AMERICAN 

 HOMES AND GARDENS 



Velum. VII April, 1910 



Rock Gardens 



By Charles Downing Lay. 



OCK gardens are more common and better 

 in England than in America, or seem to 

 be, if one can judge by the many excellent 

 photographs in English books and period- 

 icals. It may be because all gardening is 

 easier in that moist climate, but chiefly, I 

 think, because English people care more 

 for gardening than we, who 'io\-e flowers," though not 

 enough to spend much time or thought in growing them. 



The delight in gardening is a different and more serious 

 and active passion than the love of flowers, and the 

 last and highest expression of this delight is perhaps rock 

 gardening, which demands all one's skill and knowledge, 

 besides much patience and taste. It is more continually 



absorbing than the growing of roses, for instance, because 

 the season is much longer, and the triumphs greater and 

 less often attained. 



Anyone with some intelligence and much persistency can 

 grow roses, but it takes much more than that, something 

 akin to genius, to grow the rare plants of a rock garden. 



Cabbages and roses are similar horticultural triumphs, 

 and in perfection, appeal to like natures, though in different 

 strata of society! 



Rock gardening, on the other hand, appeals to a smaller 

 number of people, who are more sensitive to the delicate 

 charm of uncommon flowers. It is intimate and personal; 

 it must be done by hand, so to speak, and the labor is light, 

 though the time actually given to it may be considerable. 



Lawn of the Rock Garden at Wellsmere. 



