130 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



minish in size and height as the edge of the rockery 

 is reached, but nowhere should they deteriorate into 

 a mere pile of stones. The best location is one ex- 

 tending from east to west so that a planting of tall 

 shrubs or trees — as the larches, tamarax and tamarisk 

 — ^may be made on the north side where they will not 

 shade the lower planting. All tall shrubs and peren- 

 nials must be on the higher parts of the rockery, the 

 low-growing and creeping things being nearer the 

 ground. Suitable pockets of soil must be provided 

 and in the case of shrubs and deep-rooted perennials 

 the pockets shoiild extend to the ground. Certain 

 rock-loving plants will do well in shallow pockets, but 

 the soil must be of the best to start with — a warm, 

 fibrous loam, well enriched with old manure, for ob- 

 viously, the soil cannot readily be changed once the 

 rockery is established, but must depend upon such 

 top dressing as can be given in fall and spring for 

 renewal. 



The rockery wiE afford spaces of sun and shade, 

 congenial for many sorts of plants; there should be 

 moist hollows where ferns and things of the wild-wood 

 will thrive. On the northern side, iu the shade of the 

 trees many woodsy things can be colonized — the blood- 

 root, trillium, hepatica, rock-loving columbine, ferns 

 and the like. On the sunny edges many of the spring- 

 blooming bulbs may be grown and will make a lovely 

 ribbon of color in the early days of spring — ^hya- 



