An 8 x 15 Ft. Rock Garden 



ROBERT S. STURTEVANT 



Making a Lot of a Little 



-Suggesting the Big Opportunity for the Plant Connoisseur and Collector- 

 Hundred or More Different Plants 



-Ample Space for a 



A LITTLE slope of hillside between 

 a decrepit Apple tree and a grand- 

 father Pine is the site of what I 

 call my miniature garden. It faces 

 to the south and the gravelly soil has been 

 well overlaid with woods-earth, a layer that 

 has been molded to give a varying depth of 

 good soil to suit the different plants. Within 

 this limited area there is room for a great 

 variety of wee plants that carry some interest 

 of flower or foliage throughout the year. Even 

 when this was written toward the end of a 

 wintery March, the green shoots of Crocus, 

 (the fading lavender Tommasinianus) and a 

 lone Iris reticulata show through the spidery 

 webs of a Sempervivum, while a few purple- 

 shaded leaves of the dwarf blue Columbine 

 are ready to uncurl among the startling gray 

 of my favorite Artemisia that hangs down 

 across the face of a rock. (Just which 

 Artemisia this is, I can only guess; it is low, 

 not over 6 in., and shrubby, with neither the 

 size of the familiar Southernwood, nor the 

 rampant running Boy's Love. A. frigida 

 seems correct but every purchase under that 

 name has been a disappointment). 



T3EF0RE I venture to dilate upon the 

 ■*-* occupants of my garden I must sketch 

 its topography, if so large a word may be 

 applied to so Lilliputian an area. A sharp 

 bank fully 2 ft. high drops abruptly to the 

 path; above is a long valley fully a foot wide, 

 in spring a drift of Anemone apennina, sky 

 blue, to be followed by the self-sown seedlings 

 of the Lavender Cress (Ionopsidium); into 

 this runs a short ravine with a boulder- 

 strewn slope on one side and with a steep cliff 

 where various members of the Sempervivum 

 family spread out their charms on the other. 

 So here I have two hills, a long valley with 

 parallel crests, a ravine and the bank where 

 the natural grass is gradually giving way to a 

 thick carpet of the lavender Phlox subulata 

 and the double Arabis. Here also in a care- 

 fully prepared pocket of red clay, the native 

 Bird's-foot Violet (Viola pedata) 

 has been established and a few 

 plants of the delicate Harebell 

 (Campanula rotundifolia) give 

 scattered blooms well past the 

 heavy frosts in the fall. 



/^\NE hill is capped by the 

 ^-^ shrubby Potentilla Veitchii, 

 its gray-green lit by small, rose- 

 like white flowers; the other has 

 a bush of the yellow Japanese Bar- 

 berry, a slow grower in this thin 

 soil, and not too permanent a 

 yellow to be obstreperous. Both 

 these are in scale with their small 

 leaves and some lately introduced 

 plants of Heath and Heathers, 

 that seem to have survived our 

 unusually cold winter. There are 

 seedling Aubretias, some as rich 

 in color as the intense Dr. Mules, 

 others a pale lavender that is charming with 

 the rather inconspicuous blush of the late 

 blooming pink Spanish Scilla (S. bifolia), 

 a group of white Allium, a tuft of the vivid 

 fringed Peony (P. tenuifolia), a mere sample 

 of the Cup-flower (Nierembergia), and a 

 healthy patch of a diminutive Thyme (Thy- 

 mus lanuginosus) that in spring the sun 

 touches up its winter gray with bronze and 



purple. The close cropped Veronica repens, 

 so flat that the flowers seem like fallen petals, 

 has a place and near by are tufts of Bluets. 

 The crest near the bank has a long drift 

 of the starry yellow Tulipa persica, the latest 





r- 







t- Jt^i^i* 



This is the Ravine in the miniature garden described. It 

 gives a delightful setting to a rich variety of charming plants 



to bloom, and much enjoyed with the delicate 

 hues of the Waterlily Tulip (T. Kaufmann- 

 iana) after the rather disappointing bloom of 

 biflora and Turkestanica which have had to 

 contend with the constant and heavy rains of 

 the spring. I must acknowledge that many 

 of these are out of scale, but how can I leave 



The Jack-in-the-pulpit on the right was introduced to give "scale" to the composition as a 

 whole. Rock gardening is the ideal refuge of the collector of odds and ends 



them out when they are so lovely in them- 

 selves? In fact I have introduced, just for 

 contrast, a giant Jack-in-the-pulpit, and it 

 helps to put everything in its proper place. 



'TPHE Iris family is represented by reticu- 



■*■ lata and its redder variety Krelagei, 



which blooms first; one year I bloomed the 



lighter persica; by the true pumilas; and later, 



271 



two gems for the rock garden, our native 

 cristata and gracilipes which last is found wild 

 in the woods of northern Japan; verna adds 

 its rich orange and blue, but is not quite so 

 lovely as the others. I have long tried to 

 establish flavissima as its dainty clear yellow 

 blossoms must make a charming clump and 

 I wonder whether any who read this have 

 grown it with real success. I plant groups 

 of the oddities such as Susiana, alata, Korol- 

 kowi, that in its sleekness reminds one of a 

 guinea hen, and the reglio-cyclus hybrids 

 which are lovely in their rich and subdued 

 coloring. They are not very permanent 

 but some time I may chance on a variety 

 that likes my conditions. 



*V7"OU will wonder how so many plants can 

 ■*■ find a foot-hold; but I am a strong 

 believer in two-story planting which can give 

 at least two periods of bloom in each 6 inch 

 square; in many cases I indulge in samples 

 only, especially where they are not sure 

 "thrivers." It is easy in such a small place 

 to be watchful, to remove plants that prove 

 too large or rampant, to slip in a bulb for 

 trial even if it is not hardy after all. We 

 may regret the loss, but find unexpectedly 

 something even better, perhaps; and I hope 

 some Garden Magazine readers who are 

 also rock gardeners will relate their exper- 

 iences of both success and failure. 



FOR us the recently listed Thalictrum 

 adiantifolium minor is proving just the 

 thing, and for a shrub the finely divided gray 

 foliage of Ruta graveolens seems adaptable; 

 I cannot say much for the Tansy-like yellow 

 bloom, but the long period of excellence of the 

 compact pleasing growth makes it worthy a 

 place. It is called an under-shrub but in my 

 mind I class it with the blue and white forms 

 of Hyssop which (if the odor is not too objec- 

 tionable) seem fitted for a formal edging, 

 The finely formed fronds of Asplenium trich- 

 omanes combine with almost everything; to be 

 really happy it should have mois- 

 ture and with that present you 

 can have the shade-loving Part- 

 ridge-berry, the Gold-thread with 

 its glistening leaves and white 

 flowers, and many others of our 

 woodland flora. 



A MONG the bulbs and "near 

 "^^ bulbs" the possibilities seem 

 endless. Beside the few Tulips I 

 have mentioned I have the Euro- 

 pean and Neapolitan Cyclamens 

 with their marbled leaves and 

 dainty flowers, one blooming in 

 summer and the other in the fall; 

 Hoop-petticoat Daffodils and 

 Angel's-tears (N. triandrus); the 

 autumn Colchicum has, what is a 

 great drawback to me, coarse 

 foliage; but the true Fall Cro- 

 cuses with their grassy leaves 

 (speciosus, sativus, and zonatus) all have a 

 place; Dog's-tooth Violets (Erythronium) 

 cast a spell, and [I am always looking for a 

 place where they will, bloom well. They 

 seem to be easy enough to grow but very shy 

 in blooming. The native one is good but I 

 prefer the soft lilac European one (E. dens- 

 canis)and the beautiful Californian (E. gigan- 

 teum); the varieties of Dutchman's-breeches 



