Rock Garden Design Sitemap

1. Rock Garden - There are few features in the garden that provide such a variety of interests in so little space as a well-planned and carefully planted rock garden. The smallest plot may contain a rock garden which will house a representative and charming collection of alpine plants; but, on the other hand, there are few features in the ordinary garden that are so neglected and so ill-understood.

2. Alpine House - There are some choice alpines that cannot be cultivated to the best advantage in the open in our uncertain climate. To say that they are choice does not necessarily mean that they are delicate, but that the blooms of many are apt to be spoilt by inclement weather; it is to these subjects that the Alpine House affords protection while they are in bloom; it will also prolong their season of flowering.

3. Bulbs For Garden - Some of the dwarfer-growing bulbs are among the most attractive and useful subjects for the rock garden. Most of them bloom early and furnish patches of brilliant colour before the great mass of rock plants awake from their winter sleep. So, apart from their own intrinsic beauty, they well deserve their place in the rock garden.

4. Dwarf Flowering - Dwarf shrubs play a very important part in the composition of the rock garden, but many people neglect them, for they fail to realize the value of a few well-placed specimens. Dwarf shrubs are planted in the rock garden for several reasons; they may be used as a background and to break the skyline; they serve to accentuate the appearance of height or depth: for this purpose they are generally placed on a summit, on a ridge, or in some other prominent position; in exposed situations they may be used to provide shelter; by no means their least useful function is to relieve drabness and monotony in winter.

5. Ornamental Grasses - It is scarcely possible to overestimate the decorative qualities of ornamental grasses, both as marsh plants and for providing variety in the rock garden. Some are exceedingly graceful, others remarkably neat and compact in growth; there are some, again, very curious in form; while others are stately and majestic in appearance. The graceful and curious are best suited for planting in the wild garden, while the neat, compact-growing kinds make beautiful subjects for the rock garden.

6. Hardy Ferns - Ferns can always be distinguished from other plants by two characteristics. First, their young fronds are curled up tightly and gradually unroll as they grow, till the whole leaf is flat and visible. Secondly, they bear, generally on the back of their fronds, lines or masses of very small pods that look like fine brown powder. These pods contain the "spores" from which the young ferns grow.

7. Propagation - Rock plants may be propagated by several methods: they may be raised from seed; cuttings may be taken; they can be layered; with a great number the roots may be divided; of some, root-cuttings can be secured; and a few can be propagated by leaf-cuttings. We will describe in detail the various processes.

8. Wall Garden - When laying out a garden on a piece of sloping ground, one will almost invariably be confronted with the problem of what to do with the banks which of necessity will be formed. They are usually made into grass slopes, which are difficult to keep well trimmed, and are consequently apt to look untidy if labour is at a premium. Alternatively, they may be planted with shrubs or may be covered with some trailing plant.

9. Paved Garden - Of late years there has been a great reaction against the very formal gardens of our grandfathers, and those responsible for designing and laying out gardens have endeavoured to obtain effects, both as regards form and colour grouping, similar to those which nature herself so unfailingly accomplishes.

10. Water Garden - By the water garden we mean a garden of plants growing actually in water or in the saturated ground adjacent to water where the soil is periodically submerged. Few features in a garden are more attractive and interesting than the water garden. The pond selected for the water garden can be large or small; it may be constructed by damming off a section of a river, or a tiny stream may be utilized to provide the water supply.

11. Marsh Garden - A pond is not an essential feature of the bog garden, although its presence is to be desired, for the overflow can be used to feed the marsh. It is essential, however, that the soil of the marsh garden shall be kept in a moist, swampy state through the whole year.

12. Alphabetical List - Showing the Detailed and Individual Culture, also the Best Species and Varieties

NOTE. The words in parentheses following the species and varieties indicate first the colour of the flowers, then the time of blooming, and lastly the average height in inches or feet to which the plants may be expected to grow. A x in front of the specific name indicates that the plant is a hybrid.

13. Diseases + Pests - It cannot be too strongly impressed that every effort should be made to detect the presence of pests at the earliest possible moment and to set about destroying them immediately.

The largest group of pests is formed by insects, most of which develop in four stages, egg, larva or grub, pupa or chrysalis and adult.

14. More Alphabetically List -

Aczena (New Zealand Burr)
Acantholimon (Prickly Thrift)
Achillea (Milfoil)
Ethionema (Burnt Candytuft)
Alchemilla (Lady's Mantle)
Allium
Alyssum (Rock Madwort)
Anagallis (Pimpernel)
Anchusa (Alkanet)
Andromeda (Marsh or Wild Rosemary)

THE END