CHAPTER XIII 

 THE PLANTING OF ALPINES 



IN a general way the planting should resolve itself 

 into the one word " colonising " or " grouping," and 

 whether we are dealing with yard wide areas, or fissure 

 or crevice, the importance of grouping — i.e., the self- 

 grouping of one variety of plants — not mixtures or 

 jumbles, should be kept constantly in view. A prin- 

 ciple to be observed is that there should be a beginning 

 and an end to each group, then a rest for the eye, and 

 that best of all rests — a complete change to something 

 else beyond. The patchwork, indiscriminate group- 

 ing, too common on the improvised rock gardens at 

 exhibitions, should be ignored, and in its stead a 

 scheme or plan, definite and bold, should be adopted. 

 Only in the case of the rarest kinds need the planter 

 tolerate solitary examples, while the more free-grow- 

 ing, free-flowering plants should be seen in quantity. 

 The solitary example of Saxifraga apiculata of a year 

 ago should to-day, if it has made any progress at all, 

 be the parent of a dozen — it may be a score — and these, 

 planted at a few inches apart, would cover a consider- 

 able area. The division and replanting, consequent 

 thereon, all make for progress, and, by affording room 

 for the development of every rosette the plants con- 

 tain, endows them with that greater vigour and free- 

 dom of blossoming all too rare, Left alone the same 

 solitary example at the end of two years will have 

 formed a cuShion-like tuft, whose central parts, lifted 

 out of touch with Mother Earth, will be in danger of 

 burning up with heat and drought. Hence free 

 periodical division and replanting is a safeguard 



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