The “Alpine” House— A New Idea for Americans 
By John Avenel, wt 
THE IDEAL KIND OF GREENHOUSE REQUIRING ALMOST NO HEAT AND VERY LITTLE ATTENTION 
The alpine house is a new idea for American gardens, but will surely become popular as its attractions are realized 
T O GET right down to our subject, 
an alpine house is a small green- 
house wherein little hardy mount- 
ain plants are brought into bloom 
in the winter and spring. Such a house is 
usually even span shaped. There are not 
many alpine houses in any of our gardens — 
because the feature is still new. But for 
those who really love flowers, and par- 
ticularly the dwarf, beautiful, diversified 
and interesting little spring subjects, largely 
hailing from the Alps and other mountains 
of Europe, no addition to a garden is more 
to be commended. 
The points in favor of the alpine house 
are these: i. It costs little to erect, com- 
paratively speaking. 2. It need not be 
large — 20 feet by 9 feet, by 9 feet high to 
the ridge. 3. It need only have sufficient 
heating apparatus or piping to maintain 
a temperature of 45 degrees F. when the 
temperature out-of-doors is at zero. 4. 
Such a house can be utilized in summer for 
the cultivation of other flowers or summer 
flowering alpines, or such other crops as 
melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, 
peppers, which it is desired to have a little 
earlier than the outdoor crops can be got; 
or it can be used for the drying and harvest- 
ing of seed crops of garden flowers. An 
alpine house is very far from being a useless 
or merely ornamental adjunct. If the 
stages were made so as to be removable it 
could even be turned into a useful children’s 
playing den on rainy days in the summer. 
Of course one could devote part of the 
usual conservatory or greenhouse to some 
of the alpines, but that would be at the risk 
of injury to the plants, as such houses are 
usually kept at much higher temperature 
than would be suitable for, or agreeable to, 
the alpines. Therefore, give them a house 
to themselves, where on the gravel or 
cinder covered stages, the little pans filled 
with stonecrops, snowdrops, crocuses, hardy 
cyclamens can be seen and their beauty 
enjoyed, even while the snow may lie two 
feet deep out-of-doors or the exterior tem- 
perature is at zero. We have simply put 
a glass shelter over our floral pets and can 
have a rich selection of the most pleasing 
harbingers of spring from February to 
May. 
This presupposes a tender regard for 
hardy flowers, and of alpines in particular. 
In America it is a section for which we have 
yet to cultivate a taste. In Europe, and 
England especially, the rock garden, the 
wild garden, the wall garden, and 
latterly the moraine with its own special 
and typical flowers, have each a large 
following of admirers and students. For 
the owners are not merely content to plant 
and let the things take their chance: they 
study their idiosyncrasies, and a plant 
with a peculiarity, a like and a dislike, is 
all the more precious on that account. Oh, 
to have some one gem flourishing in one’s 
collection that baffles the skill of all one’s 
friends! That is a relish indeed, and a 
thing to pride oneself upon. Probably our 
climate prevents us from attempting to 
emulate the great and grand rock gardens 
of the ultra-enthusiastic across the Atlantic, 
yet I am persuaded that we have not at- 
tempted all we might. 
The plants for our alpine house ought to 
be in pots, or preferably pans. Bulbs 
occupy a leading position and among them 
may be mentioned the following: 
Muscari or grape hyacinths; dwarf nar- 
cissus, especially minor, minimus, Bulbo- 
codium, Johnstoni, Queen of Spain, 
cyclamineus, moschatus, triandrus albus 
var. Angel’s Tears; Galanthus Elwesii and 
Ikariae; Tulipa Kauffmanniana, retroflexa, 
and Gregii; Scilla bifolia, sibirica, and 
sibirica, var. alba; Iris reticulata, Bucharica 
and persica; Hyacinthus azureus; Milla 
uniflora; Puschkinia libanotica; Bulbo- 
codium vernum; Leucojum vernum. 
Other suitable plants are Draba verna; 
Alyssum saxatile; Dryas octopetala; Saxi- 
fraga Burseriana, Griesbachii, apiculata, 
oppositifolia; Iris chamaeiris; Corydalis 
Wilsoni; Primula denticulata, Cock- 
burniana, Forbesi; Androsace sarmentosa 
and Chumbyi; various aubrietias or colored 
rock cresses; Erinus alpinus; Helleborus 
or Christmas rose, and other species; Hous- 
tonia caerulea; various forget-me-nots; 
Trillium grandiflorum, the wood lily; 
Viola cornuta; the horned poppy; and 
Tunica saxifraga. 
It is so interesting in the dreary winter 
days or the cold of the early spring to study 
and compare the little differences of the 
species and varieties, and the joy of caring 
for them grows apace. As one lot passes 
out of flower fresh batches follow in suc- 
cession, while those that have passed for 
the season go back to the coldframes or 
under a sheltered north wall, in a cool (and 
in summer a somewhat moist) position. 
There they require the minimum of atten- 
tion until the autumn, when the collection 
is assembled indoors once again. 
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