Thought it was a nice day for a rockery garden outlook. Headed to the local Trädgårdsföreningen (The Garden Society of Gothenburg) to check one out. I haven’t been there for at least a couple of weeks. Blimey.
The use of rocks as garden decorations has been a characteristic of Chinese garden garden design since ancient times. This included building mounts and grottoes as well as showcasing them singly and in groups. Stones are also important in Japanese gardens but are there used in a more unobtrusive and naturalistic way. As features they are meant to represent mountain scenery and in dry gardens they may simulate landscapes or just form generally abstract designs open to interpretation.
In the Western world rocks and stones have been used for various garden design purposes since Roman times. It was, however, not until the late 18th centuries, especially in England, efforts were made to imitate natural rock formations. The rock garden momentum was accelerated with the introduction of new plant materials such as alpines, ferns and California annuals. Rock gardens not only looked natural but plants were brought up to eye level, enabling them to be examined at close range. The construction of rock gardens eventually became rather technical and eventually popularity waned.
