The Children's Book of GardeningSidgwick, Alfred, Mrs.
General
The Children's Book of Gardening
Sidgwick, Alfred, Mrs.
Children's gardens; Gardening -- Juvenile literature
Besides these plants, you should put a few bulbs in your rockery. Some
of the very small Daffodils, Narcissus Minimus or Bulbocodium look
charming coming up through a mossy carpet of Arenaria Balearica, for
instance. You could also have some Snowdrops, some Siberian Squills,
some autumn Crocuses, some Fritillaries, and some Dog’s Tooth Violets
(Erythronium Dens Canis). We much prefer the English names for flowers,
but it is often necessary to give both, so that you should recognize
it in the catalogues. We heard of someone who sent to the other end
of England for a plant advertised as Tussilago Fragrans, or the
Winter Heliotrope, and she was much disappointed to receive a bit of
the common Coltsfoot, that was an obnoxious weed in her own garden.
Someone else sent for Hieracium Aurantiacum, which certainly sounds a
first-class name; but she did not want a bit of the orange Hawkweed,
as it had established itself more firmly than she wished in her rock
garden already, and had to be kept in bounds with a spade.
We have not given you separate lists for a sunny and a shady rock
garden, because we shall tell you a little in another chapter about
plants that like shade. You must have some Primroses, Polyanthuses,
and Auriculas on your rockery, and though they like the sun in spring,
the more delicate kinds need some shelter from the hot summer sun. Try
to get Primula rosea, the hardy rose-coloured Himalayan Primrose, and
Primula Cashmeriana, a Primrose that sends up heads of mauve flowers on
a fat stalk. Both need much moisture. Then, the Japanese Primroses are
very handsome, and seed themselves when once established; and Sieboldi,
with its many varieties, is easily increased, either by seed sown in
spring or by division of the roots.
Now we have chosen just a few flowers for your rock garden, and
with every word we write others come and look at us reproachfully,
saying, ‘Why are we left out?’ We see neat little tufts of Thrift, or
Sea-pink, and hanging sheets of white-flowered Cerastium, Anemones of
sorts, Alpine Violas, Forget-me-nots, Hepaticas, Gentians, the finer
Columbines, and shrubs of various kinds and sizes. But we have only
had one aim in writing this chapter, and that was to lead you just one
step towards the rock garden you must make for yourself when you are
older. Then you must get yourself ‘Wall and Water Gardens,’ by Gertrude
Jekyll, and ‘My Rock Garden,’ by Reginald Farrar, two books that will
teach you all that books can about this most fascinating side of garden
craft. But from the first one we should like to quote a short passage
that tells you how a wise gardener supplements what he learns from
books by his own qualities of patience and observation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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