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Japanese Gardens, and in Wall Crevices

A FULLY developed estate to-day is not complete without an interesting rock garden, not because it gives an interesting physical variety to the landscape, but because it provides an opportunity for the development of one of our most interesting groups of plants, those plants which grow their best and prove most interesting in a miniature landscape of this rocky character. These gardens have been developed to perfection on many English estates. The group of plants valuable for the development of rock garden work is comparatively little known to the amateur, and yet there are used in rock gardens many interesting types frequently used for other purposes. It is true that many of the plants grown for rock gardens are very dwarf in their habit of growth and much more sensitive to changed conditions of soil and exposure, and that many of them therefore require expert labour for their normal development. The most interesting group of plants, perhaps, for rock garden work, includes the plants known as "alpine" plants, which are low-growing, very dense, and compact in their habit of growth. Most of these plants have small leaves and the flowers are rather brilliant and marked in their colours. The term "alpine" plants to-day is applied in its general use to that dwarf and low-growing group of plants which have a tendency to compactness of habit, and which in their mature form of development seem to fit into the confined atmosphere of the average rock garden. The true rock garden plants may perhaps be the "alpine" types, but those plants which landscape architects use to-day for rock garden purposes include not only the "alpine" types but many small plants, even though they come from the lowlands, from the woods, or from the more arid desert sections. There are a few of the tall-growing types of plants, such as foxgloves and some of the single roses, which, though not dwarf in character, are admirably fitted to the scale of rock garden work.