Ingredients
- one has any means of bringing water in pipes to the ground
- one cannot have water brought to the grounds
- two each day
Directions
They are usually built in the style of a castle and often of rocks so large that it takes the power of several horses to draw them to their particular places, but when they are there they stand for centuries. These rustic ornaments are made of common rocks, stones and shells, piled up in pyramidal forms several feet high and many feet across the base. The rocks can be cemented together or fastened by piling them up irregularly, so that they will form nooks and pockets all the way up to the top, to hold the soil for growing plants and vines. At the bottom niches and grottoes can be filled with ferns and vines that grow best in water, while at the top can be placed those plants that most enjoy heat and sunshine.
Do not locate the rock too near the house, for distance here adds
ROSE JARS AND PILLO WS. 321
beauty to the view. Nature always hides her mossy and ferny nooks away in the depths of woods and trees. Make it look as natural as possible, never allowing any pieces of painted pottery or any of the other imitations of statuary or rock work, to be placed in or near it. Gather material for it yourself from the woods and rocky shores ; old gnarled knotty roots of trees are an addition ; all sorts of wild wood plants that grow in damp, dark places can be made to grow here if they can be kept damp enough. When one has any means of bringing water in pipes to the ground, it is an easy matter to manage this, and in most cases a fish pond can be arranged in the grotto. Where one cannot have water brought to the grounds, then it will be a better and more successful plan to plant only the vines and flowers that do not need mucii water.
Creeping Charlie, Kenilworth ivy and many other vines will grow in dry places, and several species of cactus will grow in dry, sandy soil. When plants are brought from the woods they should be trans- planted in their native soil. Mosses, lichens, dwarf evergreens, squaw- berry vines. Jack in the pulpit, joy Virginia creeper, caladiums, coluses, acheranthes, and all other species of ferns will grow here. Those that grow best in damp and shade should be placed at the base, and such flowers as mignonette, pansy and wild columbine will grow up nearer the top, and so will nearly all geraniums. The brilliant yellow and scarlet nasturtiums, also crysanthemums, are also very beautiful. The latter are a brilliant purple, white or yellow.
The moneywort is a hardy little plant ; the ice plant is particularly pretty with its leaves sparkling with dew drops, but is not very hardy, nor is the maurandia. The pretty little sedum and wandering Jew are also effective. Anything will grow in a rockery that will grow in the shade or shallow soil. Some of the plants and vines mentioned will not grow in the rockery if entirely shaded, and if it could be situated so that the sun would shine on it an hour or two each day, and the sun- loving plants placed on the sunny side , it would be an improvement. Many of these rockeries, particularly where there is a fish-pond, are placed out in the open grounds, and when the sun shines brightly, then the fishes dart in the shadow of the rocks.