4 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



did to the gems of art wliich. they well-nigh extin- 

 guished by their enormous weight and gaudy glitter 

 of golden gilding. No more rock than is needful 

 for the setting, and our Alpineries and ferneries 

 would become gems of art, sensibly adding by their 

 verdure, brilliance, and grandem- to the artistic 

 enrichments of the garden, instead of, as now, so 

 often being the one impleasant blot that mars its 

 Avhole character, and drags it down to the low level 

 of sheer vulgarity. 



The Soil for Rock Plants. — Be its quality 



what it may, its depth is of more importance than, 

 its width, the roots of many Alpines boring more 



In Fig. 1 the plant is considerably overh.nng' by the rocks, and is dwarfed in size in consequence. But by 

 placing the plant slightly in advance of the" rock, these evils are less apparent than if the plant had been 

 placed directlj- against its base. In Fig. 2 the iipstandiug rock is placed almost vertically, and the plant 

 grows the better on that account. Fig. 3 shows the rock tilted over away from the plant. 



the former dominate or dwarf the latter. The 

 highest art in this form of garden architectm^e or 

 landscape — for it is both — is so to introduce and 

 dispose of the rock as to imj)rove the setting, 

 enhance the beauty, or add to the ^dgour or robust- 

 ness of the plants. The plants are nature's jewels ; 

 the rocks — at least the artificial ones — are the setting- 

 used to throw them up or out to higher pm^pose or 

 vantage. 



Starting and holding on with %-ice-like tenacity to 

 this general principle would revolutionise many, and 

 improve nearly all, of the artificial rockeries in the 

 kingdom. And there would be this tangible benefit, 

 that whatever else failed, the plants would thrive 



and be in health. It is not given to every one- 

 only, in fact, to very few — to observe and appropriate 

 to artificial uses nature's tit-bits of rockscape ; but 

 almost any one who starts on the firm, safe ground 

 that every plant must have good soil and plenty 

 of water to grow it to perfection, is on the high 

 road to cultural success. So vitally important 

 is the latter, and such horrid abortions are many 

 rockeries, that one is ready to exclaim, " Perish the 

 rocks, if the plants will only live, thrive, and 

 flower 1 " Some of them will do far better without 

 rocks than with, on, or among them; and some of 

 the most effective banks, mounds, borders, and beds 

 of Ali^ine plants have been wholly rockiess. 



But this is written not to discourage rockeries, 

 but to give emphasis to the advice to consider the 

 plants first and last. If this is always done, rocks 

 may be introduced among them with less injury, 

 and probably to the improvement of the general 

 effect. But so many rockeries bear the same rela- 

 tion to the plants, ferns, &c., with which they 

 are facetiously said to be clothed, as the enormously 

 heavy and monstrously gilded frames, once so common. 



than spreading. A yard deep should be looked 

 upon as the minimum needed to grow these 

 to anything like perfection ; the deeper, in fact, 

 the better. Even the quality of the soil is of 

 less moment than its depth, for its fimction in 

 not a few cases is more of a water-holder than a 

 plant-feeder. This holds out good prospects of 

 success to those who would try water-culture for 

 Alpines. Hence, too, almost any soil that can be 

 kept moist without becoming sour may be used for 

 them. In a state of nature, the earth they grow in 

 is very much mixed. The debris of rocks and decom- 

 posed grasses, mosses, leaves, stems, with particles of 

 soil or silica, these form the natm^al compost for 

 Alpines ; and the nearer this mixtm-e can be imitated 

 by artificial means the better. The nearest practical 

 approach to this natm-al mixture is sandy loam, with 

 a third of leaf-mould and a liberal addition of 

 smashed sandstone or other stone. A few prefer 

 peat, but these are comparatively few. ^Tiere leaf- 

 mordd is not obtainable, peat may be substituted for 

 it. Some cultivators even recommend a slight addi- 

 tion of thoroughly decomposed manure, but this is 



