Evening star., 1935-05-16

struced fiat on the ground, by its very
nature 1t is better In the semi-vertical
This rise, however, should not be
too sharp. Thus a good rock garden
Is wider than 1t is high.
II rocks are simply placed on the
level, plants soon grow all over them
hiding them from view.
The rocks are thus waste material
In q sense, whereas they serve real
purposes II placed on an ascending
slope.
A primary fault comes in selecting
rocks too small. The basic idea is te
duplicate, in q sense, natural rocky
settings. where small amounts Of soil
have blown into small pockets, thu.
furnishing beds for windblown seeds
In such natural settings the rocks
are as prominent as the flowers. A
rock garden built after this pattern
will seem to have too much rock, at
first, but as the seasons pass the
plants will grow and tend TO push out
over the stone.
Dark pieces of stone, fiat rather
than round. and larger than one
might handle easily, are best for this
work. Grays and reds should pre-
dominate.
These must be placed in the slope
SO that the fiat surfaces, not the ends,
are up, and so sloped that the pockets
Of soil left will drain down into the
earth, not out over the rocks.
If an embankment is built up with
earth, where none was before, 1t is
best to make a foundation Of some
large slabs, to be entirely covered with
earth. If the slope is already present,
as it so often is, these concealed stones
may be omitted.
Sedums, thymes and phloxes form
a fine company Of plants for begin
ming the rock garden planting.
The best rock garden we have seen
uses the following sedums:
Sedum acre golden moss, 4 to
inches.
Sedum album. white flowers, 4
inches.
Se0um Sarmentosum, dwarf, rapid
grower.
Sedum spectabile, Is inches. pink
flowers.
Sedum ternatum. 4 inches, shade or
sun.
The old favorite sempervivum, pop
is to 6 inches tall. These plants
are mostly used for foliage effect.
Thymes are very dwarf and are
used in gardens between stepping
stones. Stepped on. their odor is
more pronounced. This brings up a
point in construction: The best rock
garden is one in which the rocks are
so placed that a series OF natural
stepping stones are left, at intervals,
from top to bottom. Thus one might
walk up and down without stepping
on any of the plants.
The thymes need sun, Towering in
June and July. Some of the best for
rock garden work are Thymus citro-
dornus demon thyme), thymus
lanuginosus (woolly thyme), thymus
serpyllum splendens. The last two
may be stepped on.
The smaller phloxes make delight
full spots in such a garden. These ir-
clude the p subulata date April and
May), the atropurpurea, carmine red;
alba, white; fairy, pale blue with
purple eye; lilacina, pale blue; rosea,
rose pink, and vivid, bright pink with
red eye.
Phlox divaricata canadensis is
slightly larger, blue, blooming In
April and May. 1t grows about one
foot high, and is best at the top OF
the rock garden. Plants hitherto
mentioned do better on the lower
levels, especially the sedums.
The best rock gardens are partly in
full sun, partly in semi-shade, thus
affording opportunities for a wider
variety Of plants than If the garden
were all in sunshine.
For a shady place, with some mois-
ture, the following may be used: