قراءة كتاب Making A Rock Garden

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Making A Rock Garden

Making A Rock Garden

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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Aubrietia deltoidea, maiden pink (Dianthus deltoides), blue bugle (Ajuga Genevensis), white bugle (Ajuga reptans), woolly chickweed (Cerastium tomentosum), creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum), dwarf speedwell (Veronica repens), Saponaria ocymoides, alpine mint (Calamintha alpina), and pink, white, and yellow stonecrops (sedum). All of them fairly hug the ground. There are other

plants that form a carpet of foliage, but the flower stalks rise higher. These include white rock cress (Arabis albida), the permissible double buttercup (Ranunculus acris fl. pl.), the also permissible double German catchfly (Lychnis viscaria), another double flower, "fair maids of France" (Ranunculus aconitifolius), Carpathian bellflower (Campanula Carpatica), grass pink (Dianthus plumarius), Iris pumila, crested iris (Iris cristata), Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), Phlox divaricata, Phlox ovata, Phlox repens, foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia), Veronica incana, Alyssum saxatile, Saxifraga cordifolia, and various avens (geum).

Several of the primulas give a like effect if the planting is close—as it should be in a pocket. The best are the English primrose (Primula vulgaris), cowslip

(P. veris), oxlip (P. elatior), bird's eye (P. farinosa), yellow auricula (P. auricula), P. denticulata, and P. Cortusoides. Similarly, spring bulbs may be employed; plant them, for the most part, under a ground cover so that the soil will not show when they die down. Of the tulips, single ones of the early and cottage types may be used, if in a solid color, but most to be preferred are the species, such as the sweet yellow (Florentine) tulip of Southern Europe and the little lady tulip (Tulipa Clusiana). Crocuses are also best in type forms, and the small, single, yellow trumpet kinds are the finest daffodil material. Single white or blue hyacinths may be used, but better than the stiff spikes of bloom of new bulbs will be the looser clusters of bulbs that have begun to "run out" in the border. Other valuable bulbs are the snowdrop, Scilla

Sibirica, glory-of-the-snow (Chionodoxa Luciliæ), guinea-hen flower (Fritillaria Meleagris), grape hyacinth (Muscari botryoides), Triteleia uniflora, Allium Moly, and the wood and Spanish hyacinths (Scilla nutans and campanulata).

Taller plants that may be worked in, oftentimes best with only a single specimen or small clump, are autumn aconite (Aconitum autumnale), Yucca filamentosa, leopard's bane (doronicum), single peonies (either herbaceous or tree), German, Japanese, and Siberian iris, as well as the yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus), single columbines, Anemone Japonica, Hemerocallis flava, Sedum spectabile, Dielytra spectabile, Dielytra formosa, Jacob's ladder (Polemonium Richardsonii), fraxinella, Anthemis tinctoria, single Campanula persicifolia, Campanula rapunculoides, Campanula glomerata, globe flower

(trollius), snapdragon (antirrhinum), platycodon, lavender (where it is proven hardy), and musk mallow (Malva moschata).

Of the lilies, Lilium Philadelphicum, L. elegans, L. speciosum, and L. longiflorum are all desirable, and they thrive in partial shade, though in Japan L. elegans will be found standing out from the rocks in full sunshine. For peering over into the rock garden, rather than being placed in it, L. Canadense, L. tigrinum, and L. superbum are recommended.

A rock garden merging into woodland. A curved path is desirable, as it affords a greater number of vistas A rock garden merging into woodland. A curved path is desirable, as it affords a greater number of vistas

The pick of the low shrubs are the charming Daphne cneorum, which flourishes better for being lifted above the ordinary garden level, and Azalea amœna. The latter, however, should be so placed that its trying solferino does not make a bad color clash. Rhododendrons and mountain laurel fringe a rock garden well,

and with one trailing juniper (Juniperus procumbens) will provide a great deal of the refreshing winter green.

Single roses, the species, fit in well where there is room for them. Good ones are R. setigera, R. rubiginosa, R. Wichuraiana, all rampant, and the low R. blanda. The roses would better be at or near the entrance or exit, or far enough above the rock work not to ramble over small plants.

The plants in this list cover all seasons and vary somewhat in their soil and moisture requirements. But the variation is nothing beyond the ordinary garden knowledge. Most will do better if their preferences are considered, but none is apt to perish with average care.

Alpines, as a class, would better be left to the amateur with the time, money, and disposition to specialize. Most of them

take kindly to being transferred from a mile or more up in the air to sea level; the edelweiss, for one, grows here readily from seed, and the exquisitely beautiful Gentiana acaulis thrives in American rock gardens. But, on the whole, alpines do not do as well here as in England, where the summer climate is not so hard on them. When they flourish here, it is at the cost of a great amount of professional care.


THE WALL GARDEN

A wall garden is a perpendicular rock garden. But whereas a rock garden is of all things irregular, a wall garden has regularity. The wall need not be a straight line; it is better that one end should describe a curve, and rocks at the base may give it further irregularity. Yet it can never quite lose the air of man's handiwork. The prime object of the gardening on it is to reduce this air to a minimum.

The way to make a wall garden is to build a dry wall of rough stones—that is, a wall without mortar. Instead use soil and pack it tight in every crevice as well as behind the stones, which should be tilted back a little to carry water into the soil. This tilting may be accomplished with

small stone wedges. The best kind is a five-foot retaining wall, as there is then a good body of soil behind to which the roots can reach out through the crevices. But a double-faced wall may be made, if the situation demands it, by constructing parallel lines of stones and filling in solidly with soil.

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