The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
American Rock Gardens
A rock garden is a sojourn in nature, supposedly taking us out of the usual ways. It presents a souvenir of travels over mountain ranges and the flowers gathered by the path. (No one actually ever picks any flower in a rock garden— too precious.) It appeals to our love of adven- ture in building, in cultivating, and in walking among the treasures every day. As the bloom of each plant is usually brief, the picture must be enjoyed while it is present—and tomorrow there will be a change of cast. It has more of mystic meaning than any other form of gardening, linking the play days of man with the secrets of nature.
No one who can produce a patch of alpine gentians from a packet of seeds can be insensible to the appeal of flowers in general, but more of those unchanged by man and fresh from the hands of the Creator.
There are some of the values of Japanese gardens, in that natural scenery—of irregular nature—is produced in miniature and adorned with appropriate plants. Sentiment and symbolism may be inwoven here to a degree not allowed in gardens showing more of the craft of man. When rightly understood, they will have much greater favor. The pity is that so few sites near our homes are suited to them. Like a love for grand opera, one must train to understand this special garden as a piece of close partnership of man and nature.
There is a tremendous interest in each plant. To some enthusiasts the whole story is in cherishing each little weed to health. The more difficult of culture it is, the more seemingly admired. This is a part of the program, and a vital one, but the pleasing picture of the group of a dozen kinds of plants is more important than the vigor of but one sort. It is living presentation of flowery fields in miniature that we wish, and notes on health and culture are but a record of the means of procuring the flowers.
The labors in this field of horticulture are end less. There are more than 10,000 species of small perennial herbs, native to the northern hemisphere, accustomed to the action of winter frost, suitable for rock plantings, under the proper conditions for growth of each.
