Alpine Garden

In the true Alpine garden will be found only such plants as are indigenous to the Alps. For variety, it is endless - evergreen shrubs, exquisite miniatures of lowland kinds, brilliant Mosses, Lilies, dwarf trailing plants, Orchids and Ferns, to mention but a few of the types of Alpine plant life which are perfectly at home in our gardens.

The Alpine garden should be situated on the highest ground available, in fact the more exposed the site the better. The summit of a rocky knoll, or the sides of an earth ridge will generally ensure abundant sunshine for the plants.

Quite a large garden may be laid out with the aid of a few cart loads of rough boulders, but small stones should be mixed with the soil in order to secure free drainage and retain moisture. 

A common cause of failure in the cultivation of Alpines, is the unsuitable soil to the varieties chosen. Few classes of plants are more exacting in this respect. It is true that certain kinds will accommodate themselves to varying conditions, and make a brave show even under adverse circumstances. 

The geological formation of the Alps includes certain well defined classes of soil, with a flora peculiar to each. On limestone soils the beautiful Pasque-flower (Anemone Pulsatilla) is invariably content, its violet flowers scattered over the grassy hill­sides in early spring, on ordinary garden loam it frequently fails altogether. Rhododendron Chamaecistus, though strictly speaking a native of the Tyrol, is another chalk loving plant, whereas  R.ferrugineum prefers a granite soil. Among the large family of Alpine Gentians, such varieties as Angustifolia and Clusii are always best on limestone, whilst on the granite soil their place is taken by Pyrenaica and Kochiana.

Except in very large gardens it is really unnecessary to provide special soil, that is supposing that a garden picture and not a botanical collection is the object in view. There are sufficient plants peculiar either to the granitic or calcareous formation for us to make a garden of either. The gardener who grows plants for their beauty and not for their rarity realises that he can do better by keeping to varieties that suit his soil, than by adapting the soil to accommodate unwilling aliens.

In a garden of any size an endeavor should certainly be made to provide an ideal home by means of grassy banks or an approach of fine turf for some of the beautiful flowers of the Alpine meadows. Naturalised in this way they will appear to greater advantage and flower more profusely than in the bare earth spaces among the rocks.

In close grass Anemone Pulsatilla is at its best, and in the same place the lovely Alpine Primula (P.auricula), quite distinct from the florist's varieties, may find a home. The Glacier Pink (D.neglectus), with its tufts of grass-like foliage and clusters of rosy flowers, is another good plant for naturalising.

From the pasture lands of the Austrian Alps comes a charming Harebell, (C.pulla), a true gem for the grass. Among the Gentians is the May flowering kind (Alpina) and the larger Willow Gentian (G.asclepiadea), the latter, how­ever, more suited to positions among coarse grass than in the section devoted to the smallest plants. The Vernal Gentian (G.verna) prefers limestone, and is happy when exposed to the fullest sunshine, in a cool, moist soil.

Where the rocks meet the grass a few patches of the Alpine Heath (Erica carnea) will mark a change in the planting and in early spring the rosy flowers are particularly welcome. Ranunculus aconitifolius, of which our Fair Maids of France is the double form, is one of the best Alpines for naturalising, and is especially free flowering.

S.burseriana is one of the most precious plants in the whole of the Alpine garden. As early as January the silver foliage is flecked with brown buds, each carried on a small red stalk. It does best in a well ­drained chalky soil, and soon spreads among the stones. S.aretioides is so diminutive that special care must be taken to prevent other plants from overgrowing it, the golden blossoms appear in April above the silver leaf cushions. A moist sandy soil suits it, and propagation is effected by seeds or division.

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