This is an illustrated guide to varieties, cultivation and care, with step-by-step instructions and over 175 inspiring photographs. It offers expert advice on selecting and buying alpines, and how to use them in the open garden, in beds and containers. It includes a photographic directory of over 60 varieties, including Armeria, Campanula, Erigeron, Gentiana, Penstemon, Phlox, Saxifraga and Sempervivum. It offers step-by-step photographic guidance on propagating and growing alpines, with ideas for constructing rock gardens and planting alpines in troughs and pots. The beauty and hardiness of alpines makes them a popular and rewarding choice for any garden. Whether you use them to provide low-maintenance ground cover, or to bring delicate touches of light to a rock garden, alpines are an important resource. This beautiful handbook provides practical advice on choosing and caring for alpines, from selecting the right stones for your rock garden to deciding which dwarf shrubs to plant with your alpines. An plant directory illustrates 60 of the best varieties, from Achillea to Viola.With their ability to flourish in the most unlikely of flower beds and climates, alpines are plants that all gardeners should try.