BRINGING ALPINE PLANTS INTO OUR GARDENS 



The Lure of the Rock Garden and of its Appropriate Plants 

 AN INTERPRETATION AND AN EXPLANATION 



Of all the specialised forms of gardening the Alpine or Rock garden, the Rockery, or whatever you care to call it, has slowly hut none the 

 less surely been creeping forward into a definite place in popular esteem, more decisively indeed in recent years than any other one specialty 

 since the advent of the Hardy Perennial Border. The reasons for this are manifold: for one thing it is a new phase of gardening that has 

 marked individuality ; for another it introduces for acquaintance a group of plants that is almost unknown at the present time; moreover, 

 the rock garden may he used as an accommodating receptacle for small plants or for individual specimens of the lesser plants, more or less 

 difficult to obtain, and which would to a certainty be lost if put into the conventional mixed border. There are other alluring and attractive 

 features which are discussed in the accompanying articles. 



The development of such a personal garden completely enthralls those who once begin to taste its joys, but hitherto little information 

 of a sound and practical nature has been available and disappointment is common. Hence the presentation of this symposium by those 

 whose thorough interest and long experience most abundantly qualifies them to speak with authority. M. Correvon was for many years Di- 

 rector of the Jar din d'Acclimatation at Geneva, Switzerland, and enjoyed unique opportunities not only for an acquaintance with the plants 

 in their mountain homes, but also when brought under cultivation and introduced into somewhat different climatic conditions. He enjoys 

 a unique knowledge of their cultural requirements, and his interpretation of the controlling factors must be accepted at its full worth as the 

 conclusions of a painstaking investigator over a period of half a century. 



On this side of the ocean no one has devoted more earnest and extended study to the cultivation of mountain plants than Mr. Clarence 

 Lown at his Poughkeepsie garden on the banks of the Hudson River in New York State. Here for perhaps a greater length of time than 

 M. Correvon in Switzerland, has he gathered together and experimented with the Alpine and mountain plants of the world, and what he has to 

 say about the growing conditions is important for the rock gardener in this country. 



Mrs. Louise Beebe Wilder is quite familiar to our readers as a capable investigator and enthusiastic interpreter of the joys of personal 

 gardening, and her account of the road to success in introducing these Alpine plants into her garden will be equally helpful to the beginner. 



One great lesson to be gathered from all these writings is the supreme importance of raising certain plants from seed in the place where 

 they are to be grown. Further, the observant reader will deduce, as has been pointed out by William Robinson in his writings, that one of 

 the fundamental errors ordinarily besetting the way of the rock gardener is an almost uncontrollable tendency to use enriched soil. The 

 plants will not tolerate it; low fertility and a loose, well-drained soil are the foundations of success. The difficulty of obtaining some of 

 the lesser known plants adds zest to the collector's chase after them; but the beginner will find sufficient kinds for his needs offered by a 

 few progressive dealers who are specializing in the particular field. 



I. THE PECULIAR NEEDS OF THE ALPINE PLANTS 



HENRI CORREVON 



Author of "Les Plantes des Montagnes et des Rochers," and other authoritative books on Alpine flora 



I HEN visiting the Swiss Alps, tourists frequently ask: 

 "Will these mountain plants grow at home in the gar- 

 den?" The answer: "Assuredly they will, if certain 

 precautions be taken." 

 As long ago as the seventeenth century, Gentiana acaulis, 

 G. lutea, and the Alpine Auricula were cultivated in English 

 gardens, whilst on the continent such flowers were neglected in 

 favor of Tulips and Asiatic Ranunculus, for which there was a 

 craze at that period. The Englishman's and Englishwoman's 

 innate love for gardening and their fancy for picturesque and 

 "natural" gardens, led toward the growing of hardy wild plants 

 which were better able to resist the climate of their island. 

 Thus it is the English who have the most beautiful Alpine rock- 

 gardens and the richest literature about Alpine plants and their 

 culture. "We English," said the late Lord Averbury to me one 

 day, " have a passion for Alpine flowers because they speak to 

 us of a lovely state of Nature rather inhospitable with us at home 

 and of an intensity of light and sunshine rather parsimoniously 

 dealt out to us in England." 



I n America the taste for Alpines now grows rapidly and I wel- 

 come the opportunity The Garden Magazine affords for giving 

 some practical hints on the cultivation of these gems. 



Mountain and Alpine Flowers at Home 



ON THE world's mountains in every latitude, the regions of 

 snow and glacier shelter a special vegetation known as 

 the Alpine Flora and varying in its component parts, if not in 

 its aspect. This flora is brilliant in color, and graceful and 

 fascinating in form, catching the eye and attention of travelers 

 and constituting one of the foremost attractions of high places. 

 Upon the European Alps and the mountains of Asia are found 

 the Rhododendrons; upon the Andes, the Fuchsias; upon the 



Australasian Mountains, the Veronicas; and upon the Caucasus, 

 the Azaleas. These are the flowering shrubs which mark the 

 transition between the herbaceous vegetation and the forest. 

 Whilst in Switzerland the vivid tints of Gentians, Dianthus, 

 Nigritellas, Arnica, and Campanulas attract a multitude of 

 varied insects, elsewhere it is other jewels, belonging to similar 

 or different species but presenting always the characteristics of 

 the Alpine flora, namely: large flowers on short stalks, an abun- 

 dant and crowded blossoming, a scanty and restrained foliage, 

 and a compact habit often taking the form of dense cushions 

 covered with stemless flowers (as in Androsaces, the Drabas, 

 Azalea procumbens, Eritrichium nanum, Saxifrages, etc.). 

 Dwarf tufts are' common to all alpine summits on the five con- 

 tinents. 



Travelers visiting Ruwenzori and Kilimanjaro, those Central 

 African peaks which overtop Mont Blanc by more than 

 3,000 feet, meet with a different vegetation from that of the 

 Swiss Alps, but of the same general aspect; and if we turn to 

 the Arctic and Antarctic regions, everywhere we find a dwarf, 

 close-cropped vegetation — dense tufts covered with more or less 

 brilliant flowers. 



I believe that this vegetation can be acclimatized and repro- 

 duce itself better in some parts of the American coast line than in 

 Swiss gardens, — wherever sea-air and moisture prevail. Such 

 conditions suit this kind of vegetation better than the drier and 

 more continental climate of Switzerland. On the other hand the 

 absence of snow in certain sections is a cause of weakness in 

 plants accustomed to being snow-covered for a greater or lesser 

 portion of the year. In the northeast sections near the coast and 

 in the northwest where the atmosphere is wet and the air damp, 

 our Alpines should find congenial quarters. In the central states 

 the climate is as bad for them as ours. At the same time, 



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