History of Rock Gardens and History of a Rock Garden Plant
Appendices I and II provide more notes from the Lewis and Clark expedition on their use of various roots as food along with a detailed description of some of the areas they explored. These appendices will serve those interested in ethnobotany well.
I found this entire book fascinating. It only took me one evening to read it through because I felt compelled to keep going. Some of the historical descriptions let me take just a peek into the life of the Lewis and Clark explorers -- complete with all its difficulty. Throughout the book, you'll find colored pictures of habitat and plants along with some line drawings from the early botanists. If you enjoy going deeper into the history and uses of a plant like I do, may I recommend this book to you? You won't be disappointed.
Alpine gardening is a popular hobby today. Graham Stuart Thomas, in The Rock Garden and its Plants, traces the history of rock gardening from grottos to alpine houses. It was published in 1989 by Timber Press.
The Rock Garden and its Plants contains 14 chapters of varying lengths. The first four chapters present the history of grottos, ferneries, where rocks originate from, and the history of today's rock garden. Each chapter is illustrated with black and white photos of gardens from the 1700s and 1800s. You'll learn about historical representations of each garden type and their creators.
Chapters 5-7 discuss the steps involved in first creating a rock garden, the available plants and where they originated, and provides directions for the proper placement of plants within the garden. I found it interesting that Thomas suggests planting larger plants towards the front edge of the garden and smaller plants towards the back (and higher parts) of the garden. These seems to be contrary to what most people teach about gardening, however, it is quite proper for the rock garden since those plants growing higher up the mountain tend to be smaller and less noticeable.
Thomas believes that a rock garden should naturally blend in with the total landscape. He suggests scree gardens, alpine lawns, and peat gardens as adjacent gardens. You'll find the details about these gardens in Chapters 8 and 9.
Chapter 10 discusses tasks that need to be done in the Rock garden during the Fall along with some late flowering plants which will brighten it during September and October or until it snows. Chapter 12 describes several
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