THE STORY OP
MY ROCK GARDEN

UC-NRLF

LD A, MALBY

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

DAVIS

GIFT OF

MISS HELEN R. BLASDALE

THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

First £JitioHt May,
Rtv'ued Edition, October, 19 u,
Third Edition, April, 1913.
Fourth Edition, May, 1919.

RAMONDIA PYRBNAICA.

THE STORY OF

MY ROCK GARDEN

BY

REGINALD A. MALBY, F.R.P.S., F.R.H.S.

WITH INTRODUCTION BY

W. IRVING, OF KEW GARDENS

ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS
AfrD COLOUR PLATES BT THE AUTHOR

Fourth Edition

LONDON

HEADLEY BROS. PUBLISHERS, LTD.

72, OXFORD STREET, W.i.

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DAVIS

DEDICATED
TO

MY FATHER

TO WHOSE CAREFUL TRAINING AND

APPRECIATION OF THOROUGHNESS

ANY SUCCESS I MAY HAVE

ATTAINED IS DUE

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION - 9

I. — MY GARDEN AND ITS ENVIRONMENT - 13

II. — PLANNING AND BUILDING 20

III. — THE MORAINE 37

IV.— PLANTING THE GARDEN 49

V. — PROPAGATING 63
VI. — SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING AND

THE USE OF DWARF TREES - 76
VII. — A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN AND ITS

INHABITANTS THE YEAR THROUGH 9!

ITIII. — RETROSPECT - Il6
APPENDIX.— LIST OF PLANTS FOR

SPECIAL POSITIONS - - 120

INDEX 130

ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOUR PLATES

PAGE

RAMONDIA PY REN A 1C A .... Frontispiece

ANDROSACE CHUMBYI 72

CROCUS VERSI COLOR §8

X

CAMPANULA ALLIONII 40

SAXIFRAGA HOSTII AND SEDUM TURKESTANICUM

UNDER HOAR- FROST 16

THE EDGE OF THE PATH 17

EDRAIANTHUS SERPYLLIFOLIUS .... 17

SEMPERVIVUM ARACHNOIDEUM, v. LAGGERI - - 24

GLASS PROTECTION AGAINST WIND AND RAIN - - 24

THE POOL IN WINTER - - > » ... 25

TROLLIUS IN THE BOG GARDEN 25

PRIMULA FARINOSA 32

PRIMULA DENTICULATA, SHOWING RAPID GROWTH 33

DRABA DEDEANA ON THE MORAINE .... 36

THE MORAINE 37

SILENE ACAULIS ON THE MORAINE - 44

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

ERITRICHIUM NANUM ON THE MORAINE ... 45

Dl A NTH US NEGLECTUS 48

ARMENIA PLANTAGINEA WITH TAP ROOT EXPOSED- 49

AURICULA, SHOWING NATURE OF ROOTS ... 49

ARTEMISIA VALLESIACA 56

CAMPANULA GARGANICA 57

ARENARIA MONTANA 64

SAXIFRAGA GRIESEBACHII 65

SAX I FRAG A BURSERIANA 68

SAXIFRAGA C&SPITOSA, SHOWING GROWTH . - 69
JUNIPERUS CHINENSIS BEFORE AND AFTER TREAT-
MENT 76

A CORNER OF MY ROCK GARDEN IN JUNE - - 77

NARCISSUS BULBOCODIUM, VAR. MONOPHYLLUS - 96

CYCLAMEN NEAPOLITANUM, VAR. ALBUM - - 97

COLCHICUM SPECIOSUM 112

HOAR-FROST AND MIST IN THE GARDEN - - • 113

INTRODUCTION

DURING the last quarter of a century Alpine Gardens
have increased in number to a great extent, and the
cultivation of Alpine and herbaceous plants has received
much more attention than before. This is probably
due to the many attractive features in connection
therewith, both in the style of gardening and in the
plants themselves.

In this little book on the construction and the
inhabitants of his Alpine garden the author gives a
vivid idea of the use to which even a small garden may
be put. He shows how in the space of a few square
yards it is possible and easy to build, with any available
stone, or other material, an attractive rockery, and on
this to grow a large number of interesting and beautiful
plants. In the chapter on construction there is a mass
of useful information that would be very helpful to
anyone who contemplates laying out his garden in this
manner.

The number of Alpine or dwarf plants suitable for a
rockery is very extensive ; they occupy little space and

to INTRODUCTION

usually their flowers are large in proportion to the plants
which produce them. Even if the garden were limited
to one family alone, like the Saxifrages, or Rockfoils,
these would be ample material to make it most inter-
esting as well as attractive. Of the Rockfoils alone
theie are well over two hundred kinds in cultivation,
many of great beauty when in flower, while in others the
chief attraction lies in their rosettes of silver-edged
leaves.

With reference to the furnishing of such a garden
the author, in describing the occupants of his rock
garden, sets himself out to denote those which are
easily grown and suitable for different positions. At
the same time great attention is given to ensure a
succession of flowers over as long a period as possible ;
a selection of evergreen subjects that will give the
rockery a furnished appearance even in the dead
season of the year is also emphasized.

The illustrations are a noticeable feature — for here
we have evidence of a skilled hand who knows how to
show off the best points of a plant or flower to advan-
tage. For while the author admits that his close
acquaintance with these plants is of comparatively
recent date, the art of photography with him has
been a life-long study. Many of the illustrations
represent choice and rare plants growing in situ in
his garden.

INTRODUCTION II

In conclusion I may suggest that " miffy " plants,
although many are beautiful when well grown, are not
indispensable to a rock garden. At the same time a
great deal of pleasure, as well as disappointment, may
be obtained in endeavouring to manage such things
as Eritrichium nanum, and where one is successful with
these difficult plants, it is with pardonable pride that he
wishes to exhibit his treasures. But on the whole
there are plenty of tractable, easily-managed plants
without worrying about these inhabitants from the
higher altitudes, which object to our lower elevation
and murky atmosphere.

W. IRVING.

Kew.

CHAPTER I

MY GARDEN AND ITS ENVIRONMENT

ALPINE plants have always had a fascination for me,
but it was not until some six or seven years ago that I
had the opportunity of indulging myself with the
delightful pastime of cultivating them at home.
About this time I acquired a villa in the suburb of
Woodford in Essex — within eight miles of the Bank of
England, and attached thereto was a garden of the
ordinary size and shape, the chief advantage it possessed
from an Alpine-plant grower's point of view being the
absence of any large trees. As the ground had received
but little attention for some years, and needed a good
deal of "getting into shape " no matter for what form
of horticulture, it seemed to me an ideal opportunity
to create little by little an Alpine garden such as I had
long desired to possess.

There were, of course, many factors which act dis-
advantageously to the Alpine plants — such for instance
as the close proximity to the great vapour zone of
London, which, over a large part of the year is sending

• 13

14 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

its leaden coloured pall of smoke gently drifting over
from the City, thereby not only cutting out a large
amount of the vigour from the light rays, but is ever
depositing its injurious particles of by-products upon
the foliage. This in time is liable to choke the little
mountain plants unaccustomed to anything but the
purest of pure air. Then again, the garden as a whole
is upon a clay subsoil, with three or four feet of heavy
sticky loam on the top.

The last and by no means least of the difficulties I had
to face, was the fact that there is no stone quarried
anywhere in the neighbourhood and as far as I know,
for a very considerable distance.

You will agree that at the outset my chances of
success were small indeed, and I was many times
told by experienced friends that I should do no good
with many of the more difficult plants.

Business connections prevented me removing to a
more suitable locality, so I had either to make the best
of my disadvantages, or give up the idea altogether.
After careful consideration, I chose the former, as I
believed that by some thought and ingenuity a large
amount of the trouble could be circumvented, and since
the space available was small, I felt sure that no other
form of gardening would give me the same prolonged
period of interest and pleasure as the cultivation of
Alpine plants.

MY GARDEN AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 15

There are hosts of these plants which are of such
diminutive stature, that a large number can be accom-
modated in a tiny space, while if the surroundings are
carefully planned and unremitting care given to keeping
the whole thing to scale, one can almost believe that
the space so planted is three or four times as large as
it really is.

Another strong point in favour of this form of gar-
dening is the evergreen character of a large number of
the plants — thus giving us the appearance of verdure
through our long and usually miserable winters.

How different a well clothed rock garden looks, say
in January, when compared with the too often seen
desolation of the average villa garden — with its dank
and sodden border, from which rise the ghastly stumps
of last year's plants. Before these herbaceous subjects
have even pretended to hide the barrenness of the
surrounding soil, upon the return of spring, the Alpine
gardener has had a glorious succession of blossom for
at least two months.

From my own small store of experience I knew that
from the large number of Alpine plants available, I
could, with careful selection, so plant my little garden
as to produce a succession of flower practically from
January ist to December 3ist.

I would here like to say what a large amount of help
I received from other, and much more experienced,

16 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

Alpine plant growers. It is delightful to find that
one of the outstanding features of plant lovers is their
readiness to impart information which years of careful
study of the plants has given them.

I have always found that if I am in any little difficulty
owing to lack of experience, I have only to go to some
brother plantsman, and he is only too pleased to
place his best advice at my disposal. My thanks are
especially due, in this respect, to Mr. E. A. Bowles,
M.A., F.L.S., of Waltham Cross, and also to those in
charge of the fine collection of Alpine plants at Kew,
who have always been most kind to me. I trust I have
maintained this kindly spirit of helpfulness, by passing
on what knowledge I may possess to other, and still
more youthful Alpine plant lovers.

The difficulty of obtaining real stone led me to cast
round for an efficient substitute, and I must say that,
after considerable experience I find that roughly broken
blocks of cement concrete — such as are sometimes
obtainable when the foundations of the London roads are
being removed — are really very useful. In appearance
it is suggestive of conglomerate — its light colour when
dry being its chief disadvantage. I got over this,
however, in a manner which I will explain later.

I am quite aware of the advice so frequently given
that on no account should anything but real stone be
used, but I believe I can show that it is not a necessity

SAXIFRAGA HOSTI UNDER HOAR FROST.

SEED STEMS OF SEDUM TURKESTANICUM UNDER HOAR FROST.

MY GARDEN AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 17

with the vast number of Alpines, if not indeed with all
of them. At the same time I fully appreciate the great
advantage that real stone has, so far as its beautiful
appearance goes, and, needless to say, I should not
consider the concrete lumps if stone were obtainable
at anything approaching the same cost. As it was,
in beginning my Alpine garden, the absolute necessity
of such stone would have prevented my undertaking
the matter at all. I can unhesitatingly say that
anyone placed as I was, could without any appreci-
able disadvantage make good the deficiency arising
from the absence of stone by using the substitute I
speak of.

The initial trouble of heavy soil I mitigated by taking
off the surface soil and putting in a layer of " hard core,"
viz., broken bricks, clinkers, etc., to the depth of six
inches over the whole site of the rock garden, after
having roughly given the ground a fall to one point.
This rapidly conveys the excess of moisture from the
soil into which the plants are subsequently to root, to
some drain, or it can be made to serve a double purpose,
by arranging this drainage vein to terminate at a
portion of the garden devoted to a moist or boggy
corner, though as I will explain later, it is for some
moisture-loving alpines necessary to form what is
termed a well drained bog, viz., a place through which
fresh water is more or less constantly passing during the

i8 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

growing season, and roughly dryer in the winter than
in summer.

Before proceeding to give a more detailed account of
how I made my garden, it will perhaps be of interest
to glance at the conditions under which Alpine plants
grow in their native mountains, as this will ensure
the best way of simulating these conditions as far as
may be in our lowland gardens.

I would here like to point out the immense amount
of pleasure I have derived from this tiny space allotted
to these mountain plants — every week, indeed every
day, in the year sees something of interest happening
in the Rock Garden, and though during the winter
months flowers are few in number, those that do come
to gladden us are valued quite apart from their
intrinsic beauty, and are appreciated accordingly.

With this form of gardening when mid February
has arrived we are able to start right away with our
brilliant succession of blossom which will carry us on,
not merely through the hey-day of Summer, with its
perfect rainbow of colour — but on to the soft Autumn-
time, and thence to November and December if the
weather be at all kind.

Even in some cases where it seems a great deal of
trouble to make some rarer plant feel " at home/' the
very effort required brings its own reward, and I am
sure that with most plant lovers, it is the presence of

MY GARDEN AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 19

plants of all degrees of difficulty that makes this form
of gardening so enjoyable, and ever rilled with keenest
interest.

Lastly, an Alpine garden is a place which our friends
are always pleased to see, and are always interested to
note the variety of unusual plants growing there,
especially if the little points of interest in their structure
and adaptation are explained to them.

CHAPTER II

PLANNING AND BUILDING

THE term Alpine plants, though not a very definite
one, is generally applied to those plants, usually of
dwarf stature, which are found growing on the rich
upland pastures immediately above the tree line, on
any of the great mountain ranges in the world, and is
by no means confined (as it is sometimes thought) to
plants from the Swiss Alps.

Plants from lower elevations are often included
among those we grow in the Rock Garden, especially
such as are of dwarf growth, and in many cases these are
of considerable value, though not perhaps so strictly
" Alpine " in their habits. These little mountain plants
have through long ages adapted themselves to the
rigorous conditions prevailing at high elevations, not
so much because the conditions are necessary to them,
but because they are still less agreeable to larger
and coarser growing plants which would, at a lower
elevation, over-run these more minute forms.

This conclusion is, I think, amply justified by the

PLANNING AND BUILDING 21

ease with which we can grow these same plants in our
lowland gardens situated little above sea-level, provided
we do not allow them to be over-run by weeds and
plants of more vigorous habit.

The general conditions prevailing in the high Alps are
almost the exact opposite of those we get here in
England, and at first sight it would appear difficult
— if not altogether impossible — to so modify our
surroundings as to make these little mountaineers feel
at home.

A factor of primary importance is that the Alpine
plant in the mountain is buried to a considerable
depth, all through the winter, under a blanket of dry
powdery snow, which not only protects the little plants
from any sudden variation of temperature, but ensures
that they shall be dry about the crown, while the low
temperature keeps the plants dormant, and their roots
dry also. Owing to the thickness of this snow blanket
and despite the great heat of the sun, as it pours down
upon the mountain in the Spring and early Summer,
it is often June or July before it is able to altogether
dissipate the snow, and then the Alpine plants are
exposed — not to our variable and uncertain Spring
weather — but high Summer time, with ample light,
and a high temperature during the day. This is of
course conducive to very rapid growth and one of the
features which characterizes many Alpine plants,

22 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

is that they burst into blossom almost before the snow
is oft them.

Coupled with these ideal conditions is the constant
supply of cool water from the melting snow still lying
higher on the mountains, and this supply is continuous,
until by the falling temperature of autumn when plant
growth is checked, the frost again grips the mountain,
and the supply automatically ceases, shortly to be
followed by the soft wrapping of snow again.

In our gardens, and especially near London, our
winters are characterized by periods of soft balmy
growing weather, which induce the plant to make
" false starts," only to be followed by sharp spells of
cold, which damage this soft growth, while usually the
ground at this time is at its wettest, consequently
preventing the plants ever getting the rest which they
are accustomed to. Then, when the hot weather does
reach us, the plants are liable to be scorched up owing
to the absence of the natural water supply, which in the
mountains is so nicely adjusted by the heat of the sun
upon the snow !

One other source of difficulty afflicts me here at
Woodford, and doubtless many others near to the
big city, namely the quiescent periods during our
winter, when the air is only gently moving. Then there
drifts over to us the grey pall of leaden coloured vapour
so constantly hanging above the metropolis, which

PLANNING AND BUILDING 23

causes to fall upon all and sundry, the smoky, tarry
products of the countless London chimneys. These
dirt particles stick to the foliage of the little plants,
and especially those with silky leaves such as many
of the Androsaces, and would in a short time poison
them if due precautions were not taken to intercept them.

It will be seen from the foregoing brief description
of Alpine versus Garden conditions that it is essential
in our Rock Garden to provide for very ample drainage,
so as to modify the otherwise sodden state of our soil
during the winter, while every effort should be made
to prevent the earth drying up in summer, by using
pieces of absorbent stone as large as the proportions
of our garden will permit, to retain the mounds of
earth, which latter should be of a gritty nature, well
mixed with pieces of broken stone, or in default thereof,
broken brick.

It is a well known fact that lumps of stone in the
soil will retain much more moisture than an equal
quantity of soil alone, and yet at no time be sodden.

Where possible a water supply should be laid on to
various places, so that a small dribble of water can be
allowed to thoroughly soak the ground in times of great
drought. It is worse than useless to sprinkle the
surface, though if a permanent supply cannot be
arranged, much can be done by the judicious use of a
hose.

24 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

At the approach of winter, I resort to the following
simple expedient to prevent the falling dirt injuring
the woolly leaved members oj: my Alpine family. I
take three or four pieces of fairly rigid galvanized iron
wire, and bend them to the shape as seen at B in the
reproduction of the diagrammatic photograph on page
opposite, and in the crook thus formed, a sheet of glass
can be kept in position some four inches or five above the
plant, sloped in such a way as to cause the rain and
dirt to drip off clear of the plant, and yet allow a
constant current of air to pass over it — so removing the
liability of mildew.

If these glasses are periodically cleaned, I find that
the plants are in a healthy and clean condition by the
time they should start their new growths — a strong
contrast to the unprotected ones, which by that time
are usually on the point of expiring, thanks to the
continued moist state our atmosphere has kept them
in, coupled with the dirt which has adhered to them.

This glass erection is also of great service in pro-
tecting winter flowering plants such as many of the
Crocus, Galanthus, and Narcissus species, from being
damaged by heavy rain. Where the garden is in a
position exposed to much wind and these plants are
liable to be damaged from this cause also, a develop-
ment of the foregoing idea can be employed as here
illustrated ; it is simple to erect, and can be rapidly

SEMPERVIVUM ARACHNOIDEUM VAR. LAGGERI.

GLASS PROTECTION AGAINST WIND AND RAIN.

PLANNING AND BUILDING 25

removed when the flowers are over. It will be seen that
the side glasses are kept in position by the wires marked
A, being just pushed into the soil, while if the roof glass
is fairly large, it can be raised high enough above the
sides to give ample ventilation, without allowing the
rain and wind to drive in to any damaging extent.

When I had made up my mind to form my newly
acquired garden into an Alpine one, I proceeded to
roughly sketch out its desired form.

For various reasons I was obliged to make a path
down both sides of my somewhat rectangular plot,
and start the rockery from the inside edge of this.
I took considerable care to arrange that the outline
abutting upon the path should be as irregular as
possible, so as to make it as natural looking as I could.

In this district, despite the all-pervading clay sub-soil,
there are in irregular places patches of sandy gravel,
and I had reason to believe that one such vein (merely
a few feet across) ran near to my proposed rockery.
I therefore proceeded to investigate, and much to my
delight, at a depth of four feet six inches from the level
came upon it, and following it down to eight feet I got
into the clay again. What pleased me most, however,
was the fact that this little streak of gravel provided
me with natural water.

This find decided me to include a small pool in the
design — not a formal circular affair, but an irregularly

26 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

shaped one, with an arm leading off from it, at one
point, which I proposed should be partially hidden
from view by winding round the base of a steep
cliff, to give the appearance of a small stream entering
the pool between precipitous banks.

The soil I obtained from this excavation — heavy
though it was — when well mixed with an equal bulk
of sharp road grit helped to form the foundation of the
higher parts of the rockery. Before proceeding to
shape this, however, I roughly sloped the surface of the
whole site slightly towards the pool, which was
approximately central in the garden — and spread a
layer some six inches thick of " rough stuff " or
" hard core " over it. It was upon this that I piled up
the soil from the hollow I was making.

I allowed the earth to accumulate to a considerable
degree, roughly in the undulating form I desired the
rockery finally to have, thereby getting a better idea
of the design than I possibly could from a drawing.

When I had excavated what I considered sufficient
to form the pool and its adjoining arm I proceeded to
the building proper. What was to be the floor of the
pool I rammed firmly, and after making it slightly
hollow, paved it with old bricks, and from the edge
of this paving I started building up the somewhat
steep sides with concrete lumps before mentioned,
and which I will hereafter call my " stone."

PLANNING AND BUILDING 27

Each piece was very firmly placed and carefully
wedged, so as to make it immovable, the soil being well
rammed in behind it to knit it all together. This I
continued all round the sides of the pool till I reached
nearly to the permanent water level, which I had
previously ascertained.

At two parts I then ceased building, as there I had pro-
posed to make a bog bed, where water loving Primulas,
Iris and Saxifraga peltata could be planted with their
toes in the water but their crowns above. The retaining
wall about these places I completed to six inches above
the water level, with stone lumps set in cement, and
instead of filling in with ordinary soil, I put in broken
peat blocks and peat moss, to the depth of eighteen
inches, topped with finer peat, sand and leaf-mould, in
about equal proportions.

As soon as the other parts of the pool side, except
the steep cliff, had reached just above the water level,
I altered the angle of building, which hitherto had been
one of about sixty degrees, to one more approaching
thirty-five degrees, but varied in such a way as to
form buttress-like shoulders, with valleys between,
so giving an irregular and natural appearance to it.

Above one of the bog beds, before mentioned, I
constructed four others, each one higher than the pre-
ceding, in the form of terraces, and in these cases,
since they were to form well-drained bogs, that is,

28 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

places where spongy soil exists, constantly wetted by
water passing through it, and which, by the cutting off
of the water supply, could be rendered comparatively
dry in the winter or resting season, I made the floor
water-tight with a thick coating of clay well puddled
into the trodden bottom. The front and sides of each
of these were built up in just the same way, using heavy
lumps of stone well wedged together and fixed with
cement, since the soil behind them would be soft and
spongy and so afford no support to the stones them-
selves. These compartments were filled in with
coarse peat at the bottom, and the before-mentioned
compost of peat, sand and leaf-mould.

When I had arrived at a point a little above the nor-
mal level of the ground, I started the outline from the
path side, arranging for it to fall into small " bays "
here and there, separated by promontories or buttresses
running down into the path, so as to give it the
appearance of springing out of the latter in a natural
way — or as though a somewhat level place among the
rocky ground had been utilized to form the path. This
irregular outline is illustrated by the reproduction facing
page 17. Particular care was taken to select good
looking stones to form these promontories, since they
would be to a certain extent visible, even when the rest
of the garden was well clothed.

The compartments, if one can apply that name to

PLANNING AND BUILDING 29

those irregularly shaped beds between the various
tiers of rocks, were arranged as far as possible of different
shapes and heights, and I took much care to build only
from the completed and thoroughly solid portion
upwards, towards the unfinished part, and in each case
the soil was well hammered and trodden down behind
each stone. Time after time I placed the various
stones, first upon one side, and then upon another
and viewed them from a little distance, to make sure
that their outline was in conformity with the effect I
desired.

I found it best to ram down the soil in the finished
compartments, and afterwards slightly slope the place
the next stone was to occupy, downwards and towards
the back ; this gave the new stone a seating which would
cause it to slope inwards and downwards towards the
soil, and thus be firm and solid, enabling one to put his
whole weight upon any one of the stones so placed,
without the slightest risk of moving it.

It is a point too often overlooked in rockery building
that the stones should be used to retain the soil, and not
the soil to retain the stones ! Too much emphasis
cannot be put upon this point, as no end of trouble will
follow any deviation from this rule.

>Here and there, at convenient places, I arranged
either flat-topped lumps of stone, or else stone slabs
with irregular edges, to form rough stepping places,

30 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

so as to be able to easily reach any desired part of the
rockery to attend to its little inhabitants, without risk
of treading upon surrounding plants, which might easily
be done were not definite spots allotted for this
purpose.

At one point I arranged a series of rough steps in a
winding manner — so that here and there they dis-
appeared behind small bluffs — and having made them
water-tight with cement, I was enabled to introduce
water at the upper part and allow it to run down, in a
miniature cascade, to the pool at the foot ; in the hot
summer weather this looks very pretty, besides leaving
in odd places wee pools of water, to which our feathered
friends of the garden flock to drink and bathe.

At various places I built steep shoulders of rockery,
dropping abruptly to the normal level of the surround-
ing part, and in the crevices of such shoulders, plants
like Saxifraga lingulata, longifolia, cochlearis minor
(and in moist shady corners Ramondias and Haberleas),
I found thrive — all these plants prefer a more or less
vertical position, where their rosette is placed on edge, as
it were, thus allowing all moisture to rapidly run of!,
instead of hanging about the crown. The actual
method of planting, which is best done at the time
of building I will enter into later.

At one side of my Rock Garden, facing south-east,
I made the soil much more gritty, right from the

PLANNING AND BUILDING 31

bottom, and at this point I formed a collection of the
dwarfer and more choice Saxifrages such as Sax.
burseriana, marginata, rocheliana, Elizabeths, Salomoni,
Ferdinandi-Coburgi, apiculata, lingulata lantoscana,
the charming little Woodruff Asperula suberosa, and
that lovely gem Edraianthus serpyllifolius.

To make the soil here free enough, I mixed with it
more than half its bulk of broken brick passed through
a half-inch sieve, while its depth was about fifteen
inches ; other ingredients being well-decayed leaf-
mould, old sifted mortar, good loam, and sand, in about
equal proportions. This, when well compacted, proved
a very happy rooting medium for these little close-
growing plants, the Edraianthus being placed in a
crevice where its roots could wander away in a semi-
horizontal direction, and its crown be protected from
an undue amount of moisture. The illustration facing
page 17 gives a good idea of the appearance of the plant
when in flower.

The blossoms are of a rich purple, rising almost
stalkless from a dense cluster of small deep bronzy
green leaves. Its curious habit of opening its flowers
on the outside of its more or less circular tuft is well
exemplified. I am indebted to the proprietors of
The Garden for permission to reproduce the two
plates, since I passed them the copyright some
time since.

32 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

In one or two other places the " bays " opening out
near the path I devoted to semi-bog plants, simply
making a depression, clay-lining the bottom, and filling
in with spongy soil, where such subjects as Primula
farinosa, P. frondosa, P. capitata, P. Cockburniana,
Violas, cornuta and biflora, Aquilegia alpina — and a
variety of smaller plants, which might easily be over-
looked if far from the point of view, could find a suitable
habitation.

Needless to say, I do not encourage every visitor
to use the stepping stones about in the rock garden,
ladies' dresses especially having a way of brushing
against the smaller plants bounding these steps, in a
manner liable to damage them. I have endeavoured
to render such close inspection of the inner part of the
garden unnecessary by growing there the rather
larger plants and accumulating the small ones nearer
the path and so close under the eye.

If the reader has followed the foregoing, it will have
been evident that it is to a large extent necessary to
work round one's Rock Garden bit by bit, in building,
not carrying up any one part to a great height till the
adjoining portions have been raised, and so on — thus
forming a solid foundation to rise from.

The exact conformation of one's garden must of
course be largely a matter of personal choice, but if
nothing very heroic is attempted, and as far as may be,

PLANNING AND BUILDING 33

natural formations are imitated, or at least not abused,
the result will usually be satisfactory — especially if it
be continually borne in mind that the rockery is
primarily — indeed solely — for the cultivation of plants,
many of which are deep rooting, and require ample,
well-drained soil into which they can ramify.

I may here say with advantage to any who are
thinking of starting a Rock Garden, that at an early
date in my Alpine plant career, I was given that
splendid book " Alpine Flowers for Gardens," written
by that veteran plant lover, and Alpine plant enthu-
siast, William Robinson. No one who has used it as
their " guide, philosopher and friend/' as I have
done, can find anything but praise for it, both in its
sound principles, and the charming manner in which
it is written. To read it is to have become an Alpine
plant lover at once ! One other point I ought
to mention before leaving this part of the work,
and that is, with rare exceptions, on no account
should any upper stone overhang a lower one.
This with the beginner is I think a frequent
cause of failure, it not being realized that such a
formation entirely prevents any water in the form of
rain from reaching the roots of a plant in such a
position, unless the overhanging stone be quite a
small one— in which case it would probably fall over
altogether*

34 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

Each higher stone, even in an almost perpendicular
place, should slightly recede from the one beneath,
thus exposing a •" lip " which will catch the falling
rain and convey it into the soil, owing to the inward
tilt with which each stone is laid.

Occasionally such a position may be permissible
for such plants as dislike overhead wet — as for instance
Eritrichium nanum, some of the Er odiums, Senecio
incanis var. Persoonii, and Primula Allionii, but then
precaution should be taken that moisture is conveyed
to their roots in some way. It is on the whole advis-
able to keep away from this form of building, until
one is familiar with the requirements of such
" touchy " plants as really need it.

I found that with careful selection every part of
the rockery could be planted and to a great extent
covered with Alpines. Even in such a little garden
as mine I was able to provide positions in practically
every aspect — from deep shade on the north face to
full sun on the south. In some instances it is policy
to plant certain varieties of say Campanula in partially
shady positions, as well as in full sun, and thereby
secure a longer period of blossom, since those in the
cooler spots are just coming into flower as the fully
exposed ones are passing.

It is advisable also to plant at the lower portion
of the rock work, near to the path, especially

PLANNING AND BUILDING 35

where the former is of any height, such things as do
not greatly mind being trodden on somewhat, and are
fairly vigorous, such as mossy Saxifrages, Sax. umbrosa,
Arabis, Sedum spurium, as it is very annoying to get
some choice plant damaged by an accidental
kick.

Where the rock edging to the path is low, I find it
useful to allow dwarf carpeting plants like Ar en aria
balearica, A. caspitosa, Acaena in variety, and
Cotula squalida to scramble over the edge, and grow
carelessly on to the path itself — it takes of! the rigid
outline of the path and gives a very natural appear-
ance to the whole When they get too much in the
way it is easy, with care, to take off portions in such
a manner as to leave no mark of the devastating hand,
and friends are always delighted to " take charge " of
such surplus plants.

As I mentioned earlier, I was fortunate in having
no trees of any size in my garden, since not only do
they rob the soil to a considerable extent, but their
branches seriously curtail the amount of light falling
on the plants, and where one's garden is small, and
especially when not situated in the open country, this
is of immense importance, since the brilliancy of the
light is already considerably modified by the proximity
of buildings, to say nothing of the more or less ever
present smoke vapour. In addition to this, the drip

36 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

from the branches, during the winter especially, is
very detrimental to the mountain plants.

If at all practicable, any trees near enough to a
proposed Alpine garden to harm it should be removed,
or at least the overhanging branches taken off.

THE MORAINE IN COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION.

THE MORAINE COMPLETED.

CHAPTER III

THE MORAINE

BEFORE wandering far from the structural matters of
the Rock Garden, I will endeavour to give a description
of that somewhat recent adjunct, the Moraine — which
has now become such a prominent feature of many
Alpine gardens. In my own case my attention was
not directed to it till some time after I had built my
Rock Garden, so that its inclusion meant an alteration
in the existing arrangement.

For the benefit of those not already acquainted with
a natural moraine, I will outline what I conceive to be
its chief features.

At the foot of the glaciers or ice rivers, which come
down from between the higher peaks, are found vast
accumulations of stone detritus — fragments which
have been torn and broken away from the glacier bed —
carried down with the descending ice, and deposited
at the place where it melted. These heaps or ridges
are usually found on sloping ground, and are often piled
up at an acute angle.

57 »a

33 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

Through this mass of stone chips — varying in size
from large blocks weighing tons, to quite small grit —
flows during the summer a constant supply of ice-cold
water from the melting glacier above, carrying away
with it any fine particles of soil which may have existed
among the stones. Upon such soaking shingles certain
plants thrive, and indeed seem disinclined to grow
satisfactorily elsewhere !

As in the case of plants which jewel the short turf
of the Alps below the glacier, the winter conditions
higher up are similar, the outflows of the glacier
freeze up, and so stop the water supply, while the
moisture held in the absorbent mass of stone gradually
drains away, leaving the plants comparatively dry.
Upon this descends the snowy mantle from the wintry
sky, securely wrapping up in its soft folds both the
moraine and its little inhabitants, until the hot sun
of the following summer thaws them out again.

This release from their winter quarters, however,
often does not take place until July, so that the period
during which they can flower and perfect their seed
is short indeed.

It will be seen that the open nature of the stony
" soil," if we can use this name for the smaller stone
chips, ensures quick drainage, and the likelihood of a
sufficient amount of fine sandy particles accumulating
in any place to materially check this rapid drainage,

fHE MORAINE 39

is reduced to a minimum by the constant percolation
of the melting ice water through the whole mass,
while complete winter rest is assured by the draining
away of the moisture, due to the cutting off of the
supply and the thick blanket of snow which covers
the plants.

It would at first sight seem difficult to reproduce
these conditions in our lowland gardens, but with care
and some thought it is quite possible to imitate them
sufficiently well to induce many moraine plants to
flourish and flower profusely, even in a suburban garden
like mine.

The method I adopted was as follows : — Since most
of the moraine plants grow in an open situation, I
selected a portion of my little garden, fully exposed to
the sun and where the Rock Garden rose somewhat
abruptly. Into the side of this hummock, by digging
out the soil, I formed what were practically two tanks,
one above the other, some five feet long, by two
feet wide and deep, and watertight to the depth
of six to eight inches, with the floor sloping towards
the front.

The operation consisted of well ramming the floor,
and putting in three inches of cement concrete, while
the sides were built up with brick and cement, till
nearly level with what was to be the surface of the
moraine — when they were topped with good-looking

40 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

pieces of stone, which would be visible when the whole
was completed.

At a convenient place in the front, and where the
floor was at its lowest, I inserted in the retaining wall
of each compartment a valve which could be readily
opened and closed.

Being anxious to complete the moraine by a certain
time, as I had to leave home for a while, and having no
suitable metal valve to hand, it occurred to me that
the upper part of a champagne bottle, which is of very
tough glass, would make an excellent substitute. The
difficulty was, how to cut it !

After some consideration I hit upon the following
plan, which answered admirably. Stand the bottle
in an ordinary bucket and fill the latter with cold water,
till the liquid stands at the height the bottle is to be
severed. Now take out the bottle and wipe it dry,
and proceed to heat over a gas flame just that part
where the cut is to be, keeping the bottle rotating the
whole time. When very hot replace the bottle rapidly
in the bucket of water, and with a " ping " the upper
part will leave the lower, exactly at the water line, as
cleanly as if cut by a diamond — due of course, to the
rapid contraction of the heated portion below the
water ! The reason for first filling the bucket, with the
bottle in position, is to ensure the water being at the
right level, so that the heated bottle can be hastily

THE MORAINE 41

plunged automatically into the same position as it
previously occupied, without having to consider how
far down it should go.

To return to the moraine, however ; this valve, on a
level with the lowest part of the floor, I carefully
gauzed with perforated zinc on the inside to prevent
it by any chance getting choked up. At six to eight
inches from the level of the floor I arranged small aper-
tures in the retaining walls between the topping stone.

It will thus be seen that when I allowed the water
to enter the upper compartment, the valves being
closed by corks, the water would trickle into the lower
one through the six inch overflow holes ; from this
it would escape in a similar way, and as immediately
beneath this my series of bog terraces commenced,
the water would supply that also ! When, however, I
opened the lower valves no water whatever would
remain in the compartments, but drain out, owing to
the inclined floor.

When I was sure that this part of the scheme was
working satisfactorily, I proceeded to put a layer six
inches deep of broken brick rubble about as large as my
fist into the bottom of each compartment. Upon this
I placed a layer two inches thick of stone of the required
size to just cover over the interspaces between the lower
coarser stuff and thus prevent any finer soil from
sifting in between them to a serious degree.

42 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

On the top of this layer I placed the moraine soil
proper, consisting of sandstone chips, largely augmented
by broken brick and tile, which makes an excellent
substitute when sandstone is at a premium. I put the
whole of these chips through a half-inch sieve for the
lower portion of the soil, and a quarter-inch sieve for the
upper layer, while to eliminate the dust particles from
among them, which would very readily clog the
drainage, I passed the whole through a one-eighth of an
inch sieve. By this means I introduced into the moraine
clean sharp grit only.

Into the upper six inches of the moraine soil I mixed
the merest suspicion of well decayed leaf-mould,
probably about one to fifteen parts of stone chips.
One of the illustrations on page 37 gives an idea of the
appearance of the two compartments, when the bottom
layer of " rough stuff " was in one, and the bulk of the
finer chips in the other. It also shows the dividing
wall topped with decorative pieces of stone, and illus-
trates the irregular form of that wall, which allows the
topping stones to make an irregular line, when the
moraine is completed.

The second illustration on the same page gives an
idea of the appearance of the moraine immediately after
it was finished and planted. Most of my moraine plants
being very small, I fear there is visible in most cases
more label than plant, at this early stage. My water

THE MORAINE 43

supply was introduced at the top of the steps just
distinguishable in the last photograph referred to, and
trickled over the steps and spread itself out over the
moraine.

In this little moraine I grow, among other plants,
Dianthus alpinus, that brilliant little plant, from the
Eastern Alps and Carpathians, D. glacialis, Anemone
vernalis, Douglasia vitaliana, Ranunculus glacialis,
and alpestris, Sax. aizoides, and its beautiful variety,
atrorubens, Sax. oppositifolia, Sax. Aizoon, which looks
particularly happy nestling among the stone chips,
Edraianthus serpyllifolius, E. dinaricus, Draba aizoides
and dedeana, a photograph of which appears on page 36.
I think it illustrates how freely this diminutive green
hummock of leaves covers itself with its pure white
flowers, so as almost to hide the foliage. The wealth of
blossom is also accentuated by the bare surroundings
of stone chips. It seems almost incredible that the
roots of such a plant can obtain enough nourishment
from so barren and " poor " a soil.

Among other plants I tried in this moraine were
Aquilegia alpina, Viola calcarata, Hypericum reptans,
and Sax. retusa, but they do not seem so much at home
as many others.

That charming little Pyrenean Draba, often called
Petrocallis pyrenaica, thrives amazingly among this
debris, running about among the chips in a striking

44 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

contrast to the way it languishes in any other soil I
have tried it in. When in April it is covered with its
dainty lilac coloured flowers, so as to hide the close
tufts of growth, it is indeed a pretty picture, and well
deserves its name " Beauty of the Rocks."

In this wee moraine I also grow successfully such
gems as Campanula cenisia, only half an inch high, with
large solitary terminal flowers ; Camp, excisa, with its
thread-like stalks ; Camp. Zoysii, with its bells, so
curiously constricted at their mouth ; and perhaps
most showy of all, Camp. Allionii, which thrives at such
a rate that I am removing a part of the clump. (See
page 40.) Under any other than moraine conditions I
have never been put to this trouble before, this some-
what coy plant usually removing itself all too soon. Here
too, thrives Silene acaulis, the very picture of happiness,
nestled in a snug compact hummock among the chips.

The illustration opposite shows how freely it
blossoms with me, despite the proximity to London.
I fully appreciate that the flowers are much more
sparse than on the lovely clumps eighteen inches or
more across, which we find in the Swiss Alps, one mass
of pink, but I have never yet seen it flower in this
country so profusely as in the mountains.

One other plant in my moraine I must not fail to
refer to, and that is the one illustrated on page 45,
showing that gem Eritrichium nanum. A mono-

ERITRICHfUM NANUM ON THE MORAINE.

THE MORAINE 45

chrome reproduction can give no idea of the brilliancy
of the flowers of this lovely little plant, which are of a
dazzling azure blue with a yellow eye. The leaves
arranged in tufts are extremely small and covered with
fine hairs. The whole plant is scarcely one half an
inch high. It is reputed to be one of the very difficult
Alpines to cultivate, and naturally it is therefore the
desire of the Alpine gardener to be successful with it.
It conies from very high altitudes and intensely dislikes
moisture on its foliage.

Some measure of success will usually attend plant-
ing it, as in the moraine it will have ample root
moisture all through the growing season, with a per-
fectly dry crown when dormant — it is also advisable
to arrange either a partially overhanging stone, or a
piece of glass, in such as way as to throw off the bulk of
the rain, even in summer time, and such is of course a
necessity during winter. Some growers also advise
covering the tufts with fine dry silver sand during
the dormant season, in addition to the foregoing
protection against wet.

I was extremely pleased to see my little plant flower
so well last spring, and one of the most humorous
comments I ever heard in reference to my garden was
made in connection with it. I was showing it, with
great pride, to a friend, who was not an Alpine plant
grower, and explaining to him how difficult a plant

46 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

it was to grow, and that it was allied to the forget-me-
nots, when he surprised me with the following heartless
remark — " Oh, well, it would not matter much if you
could not grow it, would it ? " To those who have
tried Eritrichium nanum my feelings can be better
imagined than described ! !

On the larger stones which protrude through the
moraine soil, I allow Arenaria balearica to spread its
green film of growth ; it is one-eighth of an inch high —
and very pretty it looks, especially when covered with
its pure white blossoms, on one inch high stalks,
closing each evening and re-opening the following day.
Care must be taken, however, that it does not obtrude
itself on the choicer plants, as in the moist shingles it
grows very rapidly.

Two other very pretty and indispensable plants
to wander over vacant spots on the moraine are
Linaria alpina, with its purple and orange snapdragon
like flowers, and the wee violet cress lonopsidium acaule.
With me they both sow themselves, and come up most
readily, and are easily removed whenever necessary.

From my experience, I believe that the remedy for
many of the Alpine plants that are somewhat uncer-
tain and " miffy " in the Rock Garden, is to be found
in the moraine.

I believe that to a large extent the soil in the Alpine
garden itself, could with great advantage more nearly

THE MORAINE 47

approach that of the moraine, than is usually the case
at present — certainly my experiment in the corner
devoted to Saxifrages is proving most satisfactory.

Other plants which I have recently added to the
moraine, or propose so to do are : — JEthionema
coridifolium, Androsace Laggeri, Anemone narcissiflora,
Campanula alpina, Camp, morettiana, Camp, pulla,
Dianthus neglectus, Gentiana bavarica, Geum reptans,
Gypsophila cerastioides, Houstonia ccerulea, Lychnis
alpina, Papaver alpinum, Potentilla nitida, Primula
integrifolia, P. glutinosa, P. viscosa, P. minima,
Ranunculus glacialis, Thlaspi rotundi folium, Trifolium
alpinum, Viola bi flora.

I find it advisable when inserting new plants into the
moraine, to dislodge such of the soil as may be adhering
thereto, without unduly disturbing the roots, and
especially to see that the neck of the plant is clean and
free from soil.

When March arrives I usually close the bottom
valves, and if the season seems fairly normal, I reintro-
duce the water about the end of the month, though this
is a matter which must be decided by the weather at
the moment, it being borne in mind that when once the
plants are leally moving after their winter rest, they
must not want for water until the following September
or October.

When November is approaching, with its clammy,

48 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

dirty weather, I erect the sheets of glass before referred
to over all the hairy-leaved plants, and such others
as I consider require it, which include the greater part
of the moraine subjects. It is, I think, better to err
on the side of protecting those that do not require it,
than the reverse, since I have never known the glass
to harm a plant.

I usually dust over the surface of the moraine once,
or possibly twice a year the merest sprinkling of well
decayed leaf -soil, which in a few days drifts in between
the chips.

If any of the plants seem inclined to grow out of the
soil, and become " leggy " — a feature which is rare on
the moraine, where the conditions seem to induce a
tight habit of growth — the straggling pieces should be
coaxed down and a layer of chips placed over them,
leaving just the extreme green point visible. A close
cushion form of growth I find results from this
treatment.

In conclusion, I must say that in proportion to its
area, I think the moraine contains more of interest and
beauty than any other part of my little garden, and
I have no hesitation in saying that the initial work
entailed in getting it established is repaid a hundred
times, by being able to grow in it plants which both
for beauty of form, colour, and general habit of growth,
cannot be excelled by any other hardy ones.

ARMERIA PLANTAGINEA
WITH TAP ROOTS EXPOSED.

AURICULA SHOWING NATURE OF
ROOTS.

CHAPTER IV

PLANTING THE GARDEN

HAVING related, in a brief way, the manner of building
my little garden, it may be of interest to make some
reference to the method of planting it. As the points
I shall here mention will be the outcome of my exper-
ience since the garden has been formed, it will not
necessarily follow that they were the methods I adopted
in my more ignorant days — but rather what I have
found advisable as time has gone on.

A considerable amount of the success of a garden,
especially a small one, is due to the manner in which
the plants are arranged therein. I hold that it should
be the aim of the cultivator, where it is at all possible,
to so grow each plant as to show to the best advantage
its particular habit and character, and it will be readily
recognised that a large number of Alpine plants have
very decided characteristics. For instance, such plants
as Cerastium tomentosum, and most of the Aubrietias,
though easily grown in other positions, show to the
greatest advantage their cushion-like habit when

49 4

50 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

young, and when older, their inclination to fall in
dazzling cascades of flower, or silvery foliage, down an
almost perpendicular face of rock, if planted in such
a position — whereas, to a consideiable extent, their
character is lost if they are permitted to grow on the
level.

Plants like Armeria plantaginea, and Acantholimon
glumaceum, to take two examples only, have the power,
when raised from seed, of sending enormously long
tap roots, often extending three and four feet into the
soil, thereby enabling them to exist in a position which,
apparently, is in the Summer quite devoid of moisture,
and perhaps in a mere crevice in an otherwise unbroken
face of rock.

To illustrate the tap-rooting character of such plants
I photographed a specimen of Armeria plantaginea
after digging down and exposing the thong-like root
as far as I was able, and from the illustration on page 49
it will be seen in what an almost fibreless state this
root descends, despite the encouragement given it
by the proximity of ample soil on all sides. The
picture also shows the uselessness of providing merely
shallow earth-filled pockets in one's rockery.

There must be a deep root run of gritty soil for such
vigorous deep rooting plants to find a home, and then
they will thrive in a way unknown if only given surface
soil, where they linger in a half dead state, should the

PLANTING THE GARDEN 51

hot sun strike them. While the tuft of Armeria in
the present example was only three-and-a-half inches
high, its root descended, as there shown, for over
twenty-six inches.

Such plants I use to clothe a semi-vertical face of
rock, pricking out the seedlings when only one in^h high
and inserting them into some small fissure between
two large pieces of stone, but where there is an ample
root run for them beyond.

If looked after, and not allowed to dry up, until they
get a hold of their new surroundings, they make, in the
course of a year or two, splendid green tufts of foliage,
protruding from the otherwise bare rock, and in their
season are a mass of flower !

Points in the garden where the stone is perhaps
less happy in appearance can be beautifully draped
with such plants as Thymus lanuginosus, Cotoneaster
humifusa and adpressa, the silvery cushion of many of
the varieties of Dianthus, if in a sunny position, or
with Dryas octopetala if in slight shade — on the other
hand covering plants for quite shady places, are easily
found in the mossy Saxifrages, Polygonum vaccini-
folium, and dwarf ivies like Hedera conglomerata.

Irregular surfaces with ample stone cropping out,
in full sun, make ideal spots for saxifrages of the
incrusted section, where their silvery rosettes can
bejewel the rocky ground, and from which, in their

52 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

season, can rise the graceful arching plumes of their
inflorescence.

If a stone one is desirous of partially veiling springs
direct from the path, and so gives little opportunity
of clothing it from below, it can be charmingly draped,
provided it is tolerably moist, by the employment of our
little friend Arenaria balearica, which has the great
advantage of taking up no room from the pathway,
such as would be done by some overhanging tufty plant.
If a tiny piece of the Arenaria is planted at the base of
the stone in question, it will usually spread upwaids
in a delightful way. Another wee plant for such a
position is that miniature mint Mentlia Requienii,
though this sometimes suffers in our winter — probably
due to its being a native of Corsica and so not quite so
hardy as plants from colder regions.

By the pool side, in the peat bog, look extremely well
groups of the lovely Primula rosea and P. denticulata.
This latter is a splendid early flowering plant, and it is
extraordinary that it is not more seen, since it is of the
easiest culture. The first illustration on page 33 shows
a plant of this Himalayan Primula just flowering after
having been planted some six or eight months, while the
second photograph illustrates what the same plant had
grown into by the following spring, nothing having
been done to it meanwhile. When it is remembered
that such lovely plants may be had in flower in March

PLANTING THE GARDEN 53

without the slightest protection or coddling, it is
astonishing that they are not more grown. The flowers
as will be observed, are in the form of dense spheres,
upheld on stout stalks, and vary in colour from white
to deep mauve. It is, I find, advisable to break up the
clump immediately after flowering, when it has
attained this size, as it will have exhausted the soil
about it, while the extra pieces enable us to make
other and perhaps new plantations.

As a background to such plants, by the water-side,
Iris can be employed, such as the clematis-flowered
Iris of Japan — Iris Kcempferi ; I. Icevigata, I. aurea.
Also some of the many varieties of Spirea japonica,
correctly called Astilbe japonica, such as Peach
Blossom, Queen Alexandra, and the type.

I also find that Sax. peltata planted in this position
gives an excellent appearance in my small garden,
suggesting the lines of the giant Gunnera scabra, and
it is of considerable interest in its curious method of
flowering, when in spring it throws up a reddish, hairy
stem some three feet high, surmounted by a panicle
of white flowers, often composed of from four to seven
petals, instead of the orthodox five of the Saxifrage.
The leaves do not appear at all until the flower is well
out, and then rapidly expand to about twelve to
fourteen inches in diameter.

In the crevices of the shady parts of the pool side I

54 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

employ several sorts of ferns, which give a pleasing
freshness in early summer time, while in one place,
where its roots can penetrate to the water level, I have
a plant or so of the Royal Irish Fern, Osmunda regalis.
The rich golden cinnamon colour of the ripe fronds in
late autumn alone justify its inclusion in my tiny
garden.

On one of the bog terraces spoken of before, I use
my only giant plant, Senecio clivorum, and at its base
Trollius asiaticus, the orange globe flower — the appear-
ance of these is indicated by the illustration on page 25.

In the upper part of the garden, though where amply
moist, I grow between pieces of stone and in small
colonies, Primula viscosa, in addition to tnose in the
moraine, and very pretty they look, displaying their
bright trusses of flower. Primula hirsuta is a member
of the same family which enjoys similar treatment.

In various positions, from full sun to shade, I also
grow P. Auricula, not in the more or less level beds, but
as a crevice plant, much as we find the Alpine Auricula
in the mountains, wedged in between pieces of stone,
the beautiful shell-like form of the foliage, issuing from
such a place, has quite a decorative appearance all the
year, while when in flower the plants are charming
with their large trusses of magnificent flowers. I
especially favour the pure yellow colours and am
particularly fond of the varieties Celtic King and

PLANTING THE GARDEN 55

Alexandra, both of which increase very freely. As the
Auricula is usually considered a moisture loving plant,
it may seem to my readers rather unwise to grow it in
an arid chink in full sun, where the surrounding stones
become in summer unbearably hot. The explanation
is to be found, however, by reference to the photograph
on page 49 which I made one time, when rebuilding a
portion of the Rock Garden.

In a crevice at the junction of two large stories, I had
a plant or two of P. Auricula v. Alexandra, and upon
moving one of the stones it disclosed the root system
as there shown. It will be noticed to what a depth
the roots have extended, in proportion to the size of the
plant, while to a considerable degree, as will be observed
they are at that part of the soil immediately in contact
with the lump of stone — rather than in the soil itself,
suggesting that the conditions there were more uniform,
doubtless due to the moisture retained in the stone
which, while never permitting the earth to be sodden,
would prevent the too rapid evaporation of moisture,
and so provide the conditions necessary for this and
many other alpine plants.

On hot dry knolls, the Sun-roses or Helianthemums
are particularly happy, and a perfect blaze of colour
in their season, while in similar positions, but near the
eye, Houseleeks or Sempervivums in an endless
number of varieties find an ideal home. Semp.

56 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

arachnoideum, and its larger form Laggeri (see page 24)
are especial favourites with me, the silky " cob web "
which covers them, especially the newer growth, is very
attractive in summer, when contrasted with their
intensely bright red flowers. The reason for this
curious protection puzzled me for a long while, but the
explanation generally accepted is, I believe, that it
moderates the intense heat of the sun as it pours down
on the mountain sides in Switzerland, where this little
plant grows in very exposed places, and protects the
soft tissue of the infant leaves, which otherwise might
be damaged.

There is another large class of plants which can be
used with very considerable effect in the Alpine garden,
and which I have hardly referred to yet — namely, plants
with silvery foliage. A large amount of the beauty of
an Alpine garden depends upon the judicious use of
such plants. Much can be done to emphasise a pro-
monotory or direct the eye to any desired point of the
garden by the careful use of Cerastium alpinum var.
lanatum, some of the white foliaged Dianthi, such as
D.+ ccesius, Erodium chrysanthum, several of the
Achilleas, and planted in some crevice, in poor, gritty
soil, that lovely little Potentilla nitida, and its variety
alba.

A particularly decorative member of this grovip is
Artemisia vallesiaca, illustrated opposite. On some

PLANTING THE GARDEN 57

subsidiary shoulder of the Rock Garden this plant will
attract attention all through the season from spring
till late autumn — throwing up its graceful branches of
dazzling white foliage, and as it develops, the outer ones
gradually bend downwards, while new ones form in the
centre, till it becomes a hemisphere some fourteen inches
in diameter. It is a half-shrubby plant and dies down
in the winter, breaking again from the old wood. If
it can be arranged to silhouette this against a back-
ground of dark or deep green foliage, the effect is still
further heightened.

Another excellent silvery foliaged subject is that tiny
relative of our common groundsel, Senecio incanus
v. Persoonii, only three to four ins. across the rosette —
surmounted, in the summer, with pretty yellow flowers.

This plant thrives with me in a position fully exposed
to the sun — and in stony soil, largely mixed with old
mortar. Its chief requirement appears to be protection
from overhead wet, especially in the winter, and as
the old leaves die, to remove them, as otherwise they
are apt to set up mildew about the plant. It is possible
by the use of these and similar plants to produce a
decorative effect in the garden, even when the chief
flush of the flowering time has passed.

Owing to the way in which these mountain plants
have adapted themselves, so as to make the utmost
of a short season available to many of them, it follows

58 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

that the greatest blaze of colour occurs in our gardens
early in the year, and unless some pains are taken to
prevent it, there is liable to be a sudden collapse after
about June. To remedy this, as far as may be, I have
found it advisable to so distribute the early and late
flowering plants, as to avoid any serious blank spaces.
Naturally this treatment modifies the extreme
brilliancy of any one part of the garden in May and
June, but as a little colour can be easily spared at that
glorious time, it is, on the whole, at least to my mind,
an advantage.

The method consists roughly of planting near the
earliest flowering plants, groups or specimens of rather
later blooming ones, and for this purpose many of the
Campanulas are extremely useful, owing to their
coming into flower later than many, and also having
a very long period of flower. Then again, as I have
already mentioned, with certain accommodating plants,
we can put them in several aspects, which again
prolongs the flowering-time. Such plants as the
following are very helpful in extending our season,
since their normal time of blossoming is summer and
autumn: — Onosma, Acantholimon, Veronica, Poly-
gonum, Lithospermum, Aquilegia alpina, (Enothera,
Oxalis, Saxifraga Fortunei, Symphyandra, Violas,
Spiraea, Campanulas, Primula Poissoni, and P.
capitata. Before these * plants are over, the tale is

PLANTING THE GARDEN 59

taken up by many autumn-flowering bulbs, including
Cyclamen, Colchicums, and Crocus in several varieties.

I would especially mention the great charm that
Cyclamen neapolitanum v. album, illustrated on
page 97, gives to the garden in September and October,
raising its numerous heads of pure white flowers from
the ground before the leaves are visible, which latter,
when they appear, are of a beautiful green, marbled
with white. One very interesting feature of the
Cyclamen is the curious habit it has of coiling up its
seed stems into a spiral, in such a way as to bring the
seed capsule down to the earth, and very often into it.
This, I think, illustrates in a remarkable degree the
care taken by some plants to protect their seeds,
when, by flowering late, they are exposed to the
inclement part of the year.

Of the many Colchicums, perhaps C. speciosum (see
illustration on page 112) is the most imposing — throwing
up its glorious cup-like flowers six to twelve inches high,
from a carpet of some dwarf growing plant, like the
smaller mossy saxifrages, or Arenaria.

One has to grow these beautiful autumn-flowering
gems to thoroughly appreciate how welcome they are,
coming at such a late time of the year.

While on the subject of bulbs, I may say that there
are quite a large number of dwarf growing bulbous
plants, whose native place is the Alps, which make

60 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

themselves thoroughly " at home " here in my little
garden, and most welcome they are, since the majority
of them come into flower very early in the year, and
few require any special treatment other than the
gritty soil and good drainage, which is sure to be found
in an Alpine garden, such as I have described.

Many of these plants have inconspicuous grass-like
foliage, which soon dries up and disappears, and is not
to any extent unsightly, when later in the season
surrounding plants are in their hey-day. My
practice is to plant many of them about clumps of
Aubrietia, some of the dwarf sedums and mossy Saxi-
frages, and very charming they look rising from such a
carpet — which not only acts as a foil to them in colour,
but also prevents the soil from being splashed on to
them by heavy rain.

Both bulbs and carpeting plants appear to be
perfectly happy in each other's company, and the
former in most cases reproduce themselves, both by
seed and division, so that after a few years, instead of
a number of single flowers some little distance apart,
the garden is strewn with irregular-shaped drifts of
these pretty early visitors, giving a delightfully natural
appearance to the whole place.

One of the earliest of these bulbous plants to flower
with me (soon after Christmas) is that sweet little
Narcissus Bulbocodiumv. monophyllus — the white Hoop-

PLANTING THE GARDEN 61

petticoat Daffodil, illustrated on page 96. Planted in
almost pure sand, in a hot sunny position, but where
it will be moist in the growing season, this charming
daffodil is a picture, as it throws up its papery white
flowers, with yellow stamens, in January. The leaves,
as will be seen, are grass-like, and are hardly noticeable
when the flowers are over. It is well to give this plant,
a native of North Africa, a position sheltered from rough
winds, and to protect the flowers from heavy rain by
the use of the sheet of glass already referred to.

Simultaneously with this comes the buttercup-like
flowers of the Winter Aconite, or Eranthis hyemalis,
each surrounded by its whorl of green leaves, while
everywhere croci are by this time showing their green
points, shortly to break into blossom.

Some of the other bulbous plants which thrive here
are Bulbocodium vernum, Chionodoxa Lucilia and
sardensis, S cilia bifolia and sibirica, with their white
forms, Muscari, various Narcissus, Iris reticulata,
Galanthus Ikarice, nivalis, Elwesii, Ornithogalums, and
English and Spanish Iris. These latter are most
decorative, with their beautiful varied coloured flowers
poised like dainty butterflies upon the slender stalks.

When these bulbs are not planted below some
dwarf carpeting plant, I invariably sow about the place
where they have been inserted seeds of such annuals
as the lonopsidium acaule, and Linaria alpina, so as to

62 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

prevent any suggestion of a bare place when the bulbs
are over.

The lonopsidium has the interesting capacity of
flowering in spring — ripening its seed, which sows itself
and which is again in flower by the end of the summer ;
while I have had the third generation in blossom at
Christmas.

The Linaria in favoured places, such as an old wall,
or the moraine, is often a perennial, but it is somewhat
uncertain with me in this respect, and is best treated as
an annual.

CHAPTER V

PROPAGATING

HAVING roughly outlined the method of building and
planting my garden, it may perhaps be of interest if
I describe some of the various methods of propagating
these little mountain plants ; since a very great amount
of interest is derivable from that portion of the work

alone.

*

When quite a novice, I made several attempts at
increasing my stock, with promising results, and from
time to time I have gathered what information I
could, thanks to the ready helpfulness of brother
gardeners, until I now have little or no difficulty in
propagating the majority of the Alpine plants I grow,
either by cuttings, division of root, layers, or seed.

From the amateur's point of view, the ease with which
one's stock may be multiplied is a strong point in favour
of this form of gardening, since it enables him to readily
increase the size and number of the patches of his
plants, and to form a collection of his treasures in
small pots, which are readily exchanged with other

63

64 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

growers. Even in my early days I found it extremely
simple to take away the offsets from many of the
encrusted Saxifrages, and Sempervivums, and pot them
up in light, gritty soil, where, if kept moist and away
from the hot sun, they would, in a short time, root.
With the Sedums too, in most cases, one only has to
break up a tuft into individual pieces, and dibble each
into the soil, and keep them moist, and in a week or
so they will be making roots on their own account.

In the case of most of the mossy Saxifrages it will
be found that a large number of adventitious roots
are thrown out along the stem — owing, I believe to
the moisture entangled between the growths that form
the patch, and these pieces only need planting deeply
(so that about one inch of the green tip is visible above
the soil) and they readily grow, provided they are not
allowed to get dry for a fortnight or three weeks.

September I find a suitable month for this. When
taking Sempervivum offsets from their parent clump
it is advisable to secure as much as possible of the strong
cord which attaches the baby to the parent and when
laying the small rosette upon suitable soil, to so place
a piece of stone upon this cord as to prevent the rosette
from being shifted. This greatly facilitates new roots
being sent out at the junction of the cord with the base
of the rosette. Similarly, in the case of Stonecrops— -
with many of them such as spathulifolium, all that is

I

SA XIFRA GA G RIESEBA CHII.

PROPAGATING 65

necessary is to break off small growths, and lay them
upon moist sandy soil, with a piece of stone over their
lower end to prevent them being moved, and in a
surprisingly short time they will root freely.

In such cases as Sediim Sieboldii, S. turkestanicum,
S. spectabile, S. Telephium, I have found it best to break
off in Spring pieces of the root stock, with the new
growths attached to them, and these readily strike
if kept moist.

At first, I used to place these cuttings, if we can
apply that name to them, in the open garden in the
position I had decided the new or enlarged patch
should occupy, but from experience I found it much
better, except in the cases of the most vigorous plants —
which by the way one seldom wishes to propagate,
to put these offsets or cuttings into pots of suitable
soil, and keep them in a place shielded from direct
sun and yet in a good light. In one spare part of my
garden I have arranged a bed of ash some eight inches
deep — and into this I plunge to the rims such pots,
where they can be carefully tended and looked after
to a much greater extent than if scattered about the
open garden, where I should have to shade them with
pieces of paper when the sun was bright, and so on —
a most unsatisfactory arrangement, when it can be so
easily avoided.

With such plants as Primulas, like P. denticulata,

5

66 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

P. rosca, P. Auricula, and of course the common prim-
rose and polyanthus, I take up the whole clump
directly after flowering — unless I require the seed — and
split it up. It is surprising how easily each crown
and its roots can be separated from its neighbours,
without damaging them at all. These pieces if
carefully re-planted, either into pots or the moist soil
of their ordinary bed, will make up good plants by the
following year. If they are put into pots they can be
planted out at any subsequent time, after say a month
or six weeks, when care should be taken not to disturb
them at all, but to merely drop them into a hole which
has previously been made for them of about the right
size.

I also treat such plants as the Veronicas and Cam-
panulas in the same way (I am, of course, not referring
to the shrubby New Zealand Veronicas), and in those
two instances it is quite easy in most cases to chop off
pieces of the root-stock with the trowel, thus rendering
it unnecessary to take up the whole clump.

In the case of the Campanulas like carpatica, pusilla,
and muralis, if broken up in Spring, when they are just
starting into growth, every little shred will grow, if
carefully dibbled in.

In some cases, such for instance as Cotoneaster,
Alpine Phloxes, Acantholimon glumaceum, I find it
best to increase by layers. This I do by selecting

PROPAGATING 67

growths which are in suitable positions, and burying a
few inches of them where they can be bent down so as
to touch the soil, and upon this buried piece, place a
stone, which both holds the growth in position, and
prevents the fine light soil I have put round it from
drying up too readily. In the case of the Acantho-
iimon it is advisable to cut the branch half way through
at the point where it is to be buried. After some time,
varying from a few weeks in the case of the Alpine
Phloxes, to eight to ten months with the Acantholimon,
it will be found that the branch has thrown out roots
into the fine light soil about it, and it can then be
severed from the parent and planted in its final position.
A third method of propagating, usually adopted
where the two former plans are less easily employed,
is that of cuttings. By this term I mean a piece of
the plant definitely cut off, which would not have
rooted had it been left alone, and consequently different
from the case of the offsets of the resetted Saxifrages
and Sempervivums, which normally reproduce in that
way. This plan I generally adopt with the smaller
and rarer Saxifrages, like S. burseriana, apiculata,
Elizabethce, and consists of cutting out some of the small
growths, taking off with a very sharp knife the lower
leaves from each piece and then inserting them into a
pot, containing suitable light gritty soil, which can be
plunged into ash in a close frame, that is a box with a

68 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

glass lid which can be opened or closed at will.
These tiny Saxifrages need handling with extreme care
and a very sharp knife is essential, so as to make
quite a clean cut without bruising.

If the cuttings are syringed daily with a very fine spray,
and the glass carefully wiped to remove the moisture
which condenses on the inside of it, a good proportion
of these cuttings will root, and as soon as I see they are
growing I give more air and gradually harden them off.

It is important to plant these little pieces very
firmly, and the way I go about it is as follows : — I take
a pot five inches in diameter at the top, and fill to one-
third of its depth with broken crocks, then spread over
this a layer of moss to prevent the soil clogging the drain-
age. Having previously mixed my soil according to the
known requirements of the particular plant, I nearly fill
the pot with it, pressing it down very firmly indeed.

The soil should be in that mellow state which allows
of very firm packing, and when smoothed over by a
circular piece of wood on a handle, somewhat like a
household green presser, or the bottom of another pot,
I sprinkle over it a thin layer of fine dry silver sand.

Then with a dibble of a size suited to the cutting
I make a hole in the soil, just where it touches the side
of the pot, and put in cutting number one, with the
dibble I then press the soil up to it very firmly, having
made quite sure that the cutting went to the very

PROPAGATING 69

bottom of the hole. It is fatal if the tiny growth
should be suspended, as it were, by its neck, owing to the
hole having been made too deep. As the holes are
made all round the edge of the pot, the dry silver sand
falls into them to some extent, and seems to benefit
the cuttings, inducing them to root quicker than if it
were not employed.

When all the cuttings are inserted, say half-an-
inch apart, and all round the edge, which position is
selected because the roots appear to relish the equable
conditions of moisture which prevail there, I put the label
denoting the name of the subject into the middle of the
pot, and stand the whole in a dish of water, so that it may
be thoroughly moistened. The water rises, by capillary
attraction, into the soil, and after draining awhile, it
can be plunged to its rim in the ash of the close frame.

I use this method for such other plants as the follow-
ing, Cistus, Pentstemon, Lithospermum, dwarf conifers,
Arabis and Aubrietias. In each of the above cases I use
the current year's growth, when about two inches long.

The last way of propagating, and one which appears
to me to be the most satisfactory, though perhaps less
rapid, is raising the plants from seed. It will be readily
understood that in the foregoing cases we are continuing
the plant from the same source, merely taking a piece
of it away and inducing it to form new roots. In the
case of plants raised from seed, however, a marked

5a

70 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

feature of them is the vigour which they show, probably
due to the interchange of pollen from one plant to
another, thereby introducing new blood, and the
increased vitality which usually follows it.

The chief drawback to this form of propagating
is the liability of seeds not turning out true, due either
to their being incorrectly labelled or to the crossing
of various species one with another. This is especially
likely to occur with the encrusted Saxifrages, Dianthus
and Aquilegias. However, one can reduce the risk to a
minimum by purchasing seed from reliable firms, and
I really think that the little uncertainty attached to
this method makes it all the more enjoyable, because
the cultivator is never quite sure what he will get.

I have found that one of the chief difficulties in
raising from seed is that when we can give only our
spare time to our hobby, the pots are liable to get too
dry occasionally, and in addition to this, the mere fact
of watering them overhead, however fine the rose of the
watering can, is likely to disturb the seeds, especially
in the case of very small ones, such as many of the Alpine
plants produce. How to obviate this difficulty was
the problem I set myself to solve, and the following
description of the plan I have adopted for the past
two years with very great success, may be helpful to
others who are interested in this branch of gardening.
I prepare the soil, and place it in the clean pots very

PROPAGATING 71

much as for the cuttings I have alluded to, being
careful to employ the moss to keep the drainage open
and to have at least one third of the pot full of crocks.
When the soil is nice and level, I sprinkle the seed on to
it, from a piece of paper, which I crease down the centre,
thus forming a sort of gutter or scoop. Great care is
taken to sow thinly and evenly, and this is best accom-
plished in some place protected from the wind. I then
lightly sprinkle about one-sixteenth of an inch of fine
dry silver sand on the top of the pot, increasing the
depth for the larger seeds, the aim being to entirely
cover them and no more.

I prepare my wooden labels before hand, noting on
them the place of origin of the seed, its name, and
date of sowing, and this I firmly place against one edge
of the pot, before the seed is spread upon it. When
the pots are so far finished, I transfer them to a seed
frame I specially made for them as follows : — The
frame is three feet six inches by four feet six inches
and fifteen to eighteen inches deep. I bricked up the
sides and made it quite watertight with cement, the
floor sloping towards the front.

Half-an-inch from the bottom of the frame and at the
front, supported by pieces of tile, to keep it clear from
the bottom, I placed a lead pipe, perforated along its
whole length, with one-sixteenth of an inch holes, at
intervals of one inch. These holes were pointed down-

72 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

wards, and one end of the pipe passed through the
wall of the frame, which was made watertight about it —
the other end being closed up.

Into this frame I then put pieces of brick, broken
to one inch cubes, to the depth of four inches, and on
this a layer two inches thick of the same material but
of half-an-inch cubes. When this was levelled over
I arranged a second piece of lead pipe along the back
of the frame and lying on this rubble — bent it up when
it reached the side — and passed it through the wall,
and connected it to the bottom of a small barrel
standing just above the level of the frame. This pipe
was also perforated at intervals of one inch where it
lay on the rubble, and the openings downwards. I
then spread over the whole a layer of the coarser parts
of peat moss, to prevent small particles from sifting
down between the rubble, and upon this I put to the
depth of seven inches, fine peat.

It will be seen from the foregoing, that if the seed
pots are plunged to their rims in this fine peat, and the
little barrel filled with water, the latter will run out of
the perforated pipe and soak the rubble, and pass off,
through the perforated outlet pipe at the front.

During its passage through the frame, capillary
attraction will cause the peat to absorb water and
impart it to the pots and their contents, thereby
keeping them always at an even state of moisture —

PROPAGATING 73

never too wet, and yet never dry. All the attention
required is to daily fill up the keg with water, so that
a stream of fresh liquid takes the place of that which
flowed through the frame the day before.

The reason for both introducing and collecting the
water by perforated pipes, instead of one larger inlet
and outlet, is to prevent the water from flowing, as
it readily would, in one small channel, thus coming
in contact chiefly with one part of the rubble, instead of
being evenly distributed over the whole area.

It is a convenience to connect a%hort length of rubber
hose to the outlet pipe, where it projects through the
wall, and this can be raised or depressed, so as to cause
more or less water to remain in the frame, should very
hot dry weather demand it.

The glass light I keep on the frame each night and
whenever heavy rain is likely, but so raised above the
sides on which it runs that a current of air is continually
passing over the pots. This is very easily arranged for
by making the sides of the frame three inches higher
than the front and back sills, thereby forming an air
space three inches by three feet six inches — or whatever
the width of the frame may be — both at the back and
front.

When the " light " is off, I replace it with a wooden
frame covered with wire netting so as to keep the birds
from investigating the luscious points of the seeds, just

74 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

as they are coming through the ground. Painful
experience taught me that these feathered visitors
had remarkably keen sight, and could detect the first
sign of germination some time in advance of myself,
much to the disadvantage of the little plants over which
I had taken so much trouble. Other frames, so
ventilated, I find are ideal for keeping my reserve
plants in during the winter, merely protecting them
from undue overhead wet.

It should be borne in mind that in many cases the seed
of Alpine plants is a long while germinating, especially
if the seed is not quite fresh, and on no account should
a pot of seed be given up as hopeless for at least
eighteen months or two years. Only last year, on
January 2nd, 1911, I sowed a pot of seed, purchased
on the Continent, of Sax. thessalica — nothing whatever
" showed up " till February 27th, 1912, when quite a
nice crop of seedlings put in an appearance.

As a rule I find it best to sow the seed, which I save
from my own plants, immediately it is ripe, irrespective
of the time of year, and it is usual for it then to
germinate promptly, whereas if I keep it for only two
months, or so, it may hang fire for quite a long while.

To take a recent example, showing that this is by
no means an unalterable rule however, I may mention
that the plant of Sax. Griesebachii, illustrated on page 65,
produced quite a nice quantity of seed. I gathered

PROPAGATING 75

it when it seemed ripe, and to make quite sure of this I
exposed it to dry air and sunlight for a week, and then
sowed it on March 23rd, 1911. On February 25th,
1912, the first crop of thirteen or fourteen little seedlings
came through the soil. A friend to whom I gave a
portion of the seed had exactly the same experience.

The chief enemies to guard against are liverwort and
moss, both of which do their best to cover the soil with
their growth. I find it best to pick it off with the point
of a knife as soon as it is visible, and when the pots
have been in the frame for some months, I resurface
them with a fresh layer of silver sand.

As soon as the little seedlings are large enough to
handle, I prick them off very carefully, and put them
three in a pot — near the edge — in say two-and-a-half
inch pots, and these are plunged into the ash bed, and
kept moist and shaded for a week or ten days, when the
shading can be removed.

It is said that exposure to frost and snow greatly
hastens the germination of many Alpine seeds,
especially Gentians, and during the frosty weather, I
remove the glass light from the seed frame altogether.

Whether the frost does help them, it is difficult to
say — often after the thaw a crop of seedlings appear,
but whether this is due to frost action needs very careful
experiment to prove beyond doubt — anyway it does
them no harm, so far as I have been able to observe.

CHAPTER VI

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING ; AND THE USE OF
DWARF TREES

WHEN referring to the formation of parts of the
Rock Garden, I mentioned that I would deal more in
detail with planting such subjects as Sax. longifolia,
Ramondias, etc., which require a more or less vertical
position.

To take the case of my small plantation of Sax.
longifolia as an example. Knowing that they were all
the better for being planted on their side, and having
seen in other Alpine gardens how beautiful they looked
when so treated, I decided to make a suitable habitat for
them, and for this purpose built a somewhat steep
buttress-like promontory jutting out into one part
of the garden, the sides of which dropped abruptly to
the surrounding level, and facing south. This piece of
the rockery was composed of separate pieces of stone
placed in such a manner that when the joints were
filled in it would have the appearance of a more or
less uniform face of rock in which crevices existed.
I mention this point because it is almost a necessity
to use plants of at least one-and-a-half to two inches

76

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 77

diameter and these mostly carry too large an amount
of root to be " poked " through an existing hole or
crevice satisfactorily.

The opportunity of obtaining small seedling plants
is rare, and when one is so able — unless the ancestors
of them are known, they are very liable to grow into
anything but the true longi folia, since these plants
hybridize so readily, that impure blood is frequently
met with, and such is very apparent in this case, since
longifolia when really true, unlike almost all other
members of the encrusted saxifrages, never produces
offsets, and reproduces itself solely from seed. It will
easily be understood that under these circumstances
unless the inflorescence is carefully gauzed, very
unreliable progeny will usually result.

But to return to the formation of rock for the
reception of these plants. It follows that if plants with
a fair quantity of root are to be inserted in such a way
as to protrude through a crevice, the easiest way to
achieve that end is to place them in a position as the
face of rock is being built. To do this, I laid the first
course, of irregular stone pieces, on a well-rammed
foundation, and filled in behind them with very stony
soil, largely mixed with old mortar rubbish.

The saxifrages were then taken from their pots,
the crocks removed, the lower roots carefully loosened,
and then the plants laid each into a chink or crevice

78 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

formed by two adjacent stones, placing the rosette in
such a way that it protruded through what would
otherwise have been a small opening, and with its neck
close to the stone. Then by carefully selecting another
piece of rock with which to start the next irregular
course, and so placing it as to permit of it just bridging
the small opening where the plant was lying, it was
quite simple to construct the small crevice-like
aperture about the plant, instead of inserting it into the
already formed opening, as suggested in the case of
seedling Armerias, and other deep rooting plants.
By this means I was able to decorate what appeared
to be a miniature cliff, with the beautiful silvery stars
of this admitted Queen of the Saxifrages, the roots of
which would run in a semi-horizontal direction into
the limy soil behind, while owing to the upright position
of the rosettes, no water would collect, or remain in
their crowns.

Where it was impossible to find pieces of stone of
such a shape as to exactly fit like an arch over the neck
of the plant — by far the most desirable way — I made up
some clay and moss into a kind of mortar, and by
filling up any little spaces with this, rendered the
crevices soil tight.

The object of mixing moss with the clay is to prevent
it gradually creeping downwards when in a moist state
from rain. This mortar is most useful for such purposes

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 79

and it has the added quality of " giving " slightly
to the growing plant.

It is advisable to carry up this spur or protruding
shoulder at least nine inches above the topmost
rosette, otherwise the upper ones may suffer from
drought in the Summer. Some of the blood-red
rosettes of Sempervivum triste formed a splendid con-
trast to the silver of the saxifrages when I planted
them on the topmost point of this position.

The longer crevices or joints between the stone
I dealt with by filling in with stone chips, like small
wedges, and afterwards giving, where necessary, just
a touch of cement to fix them. This emphasized the
cliff-like appearance, by suggesting that the whole
face was one irregular piece of rock, besides — most
important of all preventing the soil from constantly
weeping out at these places. It must be clearly under-
stood that any such leakage of soil not merely dirties
the rosettes, but it creates a vacant space behind the
stones which is most harmful. The great aim should
'be to secure perfect solidity, with no hollow spaces
behind the lumps of rock ; every piece should have the
earth packed as tightly as possible behind it.

I referred, in the opening chapter, to a method of
toning down the crude whiteness of my concrete
blocks which is so staring in the dry weather. I
experimented in a number of directions, with but

8o THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

indifferent success, and then remembering that the
colour of our sandstones is largely due to the infiltra-
tion of iron in solution, it occurred to me that possibly
something on this line would lead to a better result.
After one or two attempts, I obtained the salt,
Ferri-Perchloride, and when four ounces of this is
dissolved in approximately a gallon of water, and
applied to the concrete lumps by the aid of a small
brush or mop, the result is a rich, yellowish brown colour
most acceptable in contrast to the varying greens of the
foliage. I find it well to water or syringe the various
pieces of " rock " a few minutes before applying the
iron solution, thereby encouraging the latter to flow
over it readily instead of being repelled by the dry
surface. While I take care not to drop or splash the
solution on to the plants, I have seen no indication
that it is harmful to them.

In my Ramondia corner I followed much the same
course, laying the plants in position as the building
proceeded, and filling up the small crevices with clay
and moss. The frontispiece to the book, from my own
photograph, illustrates the handsome appearance of
these invaluable plants.

Such plants as Auricula alpina, the yellow auricula
of the Alps, and Sax. cochlearis v. minor, that silvery
little fellow which " packs " itself with such delightful
hummocks, I used, with what I consider very good

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 81

effect, to furnish oblique seams between the larger
lumps of rock in another part of the garden.

Often when building fairly steeply, I found that the
pieces of stone would so arrange themselves as to give
me a crack perhaps one foot long and one to one-and-a-
half inches wide, at an angle of say forty-five degrees.
This slanting fissure I dealt with in the following
way. Firstly, when the stones were firmly settled down
and the soil well hammered in behind them, I shaped a
piece of wood, just the right size to pass freely into the
crack (approximately one inch by two inches) and
with this I found I could drive the soil well home
through this small gap, to a much greater extent
than by any other means.

For the method of planting I am about to detail
the thorough packing of the soil in the first place is
of great importance, since it is almost impossible to
do it afterwards.

Starting from the bottom, I fitted into the crevice
a splinter of stone, which would wedge tightly and
close up the lower two or three inches ; after filling in
with limy soil to this point and well compacting it, I
put in my first plant or small tuft of Sax. cochlearis
so that its neck rested on the upper surface of the
wedge of stone, with the roots well spread out almost
horizontally on to the soil behind, but sloping slightly
downwards.

82 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

Next, with great care, I put a small layer of my clay
and moss some quarter of an inch thick on to the neck
of the plant, to prevent it being bruised, and then
drove home my next wedge of stone, repeating the
process and filling up with soil each time, so as to
separate my plants, or tufts, by about one-and-a-half
inches.

If the reader has followed this description, it will be
seen that by the time I reached the end of the crevice
which before had been a gaping crack, it was filled
from end to end by tight cushions of the Saxifrage
or the shell-like rosettes of the Primula, alternated with
pieces of stone. In the case of the Saxifrage I found it
greatly enhanced their beauty, if I used as the wedges
pieces of the Old Red Sandstone, the lovely rich colour
of it contrasting beautifully with the shimmering
silvery rosettes of the Saxifrages — a very small quantity
of this stone which I had was thus used economically
and to its fullest advantage.

When the whole place was planted, I carefully
fixed each wedge, where it seemed to require it, with a
little tinted cement, to prevent it becoming loose from
the action of the frost, the blade of my pocket knife
making an excellent " trowel " for this delicate purpose,
since great care had to be taken to avoid touching the
leaves with the caustic cement. A little powdered
Venetian red and gas black mixed with the cement,

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 83

is a ready means of taking the " edge " off its crude
whiteness.

In a few months after planting, given a suitable
position — full sun in this case, the crevice was entirely
hidden with these charming little plants, only here and
there peeping forth from between them the wedge of
reddish stone, the sloping position being just what
these little mountaineers revel in.

From the many rock gardening books I have read
I have drawn the conclusion that on no account
should anything in the nature of cement be allowed
in the Rock Garden, and while doubtless it would be
unwise to use it to any considerable extent to hold the
stones in position, I have found the intelligent
employment of it in special positions, such as the fore-
going, to be most useful, and as far as I can see, no ill
effects have followed therefrom.

It must also be borne in mind, that while it is most
necessary, in the largest Rock Garden, to prevent the
leakage of soil from one part to another, this is inten-
sified when the space available is as tiny as mine,
and too much attention cannot be given to prevent it.
Often at some leaky spot the use of a small piece of
stone fixed with cement will make all the difference
between success and failure, while the scale of the
whole garden is too small to permit the use of a
stone large enough to stop the gap.

84 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

It will be noticed that I am continually referring
to old mortar and broken brick as excellent materials
to mix with the soil. The former I use as a substitute
for chalk or crushed limestone, to furnish such plants as
require it — notably the silvery section of the Saxifrages
— with lime. Usually sifted mortar, the detritus from
pulling down old buildings, is easily obtained near a
town, and in the absence of natural limestone or chalk,
answers admirably, by not only providing the neces-
sary lime in, apparently, an easily assimilated form,
but tends to keep open the sticky soil of my locality —
and as everyone knows, who labours under this dis-
advantage, no matter how much we may lighten the
heavy soil by the addition of sand, it always seems
to partake, though in a modified degree, of the all-
pervading soapiness.

The broken brick makes an excellent substitute for
sandstone in the soil, not only to keep it open, but to
prevent the too rapid evaporation of moisture, and yet
ensure quick drainage. I find that really well burnt
but porous bricks are the best, and if for use near plants
that dislike lime, care should be taken to see that no
old mortar is adhering to the bricks before they are
crushed. I generally use of this stuff the siftings
through a half-inch sieve.

I have already dealt with the manner in which I
constructed my little bog beds in Chppter II., merely

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 85

clay lining the bottom of a depression and filling in
with suitable soil. It is surprising what a host of small
plants I have accommodated in these places ; in the
Springtime one never seems to know what charming
little acquaintance may be coming through the soil
next. At the earliest dawn of Spring come a few
Snowdrops, followed almost immediately by some
Muscari, before these are well out Primula denticulata
begins to open its cauliflower-like buds, in which
the flower trusses have lain so snugly packed through
the Winter.

Erythroniums, or Dog's Tooth Violets too are here,
and the Wood Anemone, A. nemorosa, and its many
varieties including that beautiful pale blue form A.
Robinsoniana, while a little later Primula rosea opens its
lovely carmine flowers, coming through either a
carpet of Cotula squalida, or C. accencefolia (which
by the way must be well looked after, or it will swamp
everything) or Arenaria balearica and A. ccespitosa.
Here also in full sun, though always moist, trails the
ruddy branches of the sweet little twin flower Linncea
borealis, and its larger form americana, which in their
season bear their quaint pink flowers.

As the year advances, P. involucrata, from the
Himalayas, gives me its white flowers flushed with
lilac, and the larger counterpart of P. farinosa, known
as P. frondosa.

86 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

In quiet corners grow the dwarf leathery leaved
tufts of Soldanella alpina, which in Spring are sur-
mounted by their charming deeply fringed bells of
lavender, while last, but by no means least, that glorious
blue-flowered Columbine, Aquilegia alpina vera.

It is surprising too, what a number of plants flourish
in this spongy medium, which one would least
consider suitable residents for moist positions. I
remember only two years ago finding a self-sown
seedling of Sedum turkestanicum growing there, which
much to my surprise, retained its habit, and even
flowered last year. It makes an ideal place for ger-
minating seeds, especially those one does not desire.

There is, not far from my bog bed, a laburnum tree,
and I believe one hundred per cent, of the seeds that
blow on to the moist soil germinate, necessitating
constant weeding. Still even this quality has its
advantages, for when one has a few houseleeks, which
have fallen off from their parent clump, and are found
in an almost desiccated state of dryness, by placing the
right way up on the peaty soil, they throw out numerous
roots in a week or so, and are then easily transplanted
to a more natural habitat.

DWARF TREES.

In most nurserymen's lists of Alpine plants there is
usually included a section dealing with dwarf trees—
principally conifers — suitable for use in the rock garden.

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 87

These little trees make ideal subjects when suitably
placed, though I fear they are too often inserted into
the positions they occupy largely because there
happens to be a vacancy in that place. It has always
seemed to me that they are so valuable both from
the decorative line they give, and from their ever-
green character, that considerable care and thought
should be given as to just where they should go.

Another point which often strikes me in this con-
nection, is, that in most cases these little trees are
planted and then left , severely alone, which usually
results in their making a more or less solid head, some-
what after the shape of a bee-hive. It seems to me that
their employment in the rock garden should be to
simulate as far as possible, on a small scale, the
mature trees of the mountains.

Owing probably to their dwarf habit of growth, and
the sheltered positions they generally occupy in our
gardens, when they are left entirely alone, they are
apt to grow dense and crowded, and so lose those
characteristic lines which are noticeable in an old
weather-beaten tree.

How extremely picturesque are those trees we often
see in the mountains, clinging to some projecting crag
and throwing out their comparatively few wind-driven
branches, in the most delightful way. If we could only
induce our dwarf conifers to grow somewhat after the

88 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

same manner, how very decorative they would be,
among our small Alpine plants.

Some time since I made an experiment in this
direction, and a few notes with regard to this may be
of interest, and I trust helpful to others who are of
the same way of thinking as myself.

On a shoulder of my Rock Garden, near to the steep
cliff dropping down to the pool, I originally had a small
Rowan. After a time, however, this grew too large
to be in keeping with my tiny garden, and I was com-
pelled to remove it. Desiring to replace it with a
dwarf or slow-growing conifer, I secured a plant oi
Juniperus chinensis, three feet high, and with a naked
stem for the first eighteen inches. This I carefully
planted in the desired spot, and staked it securely to
prevent it being swayed by the wind. It then
appeared as is shown in the first photograph on page 76.
It will be noticed, that though it is by no means as
dense as many of the slow-growing dwarf conifers,
it still has a youthful appearance, and would not suggest
to anyone a mature tree of the mountains.

When the rains had settled the soil well about the
roots, I proceeded to replace the three bamboo canes
with pieces of thin copper wire, arranged in a triangle
and fastened to the upper part of the bare stem,
radiating to three points, where I securely fastened
them to concealed iron pegs in the neighbouring rock.

CROCUS VERSICOLOR.

SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 89

I selected the copper wire because in addition to its being
strong, it tarnishes in a few days by exposure to the
air, and becomes practically invisible at a few yards
distance. Before fastening it round the stem, I care-
fully bandaged the latter with a piece of pliable leather.

I then proceeded to carefully bend down one of the
lower branches, till it occupied what I considered a
more suitable position, and here I fastened it, again with
thin copper wire, to one of the previous supports, or
to the stem itself, using a smaller bandage of leather
to prevent the wire cutting into the branch.

I worked upwards from the lowest branch, dealing
with each in a similar way, taking great care to induce
the branch to bend at a natural angle, such as we see
on large trees, due to the weight of the branches
themselves — if the angle taken did not appear correct
it could generally be righted by allowing the wire to
grip the branch at a different place.

In a few cases I found it necessary to cut out a
portion of the growth, but only to a small extent,
and then only after making quite sure that it could not
'advantageously be used in one position or another.

At some points it was advisable to attach a second
wire, and carry it away at right angles, so as to draw
the branch sideways as well as downwards, and this I
also fixed to a concealed peg. In one case, doubtless
due to insufficient care, I accidentally cracked one of the

go THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

older branches, and this I at once treated with Stock-
holm tar, dropping it into the wound, and binding up
the whole with tarred string. So far this seems to
have prevented any decay setting in, and as this
occurred some time ago, I am hopeful that no ill effects
will follow. When I had finished treating the subject
in this way it appeared as shown in the second photo-
graph on page 76 and to my mind better represents a
mature tree than the former one, and certainly is more
decorative. Where the small leather bandages were
of a colour which taught the eye, I applied a small
quantity of brown spirit stain, which entirely prevented
them being noticeable.

After a time, probably a year or eighteen months,
depending upon the age of the subject so treated, the
branches will, I hope, have hardened into the required
positions, and the wire stays can be removed.

I believe much may be done on the lines of the fore-
going, to greatly improve many of the dense growing
dwarf trees used in the Rock garden, and certainly where
one's pocket is not of the deepest, much interest is deri-
vable from manufacturing one's own miniature trees.

A close inspection of good specimens of Japanese
dwarf trees is very helpful, and especially the manner
in which the branches are tied, and makes one realise
how extremely clever and painstaking are these
Eastern people.

CHAPTER VII

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN AND ITS INHABITANTS
THE YEAR THROUGH

I WILL here endeavour, in as brief a way as possible, to
give an idea of some of the little mountain plants
which interest me so much — roughly as they come into
flower from January onwards.

It must be understood that the time of flowering
of each of the plants mentioned is largely dependent
upon the kind of weather we happen to be favoured with
and this is especially so during the earlier months.

Very many of the Croci, for example, show through
the ground before Christmas, and if the weather is
mild, as it often is, come rapidly into blossom ; if on
the other hand, it should continue frosty, they seem to
stand quite still for weeks, until a gleam of sun and a
mild day or two sees them develop in a most extra-
ordinary manner — transforming themselves from
unopened buds in the crowns of the plants, to wide-
spread blossoms in, so to speak, a few hours.

January is usually ushered in with a few of the
yellow flowers of Crocus vitellinus, in sheltered corners

92 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

of the garden, springing from a carpet of evergreen,
such as Arenaria or Sedum, often accompanied by
Eranthis hyemalis — the little Winter Aconite, with
its bright yellow flowers and fresh green leaves.

Before many days are passed Narcissus Bulbocodium
monophyllus, as shown on page 96, keeps them company;
the delicate white flowers of this choice little daffodil
look strangely fairy-like in this dead time of the year.

It is difficult at any time from December to March
to find that pretty little shrub, Daphne Mezereum,
without a few of its sessile pink blossoms upon the
bare branches, and often during mild intervals it is
quite gay.

It is not unusual, when Christmas has been pre-
ceded by a mild period, to find a few heads of rich
purple flowers upon Primula capitata, while here and
there, the common primrose, in odd corners, is ever
ready to give us a touch of colour. Snowdrops, too,
generally push up their choice flowers at this time,
though but sparingly— Galanthus Elwesii usually being
among the first — while upon the gritty portion of
the rockery, devoted to Saxifrages, that gem of the
encrusted section, 5. Gricscbachii, and its near ally
S. Stribnryi are beginning to protrude their centres,
and- becoming daily more and more crimson. The
former of these two, especially, is delightfully attractive
all through the winter, often beginning to rise in early

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 93

October and not fading until well into March. The
beautiful crosier-like form of the inflorescence and the
symmetrical outline of its rosette is well illustrated
on page 65. Especially gritty, limy soil is desirable
for this plant, and also a protecting glass, to keep off
undue wet.

Here too, from the greyish-green, hedge-hog-like
cushions of foliage, Sax. burseriana is sending up its
lovely white flowers of a satin-like texture, supported
on crimson stalks. Charming, indeed, in mid January,
is this little inhabitant of eastein Europe ; the repro-
duction on page 68 illustrates how I prevent the soil
from being splashed on to it — by surrounding it with
stone chips, even though it is not planted in actual
moraine soil.

In those quiet half-shady corners devoted to
Cyclamens, C. Coum and C. ibericum are opening their
choice flowers (C. Coum album being an especial
favourite with me) the effect being greatly heightened
by the rich green — with red undersides — of the leaves
that accompany them.

With the advent of February we are able to appre-
ciate the slightly lengthened days, and the increased
vigour of the light, both of which are active factors in
the development of the blossoms, the chubby little
greenish knobs with which the patches of Sax. apiculata
have been for some weeks studded, rapidly elongate and

94 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

burst into flower, showing us a green hummock spangled
with pale lemon-coloured blossoms !

The Hepaticas, too, quickly unfold their silky
growths and throw up their lovely blue anemone-like
flowers. With me the pink form is rather later — it
being usually March before it opens.

Of the Croci we now have quite a show, their
brilliant colourings causing them to stand out vividly
against the darker coloured background — the most
attractive being the golden cups of C. chrysanthus, the
open flowers of C. Imperati, of a soft blue tending to
purple, among its unopened buds, the outside of which
are a curious creamy buff ; while most lovely of all
perhaps, is C. Sieberi, of the clearest lilac blue, with rich
yellow stamens.

At this time come in small groups that effective
little Scilla bifolia, making such a brave show, long
before its relative 5. sibirica is open, forming as it were
miniature fountains of rich blue stars, while contrasted
with these are the dainty pendent white bells of
Leucojum vernum, somewhat like enlarged snowdrops,
though even more dainty.

The flower I look for in February, however, with the
keenest anticipation, is that early gem, Ins reticulata.
This is an interesting member of a glorious genus.
Pushing through the ground in early January a sharp
pointed spear-like growth, it produces one four-sided

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 95

leaf, not, however, quite square, and tipped with a
curious nail-like point, probably to aid it piercing the
half-frozen ground. When about four inches high,
other growths appear, and encased in these latter is the
flower. Usually the bud opens when only three or four
inches from the ground, and from it emerges a charming
typical Iris flower of the richest purple, and in the
throat net-like veins of brilliant gold. It is about
three inches in diameter, and shaped like a delicate
Spanish Iris, while it is strongly perfumed as with
violets. Groups of this lovely little flower can hardly
fail to attract, even when the garden is already gleaming
with other early and beautiful subjects.

February in my garden is essentially a month of
awakening life, every part is teeming with points of
new growth, while the ground is literally alive with
bulbous plants pushing their way through it, soon to
produce a riot of colour in every portion.

March brings me Anemone blanda, that beautiful
Greek windflower, with petals of richest blue, rising
from its bronzy green foliage. In many gardens I
, know it is much earlier, but for some reason it develops
later with me — it is none the less welcome, however,
on this account, and if planted not far distant from a
patch of Sax. Elizabcethce, its colour contrasts delight-
fully with the rich yellow flower, poised on crimson
stalks, of this latter plant.

96 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

I learn from several growers that this Saxifrage
is sometimes a shy bloomer ; perhaps I am fortunate
in having a form which flowers fairly freely.

In sunny places on the moraine, or in sharp gritty
soil, where its roots can find a cool moist medium
during the hot weather, Sax. oppositifolia is now opening
its purplish crimson flowers, and the variety splendens
is especially prolific with me, and at so early a time in
the year the rich colour of its flowers, on the dark green
carpet of trailing growths, is very acceptable. We
also have at this time quite a variety of small daffodils,
including that miniature form Narcissus minimus,
seldom rising more than three inches from the ground,
but perfect in every respect. Rather larger is N. Bulbo-
codium citrinus, the sulphur coloured hoop petticoat
daffodil, and N. cyclamineus, with its rich colour and
reflexed sepals.

One of my favourites, however, is N. iriandrus albus,
so delightfully named " angels' tears," with its pale
cream flowers, rising from grass-like foliage. This
little daffodil makes a splendid companion to Bulbo-
codium vernum, the Spring meadow saffron, contrasting
well with the latter's rosy purple flowers, emerging
abruptly from the soil. Both of these bulbous plants
are easily accommodated, as to soil and position, and if
arranged in irregular drifts are very charming when in
flower I

NARCISSUS BULBOCODIUM VAR. MONOPHYLLUS.

CYCLAMEN NEAPOLITANUM VAR. ALBUM.

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 97

Now, too, is the time of Crocus versicolor, that gem
of the Spring flowering group hailing from the sunny
south of France. It is surprising that it should prove
so good tempered in our variable weather, but if planted
in sandy loam and a little leaf-mould it seems quite
happy. It looks charming when the March sunshine
falls upon a colony of these blooms, with their white
or faintest lavender petals, veined with rich purple
blue, while glistening within this beautiful protecting
cup, the golden stamens gleam forth. (See page 88.)

Towards the end of the month, Caltha palustris and
its much larger relative C. polypetala open their golden
flowers down by the pool side, and though the former
at least is a comparatively common plant, they are both
very welcome, since bog plants as a whole are less
early in their flowering than those in drier positions.

When the soft days of April arrive we are surrounded
by flowers on every hand. The steeper parts of the
pool-side are draped with cataracts of Arabis, tumbling
down to meet the lovely Primula denticulata, in a
variety of shades which adorn the edge of the pool —
while from the bog bed, rise on three foot hairy stalks
the inflorescence of Sax. peltata.

Higher on the rock, in irregular streaks, strong
patches of richest purple denote the presence of Viola
gracilis, while not far off the shaggy nodding heads of
the lovely Pasque flower, Anemone Pulsatilla, gently

98 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

sway in the soft air ; this last plant delights in a chalky
soil mixed with leafy humus, while the viola appreciates
a sandy compost.

Just beneath the eye, in the semi-boggy bays
abutting on the path, Soldanella alpina is shaking its
lavender bells to the wind, and close to it is Primula
farinosa, from whose greyish green rosettes of leaves
has emerged the farina-covered stalks supporting heads
of rosy pink star-like flowers. The illustration on page
32 gives some idea how pretty groups of this lovely
little native of Yorkshire look — it also shows, partially
buried between the plants, the pieces of stone to which
I have earlier referred.

In the rocky clefts, the shell-like foliage of the
Auriculas is now adorned with their flowers, and
irregular plantations of A. Celtic King are glowing
patches of rich yellow.

Primula marginata too, in somewhat similar positions,
is in flower — in this case pink is the prevailing colour,
the stalks being very powdery, while the extreme edge
of the serrated leaf is farina-covered ; a very striking
little plant, if near enough to be closely examined.

On the moraine, Draba aizoides has had its tufts of
green foliage transformed into hummocks of bright
yellow, while Draba dedeana is one mass of white
flowers, and looking the picture of happiness among
the stone chips.

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 99

Of the several close-growing plants in that part of
the garden devoted to the small saxifrages, Sax,
Salomoni appeals to me strongly, sending up its pure
white flowers two or three on a stem, from a particularly
close spiny cushion of hard grey foliage — near to this
is Sax. rocheliana, with small compact rosettes of leaves,
and flattish heads of white flowers.

In the more shady portions, green hummocks of
the mossy section, such as Saxifraga ccespitosa, make
the garden very gay, and to illustrate how extremely
easy they are to grow, I prepared the photographs
seen on page 69 ; the first shows a plant of S. ccespitosa
some eight months after planting, while the second
illustrates the patch it had formed by the following
season, without, in the interval, having received any
attention whatever.

Most striking of all the mossy varieties is 5. Wallacei,
sometimes spoken of as S. Camposi, which has decora-
tive foliage, considerably larger than most other
varieties, while the lovely pure white flowers — quite
giants by comparison, are strongly hawthorn scented.
Here and there between the patches of the white
mossy saxifrages, I grow the pink forms, like Rhei,
Rhei superba, and Clibrana — they make very pleasing
variations in the general colour scheme.

In the few places where I can permit a large plant to
remain, Iberis sempervirens makes a brilliant hummock

ioo THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

of white at this season, retaining its beauty for a con-
siderable time.

In odd places I have a few plants of Anemone
apennina, which in April give a pretty effect, with their
pale blue flowers, while in one quiet corner I have
planted in loam, leaf mould and sand, a small planta-
tion of that lovely form of our wood anemone known as
A. Robinsoniana. This is indeed a lovely plant, with
large lilac blue flowers, containing a cluster of yellow
stamens.

May seems to issue a " call to arms " to all the
inhabitants of the Rock Garden to put their best
efforts forward to make the very utmost of their
beauties during this and the succeeding month. And
how readily this summons is answered ! Plants of
all species seen to tumble over one another in their
efforts to see which shall be in flower first, and which
shall most readily attract the eye !

It is difficult to single out individual plants, and still
more difficult to even attempt to describe all of them.
If I mention a few, it is because they happen to come
to my mind at the moment, and it does not follow that
those left unnoticed are in any way inferior to them.
Perhaps the Aubrietias claim attention first, hanging in
soft cushions of lavender, pink and purple over the
steep places, or mantling less precipitous ground in
undulating hummocks of flower.

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 101

In half-shady places Dodecatheons such as Hendersoni
and splendens, thrust up their flower stems, terminating
in a shower of cyclamen-like flowers, of rosy purple,
or deepest crimson, with golden stamens well exposed.

These Dodecatheons, allied to the Primulas, and
hailing, I believe, from moist woods of North America,
appreciate peaty leafy soil, with sand and loam added,
while a position not too much exposed to the sun is
desirable.

In somewhat similar positions, the Erythroniums,
or Dog's Tooth Violets, flourish. The mottled foliage of
green and brown of our common Erythroniums is
extremely pretty, especially when crowned with its
delicate pink flowers, with chocolate stamens. Much
more decorative and valuable for the Rock Garden,
however, are some of the American forms of this
charming genus, among the few only which I possess,
Eryth. giganteum is very lovely, sending up slender
stems to a height of twelve inches, and supporting
beautiful lily-like flowers of a pale yellow colour, with
brownish marking on the inside.

Trilliums also join these two foregoing plants in
similar positions and the variety grandiflorum is a
singular and beautiful plant, when its solitary white
three-petalled flower is open.

In the bog bed, we have Primula sikkimensis, the
Himalayan Cowslip fully out. This is perhaps one of

102 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

the most charming of the primulas, though not too
happy in the South of England, I believe. From a
slender stalk, some eighteen inches high, rising from a
tuft of softly tinted green leaves, depend in a most
graceful way lemon-yellow bell-shaped flowers, in the
utmost profusion.

Near to this are clumps of that decorative P. Sieboldi,
with its handsome foliage — the deep rose coloured
varieties making a delightful foil to the yellow flowers
of P. sikkimensis. Both of these plants with me
like sunshine and ample root moisture, and are planted
within a few inches of the pool.

In the small bog patches close at hand that larger
relative of P. farinosa> viz., P. frondosa, is in full bloom,
its rosy flowers much resembling those of its near
relative, though the leaves are so heavily covered with
farina on their backs as to be as white as a piece of
paper, while that sweet little plant allied to the Gentians,
Erythrcea diffusa, is spangling the moist soil with its
starry pink flowers.

The cascade of white tumbling over some rocks
towards the centre of the garden is Arenaria montana,
a " jewel of the first water," where we can spare the
room to develop its full beauties as a prostrate plant,
while here and there peeping at us on some ledge are the
blue drum-stick-like flowers of Globularia nudicaulis.

From intermediate positions, as regards moisture,

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 103

and where the soil is in no way specially good, rise the
myriad tapering lavender spikes of Veronica gentianoides
and its variegated form, while under the lee of some
sheltering rock, in complete shade, and rising from the
bronzy green leaves, often ranging to rich crimson, the
lovely crimped edged flowers of Shortia galacifolia
gleam in their satin-like surface and faint pink flush.
I find almost pure peat, with a little sand and perpetual
moisture, in addition to the shade already alluded to,
necessary for this lovely plant.

On the moraine, Campanula excisa is scrambling
about among the chips, while if we are fortunate,
Eritrichium nanum rejoices us with its brilliant though
diminutive flowers, and as we look at it, our thoughts
wander to the hundred to one chances against this
sweet little visitor being with us this time next year !

June in the Rock Garden 1 The words seem to
suggest to the Alpine gardener a veritable rainbow of
floral pigments. One's whole nature expands with
happiness as we drink in the sweet perfumes, and
appreciate the galaxy of colour with which the garden
is flooded. Colours so soft and dainty, like those of
Androsace sarmentosa, held aloft from their shaggy
rosettes of leaves, Asperula suberosa with its wee pink
trumpets, through the ever swelling note given by
Aquilegia ccerulea and A. chrysantha to Dianthus
deltoides and the golden radiance of Hypericum fragile,

104 THE STORV OF MY ROCK GARDEN

and past the rich chocolate and yellow of Cypripedium
Calceolus and the stronger patches where the Heli-
anthemums lie scorching in the sunshine.

Then the patches of yellow Sedums take up the tale
in burning gold, and contrast their brilliancy with the
ringing purple of Campanula pulla and pulloides, only
to be hushed into quietness by the fiery note of Anemone
fulgens, with its sheaf of coal-black stamens. In a
cool bog bay, backed by the great leaves of Senecio
clivorum, are the glorious orange globes of Trollius
asiaticus, rising above its handsome foliage, while at
its base are the rich crimson whorls of Primula pul-
verulenta, with its mealy stems, and a little further
away P. japonica.

While in some moist and sunny position, well
protected against drought, one catches a glimpse of—
is it a fragment of the summer sky reflected in some
tiny pool ? or a carpet of green strewn with sapphires ?
— upon closer inspection it rivals even these ! it is
Gentiana verna — the purest blue flower to be found in
the whole world, and yet deigning to give its glorious
beauty to even a London garden, and justly taking
the position of the presiding deity over the many
claimants for that honour during June — that month
of loveliness in the Alpine garden. No idea of the
brilliancy of this charming little plant can be conveyed
by a description in words, or even by the artist's

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 105

brush ; the beauty of the flowers, them, can only be
realized to the full by those who have seen them either
in our gardens, or in the Alps. With me Gentiana
verna does well, in sandy loam and leaf mould, kept
moist during the Summer. The clumps increase and
bear at times as many as a hundred flowers.

Unfortunately its near relative, G. acaulis, is not so
tractable, and though it grows quite freely with me,
only produces " blind " and empty calices, just when
it should be studded with its huge blue trumpets.

June also sees that choice little silvery plant
Geranium argenteum put forth its pink flowers, while
that brilliant though diminutive Alpine pink, Dianthus
alpinus, comes into bloom, growing only one inch
high, in moist gritty soil, or the moraine, and with
me, in full sun. The chief trouble I have with it
is that during the Winter a tiny yellowish grub eats
its way up the centre of the growths, causing each pair
of leaves to fall off, and eventually killing the plant.
I believe the eggs are laid by some fly, in the tissues of
the plant, during the Autumn, and hatch out in the
early Winter. I have tried frequent spraying with a
solution of quassia chips from August onwards, but
with very little result.

This month is the time of the Spanish Iris, and very
charming they look planted in small groups,
springing well above the more dwarf plants, while

io6 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

protruding from fissures, through which the tap root
can descend into cool soil, the great thrift, Armeria
plantaginea, throws up myriads of rosy flowers on erect
stalks, some fifteen to eighteen inches high.

Often this plant is still in flower in October and
November, while only last year I counted fifty stalks
on a single plant, each bearing a globular truss of
blossom.

Spreading in a careless manner over the rocks and
on to the path, the countless spikelets of Veronica
rupestris — not far behind the Gentians in point of
colour — join in the display.

The buttress-like stones rising from the path are
in some cases clothed with the old double white pink,
and very showy these clumps of grey foliage are
surmounted by a sheaf of white.

From the rocky portions of the garden, the silvery
rosettes of Saxifraga Hostii, S. Aizoon, S. cochlearis and
S. lingulata lantoscana, are displaying their trusses of
flower, while from points of vantage spring the huge
two feet six inches plumes from Sax. Cotyledon v.
pyramidalis.

In the Saxifrage corner S. Aizoon v. lutea and v. rosea
vie with one another for attention, while spreading over
the rocks bounding this portion of the garden are the
silvery cushions of Dianthus casius thickly studded
with their pink flowers.

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 107

On the minute growth of Arenaria balearica
creeping about like a moss, still linger numbers
of its wee white flowers, while on the moraine
the green rosettes of Camp. Allionii are now sur-
mounted with its large, blue, trumpet-like flowers,
making a very effective display.

From between the rocks, which will protect it to
some extent from the excessive wet, the graceful
pendant bells of Onosma echioides hang in quantities
and well deserve their name of golden drops. Trailing
masses of pink and lavender denote the Alpine phloxes,
while the glaucous green hummocks of many divided
leaves, spangled with whitish convolvulus-like flowers,
call our attention to that lovely Oxalis enneaphylla
from the Falkland Islands.

Of the dwarf Sedums I favour S. spathuli folium, both
for neatness of growth and brilliancy of its rich yellow
flowers, and if this is planted where its gold can contrast
with that glorious trailing shrub Lithospermum
prostratum the effect is delightful. The vivid blue of
the Lithospermum can be seen during many months
of the year, but it is perhaps at its best during June
as it trails over some hot stones. I have mine planted
in peaty loam with pieces of limestone and mortar in the
soil, and while one grower advises sun and lime, and
another says shade and peat, mine seems very happy
in this intermediate compost !

io8 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

In the steep, moist, shady places the lovely Haberleas
and Ramondias are flowering, the latter looking very
charming as the spikes of purplish violet flowers, with
a rich orange eye, rise from the rosettes of shaggy
wrinkled leaves. Perhaps the illustration on page 77
may suggest in a modest way the richness of verdure
and profusion of flower in a corner of my Rock Garden,
and may serve to indicate the manner in which the rock
springs from a flower-strewn path edge.

July is, to a very large extent, a repetition of June,
especially when the temperature is moderate, and does
not scorch up the flowers almost before they open, as
in 1911. However, we have valuable additions to
make good the inevitable depletion due to those plants
which have finished their period of flowering, and are
fast ripening their seed. Such additions include
Acantholimon glumaceum, or Prickly Thrift, with its
numerous spikelets of bright rose-coloured flowers,
projecting from its cushion of rigid sharply-pointed
leaves, where it hugs some sun-baked rock.

Dianthus neglectus, that sweet little Pink, with its
small narrow grass-like foliage quite inconspicuous
when not in flower, is now spangled with its rich
carmine blossoms, closing each evening, and exhibiting
the softly tinted back of each petal. This is indeed a
charming little plant, and best of all a good perennial,
seemingly free from the quality, associated with so

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 109

many Alpine Pinks, of " going off " without any
apparent reason.

This plant seems to delight in gritty loam to which
old mortar has been added, and the position, though
fully exposed to the sun, should be one where the roots
can find a moist medium through which they can run.
As with D. alpinus, it is much better to err on the side
of poor soil, since otherwise, more leaves than flowers
may be the result.

Down some steep face of rock, exposed to full sun,
that lovely Androsace, lanuginosa, is now in full
flower, throwing up its primula-like trusses of pink
blossoms, from its avalanche of silvery growths. It
revels in such a position, especially if the soil is very
gritty, as the stone over which it trails keeps its foliage
clean and dry.

In the bog garden Iris Kcempferi is opening its huge
clematis-like flowers, though with me not too freely.
The self-coloured varieties appear to me to be
particularly lovely. Near to the Iris is Astilbe japonica
v. Peach-blossom, with its waving masses of minute
pink flowers, and as a carpet for it, surfacing the most
peaty soil, the glorious blossoms of Mimulus cupreus v.
Brilliant.

In that part of the garden devoted to the choicer
Saxifrages, where the soil is very free, and also in the
moraine, Erodium corsicum is now in full blossom.

no THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

and very pretty the bright pink flowers look, sur-
mounting its soft and downy leaves. Pratia angulata
is also just now at its best, sheeting its close carpet of
tiny leaves, with pale white lobelia-like flowers, which
develop into a bright display of rosy purple berries
in the early autumn.

On a protruding shoulder hangs a cloud-like mass of
pink, denoting the presence of that pretty little plant
Tunica Saxifraga.

In a sunny spot, with most rich soil, are the glowing
carmine flowers of Pentstemon Hartwegii, while rippling
over some rocks are the trailing growths of Tiarella
cordifolia. The autumn tints on the foliage of this
little plant are also a great attraction.

Floating on the surface of the little pool are the
bronzy-green leaves of my Nymphcea marliacea, with
their charming pink goblet -like flowers, while near by
are the white cymes of the Aponogeton distachyon,
advantageously displayed among its long green
floating leaves.

As July merges into August, we have the flowers
of the lovely Japanese balloon-flower Platycodon
v. Mariesii, of the richest blue, while Sedum altissi-
mum and Sedum Kamtschaticum are in full flower, the
latter being particularly effective with its rich yellow
blossoms. The Linarias, too, are scrambling about
in all directions, in varied shades of yellow and brown,

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN in

while in close cushions over sun-baked rocks grows
that lovely Scabiosa, Pterocephala, with its large heads
of pink flowers, shortly to be followed by such decora-
tive fluffy fruit.

On the bog we now have the rich violet coloured
flower of Pinguicula vulgaris, especially interesting
owing to the sticky, insect-feeding propensities of its
light green leaves.

By the water-side too, that late Primula, Poissoni,
is in flower. In crevices between the rocks, backed
by very poor gritty soil, from a flat spreading foundation
of silvery foliage, Potentilla nitida is throwing up its
pink flowers, while scrambling about in every odd
corner are the dainty pendulous bells of Campanula
pusilla, both white and blue, and close tufts of Camp,
garganica, as shown on page 57.

On dry, sun-baked positions, the brilliant yellow
flowers of Cistus formosus, and the reddish purple ones
of C. purpureus, each with the characteristic purple
blotch at the base of their petals — are seen, while on
sloping ground, in a moderately sunny place in moist
peaty soil, spreads the prostrate growth of Dryas
octopetala, spangled with its shaggy fruit.

September with its cool nights and shorter days,
sees a considerable diminution of flower in the garden,
still, such things as Antirrhinum Asarina, trailing in
some hot position, are covered with creamy flowers —

112 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

Campanula muralis is still gay with its deep violet
bells, while the Eryngiums are just coming into their
full beauty ; the inflorescence of E. alpinum, of a
metallic blue shade, is most imposing, while E. giganteum
shimmers in its grey tone ; both last for weeks and are
most decorative.

On the bog, Lobelia fulgens is very showy, with its
dazzling carmine flowers and crimson foliage, while its
blue companion syphilitica makes a charming contrast.

Cyclamen europeum also is at its best now, the round-
ish dark green leaves carpeting the ground in shady
places, and rising from between them the numerous
flowers of reddish purple.

(Enothera missouriensis, of prostrate habit, with
silvery green leaves, and clear yellow flowers, will be
gay with blossom until the end of October ; the white
(Enothera taraxacifolia, too, has each evening a pro-
fusion of lovely white sweet-smelling flowers upon it,
which by early morning will be rich pink.

Sax. Fortunei, from China, is in flower this month,
throwing up from its glossy leaves stalks some twelve
to sixteen inches high, and daintily arranged on these
are the quaint white flowers, with three short petals
and two long ones, as in Sax. sarmentosa ; the position I
find most suitable is a semi-shady one, where the soil
is moist. The danger with this plant is the liability
of its blossoms being spoilt by early frosts.

HOAR FROST AND MIST IN MY GARDEN.

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 113

On rocky knolls, shimmering in the sunshine, lie the
prostrate growths, terminated with heads of pink
flower, of Sedum Sieboldii and 5. turkestanicum, both
excellent Autumn flowering stonecrops, the foliage
alone of the former being glorious in its many ruddy
tints. Snails appear to have an especial partiality
for this variety, and it needs some attention to pre-
vent them devouring the whole of it.

At the end of the month, and merging into October,
come the glorious rosy purple goblets of Colchicum
speciosum, also C. byzantinum, C. autumnale, and others,
giving a welcome touch of colour to the departing
year, while before they are completely over, that showy
Crocus, C. speciosus comes along, to continue the story,
its rich bluish-violet flowers striped with purple, and
protruding from this lovely cup is the remarkably
branched orange-coloured stigma. C. zonatus, though
of a more delicate colouring, pleases us at this time.

Even now quite a lot of flower remains on
Campanula pusilla, while that Calif ornian Fuchsia,
Zauschneria californica, growing in some dry sunny
place in the Rock Garden, is brilliant with its vermilion
flowers.

To me the choicest visitor during October is the
beautiful Cyclamen neapolitanum and its pure white
variety. The flowers rise from the bare soil in some
shady spot, and are followed by decorative green leaves

H4 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

marbled with white. The seed stems, as I mentioned
earlier, coil themselves into a spiral, and so draw down
the fruit to the earth. The white variety is illustrated
by the photograph on page 97.

November usually gives us but little that is really
fresh, and the garden is mostly decorated by the
remnants of the earlier months, or plants which are
flowering a second time, and so out of their regular
season. Nevertheless, there is usually quite a number
of things to be seen — while the most showy of all are
the lovely cobalt blue flowers of Plumbago Larpenta,
thickly mantling the tuft of bronzy crimson leaves.
This plant is a native of China, and despite my
cold, heavy soil, thrives apace, and is indeed a
" beauty " so late in the year ! At this time, too,
Primula capitata often sends up its flowers, and if
protected by a roof glass, will remain in good con-
dition until mid-December, or even later.

With the exception of the Christmas Rose, whose
charming softly-tinted blossoms are now at their
best, rising from among the much divided dark green
foliage, and whose appearance we have anticipated
with the greatest pleasure, December in my garden
produces little or nothing I have not already mentioned
in the way of flowers. Usually there are a number of
late comers still lasting, and occasionally a few early
things, even earlier than is their wont.

A DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN 115

The chief charm of December is, however, the
transformation, often during a single night, caused by
the fairy fingers of the hoar frost.

The most humble fragments of withered foliage and
seed stems become edged with ropes of glittering
facets, while the lime spots of the encrusted saxifrages
seem to have a special attraction for the hoar frost,
where the crystals arrange themselves upon the leaves
like fringes of silver. Old seed stems of many of the
Sedums assume a beauty rivalling the hey-day of their
flowering season, and take on the aspect of pieces of
coral. The illustration on page 16 gives some idea
of these frost " flowers/' while when the kindly curtain
of mist comes down to soften the outlines of surrounding
houses, left painfully bare by the falling leaves of
Autumn, the decorative touch of the hoar frost is still
more appreciated.

The reproduction on page 113 gives some idea of a
December day in my garden-— when the glittering
jewels of the frost, which have been deposited with
such a lavish hand on everything, are reflecting the
light in a myriad dancing points ; and to my mind,
make a fitting close to a year which has been one
continuous stream of loveliness and joy.

CHAPTER VIII

RETROSPECT

HAVING told in a brief way the " Story of My Rock
Garden " from the time of its inception to the present
day, it only remains for me to summarise the chief
advantages which such a garden has, and to emphasize
how intensely interesting a tiny piece of ground can
be, if we will only make close personal friends of its
little inhabitants.

As I have previously pointed out, every day through
the year finds something fresh coming through the soil
to greet us, or lingering to a late time of the season,
so as to accompany us to a fresh beginning. Such a
garden teaches us to appreciate more keenly the small
things of Nature, and especially those which have come
directly from Nature's workshop, than is possible with
such plants as have been, to a large extent, evolved by
the hands of the skilled florist.

To me many of these minute plants, with their pure,
unassuming, simple flowers, are much more attractive
than the large and showy blossoms, so frequently
admired, and alas ! too often of such brief decorative

RETROSPECT 117

value. Without in any way wishing to disparage the
wonderful results which have crowned the efforts
of the skilled horticulturist, I do think that there
is more pure enjoyment to be obtained from the close
association with these charming mountain plants —
with their intensely interesting methods of adaptation
to their special conditions, than in devoting one's
small garden to the production of plants, often in
themselves far from elegant, which produce wonderful,
though I think in many cases less really beautiful
flowers — for a short period during the Summer.

Then again this form of gardening lends itself
essentially to decorative or artistic treatment (and
surely to the best form of that art), since to be successful
one must not only make one's garden into a picture,
but it must so closely follow the great ideal of Nature
as to provide suitable homes for its little inhabitants.

With the average garden plant, one's value of it
is, to a large extent, limited to how much flower it
will produce — whereas, with the majority of our
mountain friends, we are anxious for them to be
always in perfect condition, thereby decorating their
special niche in our garden, and when in their seasons
they spread their blossoms to our gaze, we accept
them as additional evidence of their kindly feeling
towards us, and an expression of their appreciation of
what we have done for them.

n8 THE STORY OF MY ROCK GARDEN

These remarks apply specially to those of us who
are placed as myself, with but a small piece of garden
with which we are in close contact, and consequently,
a place we are anxious should be always decorative
and refreshing to our gaze, when we are able to give
what little spare time we may have to exploring it.

On the question of expense too, it has this advantage,
that, though it is possible, indeed easy, to usefully
employ a large sum, it is quite as easy to get a
large amount of enjoyment for a small outlay, if
we are content to proceed slowly, and form our garden
bit by bit, as opportunity and finances allow.

I know of no other kind of gardening which so lends
itself to a gradual extension as this ; indeed, with
several friends who originally started with a rockery
in one part of their garden, it is becoming a matter
of course to add to it each Autumn, since the pleasure
derived from its neat and brilliant occupiers out-
weighs that provided by the ordinary border.

To a considerable degree one can see at a glance
the contents of an orthodox garden, especially if it
is laid out in regular series of plants in different colours ;
compare this with the varied outline of a well-planned
rock garden, where every nook and corner has its own
special inhabitant ! — (so much so, that we may
wander in it for hours and be still finding something
hitherto overlooked) — and we at once realize how

RETROSPECT 119

much more refreshing the latter is, especially to those
who are nature lovers as well as gardeners.

When once established, too, the Alpine garden
requires less time given to it, since the annual digging
of the herbaceous border is dispensed with, and most
of the plants are perennial, while such keeping in
order as is required can well be done at odd moments.

In taking leave of my readers I would express the
hope that this short account of what I have done in
my own little garden, may lead others to embrace
this form of horticulture, which from my own ex-
perience, provides such an ever-increasing fund of
healthy and pleasurable recreation.

APPENDIX.

As an aid to those about to start a rock garden, under
anything like the conditions prevailing here, I append some
lists of plants which I find appreciate various positions.
While I do not suggest for a moment that such plants
will not grow, and even thrive, in other positions in different
districts, I do not think serious errors will occur if the
novice adheres to such until he is familiar with the plants,
when he will be able to decide just what positions they
require under his particular environment.

I have been careful to include only such subjects as I have
had experience of for some time, thereby obtaining a more
just idea of their requirements than would have been the case
had I included everything I now grow.

A.— PLANTS WHICH THRIVE IN HOT SUNNY

POSITION IN SANDY OR GRITTY SOIL.

Achillea. Cistus formosus.

„ Huteri. „ purpureus.

^Ethionema iberideum. Corydalis lutea.

Alyssum montanum. Cotyledon chrysanthus.

„ saxatile. Erodium chamaedryoides.

„ spinosum. „ chrysanthum.

Anemone hortensis. „ macradenum.

Antirrhinum Asarina. „ sibthorpianum.

„ glutinosum. „ supracanum.

APPENDIX

121

Geranium argenteum.
Helianthemums, in varieties.
Iris tectorum.
Portulaca grandiflora.
Sedum acre aureum.

„ altissimum.

„ anglicum.

„ asiaticum.

„ coemleum.

„ dasyphyllum.

„ glaucum.

„ obtusatum.

„ sexangulare.
Sempervivum Allionii.

„ arachnoideum.

„ arvernense.

„ atropurpureum.

„ blandum.

„ boutignyanum.

Sempervivum calcareum.
„ chrysanthum.

„ ciliatum.

„ doellianum.

„ Fauconneti.

„ fimbriatum.

„ Funkii.

„ globiferum.

Heuffelii.

Lagged.

„ Moggridgei.

„ patens.

„ Pomelii.

„ ponticum.

„ Reginae — Amaliae.

„ tectorum.

„ triste.

Verloti.
Zauschneria californica.

B.— PLANTS WHICH THRIVE IN SUN WITH A
MODERATELY MOIST ROOT RUN.

Acaena Buchanani.
„ inermis.
„ microphylla.
Acantholimon glumaceum.
Anemone apennina v. alba.

Pulsatilla.
Antennaria dioica, rosea.

„ tomentosa.

Aquilegia caerulea.

canadensis.

Aquilegia chrysantha.

„ Skinneri.
Arabis procurrens.

,, ,, variegata.

Arenaria montana.

„ purpurascens.
Armeria caespitosa.
Arnica montana.
Artemisia borealis.
lanata.

122

APPENDIX

Artemisia vallesiaca.
Aster alpinus.
Aubrietias in varieties.
Berberis dulcis pygmoea.
Bulbocodium vernum.
Campanula barbata.

garganica.

„ ,, var. hirsuta:

„ glomerata.

„ Hendersoni.

„ Mayii.

„ portenschlagiana.

,, pulla

„ pulloides

„ rotundifolia.

Carlina acanthifolia.
Cerastium Biebersteinii.
tomentosum.
Chionodoxa Luciliae.
„ ,, var.

sardensis.

Colchicum autumnale.
,, byzantinum.
„ speciosum.
Coronilla cappadocica.
Corydalis bulbosa.
Cotoneaster adpressa.
,, humifusa.

Crocus biflorus.
„ chrysanthus.
„ Imperati.
„ Sieberi.
„ speciosus.

Crocus versicolor.
„ vitellinus.
,, zonatus.
Cryptomeria spiralis.
Cupressus chinensis.

aurea.

Daphne Mezereum.
Delphinum nudicaule.
Dianthus csesius.

,, carthusian orum.

„ deltoides.

albus.

„ fimbriatus albus.
„ Freynii.
„ graniticus.
„ plumarius.
,, superbus.
Dry as Drummondii.

,, octopetala.
Eranthis hyemalis.
Erica carnea.

alba.

Erinus alpinus.
Eryngium alpinum.
„ giganteum.
„ oliverianum.
,, planum.
Erysimum pumilum.
„ rupestre.
Fritillaria meleagris.
Galanthus cilicicus.
,, Ikariae.
Gentiana acaulis.

APPENDIX

123

Gentiana septemfida.

verna.

,, verna, var. alba.
Genista pilosa.
„ sagittalis.
„ tinctoria.

fl. pi.

Geranium striatum.
Geum montanum.
Gnaphalium Leontopodium.
Gypsophila cerastioides.
Hieracium villosum.
Hippocrepis comosa.
Hyacinthus azureus.
Hypericum fragilis.

„ humifusum.

„ olympicum.

„ reptans.

Iberis correafolia.

,, sempervirens.
Iris florentina.
,, germanica.
„ pumila.
„ reticulata.
Leucojum aeestivum.

„ vernum.
Linaria alpina.
Linum flavum.

,, salsoloides.
Lithospermum intermedium.

,, prostratum.

Lychnis haageana.
Lagascae.

Men t ha Requienii.
Mertensia echoidies.
Muscari botryoides.

„ var. album.
Narcissus Barrii.
„ Bulbocodium.

„ „ var. citrinus.

„ var.

conspicuus.
„ „ var.

monophyllus.
„ cyclamineus.

„ Johnston!.

„ juncifolius.

„ minor, var.

minimus.

„ Pseudo-narcissus.

„ triandrus.

(Enothera caespitosa.
Onosma albo-roseum.

,, echioides.
Papaver nudicaule.
Pentstemon Hartwegii.
Phlox amoena.

subulata in varieties.
Phyteuma Scheuchzeri.
Picea pygmoea.
Pinus sylvestris nana.
Platycodon grandiflorum.
Plumbago Larpentae.
Potentilla alpestris.
Pratia angulata.
Primula calycina.

124 APPENDIX

Primula integrifolia. Sedum spathulifolium.

„ marginata. „ spectabile.

„ Palinuri. Senecio Grayi.

„ villosa. Silene alpestris.

„ viscosa. Sternbergia lutea.

Puschkinia scilloides. Thymus azoricus.

Romulea Bulbocodium. „ Serpyllum.

Rosa nana. „ „ var.

Saponaria caespitosa. lanuginosus.

Saxifraga Aizoon. „ strictus.

„ apiculata. Tropseolum polyphyllum.

„ Cotyledon. Tulipa clusiana.

„ „ var. „ kaufmanniana.

pyramidalis. „ primulina.

„ sancta. „ pulchella.

Scabiosa Pterocephala. Tunica Saxifraga.

Scilla bifolia. Veronica Bidwilli.

„ „ var. alba. „ canescens.

„ „ var. rubra. „ cupressoides.

„ peruviana. „ incana.

„ sibirica. „ pectinata.
,, „ var. alba. Viola bosniaca.

Sedum Ewersii. „ calcarata.

„ Maximowiczii. „ cornuta.

„ reflexum. „ gracilis.
„ „ monstrosum. „ hederacea.
Sieboldii.

C.— PLANTS WHICH LIKE HALF SHADE.

Anemone blanda. Cyclamen europaeum.

,, Hepatica. „ ibericum.

Cyclamen Coum. „ neapolitanum.

APPENDIX

125

Cyclamen repandum.
Cypripedium Calceolus.
Dianthus sylvestris.
Dodecatheon Henderson!.

„ Meadia.

Galax aphylla.
Helleboms niger.

,, viridis.

Orchis mascula.
Oxalis enneaphylla.
Phlox divaricata.
Pratia arenaria.
Saxifraga caespitosa.

„ „ var. hirta.

„ Clibrani.

„ geranioides.

Saxifraga hypnoides.

var.

Whitlavii.
„ juniperi folia.
„ Lindleyana.
„ muscoides.

„ var. Rhei.
„ „ var. Rhei

superba.
„ palmata.
taygetea.
Wallacei.

Shortia galacifolia.
Trillium grandiflorum.

„ sessile.
Viola biflora.

D.— PLANTS WHICH PREFER FULL SHADE.

Cystopteris bulbifera. Polygonum vaccinifolium.

„ fragilis Dickieana. Ramondia pyrenaica.
Haberlea rhodopensis. „ serbica.

Omphalodes verna. Saxifraga Andrewsii.

E.— PLANTS WHICH THRIVE IN "SEMI-BOGGY"
POSITION, WHERE VEGETABLE SOIL IS ALWAYS

MOIST.

Androsace carnea. Briza maxima.

Anemone Robinsoniana. Caltha palustris.

Aquilegia alpina. „ polypetala.

Arisarum proboscideum. Cardamine pratensis.

Arrhenatherum bulbosum Cotula squalida.

variegatum. „ acsenoefolia.

126

APPENDIX

Erythraea diffusa.
Erythronium.

giganteum.
Frankenia laevis.
Fritillaria aurea.
Hacquetia Epipactis.
Homogyne alpina.
Linnaea borealis.
Mazus Pumilio.
Parnassia palustris.
Pinguic'ila vulgaris.
„ capitata.

Primula cortusoides.

„ denticulata.

„ farinosa.

„ frondosa.

„ involucrata.

„ minima.
Ranunculus amplexicaulis.
Salix herbacea.
Saxifraga aspera.
Soldanella alpina.

„ pusilla.
Viola hederacea.

F.— PLANTS WHICH THRIVE IN WET, BOGGY PLACES.

Astilbe japonica.
Geum rivale.

„ rivale, Lenard's var.
Iris laevigata.

,, Pseudacorus.
Lobelia fulgens.

„ syphilitica.
Menyanthes trifoliata.
Mimulus luteus.
Myosotis palustris.

Primula japonica.

„ Poissoni.
rosea.

„ sikkimensis.
Sarracenia purpurea.
Saxifraga peltata.
Senecio clivorum.
Spiraea Aruncus.
Trollius asiaticus.
,, europaeus.

G.— PLANTS WHICH I GROW SUCCESSFULLY IN MY
MORAINE.

Anemone vernalis.
Campanula Allionii.

cenisia.

Campanula excisa.
,, Zoysii.

Douglasia vitaliana.

APPENDIX 127

Draba aizoides. Saxifraga oppositifolia, var.

„ dedeana. alba.

,, pyrenaica. „ „ var. major.

Geum reptans. „ „ var.

Myosotis alpestris. splendens.

Papaver alpinum. Silene acaulis.

Ranunculus alpestris. „ acaulis var.

„ glacialis. pedunculata.

Saxifraga aizoides, var. Wahlenbergia serpyllifolia.

atrorubens. „ serp. var.

dinarica.

H.— PLANTS WHICH ACCOMMODATE THEMSELVES
PRACTICALLY ANYWHERE.

Anemone japonica. Erythronium Dens-canis.

„ „ alba. Galanthus Elwesii.

„ „ rubra. „ nivalis.

Arabis albida. Geranium lucidum.

„ „ variegata. ,, Robertianum.

Arenaria balearica. Helxine Solierolii.

„ verna. Heuchera brizoides.
Armeria maritima. „ sanguinea.

„ plantaginea. lonopsidium acaule.

Bellis perennis. Iris xiphiodies.
Campanula carpatica. ,, Xiphium.

„ isophylla. Linaria Cymbalaria.

„ „ var. alba. „ hepaticaefolia.

„ pusilla. „ pallida.

„ ,, var. alba. „ vulgaris.

Epilobium nummulari- Linum perenne.

folium. Lychnis Viscaria.

Epimedium pinnatum. Montbretia in varieties.

128 APPENDIX

\

Nigella damascena. Sedum album.
CEnothera fruiticosa, var. ,, Anacampseros.

Youngii. „ Kamtschaticum.
„ missouriensis. „ „ variegatmn,

„ rosea. „ roseum

Ornithogalum umbellatum. „ rupestre.

Phyteuma campanuloides. ,, spurium.

Primula Auricula. „ Telephium.

„ elatior. Silene Schafta.

„ vulgaris. Spiraea Filipendula.

Saponaria ocymoides. Symphyandra pendula.

Saxifraga cordifolia. Tellima grandiflora.

„ cuneifolia. Teucrium pyrenaicum.

„ Geum. Thalictrum aquilegifolium.

„ Hostii. Thuya nana aurea.

„ rotundifolia. Tiarella cordifolia.

„ sarmentosa. Tolmiea Menziesii.

„ trifurcata. Veronica gentianoides.

„ umbrosa. ,, repens.

„ „ var. minor. „ spicata.

„ „ var. serrati- „ Teucrium, var.

folia. dubia.

Scutellaria galericulata. Vittadenia australis.

Sedum acre. Waldsteinia geoides.

I.— PLANTS WHICH PREFER SEMI-MORAINE
POSITIONS, SOIL HALF-GRIT, AND IN FULL SUN.

Androsace lanuginosa. Dianthus neglectus.

„ sarmentosa. „ petraeus.

„ sempervivoides. Draba bruniaefolia.

„ villosa. Potentilla ambigua.
Asperula suberosa. „ nitida.

APPENDIX 129

Potentilla nitida, var. alba Saxifraga Griesebachii.

„ villosa. „ lingulata, var.

Saxifraga Aizoon, var. lantoscana.

rosea. „ longifolia.

„ „ var. lutea. „ rocheliana.

„ Burseriana. „ Salomonii.

„ catalaunica. Senecio incanus, var. Per-

„ cochlearis. sooni.

„ „ var. minor. Wahlenbergia serpyllifolia.

crustata.

INDEX.

ACANEA, 35.

Acantholimon glumaceum, 50,

66, 108.

Alpine Plants, evergreen char-
acter of, 15 ; definition of
terra, 20 conditions of
growth in natural habitat, 21 ;
protection of in winter, 24 ;
carpeting, 35 ; long roots of,
50 ; with silvery foliage, 56 ;
propagating, 63 et seq., by
seed, 69.

Androsace sarmentosa, 103.
„ lanuginosa, 109.

Anemone apennina, 100.
„ blanda, 95.

fulgens, 104.
„ nemerosa Robinsoni-

ana, 85, 100.
„ Pulsatilla, 97.
Antirrhinum Asarina, in.
Aponogeton distachyon, no.
Aquilegia alpina, 86.
,, cacrulea, 103.
,, chrysantha, 103.
Arabis, 97.
Arenaria balearica, 35, 46, 52,

107.

„ caespitosa, 35.
„ montana, 102.
Arm<;ria plantaginea, 50, 106.
Artemisia vallesiaca, 56.
Asperula suberosa, 31, 103.
Astilbe japonica, IOQ.
Aubrietias, 49.

BOGS, construction of, 27;

plants for, 27, 32, 52, 84.
Bowles, E. A., 16.
Bulbocodium vernum, 96.
Bulbous plants, 59.

CALTHA palustris, 97.

„ polypetala, 97.
Campanula Allionii, 44, 107.

cenisia, 44.

,, excisa, 44, 103.

garganica, in.
„ muralis, 112.

„ pulia, 104.

„ pulloides, 104.

„ pusilla, in, 113.

Zoysii, 44.

Campanulas, 34, 58 ; propa-
gating, 66.
Cement Concrete, as substitute

for stone, 16.

Cerastium tomentosum, 49.
Cistus formosus, in.

,, purpureus, in.
Colchicum autumnale, 113.
„ byzantmum, 113.
„ speciosum, 59, 113.

Cotula squalida, 35, 85.
Crevice planting, 76 et seq.
Crocus chrysanthus, 94.
Imperati, 94.
sieberi, 94.
speciosus, 113.
versicolor, 97.
vitellinus, 91.

130

INDEX

Crocus zonatus, 113.
Cyclamen Coum, 93.
Cyclamen europeum, 112.

,, ibericum, 93.

,, neapolitanum, 59, 113.
Cypripedium Calceolus, 104.

DAPHNE Mezereum, 92.
Dianthus Alpinus, 105.

,, caesius, 106.

„ deltoides, 103.

,, neglectus, 108.
Dodecatheons, 101.
Draba aizoides,- 98.

,, dedeana, 98.
Drainage, 23.
Dryas octopetala, in.

EDRAIANTHUS serpyllifolius, 31.
Eranthis hyemalis, 61, 92.
Eritrichium nanum, 34, 44, 103.
Erodium corsicum, 109.
Eryngium alpinum, 112.

giganteum, 112.
Erythraea dififusa, 102.
Erythroniums, 85, 101.

GALANTHUS Elwesii, 92.
Gentiana acaulis, 105.
,, verna, 104.
Gentians, from seed, 75.
Geranium argenteum, 105.
Glass protectors, 24.
Globularia nudicaulis, 102.

HABERLEAS, 30, 108.
Helianthemums, 55, 104
Hepaticas, 94.
Hypericum fragile, 103.

IBERIS sempervirens, 99.
lonopsidium acaule, 61.
Iris Kasmpferi, 109.
,, reticulata, 94.

JUNIPERUS chinensis, 88.
LEUCOJUM vemum, 94.

Linaria alpina, 46, 61, 62.
Linnaea borealis, 85.
Lithospermum prostratum, 107.
Lobelia fulgens, 112.
,, syphilitica, 112.

MIMULUS cupreus, 109.
Moraine, the, 37 et seg. ; plant*
for, 43.

NARCISSUS Bulbocodium, 60, 92.
cyclamineus, 96.

„ minimus, 96.

,, triandrus, 96.

Nymphaea marliacea, no.

(ENOTHERA missouriensis, 112.
,, taraxacifolia, 112.

Onosma echioides, 107.
Osmunda regalis, 54.
Oxalis enneaphylla, 107.

PENTSTEMON Hartwegii, 1 10.
Petrocallis pyrenaica, 43,
Phloxes, propagating, 66.
Pinguicula vulgaris, in.
Platycodon Mariesii, no.
Plumbago Larpentae, 114.
Potentilla nitida, in.
Pratia angulata, no.
Primula auricula, 54, 66, 80, 98.

capita ta, 92, 114.

denticulata, 52, 65, 97.

farinosa, 85, 98.

frondosa, 85, 102.

involucrata, 85.

japonica, 104.

marginata, 98.

Poissoni, no.

pulverulenta, 104.

rosea, 66, 85.

Sieboldi, 102.

sikkimensis, 101.

viscosa, 54.

RAMONDIAS, 30, 80, 107.
Robinson, William, 33.

132

INDEX

Rock Garden, pleasure of the,
1 8 ; planning and building,
25 et seq. ; trees in, 35 ;
planting, 49 et seq., 76 et seq. ;
cement in the, 83 ; expense
of a, 118.

SAXIFRAGA aizoon, 106.

apiculata, 31, 93.
burseriana, 31, 93.
caespitosa, 99.
camposi, 99.
clibrani, 99.
cochlearis minor, 30,

80, 106.

Elizabethae, 31, 95.
Ferdinandi Coburgi,

31-

Fortunei, 112.

Griesebachii, 74, 92.

Hostii, 1 06.

lingulata, 30, 31, 106.

longifolia, 30, 76 et
seq.

marginata, 31.

oppositifolia, 96.

peitata, 27, 35, 97.

pyramidalis, 106.

Rhei, 99.

rocheliana, 31, 99.

Salomoni, 31, 99.

sarmentosa, 112.

Stribnryi, 92.

thessalica, 74.
Saxifrages, propagating, 64, 67.
Scabiosa Pterocephala, in.

Scilla bifolia, 94.
,, sibirica, 94.

Sedum Sieboldii, 113.
„ spathulifolium, 107.

Sedum turkestanicum, 86, 113.

Sedums, propagating, 65.

Sempervivum arachnoideum, 56.
triste, 7^.

Sempervivums, propagating, 55.

Senecio incanus, 57.

Shortia galacifolia, 103.

Silene acaulis, 44.

Soil, treatment of heavy, 17, 26 ;
value of grit in, 30, 31, 46.

Soldanella alpina, 86, 98.

Spanish Iris, 61, 105.

Stepping stones, 29.

Stone, substitute for, 16 ; ad-
vantage of real article, 17 ;
retains moisture, 23.

TIARELLA cordifolia, no.
Trees, large not desirable, 35 ;

dwarf, 86.

Trollius, asiaticus, 104.
Tunica Saxifraga, no.

VERONICA gentianoides, 103.

,, rupestris, 106.
Viola gracilis, 97.

WATER, value of, 23, 30 ; plants
for, 52.

ZAUSCHNERIA californica, 113.

Headley Brothers, Bishopsgate, E.C. ; and Aihford, Kent

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The story of my M26
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