FOREWORD 
ocky Mountain plants fall into two main groups: The 
first comprises Alpines, plants found near timberline and 
on up to the tops of the highest peaks. 
About 12,000 ft. high on Pikes Peak are huge red granite 
boulders softened with silver-green lichen, their perpendicular 
crevices filled with complete and utterly satisfying gardens of Boy- 
kinia jamesii. At the base of these parent boulders are smaller 
rocks, tons of them broken loose, among which are ravishing 
alpine gardens: Mertensia coriaceae with bluest blue bells chiming 
a full peal, Saxifraga chrysantha like delicate fairy buttercups, and 
that tantalizing untamable beauty, Eritrichium argenteum. 
These grow in a coarse chip-rock of disintegrated granite con¬ 
taining varying amounts of peat. They hibernate under a thick 
blanket of snow, which as it melts provides an underflow of water 
at the toes of the plants below. Thus the air and ground about them 
is always cool. The greatest success in growing alpines in hot 
regions at sea level has been achieved by providing as nearly as 
possible these conditions. A make-believe moraine or scree with 
water piped or tiled underneath and a dappled shade to break the 
direct rays of the sun will work wonders; this for the more difficult 
ones. Then there’s a number of both alpines and subalpines, obliging 
creatures, that grow anywhere the soil is poor and porous, e. g., 
Pentstemons, Artemisias, Antennarias. 
The second group comprises plants from the high dry plains 
5,000 to 7,000 ft. elevation, where conditions are quite different from 
those in alpine regions. 
Perhaps the only two conditions common to both groups are: 
(1) thorough drainage; (2) dryness after blooming. These plains 
are extremely dry except for occasional torrential rains in spring 
and midsummer. Winter is sunny with dry winds. Zero temperatures 
without the protection of snow is the usual lot of these plants. 
Typical of this group are Melampodium cinereum, many of the 
Pentstemons, Townsendias, Yuccas, Galpinsia and, of course the 
hardy cacti. 
Directions and suggestions for growing new or little-known 
plants are rather futile. A condition moist for Colorado is usually 
dry for England; good garden soil may mean an infinity of things. 
Therefore a description of their habitat and its conditions will serve 
probably better than definite instructions. 
In Colorado one finds within a radius of a hundred miles almost 
all the variations in climate and vegetation to be found between the 
tropics and the Arctic Circle. From hot dry plains to higher mesas 
and on up to arctic conditions on highest mountain peaks—14,000 
to 15,000 ft. elevation. Obviously it won’t do to try to grow plants 
from all of these zones under the same conditions. 
In the following list I have indicated the conditions in which 
plants are found, or under which they grow well in our nursery 
where there’s sunshine 360 days a year, zero temperatures without 
snow followed by balmy days—a severe test for plants. Here we 
cover the alpine garden with conifer branches during winter as a 
substitute for snow, and with a lath shade in summer. Those plants 
listed without such indications are tolerant of widely varying insults 
in their treatment. 
