Alpine Gardens 
T O MANY, the idea of a Rock Garden seems to be an exposition 
of stone. The real object of a Rock Garden is to enable one to 
grow in their own gardens the natives of the high mountains, 
where snows are deep and summers very short. To be sure, all plants 
grown in the rockery are not natives of the Alpine regions; but the 
great majority are, and while the beginner is apt to feel that this is a 
most difficult branch of gardening, it is only necessary to begin with 
the many easy subjects to find it not only comparatively simple but 
immensely fascinating as well, and a branch that opens up entirely 
new delights in gardening. 
An Alpine garden should be an artistic expression of rock forma¬ 
tion, conveying the idea of a drift or out-cropping of strata rock. Not 
uniform or regular but rather bold and so placed as to form a har¬ 
monious picture from all approaches. 
The framing of this picture, or the background, should express the 
note of irregularity by varying heights, groupings and staging of trees 
and shrubs so they will co-ordinate with the feeling conveyed by the 
middle-ground. 
The fore-ground, or detail, expressed in the vivid colors and asso¬ 
ciation of dwarf conifers and shrubs, should be carefully considered. 
Harmony is attained when colors nearly related lead on from one to 
another, or are grouped together. But even contrasts become har¬ 
monious when they are perfectly true. 
It is obvious, therefore, that the designer must know his subjects 
thoroughly; their time of bloom, color, type of foliage and form. Form 
and light should be the governing thought throughout the entire garden. 
It is the popular belief that the building of an Alpine Garden is 
the easiest form of Landscape work; whereas, it is decidedly the most 
difficult. 
It may be of assistance if we give a few suggestions as to the con¬ 
struction of a Rock Garden. First of all, the drainage must be perfect, 
for no Alpine Plant will survive a stagnant condition of the soil. If 
underground moisture can be supplied by means of minutely perforated 
pipe, so much the better. This is to supply, in a small way, the melt- 
