ROCK, ALPINE, FERN, AND WILD GARDENING-. 



187 



be shunned. By leaving the lowest depths of the 

 Rootery unclothed with roots, greater height is 

 given to its raised portions. It is also needful to 

 have clear places, and he able to see the roots pro- 

 perly, with their furnishing verdure and beauty. 



Notwithstanding individual diversities of roots, it 

 is astonishing how prone groups of them, or num- 

 bers disposed in isolated units, are to become mere 

 similitudes of others. They need more skill than 

 stones do to mould them into diversity in the group- 

 ing or setting. Irregularity of numbers, size, and 

 distances apart will do much to give freshness and 

 variety to the different groups and blocks ; the sites 

 of the groups and position will do more. The best 

 of all means of avoiding uniformity consists in 

 changing the position of the root-tops and blocks. 

 The greatest cause of monotony in Rooteries, is the 

 almost universal practice of setting each piece up on 

 end, vertical with the earth, with the most ponderous 

 part undermost. This is in most cases the rule 

 throughout the Rootery, and that for several reasons 

 — to make the roots solid, afford easy facilities for 

 planting, and insure the plants deriving full benefit 

 from the rain. But the roots would gain in variety 

 and in picturesque beauty were they to lean in many 

 ways out of the perpendicular. By the system of 

 building them into the earth they would stand safely 

 enough in such forms, and the planting could be so 

 managed that the rains could find their way to the 

 roots. 



Free Outlets to Roots and Blocks. — Not 



a few failures have arisen from the placing of plants 

 and soil in impervious blocks. In all cases where 

 there is the slightest doubt about a free outflow from 

 the roots, one or more slits should be made, or large 

 augur-holes bored through them, to insure the free 

 and prompt discharge of water. Unless the base of 

 each plant-receptacle is specially rough and uneven, 

 or consists of a considerable deposit of partially 

 decomposed debris, some hard material should be 

 inserted as drainage, and to keep the outlet free 

 before the placing of the soil in the blocks. 



Sufficiency of Soil.— It is unwise in such 

 matters to trust much to the feeding properties of the 

 roots themselves. Timber, whether solid or rot- 

 ten, constitutes indifferent plant-food. The roots 

 are chiefly ornamental appendages, and in a very 

 secondary sense food-stores. Hence the importance 

 of filling up the interstices between them, and also 

 filling their vacuums with good soil. There is 

 nothing better for most of the subjects so likely 

 to be grown in the Rootery than a mixture of two 

 parts of sweet, light, turfy loam, and one of leaf- 

 mould or fibrous peat. This compost, with the debris 



that is likely to be added from decomposing wood, 

 and the additional matters acquired from the stems 

 and leaves of plants and trees, form a sound, 

 durable, and excellent pabulum for most plants. 

 If proper care was taken to dig, trench, clean, and 

 enrich the soil between the roots, as these were 

 grouped or set in position, the majority of the 

 stronger and more permanent climbers, and many 

 other plants, may be placed in the earth. This sets 

 the blocks and roots free for other forms of vegetation. 

 The blocks can thus be furnished with any compost 

 that may seem most desirable ; and such plants as 

 hardy Daphnes, Heaths, Azaleas, Kalmias, Rhodo- 

 dendrons, or other peat-loving subjects, grown in the 

 roots. The rare facility for isolating each block, and 

 furnishing it with special soils, reserved for special 

 plants, is one of the substantial advantages of this 

 simple method of culture. 



Best Sorts of Materials. — Medium sizes on the 

 whole are best, though a few monsters are valuable 

 as starers, and small blocks, especially if very irre- 

 gular, are always valuable for filling up, and the en- 

 richment of telling parts. Again, though the roots of 

 trees have given their name to this style of decora- 

 tion, the tops of pollards often furnish the best and 

 the bulkiest of the material employed. The weird, 

 gnarled, curiously-knotted trunks between the two 

 also form charming material when time and decay 

 have eaten out their hearts. All the Eir tribe may be 

 dismissed as unsuitable. The resin and turpentine in 

 these render them ungenial and unsuitable for the 

 growth of most plants. Beyond these there need be 

 no exceptions, though, possibly, the best of all trees 

 for forming Rooteries are Sycamores, Maples, Planes, 

 Limes, Elms, Oak, Ash, in the order of merit as here 

 placed. Pollarded trees of course provide the best 

 material, and, fortunately, those most suitable for the 

 Rootery are of little or no use for anything else. 

 Those too far gone, or too difficult to manipulate for 

 firewood, are exactly those that have been mellowed 

 into the greatest fitness for the furnishing of 

 Rooteries. 



Site of the Rootery. — All that has *oeen said 

 about the site of the Rockery (see Vol. II.) is equally 

 apropos to the Rootery. They should never, how- 

 ever, be mixed nor contiguous, so as to be within 

 sight of one another. In large gardens there is 

 room enough, and to spare, for both ; in smaller 

 ones either alone would suffice. Where expense 

 is little or no object, and especially where stones 

 abound, and other physical characteristics of the 

 country reveal its stony base, then a Rockery should 

 be made. In level countries, such as the groups 

 that go under the general title of East Anglia, where 



