292 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



June, 1909 



on rockeries which are among the world's 

 great treasures. Here again, the flowers 

 are not always native to rocks, yet in every 

 case there is some reason why we cannot 

 expect large, permanent results from them 

 in ordinary garden conditions. Most of 

 them you can grow in woods, if you are 

 fortunate enough to own any; but how 

 many of us do? A thousand can afford a 

 rockery for one who can have a bit of woods. 



Pyxie (Pyxidanthera barbulata), pink- 

 ish white Mar.-May 



Shooting star (Dodccalheon Meadia), 



pink Apr.-May 



Wild red columbine (Aguilegia Cana- 

 densis), red Apr.-May 



Virginia bluebells (Mertensia Virgin- 



tea), blue May 



Shortia (Shortia galacifolia), white . May 



Indian pink (Spigelia Marilandica), 



scarlet May-July 



Lance-leaved sabbatia (Sabbat ia lance- 



olata), white May-Sep. 



Bunchberry (Cornus Canadensis), 



white June 



Twin flower (Linncca borealis), pink June-Aug. 



Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), 



scarlet Aug. 



Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), 



orange Aug. 



Fringed gentian (Centiana crinita), 



blue Sep. 



This is certainly a superb list — enough 

 to inspire anyone to build a rockery where 

 these treasures may flourish for years. 

 And please remember that there is no longer 

 any excuse for robbing nature of these lovely 

 plants. Everyone of them can now be 

 secured from nurseries or in the form of seed. 



SUMMER EFFECTS ANY ONE CAN HAVE 



But to come back to big displays with 

 rock plants that anyone can have, I believe 

 that we shall make a great and peculiarly 

 American success by emphasizing summer 

 effects. In England, the rock garden is a 

 spring garden. True, there are lovely bits 



of color in it all summer and autumn, 

 but the whole thing is a blaze of color only 

 in spring. In America, summer is the 

 national play time. Our great annual 

 exodus to the country does not come until hot 

 weather, or say June; and our great vaca- 

 tion month is August. What we seek then 

 is coolness, comfort, rest. 



Now the coolest colors are white, green, 

 gray, and blue. The hottest are red, orange, 

 and purples. So I think we should avoid big 

 masses of scarlet sage, red cannas, cerise 

 geraniums, and other things that make us 

 feel the heat, and plan to have broad sheets 

 of dainty little white flowers like snow in 

 summer, white tufted pansies, fragrant 

 pinks, sweet woodruff, white rock cress, and 

 the common alyssum, which, though annual, 

 sows its own seed. 



The question of greenery on the rocks in 

 summer is highly important and peculiar. 

 The great fault of rockeries everywhere is 

 that they, show more rocks than vegetation, 

 and that is why they look hard and hot in 

 summer. But if there is too much vegetation 

 the rockery will look coarse and weedy. 

 Everything in the rock garden must be 

 daintier than in any other kind of gar- 

 dening. We want no tall bushes or peren- 

 nials, because we do not wish luxuriance of 

 height, but of spread. So I believe we shall 

 get an important American element in our 

 rock gardens by using American ferns that 

 have a talent for spreading among rocks 

 and give a f eeling of coolness in hot weather. 



DELICATE FERN EFFECTS 



Of course, ferns thrive best in shade and 

 genuine alpine flowers do not. But we 

 must do the best we can. Some of us can- 

 not afford elaborate watering devices and, 

 therefore, the only way to keep rocks cool is 

 to shade them. So we must make a special 



A bit of Sir Frank Crisp's famous alpine garden at Henley, modelled after the Matterhorn. It covers 

 about three acres, 7,000 tons of rocks were used, and about l.OOO species are grown 



Study of flowers that demand partial shade, 

 and have the alpine charm. We must select 

 ferns that have interesting leaf forms and 

 spreading growth, instead of the tall, coarse 

 ferns of commonplace form. 



There are fifty-two kinds of native ferns 

 that can be bought from nurserymen, but 

 the following seem to me most appropriate 

 because they answer the above require- 

 ments, and are a foot or less in height : 



Common polypody (Polypodium vulgare) 



Hairy lip fern (Cheilanthes lanosa) 



Maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium Trichomanes) 



Walking fern (Camptosorus rhizophyllus) 



Purple-stemmed cliff brake (Pellaa atropurpurea) 



Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria) 



Hart's tongue fern (Scolopendrium vulgare) 



Broad buck fern (Phegopteris hexagonoptera) 



Adder's tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum) 



Bulblet fern (Cystopteris bulbifera) 



Brittle fern (Cystopteris jragilis) 



Long beech fern (Phegopteris polypodioides) 



Oak fern (Phegopteris Dryopteris) 



Rusty woodsia (Woodsia Ilvensis) 



The club mosses and selaginellas are 

 also interesting and refreshing and nearly 

 a dozen kinds can be had now through 

 specialists in native plants. 



I would not make a fetich of having 

 rock plants that are less than a foot high. 

 I would have the maiden hair for its open, 

 airy grace, the gossamer fern for its hay- 

 scented foliage and the Christmas fern 

 because it is attractive as late as Christmas. 



FLOWERS FOR SHADY ROCKS 



I said that we must make a special study 

 of wild flowers that not merely endure shade 

 but actually need shade and which never- 

 theless have the alpine charm. Our woods 

 • furnish many such, but they are mostly 

 April and May bloomers. I will mention 

 only a few of them, but every one is of 

 exceptional interest in leaf or habit, par- 

 ticularly the Solomon's seal, of which the 

 English are very fond. 



Hepatica (Hepatica triloba), purple, 



blue, pink, white March 



Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra Cucul- 



laria), white, yellow .... April 

 Dwarf early flag (Iris verna), blue . April 

 Solomon's seal (Polygonaium biflo- 



rum), greenish April-May 



Alum root (Heuchera Americana), 



white May-June 



Violet wood sorrel (Oxalis violacea), 



rose purple May-June 



Wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata), 



blue May 



False lily-of-the-valley (Maianthe- 



mum Canadense), white . . . May 

 Wild spikenard (Smilacina racemosa), 



white May-June 



Wood sorrel (Oxalis Acetosella), white June" 



It may seem that I have wandered from my 

 theme of " English effects " by speaking so 

 much of American rock plants, but I beg to 

 remind my readers that every wild flower 

 mentioned in this article is actually grown 

 in English rock gardens and that every one 

 is procurable from English seedsmen or 

 nurserymen — in many cases easier than 

 from our own. In conclusion I think we 

 ought to right about face and show Eng- 

 land that we can make rock gardens quite 

 as lovely as hers, and with an American 

 character too, instead of blindly copying 

 everything she does. 



