THE CULTIVATION OF ALPINE PLANTS. 



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better be omitted from the rockery, though in stiff and cold soils 

 they will not thrive in the mixed border. Whatever is grown, 

 the small and delicate gems of the collection must run no danger 

 of being smothered by overwhelming neighbours, and this 

 requires both careful arrangement and constant watching. When 

 first I began to cultivate alpines, I planted somewhat indis- 

 criminately together things which I thought would make an orna- 

 mental combination, but the weaker soon became overwhelmed 

 in the fight with the stronger, and there was nothing to be done 

 but to build a new rockery and plant it more carefully. In this 

 way I have now constructed at least a dozen rockeries, trying 

 each time to benefit by past experiences and to exclude weedy 

 plants. The first and second made still continue, and are still 

 flowery wildernesses in spring, but everything choice and delicate 

 upon them has either long ago perished or been transferred to 

 new quarters. But visitors to my garden in spring who are not 

 connoisseurs in alpines think these wild rockeries far more orna- 

 mental than the half bare stone-heaps where my choicest plants 

 are grown, and which they think will look very nice in a year or 

 two when they are as well covered as the others. I have men- 

 tioned this to show that those who can appreciate the beauty of 

 the smaller and more delicate alpines, and grow them for their 

 own sake, must be contented to see their favourites surrounded in 

 many instances by bare stones ; but the stones, especially if they 

 contain cracks, may often be clothed with plants without any 

 danger of overcrowding. I have said little about choice of stone 

 for rockeries, though I have tried many kinds, and of all I 

 have tried I prefer the carboniferous limestone, common in North 

 Wales, Derbyshire, and the North of Lancashire. The loose 

 blocks of this which lie about the land are full of cracks, and are 

 varied in shape. I carefully avoid the furrowed and smooth- 

 channelled surface slabs of this stone often sold in London for 

 rockwork, but most unsuitable for growing plants ; I do not speak 

 of these, but detached solid blocks, abounding in deep cracks and 

 crevices. These crevices are the very place for some of the 

 choicest alpines. Paronychia shows its true character in no other 

 spot. Potentilla nitida flowers when fixed in them, and there 

 only. They are excellent for Bhyteuma comosum. The Spider- 

 web Houseleeks delight in them, and so do some of the smaller 

 Saxifrages. These are only a few of a long list I might make, 



