80 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1907 



sad condition — all stumps. If you don't 

 care to root the cuttings, that you have taken 

 off, in sand, you may graft them on the old 

 stumps of the parent plant. This sounds 

 as if it required great skill, but if you cut a 

 slit in each of the old stumps .and into these 

 slits insert the ends of the cuttings taken, 

 having first made these wedge-shaped, you 

 will probably succeed. 



The mossing method means salvation for 

 an old favorite which is in great demand 

 about Christmas time — Ardisia crenulata, 

 which holds its red berries two years or more 

 if well grown. With the lower leaves gone, 

 the plant loses half its beauty. By the 

 mossing method, you can retain all -the best 

 part of the old plant. 



A modification of this method is to put a 

 pot around the stalk. To do this, you must 

 have a pot large enough to allow the head of 

 the plant to go through the bottom of it. 

 The bottom of the pot must be broken out, 

 carefully of course, and then the leaves of the 

 plant must be gathered into a small space 

 and the pot, already prepared, slipped over 

 it. Tie the pot to the stalk of the plant at 

 the height you want it, first filling it with 

 moss and loam. Keep this moist contin- 

 ually and in a short time the pot will be full 

 of roots. Where the leaves spread too much 

 to allow the pot to be slipped over them, 

 it will be necessary to divide the pot in halves 

 and then to bind it, filled with moss, where 

 you want it. See Figs. 1-3. 



Rockery Making in California 



ROCKERIES must be distinguished 

 from rock gardens. The latter name 

 implies extent and landscape effect; the 

 former may be a foot or more across. 



In the Eastern States and Europe, both 

 rockeries and rock gardens are given up 

 largely to alpine plants, but in California 

 these plants are practically unknown on 

 account of our extremely dry climate. Our 

 rockeries are generally filled with a jumble 

 of all sorts of plants, with little regard to 

 size, form or color, but few have been planted 

 with one kind of plant only, such as ferns, 

 begonias, etc. 



The rocks are of numerous kinds and 

 unfortunately, occasionally mixed. The 

 best rockeries I have built are of red sand 

 stone. It is a soft, porous stone which 

 absorbs and retains moisture; a very nec- 

 essary quality in our semi-arid climate. 



When planning or building rockeries make 

 the projections, recesses, and undulations 



The larger rocKery is filled with ferns such as 

 Nephrolepis. Polypodium and DicKsonia 



few and pronounced, rather than many and 

 "tame." In no part should the work look 

 smooth, but have all just as rough and 

 rugged as possible. Always see that the 

 under-drainage is perfect. If these few pre- 

 cautions are kept in mind, success will 

 inevitably be attained. 



A soil which is sure to give satisfactory results 

 is composed of two parts good garden loam, 

 one part leaf-mold and one part sharp sand. 



I have found that the following way is a 

 satisfactory manner of building rockeries; 

 the first tier of rocks is placed, then earth is 

 filled in up to the level of their tops and plants 

 set in the interstices. Layer after layer is 

 put on until the desired height is reached. 



In rockeries of mixed plants, almost any- 

 thing may be used and some plant will always 

 be in bloom. In California we do no 

 seasonal planting, as much better results are 

 obtained by striving for foliage effects, the 

 flowers being an incidental. Among the 

 plants best suited for rockeries are, for 

 creepers, coral gem {Lotus Bertholetii), ground 

 ivy (Nepeta Glechoma), strawberry geranium 

 (Saxifraga sarmentosa), Indian strawberry 

 (Fragaria Indica) and several species of 

 stonecrop (Sedum). 



For taller plants I use the cigar plant 

 (Cuphea), fleabane (Erigeron mucronatus), 

 periwinkle (Vinca), windflower (Anemone), 

 Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium) and aspidistra 

 (A . lurida) ; the latter makes an ideal rockery 

 plant. Ferns and begonias are also very 

 desirable plants for rockeries. 



For hard-wooded plants I use St. John's- 

 wort (Hypericum), diosma, daphne, heath 

 (Erica), dwarf barberry (Berberis) and 

 sweet briar rose (Rosa rubiginosa). 



For the first year, while the plants in the 

 rockery are small, I often sow broadcast seeds 

 of the California poppy (Eschscholzia) and 

 rose moss (Portulaca). These fill up the 



vacant spaces during the first season or until 

 permanent plants are large enough to be 

 effective. They selfsow, yet are easily 

 weeded out when no longer needed. 



In the first illustration a rockery is shown 

 which has been planted for five years. It 

 is filled with sword and holly ferns which 

 have made a very stong growth. The sun 

 never shines in this corner which gives con- 

 ditions peculiarly adapted to fern culture, 



The small rockery to the right of the path 

 is filled with begonias, and so luxuriant has 

 been their growth that at present no rocks 

 are to be seen. 



The second illustration shows a low 

 rockery built close to the house to break the 

 ground line. It is filled with ferns, iris, 

 agapanthus, and Cypridedium insigne. The 

 rocks are a black-flecked, gray granite from 

 a quarry. They are rough, which enables 

 them to hold a little earth and moss. 



The last picture shows the largest rockery 

 I know of; it contains many tons of granite 

 boulders or "nigger-heads." It was built 

 partly to obscure the vandalism some one 

 had perpetrated on a beautiful Bunya- 

 Bunya tree (Araucaria Bidwillii) of more 



This is made of granite stones and is filled with bego. 

 nias, ricinus, agapanthus and strawberry-geraniums 



A huge pile of stones about the base of a large ever- 

 green to hide its unsightly trunK 



than a quarter-century's growth, and partly 

 to connect a stone-based summer-house or 

 pavilion with the landscape. The base line 

 is over sixty feet in circumference and in 

 parts the rockery is over six feet high. Around 

 the base of the tree, and two feet greater in 

 diameter, is placed a headless barrel six feet 

 high made of 2-inch redwood planks. This 

 allows air and water to reach the roots. This 

 rockery is filled with more than a hundred 

 species of plants, such as sweet briar rose, 

 Azalea mollis, tree and other ferns, bulbs — 

 a veritable horticultural museum. Yet each 

 kind is massed by itself, no jumbles being 

 allowed. A water pipe was built into the 

 rocks, with an outlet whereby the water drips 

 into a cement-lined pool which may be seen 

 just to the right of centre in the illustration. 

 This pool is filled with aquatics and the over- 

 hanging rocks are planted thick with ferns 

 which droop over the water making a most 

 charming effect. The stones composing 

 this rockery are totally unfitted to the pur- 

 pose, being polished by the action of the 

 water — not rough enough to gather moss — 

 and by their reflected heat cause the foliage 

 to burn at times. 



California. Ernest Braunton. 



