CHAPTER XVI

EASY ROCK AND WALL GARDENING

“The stems are faithful to the root That worketh out of view, And to the rock the root adheres In every fibre true.”

A rock-garden, even in a simple way, is a great joy, and there is no reason why we should not try to possess one even in a town or in the suburbs. Writers in the best horticultural papers are sometimes a little discouraging; they tell us that the rock-garden near a house is out of place, and that it should never be made near trees, nor buildings, nor any other objects, but stand apart in stony isolation; they also tell us by no means to make a rockery ourselves, any more than we should try to mend a broken limb without the doctor: we are to call in an experienced garden-artist blessed with good taste, a knowledge of rocks, and the requirements of Alpine plants.

No doubt, the owners of large grounds and long purses will do well to take this advice, but people must cut their coats according to their cloth, and no one who does not mind taking a little trouble need despair. It is not so very difficult a matter to build a home for, and to get together, a pretty collection of Alpine and other rock-plants. One’s pains are well repaid, for no class of growing things is more interesting; besides this, we shall be in the fashion.

In our own garden, which I have said before is not a large one (close to other people’s houses, and much too full of trees), we have contrived to make two rock-gardens, one in shade and one in sunshine. Neither of them is far from our own house, and one is much too near some Fir trees; but the plants do not seem to mind either of these things in the very least.

The first thing we have to consider in establishing a rockery (after settling where to place it) is the rock, and “rock,” as we all know, is geology for every kind of earth and stone. Limestone is about the best rock we can choose; there are so many plants that love to live in it, and it is easier to procure than granite. Need it be said that we must not dream of using clinker? Stone is a little difficult to get, and dear to buy and cart about, but we lighted upon a cunning plan in getting ours. We looked up a neighbouring builder, and for a trifle and the cartage he let us have a number of disused steps and sinks and stones that came out of old houses, and to him were so much lumber; they were just the thing for us, and were already nicely weathered.

I think we knew the right way to build a rockery, for we had read many papers on the subject in _The Garden_, and also possessed Miss Jekyll’s delightful book on “Wall and Water Gardens,” the pictures in which are very helpful; and though we could not do all the best things that might be done, for want of room, we succeeded fairly well, but we had to superintend and do all except the heavy work ourselves. No gardener of the ordinary jobbing or suburban type can be trusted to make a rockery.

The natural soil of our garden made drainage requisite, so we began with that; then we laid in a store of loam, a little leaf-mould, and a great deal of coarse sand. Rock-plants look as if they grew on the surface, lying on it like water-flies upon a stream. This appearance is deceitful; they have particularly long roots, which strike down any distance in search of food. No one, therefore, need expect to have a successful rockery who first dumps his stones down in a heap, and then piles the earth on the top of them. Each stone or piece of rock must be planted firmly, ends pointing downwards, as in building a flint wall, so that roots can run down easily through the soil between them; and it is best to work after a plan, arranging the “rock” in a sort of orderly disorder like a stratification, with here and there a “fault.” So anxious were we to make our rockery look natural, that we referred to one of Mr. Geikie’s geology books, and chose our style of stratification from that.

It was a long time before we managed to place the stones exactly to our minds, but we did succeed at last, after one or two trials and a few alterations. Then came a period of waiting till things had settled down. We gave temporary lodgings among the rocks to tufts of London Pride, the pretty pink Saxifrage, that so well deserves its name and is so invaluable a plant in any difficult garden, as it will grow anywhere and remains in bloom so many months. Creeping Jenny was another stop-gap, quite as hardy as London Pride, and flowering almost directly after you plant it, if it is given a little water and some sunshine; Lung-wort and common Campanulas we put in too, with odds and ends of all the weedy things that inhabit every garden and consider themselves, as it were, joint owners of it. We robbed the Herb-border, too, of bits of gold and silver Thyme, that so much loves growing on a bank and is so fragrant; these latter were allowed to stay, and we would have had Balm too, had space permitted.

Later on came a visit to Mr. Barr’s nursery-ground, from whence we drove home the richer by a number of little sandy pots, in each pot a treasure. Whenever I visit this flowery region in search of Daffodils, I never can find time to admire the Daffodils because of being so taken up with rock plants. They are grown so beautifully here; with nothing but flat fields to work upon, a stretch of rocks has been imported into them so skilfully as to wear a very natural look, and one cannot walk among them without taking an object-lesson on the beauty of bold effects. After falling in love with wide expanses of trailing, creeping, rooting, and clinging Alpine and native rock-plants, one can visit the open frames where small pieces of them are growing in pots. Nothing could be more convenient or pleasanter than the choosing of these and the bearing of them away in safety to individual hearts and homes. Grown in pots, the most delicate things can be moved in safety.

The great danger among so much that attracts is that of being tempted to buy more sorts and kinds of plants than can have justice done them in a small garden; much wiser is it to choose but a few of the best, and let those have space to grow and spread. A cranny can always be found for any rarity, but no “scrappy” rockery, any more than a “scrappy” garden, will ever make for beauty.

In a gardening paper the other day there was a piece of advice that amused us by its _naïveté_. It was, “never to buy plants, but always to get them given you by friends, because that way you get much bigger pieces.” Certainly friends who have a well-established rockery can assist greatly, and a hamper sent us one October was a treasure-trove indeed, not only for the plants we saw and handled, but also for its waifs and strays. Like the magic ferry-boat, that hamper had brought more travellers than eye could see. Next summer they appeared. One was a vigorous plant of bright pink Yarrow, another a fairy Flax (oh, what a delicious blue!), and one day a weird-looking stranger popped up suddenly. He had a beautiful cream-coloured suit, and peacock’s eyes, which the gardener said quite frightened him. His name we discovered afterwards was Calochortus, a Lily from California, which is supposed to require a good deal of warmth and some care, so we were very proud of his appearance in our rockery.

We contrived to find room for many pretty things: _Campanula Bavarica_, in falls of azure blue; the white Iberis and Arabis, double and single; yellow Alysum; Aubrietia, pink and mauve; as well as one or two Rock Pinks and some crimson Thrift. The Bird’s-eye Primrose, and Rock Primulas, and Alpine Poppies (these are lovely), we could not run to for want of space.

Saxifrages are a blessing in the shady rockery. Here, as well as the sunshiny one, mossy and encrusted Saxifrages do very well. Some of the mossy Saxifrages are early bloomers, opening in February with large white flowers, in striking contrast to their tufted dark-green leaves. The encrusted Saxifrages are the most wonderful of rock-plants; any one unfamiliar with their shining silver edges might fancy the foliage were frosted; but the edging is really an incrustation of lime. In some form or other lime is a food these plants must have, or they cannot thrive; it is pretty to see them using their food-stuff to adorn themselves as well as in support of life. Some small Saxifrages we liked are _S. sancta_, with yellow flowers, _S. oppositifolia_, with red-purple blooms, and the double-flowered native _S. granulata_. Perhaps the handsomest of all is _S. longifolia_, which grows in huge rosettes, throwing from the centre of each a panicle of creamy white flower nearly two feet long.

Wall-planting is easier to manage in the small garden than the rockery because it so economizes space. Many, in fact most, rock-plants do well in walls if made with mould enough to give root-room. A double wall is a delightful thing. On the broad top of it Roses can be planted, and soft-stemmed Roses look even prettier when falling down than when climbing up. Pink blossoms are lovely on grey stone. Cerastium’s grey foliage should always rove about among the green things; grey leaves are so pretty, and there are many plants of this colour. The Cotton plant, often called French Lavender, is a good one. _Anemone apennina_ is a wall and rock plant that ought to be mentioned first instead of last; _Anemone sylvestris_ and _hepatica_ also love the stones, and so do the homely Houseleeks that remind us of cottage roofs, and the grey-green Cobweb-leeks that are smothered in downy thread.

It would be quite easy to make a beautiful rock or wall garden without going away from our own country to people it; many of our common native stone-loving plants are so good. Snap-dragons are grand, and we could have Foxgloves, the great Mulleins and the delicate Stitchwort, the shining Crane’s-bell--so scarlet of leaf as summer wanes--the Wall-Pennywort, and the pink-flowered tiny Toad-flax. Some Ferns, too, could find a place in it, Cetrach and Wall-Rue in the sun, and Polypody and the black-stemmed _Adiantum nigrum_ anywhere. Polypodies run freely about the joints of walls, and will keep green all the winter.

The three commonest of our English wall-plants are those we love most dearly; they are Thrift, Wallflower, and Red Valerian. Our own Valerian was brought from the top of a castle-wall in the Isle of Wight, close to the sea, wind-swept and bathed in sunshine. There were masses of it, in patches of deep crimson; we took some while it was in full flower, in spite of the risk. No easy matter was it to get a root, so deeply had every one gone down between the stones, but we managed to secure one or two with fibre on them, and these have grown and spread. Wallflowers are never so happy as on stone-work with air and light all round them, and they are all the better for the slight protection given by a wall. Ivy-leaved Toad-flax was growing merrily near the Valerian, and was not half so difficult to get out. All of these are now quite content in the suburban garden to which they were brought, and in which they thrive and bloom, the red Valerian a special joy to every pussy-cat.

One pleasing thought may cheer the most disheartened while going through the troubles of making a rockery; it will be a delicious salve to one’s conscience when running away with roots of dainty little plants from wall, or moor, or mountain, either in England or abroad, to know that at home a comfortable shelter is awaiting them where not even the Edelweis need feel the pangs of Heimweh. Flowers we bring home that live and grow are about the pleasantest log-books it is possible to possess.

“Oh, to what uses shall we put The wild weed-flower that simply blows?”

This is what Tennyson says, and the question is easily answered by another: Could it have a better use than to bring happiness to those who dearly love the country and its flowers, but are obliged by stress of circumstance to live their lives in towns?

INDEX

_Ampelopsis Veitchii_, 21, 88.

Analysis of fog at Kew and Chelsea in 1891, 49.

Apathy of the public about fog, 54.

Arabis, double and single, 11.

Area garden, 2.

“Art out of Doors,” 69.

_Asparagus Plumosa_, 47.

_Asparagus Sprengeri_, 17.

Back and front gardens, 64, 67.

Balcony-fitting, 25.

Barr’s, Messrs., rock-garden, 97.

Birds and butterflies in London, 30.

Bournville, workman’s village, 32.

Bonfires, 74.

Bulbs for the window-box, 10.

Bulbs after flowering, 14.

Bulbous plants in smoke, 28.

Bulbous plants for parks in town, 4.

Bulbous plants in fog, 53.

Button-hole bouquet-making in London streets, 60.

Campanulas, 4, 17, 41, 97.

_Campanula Bavarica_, 99.

Candy-tuft (Iberis), 99.

Charcoal filters for fog, 51.

Children’s window-boxes, 19.

Children’s ideas of “Next-door,” 73.

Choosing the window-box, 37.

Cleansing foliage, 38, 41.

Clean mist, 49.

_Clematis Montana_, 91.

Clementi-Smith’s, Mrs., rectory-garden in the City, 26, 30.

Climbers, 89.

Climbers in pots, 20.

_Country Life_ on suburban gardens, 76.

Country board schools, 33.

Covent Garden Market, 45.

Coal-smoke Abatement Society, 54

Crocus, 11, 64, 65.

Crook’s Place Board School, Norwich, 32.

Creepers, 89.

Cut flowers from the florist, 3

Daisies, field, 16.

Daisies, Michaelmas, 4.

Double-wall gardening, 99.

Dracaenas, 47.

Drainage for window-box, 33.

Drainage for fernery, 81.

Drainage for rockery, 96.

Dyed flowers, 57.

Early and mid-Victorian bouquets, 59.

Encrusted Saxifrages, 99.

Establishing a rockery, 96.

Etiquette in suburban gardens, 71.

Exeter prize window-boxes, 18.

Factory-lad’s window-box and Miss Jekyll, 35.

Ferns for window-box, 42.

Ferns at Kew after fog, 52.

Ferns all the year round, 80.

Ferns and gas, 53.

Ferns under trees, 85.

Flower Hospital, 39.

Flower-girls of London, 60.

Flowers as symbols, 58.

Flower-beds in turf, 78.

Flower-pots, 21, 22.

Floral trophies, 59.

Foreign opinions on English suburban gardens, 64.

Fog filters and annihilators, 50.

Foliage plants, 44.

Free’s, Mrs. Richard, Window-box Society at Millwall, 31.

Front and back gardens, 64, 67.

Furnishing the fernery, 82.

Garden-schools in Germany, 33

Gardens we grow fond of, 69.

Genista, 16.

Giant Snowdrop, _Galanthus Whittalli_, 10.

Giving away our surplus plants, 34.

Grassy gardens, 76.

Grass walks, 79.

Hanging baskets, 39.

Herbs in the window-box, 17.

Honeysuckle, 92.

Hops, 92.

Home for Working Boys, roof-garden at, 28.

Impurities of town fog, 49.

Individuality in gardens, 67.

Injuries from fog, 49.

Iberis, candy-tuft, 99.

Insects, 40.

Ipom[oe]a (Morning Glory), 92.

Ivy, 11, 93.

Jasmines, 90.

Kitchen window-boxes, 17.

Kew Gardens, fog at, 50, 52.

Kew and Chelsea, fog at, 49.

Lady decorators, 85.

Lawn, the, 65, 76, 78.

Lilies, Japanese, at Holland House, 4.

Lilies in poor man’s garden, 32.

Limestone for rockeries, 96.

London in June, 23.

London flower-girls, 60.

London Pride, 11, 97.

Love of small gardens, 69.

Maiden-hair sprigs, 60.

Making a balcony-garden, 25.

Making a rockery, 96.

_Magnolia Grandiflora_, 90.

Michaelmas Daisies, 4.

Miniature rock and water gardens, 68.

Moss, 11, 39.

Musk, 15, 25, 41.

Narcissus, 12, 39.

Nasturtiums, 3, 43, 45.

Open-air fern-box, 42.

Ornamental foliage plants, 47.

_Osmunda Regalis_ in May, 85.

_Osmunda Regalis_ in autumn, 85.

Passion-flowers on south wall, 91.

Palms, 46.

Petunias, 15, 29, 39.

Pelham Park (Home for working boys), 29.

Plants for house-decoration, 46.

Poplar trees next door, 73.

Pots for balconies, 21.

Pot-plants, watering, 41.

Precautions in foggy weather, 53.

Primrose Day, 58.

Pruning creepers, 92.

Public Health Act, 54.

Pyrethrums as town flowers, 3.

Queen’s Gate window-boxes, 16.

Rain-water, 18, 86.

Rock-gardening, 95.

Rock-plants, hardy English, 100.

Roof-garden in Bishopsgate St., 28.

Roof-garden on London leads, 29.

Roses, 4, 20, 56, 58, 67, 90.

Saxifrages in rockery, 99.

Seeds for window-box, 42.

Seed Song, 18.

Shop-front in Bond Street, 23.

Shrubs for window-box, 38.

Silene (Campion or Catchfly), 12.

Slugs, 3.

Snowdrops, 10.

Smoke-poison, 48.

Soil for window-box, 37.

Soot, 3, 38.

Study of plants, 41.

Stone for rockery, 96.

Suburban gardens, 4, 62.

Suburban highways, 63.

Sunflower, a city, 34.

Summer flowers for window-box, 14.

Tiger Lilies, 28.

Town board schools, 32.

Tubs for verandahs and balconies, 22.

Turf for small gardens, 66.

Turf, love of green, 75.

Turf, flower-beds in, 78.

Turf for games, 77.

Turf for bordering shrubberies, 78.

Urban fog, 48.

Valerian, 100.

Villa window-box in March and June, 37.

Virginia Creeper for bird’s nests, 91.

Virginia Stock, 43.

Washing leaves, 41.

Watering, 40, 81, 83.

Weeping Willows, 65.

Weeds that are welcome, 30, 83.

Winter Jasmine (_nudiflorum_), 64, 90.

Winter Aconite, 11.

Wild flowers in the garden, 83.

Window-box in spring, 10.

Wire netting, 89.

Wired flowers, 56.

Wormwood, 17.

Handbooks of Practical Gardening

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*** _Mr. Edmund H. New spent some two years in following the footsteps of the Father of Angling, and the present edition includes drawings of the majority of the places mentioned in the text. A special feature is the drawings of fish._

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*** _These “Side Lights on the Reign of Terror” were originally published under the title of “Some Years of My Life”; and M. de Lamartine, who consulted them when writing his “Histoire des Girondins,” expressed himself as delighted with the work, and declared he had never met with one so interesting. There is contained in Mdlle. des Écherolles’ pages a vivid and touching account of the privations of those so remorselessly pursued by tyrants, to whom the name of “the people” was a means that enabled them to satisfy their hatreds and desires for vengeance._

IV. Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, Wife of the Right Hon. Sir Roland Fanshawe, Bart., Ambassador from Charles the Second to the Court of Madrid. Written by Herself. To which are added Extracts from the Correspondence of Sir Richard Fanshawe. A New Edition. Edited, with an Introduction, by BEATRICE MARSHALL. With New Portraits, Illustrations, etc.

JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON: VIGO STREET, W. NEW YORK: 67, FIFTH AVENUE.

BOOKS ABOUT GARDENS

Seven Gardens and a Palace. By “E. V. B.,” Author of “Days and Hours in a Garden.” Illustrated by F. L. GRIGGS and ARTHUR GORDON. Price 5s. net. Crown 8vo. Price $1.50.

_Third Edition._

The Chronicle of a Cornish Garden. By HARRY ROBERTS. With Seven ideal Illustrations by F. L. GRIGGS. Price 5s. net. Crown 8vo. Price $1.50.

Of Gardens: An Essay. By FRANCIS BACON. With an Introduction by HELEN MILMAN and a Cover-design and Frontispiece by EDMUND H. NEW. Demy 16mo. Price 2s. 6d. net.

A Garden in the Suburbs. By Mrs LESLIE WILLIAMS. With Eight Illustrations. Price 5s. net. Crown 8vo. Price $1.50.

Stray Leaves from a Border Garden. By Mrs MILNE-HOME. With Eight Illustrations by F. L. GRIGGS. Price 6s. net. Crown 8vo. Price $2.00.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Superscripted text is preceded by a carat character: L^{TD}.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or alternate spelling that may have been in use at the time of publication has been retained.

The illustration on page 28 was omitted from the List of Illustrations. It has been added in this eBook.