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Rockweler Rockgardens

FRAMING THE ROCK-GARDEN PICTURE

Even the artificial rock garden, as we have already seen, must be given some semblance of naturalness if it is to be attractive as a garden, and not be merely an interesting collection of out-of-the-ordinary plants.

Nothing will help quite so much to give this atmosphere of naturalness as an appropriate setting or background of trees and shrubs. If suitable varieties are selected and they are arranged with good taste, they will serve both to frame the rock-garden picture, and to blend it naturally into the landscape planting.

In Japan, where the landscape possibilities of the rock garden have been developed much more than anywhere else, the background or setting for the rock garden is always carefully worked out. There is a natural, almost imperceptible gradation of form and size, so cleverly executed that one does not readily perceive where the rock garden ends and the rest of the landscape begins. We are apt to think of Japan as a land of miniature gardens. It is not. Japan's forests and full-size landscapes are as fine, and on as large a scale, as those to be found anywhere. But the consummate skill with which sharp lines of de markation have been eliminated seems to make the whole country appear to be one huge garden. As a result, both public and private gardens, with their carefully placed stones and dwarf trees, seem to stretch away without interruption to the forests on the mountainsides.

Of course, we cannot all be such masters of composition, of proportion, and of perspective, as are the Japanese. The most untutored beginner, starting with the simplest of rock gardens, can, however, provide a planting which will some what break and make more gradual the transition from the rock garden to tall trees or perennial borders, or a sweep of smooth lawn.

The plants used for this purpose should be suitably taller than those used in the rock garden itself, and yet of a character, in foliage and in general habit of growth, which will be in keeping with the naturalistic or Japanesque effect of the rock garden. These, in turn, may be backed by still taller sorts, especially by evergreens.

The setting for the rock garden may be arranged back of it, in a curve, covering the rear and flanking the sides, or planted almost completely around it, as circumstances seem to make desirable. One of the most attractive rock gardens I know is entirely surrounded by coniferous evergreens, with an inside planting of broad-leaved evergreens, which hide it entirely from view until one enters it from a curved narrow path at one end, when its full beauty bursts suddenly and unexpectedly upon the visitor. There are suitable recesses, with inviting seats, where one may rest either in sun or shade.