SEPTEMBER 115 



Now is the moment to get to work on the rock- 

 garden; there is no time of year so precious for this 

 work as September. Small things planted now, while 

 the ground is still warm, grow at the root at once, and 

 get both anchor-hold and feeding-hold of the ground 

 before frost comes. Those that are planted later do 

 not take hold, and every frost heaves them up, some- 

 times right out of the ground. Meanwhile those that 

 have got a firm root-hold are growing steadily all the 

 winter, underground if not above ; and when the first 

 spring warmth comes they can draw upon the reserve 

 of strength they have been hoarding up, and make 

 good growth at once. 



Except in the case of a rockery only a year old, there 

 is sure to be some part that wants to be worked afresh, 

 and I find it convenient to do about a third of the 

 space every year. Many of the indispensable Alpiaes 

 and rock-plants of lowly growth increase at a great 

 rate, some spreading over much more than their due 

 space, the very reason of this quick-spreading habit 

 being that they are travelling to fresh pastm-e ; many 

 of them prove it clearly by dying away in the middle 

 of the patch, and only showing vigorous vitality at the 

 edges. 



Such plants as Silene alpestris, Ilutchinsia alpina, 

 Pterocephabis, the dwarf alpine kinds of Achillea and 

 Artemisia, Veronica and Linaria, and the mossy Saxi- 

 frages, in my soil want transplanting every two years, 

 and the silvery Saxifrages every three years. As in 



