

 in late spring and summer. 



Where it is a question of planting groups, the ques- 

 tion of cost becomes a consideration, and home 

 propagation has to be considered. Several useful 

 plants can be raised in quantity from seed at a trifling 

 cost, and among them may be named Rock Cresses, 

 Gold Dust {Alyssum saxatile and compacUim), Alpine 

 Forget-me-not {Myosotis alpestris)^ Snow-in-summer 

 and coloured Primroses. Every large seedsman sells 

 these, and there is no trouble in raising them, even 

 in the open ground, although I prefer cold frame 



