Rock Garden Society at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Martha Houghton, at the first meeting of the American Rock Garden society, 1934. tfy first visit to a true alpine garden was in the spring of 1977 vhen I met Budd Myers and had the rare opportunity of touring his lillside domain in northeast Pennsylvania, on the fringes of the 3ocono Mountains. I had seen pictures of other such gardens before nit they always looked like a technicolor world with brilliant dots of ntense but unreal tinting and a great deal of cunningly placed rock, lence the other name for such plant collections: rock gardens.

Royal Horticultural Society is one of the all-time greats. In addition to The Garden, the monthly magazine, a membership includes a free pass to the Chelsea Flower Show, and the seed exchange that covers the world with 1,200 entries. —Vincent Square, London SW1P 2PE, England. Scottish Rock Garden Society publishes two fine bulletins per year and sponsors a seed exchange of surprising diversity with 3,200 entries. Membership is $12 per year.

I compromised by setting the flower in the rock garden during the day and moving it to the Garage at night. This did cause a bit of a problem in the morning necessitated by opening the door and all that such an act implies. Visitors to the garden did not know quite what to say about the giant maroon and leathery appurtenance set amid the blooming plants of the rock garden so they avoided all mention, which is fairly hard to do with a plant now 4 feet high and surmounted by buzzing flies.