Climbing Rose isolated on grass.
CHAPTER XI.
WILD GARDENING ON WALLS OR RUINS.
[ill88]
Arenaria balearica, in a hole in wall at Great Tew.
There are many hundred species of mountain and rock plants which will thrive much better on an old wall, a ruin, a sunk fence, a sloping bank of stone, with earth behind, than they do in the most carefully prepared border, and therefore their culture may be fittingly considered here, particularly, as once established in such positions they increase and take care of themselves unaided. Indeed, many an alpine plant which may have perished in its place in the garden, would thrive on any old wall near at hand, as, for example, the pretty Pyrenean Erinus, the silvery Saxifrages of the Alps, pinks like the Cheddar Pink, established on the walls at Oxford, many Stonecrops and allied plants, the Aubrietia and Arabis.