January, 1919 
9 
The Glad Philosopher’s 
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At a certain period in every man’s 
life he undergoes a change in his na- 
ture ; he begins to realize that he has 
an innate craving for better things; 
paradoxically expressed, he sobers up 
and settles down and emerges into a 
more sensible existence ; he now turns 
from the follies and foibles of life, and 
devotes the attention of his mind to 
things that are worth while; the mys- 
teries of nature begin to attract and 
interest him as they never did before, 
and he has a craving to know her in- 
most secrets. This craving of nature 
sometimes has a tendency to lure him 
to the soil ; he sees new beauty in the 
flowers, and there comes a longing in 
his heart to grow them for their com- 
panionship, and for the enjoyment they 
may give to others. He has become a 
gardener and, likewise, a benefactor. 
Shakespeare missed his opportunity 
when compiling his immortal “ seven 
ages,” by not recognizing that epoch 
in every man’s existence when he turns 
from trivial things and begins this new 
experience. “ And then the gardener ” 
might have fittingly begun another 
clause in that celebrated rhetorical 
masterpiece. 
Doubtless, Shakespeare’s omission of 
complimentary allusion to that time in 
man’s life when he turns his mind to 
sober thoughts, was because in his day 
more than in our own, men did not 
abandon frivolity until their lives were 
well spent. The gravedigger, in Ham- 
let, whose grammar is more faulty 
than his observation, muses : “ There 
is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners 
* * * they hold up Adam’s profession.” 
It is therefore probable that gardeners 
in Shakespeare’s time shuffled their 
way across life’s stage as “lean and 
slippered pantaloons,” whose “ manly 
voices had turned again to childish 
treble.” 
As we reflect that Adam was in truth 
the first gardener, we are reminded 
that God placed him in a garden, called 
Eden, that his happiness might be com- 
plete, and only drove him from it as a 
punishment for his sin of disobedience, 
and to this day the name of that gar- 
den symbolizes the ultimate of human 
happiness. 
Those of us, who, lured bv the god- 
dess Flora, have been brought under 
the spell of the garden and imbued 
with its spirit, can better understand 
how great must have been the happi- 
ness of man before he sinned and how 
severe the punishment of his paradise 
lost. 
The Glad Philosopher rejoices that 
he lives in a time when floriculture is 
neither considered effeminate nor ad- 
judged to be only fit occupation for the 
aged. Capable of returning such meas- 
ure of reward in healthful enjoyment, 
gardening appeals as most appropriate 
Slower (Brower 
for our life’s best years, and when 
earnestly adopted either as a vocation 
or a hobby, proves to be the very best 
means of deferring old age with its at- 
tendant senility — pathetic denouement ! 
— that “ last scene of all ” that ends 
man’s strange eventful history. 
The Glad Philosopher. 
Rock Gardens. 
[From Minnesota Horticulturist.] 
England probably has the most wonderful 
rock gardens, for the people have utilized 
their naturally stony ground to the fullest 
extent and have some gorgeous effects as a 
result. Our own New England, with its 
boulders and rocks of all kinds, has for years 
been trying, at great expense, to blast and 
break and dig them out and to make in their 
place formal lawns, when the natural beauty 
of the surroundings could so easily have been 
maintained by the informal planting of their 
rocky ground. They too have found this 
out and are producing some beautiful rock 
gardens. Most of us have some spot that 
simply will not conform to our idea of beauty, 
and perhaps a rock garden there might solve 
the vexing problem. 
Of course the most desirable rock gardens 
are the natural ones. I have in mind two 
spots in neighboring places where I long to 
make such a garden. One is a little cove 
with huge rocks deeply imbedded in a tiny 
spring, with a group of three immense trees 
at the head, a most ideal place for a rock 
garden. The other is a fascinating little 
stream flowing in a winding manner through 
a broad expanse of meadow land. An un- 
even rocky border would wonderfully trans- 
form the spot. 
Beautiful artificial rock gardens can be 
made with very little trouble or expense by 
selecting rough field stones, the flatter the 
better, and sinking one-third of the rock in 
the ground to insure a firm foundation. The 
spot should be slightly sloping, not too shady 
and without hollows, as Alpines cannot stand 
stagnant moisture. Leave the cracks and 
crevices for the Alpines to grow deep in and 
for the moss to creep in. 
Do not let your garden begin nor end too 
abruptly ; lead up gradually to it by the use 
of odd shaped rocks, as an approach to the 
garden proper. The simplest rule is to fol- 
low nature as much as possible. 
There are many styles of rock gardens to 
follow, but the conditions on your place 
must guide your selection. A pleasing form 
is the wall garden, used wherever a bank or 
retaining wall is needed. No mortar is used 
as that hinders the very effect desired, that 
of the flowers growing in and out of the 
fissures and cracks. In laying each stone 
keep a backward, downward slope for drain- 
age. A hollow tile may be inserted to form 
a little waterfall. 
Another style of rock garden is the border 
garden. This is the foreground for a formal 
or informal border and should be one-sixth 
the width of the border itself. Thus, if you 
have a twelve-foot border planned, use two 
feet of it for a rock border. Lay the stones 
very irregularly and plant with flowers of 
varying heights, to keep the irregularity. A 
charming effect can be made where one has 
a terrace, by making uneven steps, wide 
enough for use as such, and planted with 
low growing Alpines, vines and moss. 
Rock gardens may also surround water 
gardens and bog gardens, by the use of flat 
rocks as an irregular outline, rather than 
the straight cement edges more often used. 
Pathways may be made into rock gardens 
by using broken pieces of cement sidewalks 
or very flat rocks sunk in the ground in a 
very hit or miss pattern and planted with 
low growing Alpines. 
There are two kinds of rock garden plants, 
Alpines and rock plants. Alpines, as the 
name implies, grow in the Alps, while rock 
plants include Alpines and also plants from 
all parts of the temperate zones which are 
suitable for rock gardens. The literature 
on this subject groups all rock loving plants 
as Alpines, since many of the real Alpines 
grow in our own woods and on the moun- 
tains of our own country. 
Perennials and self-sowing annuals are 
used in planting rock gardens. Avoid any- 
thing that gives the effect of excessive work 
or expense. 
Small evergreen trees, shrubs and vines, 
as well as moss, give the effect of age, which 
is so desirable in rock gardens. Pitch pine 
trees, daphne cneorum, or garland flower, 
Virginia creeper, bittersweet, wild clematis, 
Kenilworth ivy and wall pepper are most 
suitable for this purpose. 
For rocky woodland use dog tooth violets 
and all other varieties of violets, hypatica, 
maiden hair ferns, spring beauty, bloodroots, 
bluebells and wild crane’s bill. 
For rocks exposed to full sunshine use 
dwarf irises, columbines, allyssum, saxifraga 
and sedums. For tall Alpines use colum- 
bines, St. Bernard’s lily, bush clematis, bee 
larkspur, foxglove and saxifraga. 
The dwarf Alpines offer the following 
varieties : hypatica, wood anemone, snow- 
drop, windflower, gentian, harebells, Alpine 
asters, forgetmenots, Iceland poppies and 
lily of the valley. 
Hardy perennials usually classed as Al- 
pines but suitable for rock gardens offer 
the following choice : phloxes, especially the 
creeping Phlox, Shasta daisy, Spireas of all 
kinds, primroses, stone crop, or sedums, 
portulaca and rock cress. Alyssums are 
very popular, as are the dainty gypsophila 
and the little scilla bifolia, which often peeps 
through the snow to remind us of the ap- 
proach of the longed for spring. 
There are many more, but time will not 
permit mentioning them. With such a wide 
range to choose from one can have a charm- 
ing garden with as little or as much ex- 
pense as desired and, having once planted 
it, just keep it free from weeds, and it will 
be a “thing of beauty and a joy forever.” 
There is a delightful zest in trying new 
things, or, since there is no new thing under 
the sun, in trying new ways of doing old 
things, so I prophesy a run on rock gardens 
this year. Here’s success to them ! 
The Common Sunflower. 
Fashions in Flowers, as in other things, 
seem to change, and so some old-time favor- 
ites, common to the gardens of our grand- 
mothers, are no longer in vogue. 
One of the plants that has been “ pushed 
back” is the old fashioned Sunflower. But 
really, nothing could have been more fortu- 
nate, for in no other position does the tall 
growing Sunflower show to greater advan- 
tage than in the back-ground, or planted 
among shrubbery. Here its bright golden 
flowers, that appear coarse and gaudy at 
close range, gleam and glow like disks of 
burnished gold, and possess a charm that is 
all their own. If the flowers are gathered 
before they become too large, their bright 
color and lasting qualities make them quite 
desirable for decorative purposes. It is sur- 
prising how a bouquet of these gay flowers 
will brighten a dim hallway or a dark cor- 
ner.— Bertha Berbert Hammond in Park’s 
Floral Magazine. 
We have heard more boasting about 
quality of Gladiolus corms grown dur- 
ing the past year than common, and it 
would seem that the quality is much 
above the average. This may be 
owing to weather conditions or to 
more scientific culture. 
