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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
THE 
GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 
OF AMERICA. 
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MARTIN C. EBEL, Editor. 
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Vol. XXI 
July, 1917 
No. 7 
ALPINES WITHOUT A ROCK GARDEN 
/^ I\'EN a fondness for Alpine plants I know of only 
two good reasons for not having a rock garden — 
lack of space, and the initial expense. But lack of space 
is not, after all, a very good reason, for it is possible to 
have a practical and a perfectly charming rock garden, 
exactly one foot square, and to grow upon it a surprising 
number of the loveliest and the best Alpine plants. I 
have done it. A garden of well-laid rocks and suitable 
soils is undoubtedly the best jiossible setting one can have 
for Alpine plants, but, if tliese are not available, that is no 
reason for not growing Alpine plants. The late Canon 
Ellacombe's rock garden proper was a comparatively 
small affair, yet he grew Alpine plants successfully, and 
always charmingly, in almost every part of his garden. 
They were grown as unconventional edgings to the bor- 
ders, and one came upon them in all sorts of unexpected, 
odd corners. An excellent e.xample of rock plants grown 
without a rock garden is to be seen at Aldenham House. 
Here, low, simple edgings of small pieces of rock, well 
sunk in the soil, have been laid as edgings to handsome 
herbaceous borders on either side of a central path in the 
kitchen garden. These rock edgings are little more than 
a couple of feet wide, and they are planted with many 
kinds of showy and low-growing rock plants. Saxifrages, 
both silver and mossy, Alpine Phloxes, .Aubrietias, sil- 
very Achilleas, Alyssums. Rock Roses, A'eronicas, Gen- 
tians, .\renarias. Thrift, and many others. Rock plants 
are too seldom used in this way, yet there is endless scope 
for ingenuity in grouping the jilants. The arrangement 
of the stone should be quite sim])le — the simpler the bet- 
ter; or one can do without it altogether. In grouping the 
plants it is a very good plan to run certain sorts into each 
other, so that they mix and |)ut up a good fight for exist- 
ence. A single plant of .-Xrenaria montana placed among 
several plants of Lithospermum prostratum, for instance, 
makes a lovely show of pure white and vivid blue. Dwarf 
Campanulas, like the varieties of C. pusilla, alba, Mis& 
W'illmott and pallida, are far prettier if planted in mixed 
colonies than when carefully shepherded, and the outliers 
of such a mixed colony might run into and mingle with 
some of the dwarf-habited Pinks such as Dianthus caesius 
(the Cheddar Pink) and varieties of D. plumarius. A 
splendid mi.xture which I came across as a self-arranged 
accident, and duly noted, was a special deep rich purple 
form of Campanula unifolia which I collected at Mt. 
Cenis, growing with the ruby-red Dianthus deltoides su- 
perbus. To avoid bare spaces in winter, the lighter grow- 
ing deciduous ]:)lants, such as the small Campanulas, may 
be planted among evergreen tufted plants like Saxifrages, 
Pinks, and Alpine Phlo.xes. Spangled patches of rose 
and lavender or lavender and white may be made by in- 
terplanting different varieties of Phlox subulata ; deep 
rose and violet with Phlox reptans and Viola gracilis, 
and for real barbaric daring mixture Aubrietia Dr. 
jMules and Aubrietias Fire King, Royal Purple and 
Magenta-Crimson. The scope for this sort of thing is 
endless, and experimenting is a great pleasure. Such 
an edging as that at Aldenham is surely a better fore- 
ground to a herbaceous border, and much more inter- 
esting, than either Box or a mown turf verge. The ef- 
fect of a well-kept grass edging is certainly pleasing, but 
from the practical point of view the difficulty is that di- 
rectly the foremost plants begin to stretch out and en- 
joy themselves they get mutilated by the mowing ma- 
chine. The labor of keeping grass verges in good con- 
dition is an item that must be taken into consideration. 
Then, of course, any old wall can be made a joyous 
home for Alpine plants. Seeds may be sown, and young 
plants tucked into crevices. Many good things will grow 
and thrive without any special attention. Ramondia py- 
renaica is a plant which is usually treated with a good 
deal of respect, and for which special, cool, perpendicular 
crevices are constructed in the rock garden. But some 
of the finest and healthiest plants I have seen in cultiva- 
tion are growing without any fuss at all on a ledge of a 
mossy terrace wall overhanging a pond. The aspect is 
north or north-east. It is pleasant to lean over from the 
terrace and see this thriving, increasing colony, especially 
in May, when it is covered with large violet, moon-faced 
flowers. 
I have said that it is not necessary to have a rock gar- 
den in order to grow Aljiine ]:)lants. I will go further, 
and assert that it is not even necessary to have a garden 
at all to grow them. You can grow them on other 
people's roadside garden walls. All you need do is to 
scatter the seeds of Alpine and rock plants in the rotten 
mortar and crevices on the top of the wall as you pass, 
though I warn you that someone is almost sure to come 
along the road just when you are going to throw the 
seed up. You will then shrink guiltily from the perfectly 
innocent deed — and sow another time. I enjoy several 
colonies of wall plants in this way, at other people's ex- 
pense. But, of course, there are failures. I had a lovely 
Cheddar Pink and several Wallflowers doing spendidly 
on a certain old lady's garden wall. She discovered 
them, had them destroyed, and the wall pointed. For- 
tunately, the man who did the work was a bad workman 
and used bad mortar. The Cheddar Pink had only been 
cut off" at the neck. Its roots had quested deep among the 
old bricks, and the stock actually sprouted and pushed 
aside the ill-set pointing mortar, with the result that it 
is alive and flourishing to this day. — Clarence Elliott, in 
Gardeners' Chronicle (English). 
