Five-star plant selection

Part 9: Rock plants

THERE are many kinds of rock plants with very different characteristics and origins. Some are small herbaceous plants and some are tiny shrubs. Some are genuine mountain plants or ‘alpines’, while others come from lower latitudes, even from the seashore, where they find congenial conditions among the rocks. About the only two things they have in common are their relative smallness and an ability to prosper in places too stony for most other plants.

Both of these characteristics make rock plants of supreme interest to gardeners, and especially those numerous gardeners today who have only tiny plots. No difficulty should be found in growing any of the following, all of which