44 
House & 
Garden 
ROCK GARDENING in the NORTHWEST 
The Alpine Gardens of Portland, Oregon, where Climate and Surroundings Are Admirably 
Adapted to the Success of these Miniature Mountain Plantings 
T. H. and DREW SHERRARD 
Covering the bank at the left of this alpine gardeti is a 
close-clinging mat of Thymus lanuginosus 
O UT here in Portland, Oregon, wc. 
have a city of roses. The llowers 
are everywhere, for it is an unusual 
Portlander wdio is so dead to civic 
pride as not to plant his hedge of 
Caroline Testout or curtain his porch 
with fragrant climbers. But it is 
probably not so well known that Port¬ 
land is ideally suited to the culture 
of all types of hardy garden flowers, 
and notably of rock and alpine plants. 
I’his latter class of gardening is 
comparatively new' here, and the num¬ 
ber of its devotees far less than that 
of the rose-growing multitudes, but 
its popularity is increasing. There 
are several good reasons for this. 
In the first place, there are a charm 
and a beauty about alpines that are 
quite their owm and give them a unique 
appeal for the garden lover. Then 
the climate of Portland, abundantly 
moist and lacking the scorching sum¬ 
mer of the Eastern 
and Middle-Western 
States, is favorable 
to their growth. As 
far as the gardener 
is concerned, the cli¬ 
mate approximates 
that of the south of 
England, so that the 
fascinating array of 
English garden 
books can be used as 
a guide for the ama¬ 
teur with little or no 
variation. 
Natural Situations 
{Above) Even the 
vegetable gardejt of¬ 
fers opportunity for 
attractive ornamental 
rockwork 
(Right) At the foot 
of a rockery one often 
sees the velvety leaves 
and large blossoms of 
primroses 
Also, rock and 
wall gardens fill a 
definite need in 
Portland. A large 
percentage of its 
homes are built on 
hillsides or in sec¬ 
tions where street 
grading has left the 
building sites at 
some height alcove 
the street level. In many cases a steep 
turf bank finishes the lawm; in others 
retaining walls are found necessary, 
and, of course, quite a number of 
people, having an attractive dry W'all, 
or rock-studded bank, will commit 
the horticultural crime of draping it 
with those stringy abominations. 
Vinca minor and Evonymiis radicans. 
It w'ould be an excellent thing if 
every owmer of such a lot might read 
Mr. A. Glutton-Brock’s excellent 
chapter on the treatment of steep 
banks in his “Studies in Gardening.” 
It may be assumed that many of them 
have, or have successfully thought 
out the problems themselves, for nu¬ 
merous examples of tasteful treat¬ 
ment of such banks may be found. In 
many of these, neatness and a certain 
amount of beauty have been achieved 
by a thick clipped ground cover of 
English ivy, planted either on the 
bare slope or among retaining stones. 
Sometimes a wall of brick, stone or 
cement is used, which may or may 
not be covered with ivy or Ampelop- 
sis Veitchii, but w'hich is almost in¬ 
evitably surmounted by that hand¬ 
some but overworked shrub, Coton- 
easter horizontalis. 
But by far the prettiest effects on 
these banks are obtained by a com¬ 
bination of rocks w'ith rock plants 
and low shrubs. Such wxills are 
found here and there all over Port¬ 
land and ought to be more numerous 
than they are, for in addition to the 
bright picture they present in the 
gray days of early spring, the rock 
plants clothe and beautify the stone 
with their compact tufts and close- 
clinging blankets of foliage during 
the rest of the year. 
Building the Wall 
The building of 
such a wall is a task 
for the rock gar¬ 
dener rather than 
the stone-mason, for 
the plants do better 
if planted during 
the work of con¬ 
struction. Where 
this is impossible, 
ample spaces be- 
tw'een rocks should 
be provided for their 
later accommoda¬ 
tion, and all spaces 
well filled with good 
soil. An excellent 
material for this 
rockw'ork is at hand 
in the dark brown 
Irasalt of w'hich the 
heights about Port¬ 
land and along the 
Willamette River 
are largely made up. 
The favorites for these w'all plant¬ 
ings seem to be white rockcress {Ara- 
bis albida), basket-of-gold {Alyssuni 
saxatile compactiim), and the purple 
rockcress {Aubrietia deltoides). Per¬ 
ennial candytuft {Iberis sempervi- 
rens) is another most satisfactory 
plant, and no wall garden ought to 
be considered complete without rock 
pinks, with their abundant masses of 
spicy bloom in May and June, and 
dear little gray-green tufts in winter. 
The sea-pink or thrift {Armeria 
maritima) is a neat little plant much 
in favor for edging walks and borders, 
as well as for wall planting. Snow- 
in-summer {Cerastium tomentosum) 
is seen in every rockery, its silvery 
gray foliage combining well with 
{Continued on page 58) 
(Above) A western 
rock garden on a 
ridge, planted and de¬ 
veloped along artistic 
natural lines 
(Below) Dorothy 
Perkins roses every IS 
feet, with ivy and 
ferns between, cover 
this shady wall 
