4 ROCK AND WATER GARDENS 



among the snows, to the Gentians and Harebells which 

 stud the mountain meadows far beneath. But the plants 

 must be grown in colonies, the strong with the strong, 

 the weak with the weak. It is a frequent lament that 

 the smallest rock plants are constantly lost, and to prevent 

 this the rock garden is dotted with unsightly pegs. 

 Seldom it is that unsuitable soil or aspect is the reason 

 for the annual dwindling away of choice seedlings, but 

 very often may the cause be traced to the encroachment 

 of other plants. This crowding-out process may not be 

 visible to the eye — to all appearance the plant is quite 

 isolated. But below the surface, other roots are absorb- 

 ing all the nourishment ; not infrequently the fibres from 

 some neighbouring tree or bush are allowed free access 

 to the best soil in the rock garden. Root restriction in 

 the case of large plants is just as needful as sufficient 

 " elbow room" for the smaller. 



Most Alpine and rock plants require great depth of 

 soil, a fact which will, perhaps, come as a surprise 

 to many. The professional builders of certain rock 

 gardens entirely overlook this point. Their work is 

 finished when they have reared their cumbersome earth- 

 banks and transported some tons of stone or cement to 

 form miniature precipices, crags, and jagged cliffs. The 

 gardener must attend to the work of planting, and a 

 hopeless task he often finds it. 



Having no knowledge of the ways of rock plants, no 

 provision has been made for rooting, and the stone ledges 

 are covered with but a few inches of soil. A cup-shaped 

 depression in the surface of a boulder is filled with a 

 pinch of earth, and in this miserable dwelling any small 

 Alpine is considered to be perfectly at home. All this 

 comes of an entire ignorance as to how mountain flowers 

 in their natural haunts live and have their being. Take 

 the case of the tiny Stonecrops, which in the high Alps 

 may be found clinging to the edges of almost perpen- 



