ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



CHAPTER I 



\X ^f ^^mH and tftm placing 



N"ow, the supreme test of the rock-gardener's craft lies 

 in the placing of his shrubs. Without expecting of any 

 European the unerring tact of Chinese and Japanese in 

 combining rock-work with shrub-life until a mighty 

 precipice is imitated, to perfect scale, within a space of 

 two or three yards of built-up stone, clothed, at all the 

 right points, with what seems the tormented, wind- 

 flogged vegetation of a thousand years, yet one may 

 deplore the sad fact that too often shrubs are dumped at 

 haphazard into the rock-garden, like punctuation into 

 some women's letters, with no regard for relevance. As 

 a matter of fact, too much importance can hardly be set 

 on the right placing of big and little bushes among the 

 boulders — as by their wise disposition the scheme of the 

 whole may be keyed, up to grandeur and illusion, or 

 reduced to a mean chaos. Of course the rules in this 

 matter are a question for individual observation ; yet 

 here, perhaps, it is more possible than elsewhere to point 

 out definite details of right or wrong. For instance. 

 On the top of a mimic cliff plant prostrate overhanging 

 Junipers and Retinosporas — which, by curling reluctantly 

 over its rim, will give an impression of height and ferocity 

 to the rock-face. At the bottom, to one side or to the 

 other, set pillar Junipers, blue columnar Junipers, any 

 slender upright evergreen ; for this, in turn, will add 



A 



