The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Rockweler Rockgardens
ALPINE AND OTHER ROCK PLANTS
While it may be immaterial where our plants for the rock garden come from, in so far as the effects which we create with them are concerned, their origin does make a difference in regard to the culture to be given them. For this reason, if for no other, it is desirable to know something of the differences in the several classes of plants available for rock-garden use. But in addition to this utilitarian advantage, there is another of quite equal importance. Even though one may know little, and possibly care less, concerning botany, any plant takes on greater interest when we know something of its associations and its history. In fact, it is impossible to dissociate these from the intrinsic qualities of the plant. The edelweiss of the Alps, for instance, "without which no rock garden is complete," in the opinion of some, is but a tiny flower surrounded by a bract of white woolly leaves, which would be passed by as a modest weed if it grew by the garden path. But when one has read of adventurous spirits risking limb and life to find it blooming among the snow and ice of alpine heights, it naturally assumes an interest more than commensurate with whatever beauty it may possess as a flower. The more you know concerning you plants, whether in your rock garden or elsewhere, the better you can provide for them, and the greater the joy which they may give you.
Alpine Plants. An "alp" is a high mountain anywhere, not necessarily, as many persons take for granted, one of the range in northern Italy and Switzerland; it comes originally from the Gaelic word for mountain pasture.
True alpine plants are mountain plants from any part of the world, native to those altitudes above the timber-line, and extending as far upward as any vegetation can survive. As already pointed out, they grow where the natural drainage is exceptionally good, but where their roots are constantly supplied with moisture, mostly from melting snow and ice, and consequently nearly ice cold. The season for growth and flowering is brief, often little over one hundred days.
Logically, the nearer one may approximate these conditions in making a rock garden, the better are the chances of success with this particular type of rock plant. Those who live in northern sections, at comparatively high altitudes, especially where the growing seasons are short and snow remains on the ground for months at a time, have an advantage over the rest of us when it comes to alpines. However, something can be done in providing conditions which will answer the purpose in other sections, as has already been explained.
