The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
American Rock Gardens
After this long, sad tale of causes and circumstances, bringing sudden departures every year in our rock garden friends, there is much to be related about those permanent residents who stay always and flourish on, regardless of seasons and lack of special care on your part. (See List D, Chapter VI).
These notes on the mortality of rock plants are taken particularly in the region of Boston. While conditions and seasons ever vary, some of the temporary conclusions here stated may be of comfort and assistance to lovers of rock plants in other regions.
Typical Plan
IT is one task to study in advance the theory of placing the rocks, and further experience waits on the actual construction. A willing student can soon grasp the essential principles—mechanical, cultural, and esthetic—to be followed in making the home for mountain plants. Another mental labor of more diverse nature is the study of the identity and habits of rock plants, for the greater quantity of these herbs makes this task far longer than for the usual garden plants. But the operation of setting the plants actually into the pockets, of planning and producing the combinations, is yet another matter. I have made more failures than successes in planting rock herbs, both from poor cultural methods and unpleasant groupings, but there is no harm in that. After several failures in a soil pocket, there may come a pleasing planting which will endure and be a joy for years, for one success balances several failures.
In staging the plants on plan for this kind of garden, the considerations are quite different from those for a formal garden or hardy border. The things to be kept in mind may be stated first as general principles and then their application to a particular plan may be shown, with the proviso that details can be completed only on the ground at the time of actual planting.
Scale is a measure to be applied in every placing, in relation of plant to size of whole area, to the nearer rocks, and the nearest plants, as to height, character of foliage, and mass of bloom. Usually the plants of more than ordinary growth and of greatest quantity would be put into the larger pockets near the more bulky rocks, with tiny plants and those of lesser quantity taking the smaller areas. There is always the danger that too much of the rock surface will be covered with vigorous foliage growth. Yet on the other hand, near many bold pieces of rock only very dwarf and slow-growing herbs should be placed, to bring out the grandeur of the ledge, to keep a variation in heights, and emphasize the irregularity of the scene. Along with the danger of covering the rocks there is also that of smothering all the details of the tiny landscape with overvigorous vegetation.
