Rock and Alpine Gardens

Are there not a thousand beautiful flowers from the mountains which long for acceptance into our rock gardens

The rock garden is a definite piecing together of natural rock and stone, and is so formed that it offers ideal conditions for the growing of Alpines and such plants as occur naturally on mountain sides and at high elevation.

In the rock garden the first thought is for the plants that will occupy it. It is possible to make a charming home for Alpines which will cover only a few square yards of earth, and if the plants and not the stones are the reason for its existence, it will surely be a garden of beauty.

In all good gardening it is necessary to have a clear idea at the outset what we mean to do.

The rock garden is no place for overcrowding, or for the indiscriminate mixing of plants, large and small. Each plant should be carefully tended, and not left to battle for existence with others of stronger habit. The rock garden may contain representatives of most of the Alpine families, from the tiny Androsace, which clings to the rock face among the snows, to the Gentians and Harebells which stud the mountain meadows far beneath. But the plants must be grown in colonies, the strong with the strong, the weak with the weak.

It is seldom that unsuitable soil or aspect is the reason for the annual dwindling away of choice seedlings, but very often may be caused by the encroachment of other plants. This crowding out process may not be visible to the eye - to all appearance the plant is quite isolated. But below the surface, other roots are absorbing all the nourishment, not infrequently the fibres from some neighboring tree or bush are allowed free access to the best soil in the rock garden. Root restriction in the case of large plants is just as needful as sufficient 'elbow room' for the smaller.

Most Alpine and rock plants require great depth of soil, a fact which will, perhaps, come as a surprise to many. The professional builders of certain rock gardens entirely overlook this point. Their work is finished when they have transported some tons of stone or cement to form miniature precipices, crags and jagged cliffs. The gardener must attend to the work of planting, and a hopeless task he often finds it.

Having no knowledge of the ways of rock plants, no provision has been made for rooting, and the stone ledges are covered with a few inches of soil. A cup shaped depression in the surface of a boulder is filled with a pinch of earth, and in this miserable dwelling any small Alpine is considered to be perfectly at home.

Take the case of the tiny Stonecrops, which in the high Alps may be found clinging to the edges of almost perpendicular rock faces. To outward appearance they must exist on such food and moisture as can be obtained from the atmosphere. Yet if we break away pieces of the shaly rock, we shall find small white rootlets thrusting themselves into minute crevices through which a drop of water could hardly percolate. Were it possible to extract one of these roots whole, we should probably find that it was some feet in length.

So that even in these barren regions, the forces of nature have been, and are, slowly disintegrating huge rocks, grinding them down into particles from which a plant, but an inch high, may draw life and sustenance.

This simple fact should be of most practical assistance to growers of small plants in rock gardens. In itself it explains why, without apparent reason, small Alpines are constantly dying. That they should have been starved for lack of necessary plant food is the last thought to occur. Alpines are credited with extraordinary powers of endurance. Rich soil they certainly do not need. Under natural conditions the roots are found in that of the poorest quality, a mixture of sand, coarse grit, and earthy particles.

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