III.— CULTURAL NOTES ON ALPINE 

 PLANTS 



In the vast, far-reachingf range of alpine vegetable 

 life — and that phase of it that, more particularly, 

 is associated with rock gardening — ^thoughtful and 

 observant gardeners have long since realised that not 

 all the plants coming within its scope respond to like 

 conditions. That must be so. In Nature there are the 

 plants of the upland meadows and pastures, the 

 saxatile species that ever favour rocks, and those of 

 the mountain bog, glacier and moraine. There are, 

 too, the sun-lovers, which appear to revel in all the 

 sun and warmth to which the mountain plant is usually 

 subjected ; and that oppositely inclined set — a. minority 

 it may be said — that, seeking exclusion therefrom, 

 appear never so happy as when growing in universal 

 shade or in touch with rocks reeking with moisture. 

 To what extent these play a part in the successful cul- 

 tivation of the subjects concerned may be a moot 

 question, since radical departures therefrom may prove 

 as prolific of successes as of failures. Not too great a 

 stickler for orthodox soil methods in the past, and 

 recognising that there are conditions of mountain life 

 — altitude, snow, clarified air, and brilliant sun-heat — 

 that are impossible to alpine plants in English lowland 

 gardens, I have many times ignored them with not a 

 little success, while others, pinning their faith to them, 

 have failed. Soil conditions, it has been said, can be 

 "imitated at will, but you cannot create an atmo- 

 sphere." The idea is quite wrong. A southern expo- 

 sure for a plant may be fatal, a western one ideal ; and 

 with success and failure within a yard of each other 



104 



