The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Rockweler Rockgardens
Evergreens And Shrubs For The Rock Garden
DWARF evergreens and dwarf shrubs will help to produce the illusion of naturalness in the rock garden to a greater degree than any other form of plant materials, if they are used in the right way. There are very few rock gardens, indeed, regard- less of their size or character, which cannot be made more attractive by the addition of some of these dwarf plants.
The most serious problem in connection with their use is indicated in the four words above—"in the right way," for these are plants quite as effective in destroying whatever naturalness there may be as in adding to it. Unless suitable types are selected and so placed that they do not look formal or artificial,it is far better to omit them entirely; and placing them where they will contribute the desired effect is no easy matter; it requires good judgment, taste, and, above all, an eye for composition.
To begin with, we must keep in mind that these plants are to be used not primarily for themselves, but to supplement the rocks in creating an environment for the rock plants. The rocks and the dwarf trees form the setting of the stage, and the placing of both should be studied with the same painstaking care.
In selecting the dwarf trees and shrubs wThich are to be admitted to the rock garden, we may apply the same tests already presented (see page 47). They should pass muster as to size, habit of growth, and character.
Height. It is not necessary to stay within the limit set for the rock plants, but it is most essential to maintain rigidly our sense of proportion. Excepting in the very smallest of rock gardens, we may employ conifers towering to the sky-scraping altitude of two or occasionally three feet. The beginner may be surprised to learn that there are a number of perfect treelike little specimens which do not grow taller than this. Even with these giants, the greatest care must be taken not to place the largest of the rock plants in close proximity to them.
Habit of growth is equally important. There are, for in stance, many of the dwarf evergreens of such perfect globose form that they look almost as though they had been turned out of a mold. While excellent in formal gardening, these are not in keeping with the rock garden. Such strictly formal things as clipped or shaped dwarf evergreens or box bushes, it hardly need be said, should never be allowed near the rock garden. Some of the low-growing, spreading evergreens, as certain of the creeping junipers, while not too tall growing, are still too coarse in habit, eventually making plants which are so large in diameter, if not in height, as to look out of place.
