AHS Book Award winner Rock gardening —the art of growing alpines and other miniature plants in the company of rocks in order to recreate the look of a rugged mountaintop—has been surging in popularity. Time and space constraints, chronic drought in the American West, and a trend toward architectural plants are just a few of the reasons for the increased interest. Rock Gardening brings this traditional style to a new generation of gardeners. It includes a survey of gorgeous rock gardens from around the world, the techniques and methods specific to creating and maintaining a rock garden, and profiles of the top 50 rock garden plants.

A rock garden, also known as a rockery or an alpine garden, is a small field or plot of ground designed to feature and emphasize a variety of rocks, stones, and boulders.The standard layout for a rock garden consists of a pile of aesthetically arranged rocks in different sizes, with small gaps between in which plants are rooted. Typically, plants found in rock gardens are small and do not grow larger than 1 meter in height, though small trees and shrubs up to 6 meters may be used to create a shaded area for a woodland rock garden. If used, they are often grown in troughs or low to the ground to avoid obscuring the eponymous rocks. The plants found in rock gardens are usually species that flourish in well-drained, poorly irrigated soil.Some rock gardens are designed and built to look like natural outcrops of bedrock. Stones are aligned to suggest a bedding plane, and plants are often used to conceal the joints between said stones. This type of rockery was popular in Victorian times and usually created by professional landscape architects. The same approach is sometimes used in commercial or modern-campus landscaping but can also be applied in smaller private gardens.The Japanese rock garden, often referred to as a "Zen garden", is a special kind of rock garden with water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and very few plants.Rock gardens have become increasingly popular as landscape features in tropical countries such as Thailand. The combination of wet weather and heavy shade trees, along with the use of heavy plastic liners to stop unwanted plant growth, has made this type of arrangement ideal for both residential and commercial gardens due to its easier maintenance and drainage.

This 1914 work is a comprehensive source of information on all aspects of creating a rock garden, still useful today.

A fusion of reflections on the spiritual importance of rocks and stones in the world's cultures and religions and practical tips on creating and maintaining a rock garden. With illustrations from an internationally known garden designer and artist.

A new edition of Nicola Shulman's miniature masterpiece about the life of gardener Reginald Farrer A hundred years ago, there was a revolution in British gardening, as the garden changed from being a diversion of dukes to the hobby of millions. Few figures were more prominent in this renaissance than Reginald Farrer, whose passion for alpines, the most demanding of plants, would inspire generations with a love of flowers. He was the man who put a rockery in every back garden. Tormented by physical and emotional misfortune, Farrer was one of those 'born to endless night'. Yet in the realm of horticulture his many faults were turned to advantages, and he became one of the great plant-hunters, collecting new species from the mountains of Tibet and China. Through the influence of his extraordinary books, Farrer did for English gardening what, half a century later, Elizabeth David would do for its cookery, changing everything forever.

Complemented by more than five hundred photographs, illustrations, and diagrams, this easy-to-follow how-to handbook introduces the fundamentals of rock and water gardening and includes a variety of projects, complete with step-by-step instructions and illustrations, shopping lists, plant directories, and dozens of helpful tips. Original. 12,000 first printing.