Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Alpines => Topic started by: Maggi Young on December 10, 2009, 04:49:16 PM
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Crevice Gardening ......in defence of rock.....
In another thread in the General Forum section " Denmark's giant crevice garden... how it was made...."
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4462.0
....I mentioned an article from the Rock Garden Journal of 2003 written by Zdenek Zvolanek.
ZZ has kindly given me permission to republish that article here and he will add some comments and more photos. :)
I will begin by this posting, where I will attach the 2003 article, broken down into four sections to allow for the Forum posting size restrictions.... they are in pdf format for easy download, to print or enlarge at will.....
ZZ's article : Crevice Gardening - in defense of rock..... in four sections, click below to download......
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CREVICE GARDENING
One top American musician (trumpet player like me) told his audience in the Prague Conservatory, that very important for your progress is to listen the performance of maximum of good players in your free time.
I think that the same is in the case of a constructor of the rock outcrop.
He (she) must see (and study) the maximum of rock works from different stones and from different designers.
My plan is to show some of my designs and also the ones from another constructers to compare.
126-Rockwork in Connecticut ZZ granite side-walls, Connecticut
126 Cedicove bocni steny (Zvolánek) basalt side-walls, N. Ireland
´KING OF HEARTS´in faces of layers (schist), Canada
Anchusa caespitosa and Daphne ridriguezii small limestone side-walls, Karlik
Montreal Real schist side-walls ,Montreal Botanical Garden, Canada
Montreal Skalka schist faces of layers, Montreal Botanical Garden
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There is very contrasting feeling if you see an outcrop towards Side-Walls (optic illusion of one compact rock) or towards Faces of Layers (not so perfect, sometimes little bit a busy; depends on the shape and the thickness of the layers). The best Main View is towards Side-Walls.
diabase faces of layers
Porphyr side-walls
porphyr faces of layers
schist side-walls. N.Ireland
schist side-walls , J. Papousek, Czechia
schist faces of layers, J. Papousek, Czechia
Limestone side-walls, KARLÍK
Limestone faces of layers with Moltkia petraea
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some of the photos are from N. Ireland
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The first photos is in N Ireland
Mark, I believe I recognise June's snowdrops? Paddy
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You do
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schist side-walls , J. Papousek, Czechia
schist faces of layers, J. Papousek, Czechia
one more picture of schist side-walls. J. Papousek,Czechia
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When you concentrate your effort of an older experienced individual, you will probably build your last stony outcrop. It must be in your eyes aesthetical sculpture (if not, you have the freedom to improve it towards your own “picture”). It will be first a silent beauty but after processes of planting and replanting with lovely flowers, this dumb lovely rock would start to speak and then: it is the classic antique story of Pygmalion in your own small theatre with long lasting happy end.
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Jiri has remade his garden?! Wow!
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Now to Northern Ireland
Margaret Glynn is marvelous woman in our rock gardening circle. She perfectly organized rebuilding of small rock garden a representative of Ulster Group of the AGS in Antrim.
Antrim is Forum Hero Mark Smyth’s headquarter and place of the Ulster Show too.
The place, which the Group obtained in the large garden of the local horticultural college, was squeezed in one corner, but I tried to raise it with small stones maximally up just to be seen.
Margaret organized large trailer and I was able to select and load some suitable stones in a 200 miles distant quarry including chippings for top dressing. If you do rock work in the rain it is fine to be at a sand hill. Sand is not sticky like a soil.
I believe that many Saxifraga cultivars (from Ron MacBeath nursery) will enjoy this sandy root run and I hope that Mark Smyth can direct his powerful Canon to show you the progress there in following spring.
I did not see a picture of this wee outcrop in flower. Mark is
fiddling around his pots and ignore something important close to him. :-X It
is a pain not to see one of my babies growth!
We bought also plenty plants (including dwarf rhododendrons) from one famous Irish nursery.
The Rockwork was organized as a work shop for college students (and lecturers too) together with a lecture about crevice gardening and its plants. Students did planting and topdressing of the outcrop under my conducting. Margaret also managed elegant black labels and pen with silver paint.
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Jiri has remade his garden?! Wow!
Jiri Papousek bought a house with large garden near Prague. This is brand new construction we put together this year. The stones Jiri rescued from one new tunel around Prague
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Some of the ancient writer wrote that only one of ten women is coming from a bee.
Yes, Margaret Glynn is of honeybee origin, Maggi Young, off course, too and we must have a peek towards another woman born of the bee (the owner of two rock gardens) Joyce Carruthers.
One crevice garden in Victoria, British Columbia and one steppe garden in the Czech Karst and you must be busy honeybee (the transatlantic subspecies). Her functional (blooming) crevice garden in the Maritime climate (dry summers and wet mild winters) is good example that this growing technique is right (may be superior) when you are not present for half of every year in your garden. Here are some pictures from this Canadian artificial outcrop from crystalline metamorphic schist and Czech Karst steppe with Joyce milking her babies.
What a job to celebrate females so nicely!
ZZ
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BACK TO NORTHERN IRELAND
After lazy morning I played hide and seek with old photographs to
decorate a tribute to June Dougherty from Ulster.She is the lady in
black.
June Dougherty (see the above Mark’s remarks about the fields of snowdrops of June) belongs to the same class of hard working females. She is running with some help an old private garden of the country estate size with lovely old ancient trees, perennial and bulb beds under rhododendrons and camellias. I made for her one large rock garden from the rare superb Irish limestone (I had not enough stones so there is seen unfinished broken top) one large raised bed covered with recycled slate pavement and a series of low outcrops from schist. But it was long time ago and I would be pleased to see progress of the plants planted there.
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Now to Northern Ireland
I hope that Mark Smyth can direct his powerful Canon to show you the progress there in following spring.
I did not see a picture of this wee outcrop in flower. Mark is
fiddling around his pots and ignore something important close to him. :-X It
is a pain not to see one of my babies growth!
Mark,
This is a remark from the master himself, not to be ignored !!
With him, we will be waiting for plenty of pictures of these wonderful settings !!!! ;)
Zdenek,
You've moved around some pebbles.... ::) :P
All extraordinary achievements ! :o
Many thanks for showing us !!
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Mark: your friends are calling to you
VERTICAL “STRATIFICATION”
It is known, that stratification of layers of mud etc. at the bottom of the ancient seas was horizontal. My first picture is very rare (Northern Maritime Alps in France) and it is example of side pressing and folding the limestone layers into whole synclinal. You can see their very steep stratification. Second picture is from old small limestone quarry (2 miles behind my diabase rock) where is seen vertical cliff formed from layers folded vertically. You can see there many bottoms of layers (beds), which I call for easy understanding the side-walls.
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Great thread. Good to see these pictures.
May I be so bold as to make a minor (technical) correction to the last post (and apologies if this may seem pedantic.....). In the superb picture of folded limestone beds from the Maritimes - this should read "anticline" instead of "syncline". Anticlines have beds inclined away from the crest of the fold, whereas in synclines the beds dip towards the axis. :D :D :D
Also, a point of note for British readers: the rock name "diabase" is not often used here where the equivalent term is "dolerite".
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It is known, that stratification of layers of mud etc. at the bottom of the ancient seas was horizontal. My first picture is very rare (Northern Maritime Alps in France) and it is example of side pressing and folding the limestone layers into whole synclinal.
Pardon another nerdy geology comment, if you will... :)
Given that it seems the Alps formed by collision of plates and thrust faulting (same as the northern Rockies here), it is puzzling why visible evidence of such folding would be rare? It's very visible here, with vertical and recumbent anticlines forming the peaks of many mountains.
What an excellent, inspiring thread! I can see I need to get a few tonnes of rock in, and overhaul the entire yard!
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Terrific thread. Wonder if Maureen would buy me a couple of tons of rock for Christmas? :-\
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A couple of tons wouldn't go far David. Better make it a couple of hundred tons. ;D
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ZZ, for you I promise to go to all rock features in N Ireland next April/May/June and take photos to post here.
I look forward to meeting you next November if not before.
Mark :D
ZZ hasnt seen these and it shows his enthusiasm has rubbed off on me. One day he will see them
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Crevice gardening or Standing Stones? :)
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Dolomites :D
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Thanks to geologists for help.
CREVICE BED IN PERSHORE
When my old friend Ron Beeston was responsible for the show garden of the Alpine Garden Society in Pershore, he organized rebuilding one experimental bed into proper crevice bed there near to the large naturally designed scree. Ron was perfect in getting suitable stone, some special English kind of sandstone forming desks. He prepared big heap of soil mixture with professional care of retired nurseryman and he managed great amount of suitable plants from different sources. I had excellent team with Alan Furness and John Page (to mention two known stars) and other members of the AGS so the work was smooth. We planted plenty dwarf Daphnes including golden yellow Chinese D. calcicola ´Gang Ho Ba´ and only one daphne died there. Crevices in full sun all day are what make them to be compact and happy. I saw them yesterday at the AGS web site. The same success was with old trustful cultivars of Saxifraga the section Porphyrion.
The only mistake was that Ron from some important reason ended his function for AGS and so all the outcrop, which was supposed to be patiently finished with sand stone flakes hammered into crevices was quickly covered with round unsuitable chicken grit. I have only two photographs taken after one year after finishing and one with Saxifraga ´Southside Seedling´ from Ron Beeston. One Dane visited Pershore in a cooking summer weather and he told me that all garden plants were looking tired and wilted but the residents of crevices were looking fresh. What a relief !
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ZZ, I know of Ron's regret that he was not able to complete that project as planned ....such a shame that the finish was not done to the original intention... at least the plants are alive!
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ZZ the Phlox in my trough is named by you but I have forgotten the name. What is it?
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Great thread. Good to see these pictures.
May I be so bold as to make a minor (technical) correction to the last post (and apologies if this may seem pedantic.....). In the superb picture of folded limestone beds from the Maritimes - this should read "anticline" instead of "syncline". Anticlines have beds inclined away from the crest of the fold, whereas in synclines the beds dip towards the axis. :D :D :D
Also, a point of note for British readers: the rock name "diabase" is not often used here where the equivalent term is "dolerite".
Dear Doctor Rock, you have the right diagnosis: it is the anticline. I made cardinal mistake to put the term from my old heart (or head?) Thanks a lot Zdenek
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ZZ the Phlox in my trough is named by you but I have forgotten the name. What is it?
Mark, I made only one Phlox cultivar with shiny red colour and named it ´Karkulka´. ZZ
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With all respect for the efforts. May I make two (unkind?) comments??
#A: Will those still alive around 2025 say "Look at this camp period piece from 2008-2012 with all rocks standing up" ? ;D
#B: It is possible to make plants grow in horizontal crevices as well. ;)
The first picture is from around 1970 the second 1959. The rock is orthoceratitic limestone. Unfortunately my long spells abroad obliterated the plantings - maybe I will be able to redo them.
Cheers
Göte
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I love the term recumbent. My dear old Dad after a Sunday morning up the allotment would often assume a recumbent or somnolent posture on a Sunday afternoon.
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THE DOLOMITES
Doctor Rock was very polite to my error with the anticline (the syncline is precisely upside down) and I would like to be the same to young boy Mark Smyth and to explain him a few fine rules of rockwork. We never try to imitate dramatically dissected (weathered) mountain ridges for two reasons: it does not help to our cultivation of alpines and in small scale of a trough or a small garden it looks unnatural. In the garden and in the trough we construct small outcrop with layers appearing naturally above terrain and then they must naturally disappear into underground (this is called natural return of layers). We feel imaginative arc above the highest layers of the outcrop and no rock has permit to protrude through the arc because it will be against natural weathering of the rock formation. Smooth gentle surface of the outcrop (or a head) is always elegant! Mark, I like your rock under Hypericum much more than your mini-tre-cime. I illustrate the idea with one mountain picture and ask you not to copy the back ridge but the shape of the front part.
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VOJTĚCH HOLUBEC
This quiet gentleman spoke in England, Scotland and USA about rock gardening. He is agricultural expert and botanist by training and for the last 15 years one of the Czech best seed collector. Vojtěch wrote about two decades ago Czech handbook about rock works (together with Ota Vlasák) and he will be one of the speakers at Alpines 2011 (his subject are plants from Central Asia). He was one of the first constructers placing rocks in angles slightly tilted out of the vertical position. I assisted him with sandstone desks in Dortmund (together with Josef Jurášek) and learn the basic tricks. Another assistance was in our Show garden in Prague where the brave tilt of heavy limestone slabs started to go slightly down (after 7 winters) and I had to support it with block of stones. But tilting layers towards a slope is safe from frost actions and very naturally looking. Now you can see samples of Vojtěch´s designs in following post. The fat limestone layers are in his home rock garden in Prague.
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With all respect for the efforts. May I make two (unkind?) comments??
#A: Will those still alive around 2025 say "Look at this camp period piece from 2008-2012 with all rocks standing up" ? ;D
#B: It is possible to make plants grow in horizontal crevices as well. ;)
Cheers
Göte
#A That may well be said of these projects but I don't see that it negates their validity when they prove to be a good home for alpines.
#B Of course it is.... I did not see any suggestion to the contrary ???
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VOJTĚCH HOLUBEC
This quiet gentleman spoke in England, Scotland and USA about rock gardening. He is agricultural expert and botanist by training and for the last 15 years one of the Czech best seed collector. Vojtěch wrote about two decades ago Czech handbook about rock works (together with Ota Vlasák) and he will be one of the speakers at Alpines 2011 (his subject are plants from Central Asia). He was one of the first constructers placing rocks in angles slightly tilted out of the vertical position. I assisted him with sandstone desks in Dortmund (together with Josef Jurášek) and learn the basic tricks. Another assistance was in our Show garden in Prague where the brave tilt of heavy limestone slabs started to go slightly down (after 7 winters) and I had to support it with block of stones. But tilting layers towards a slope is safe from frost actions and very naturally looking. Now you can see samples of Vojtěch´s designs in following post. The fat limestone layers are in his home rock garden in Prague.
I think that people will love Vojtěch´s romantic style,
but fat layers and plenty "dwarf" conifers are strongly restricting
amount of alpines there. Romantic rock above water are good for dancing
around but not easy to maintain if you are arthritic oldie. Joyce says
that it is a paradise for breeding moscitoes.
now the pictures
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ZZ, you must tell David to begin making dwarf conifers again
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Zdenek, just found this great thread.
I love the way you work with stones!
About the Pershore Garden I remember, that I was there in May 2006 and made some more pictures.
If you (and others) like to see them, I could show them here too and I think it was when all was still original and
not covered with "chicken grit"?
Luit
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Luit, it would be good to see the Pershore pictures :)
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OTA VLASÁK THE OLD MASTER OF ROCKS
Ota Vlasák adore robust stones and they give him the love back because he is treating them nicely with his professional hammer.
He was boxer, truck dispatcher in huge building company and professional landscaper. At present he is retired and permanently busy.
I assisted him once to reconstruct part of the large Prague Show outcrop and I was not able to discover the principle (or method) of placing granite stones in the construction. After one year of thinking I discover that he is using the principle of steep stratification of sedimentary rocks for his fire born rock.
Well, his bold ridges are standing 25 years in continental weather without a movement. Rocks rooted into his garden. The method is to stand the best large rocks into triangular side-walls and behind them place slightly parallel stones to form very eroded ridges. His granite is softer and some rocks can be crushed with hammer into perfectly matching topdressing.
One of his great qualities is sense for details. His discipline is careful closing crevices with help of hammer choking rocks and plants.
Top quality topdressing is his strong weapon.
I am obliged to present for the FORUM SHOW some of his designs.
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With all respect for the efforts. May I make two (unkind?) comments??
#A: Will those still alive around 2025 say "Look at this camp period piece from 2008-2012 with all rocks standing up" ? ;D
#B: It is possible to make plants grow in horizontal crevices as well. ;)
Cheers
Göte
#A That may well be said of these projects but I don't see that it negates their validity when they prove to be a good home for alpines.
#B Of course it is.... I did not see any suggestion to the contrary ???
i suppose in the end, the only thing that matters for any garden is that it provides a habitat for successfully growing the types of plants intended, and that it makes the owner/stakeholders happy ;)
(of course defining both 'owner' and 'happy' owner public gardens is another issue, which is why i added the complicated word stakeholder;private gardens are easier..)
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Some more of Ota's garden can be seen here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=500.msg12239#msg12239
also some other Czech Gardens from the Tours of the Conference in 2007.
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I must have seen those at the time but I have no recollecton of the great portraits of Fermi and Otto. Must have been too intrigued by the crevicing. Mark, super witches' brooms but I really would have enjoyed seeing a witch out sweeping with one. ;D
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Thank You Zdenek, I learn very much from this thread.
I hope Forum Friends wouldn't mind to put here some pics of my crevice trough which I made this autumn. And I would be grateful if Zdenek cpuld comment it as he did for Mark's trough... Thanks in advance!
P. S. I know, that the pot is not the best one, but at least it is a good quality clay pot (about 30 cm diameter).
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Kata
I will be interested to see what ZZ says, but I think they are excellent. :) :) :)
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Thank You, Arthur. :)
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Thank You Zdenek, I learn very much from this thread.
I hope Forum Friends wouldn't mind to put here some pics of my crevice trough which I made this autumn. And I would be grateful if Zdenek cpuld comment it as he did for Mark's trough... Thanks in advance!
P. S. I know, that the pot is not the best one, but at least it is a good quality clay pot (about 30 cm diameter).
What a lovely hungarian czardas in the music of this Forum of rocks!You play first league now, darling. All stones are sitting like a content cat. Only no 4 has too sunken crevices under surface which is common mistake. ZZ
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Kata, what a good example of how a garden can be made in the smallest area.
I agree with ZZ ( lucky for me, eh?!! to agree with the Rock Master ;)) ... we can see in pic 4 that the planting level is rather low between the rocks.
This might be because you did not fill the substrate high enough to begin, or that you did not pack it firmly to minimise the settling of the soil.
If you look at Ian's trough making, you will see photos of how full and high the soil/sand must be before planting.
But these are refinements that come with experience and your garden is really lovely! 8)
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I like very much Your humour, ZZ.
And thanks for the comment to You and to Maggi. I've made this mistake a few times already. ::) ::)
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It is wonderful to see some more pages about 'rock gardening' on the site of the Scottish 'Rock Garden' Club.
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What a wonderful thread, I am enjoying it immensely.
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I propose a musical toast to Zdenek and this great thread. Not quite a czardas but hope it will do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYL-V-aTh2Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYL-V-aTh2Y)
johnw
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A good musician this Lara St. John! I've never seen her in Budapest concert halls. ::) (This does not mean that she never was ;D)
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Is she from your part of the world John?
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I haven't planted my new troughs yet but before I do, I'm thinking a trip up country for some crevice-type rock would be a good idea.
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Kata, your crevice pots are an inspiration.
I imagine they would be very heavy by the time the pot is finished. Do you place your pot before starting to add the soil and rocks?
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Is she from your part of the world John?
Lesley
By Jove she is from Canada, I really had no idea. She was born in London, Ontario - a long hike from here.
Wikipaedia says "With her studies disrupted, St. John took the opportunity to travel throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. During that time she encountered and lived with the Roma people, a cultural experience that would later be reflected in her 1997 album Gypsy."
johnw
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John, thanks for the introduction to Lara St. John, she's fantastic.
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ALAN FURNESS THE KING OF BRITISH CREVICE BEDS
The readers of the AGS Bulletin know Alan Furness as the master of the scree techniques and the holder of The National collection of Celmisia. I witnessed his perfect work with pieces of sandstone in the Pershore project. He is a professor by profession but he use hammer and chisel with bravery of a stonemason.
I also heard and saw his lecture about crevice gardening in N. Ireland and it was superb delivery. Alan built his crevice bed with surgeon preciseness, with wisely designed paths for the intimate access to his crevice plants.
I own only one picture with a fresh rockwork and planting but everybody can see the happiness of his plants in this construction made from sandstone. Because he loves to grow Himalayan Androsaces he invented method of planting young seedlings and cuttings into ultra thin fissures. He split stony desks with special chisel to have lovely chinks and he fills them with a brush with dry silver sand and inserts fine roots of androsaces during the filling. Saxatile androsaces need cultivation in narrow crevices like many true alpines.
I hope that Maggi or somebody else can ask him to show his crevice bed with older plants at this Show.
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I propose a musical toast to Zdenek and this great thread. Not quite a czardas but hope it will do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYL-V-aTh2Y (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYL-V-aTh2Y)
johnw
Thanks, but I have blue eyes, so the music toast goes to the owner of the black ones- the principal of this Circus Alpinus
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QUIET MAN IN CZECH KARST
This Show of Maggi Young (some Russian wrote song Oči čornyje- Black Eyes after being inspired with this woman) will be uncompleted if I miss Milan Čepička and his two outstanding limestone outcrops. His brother is active Czech member of the Prague Club of Rock Gardeners (growing Iris elegantissima outdoors) but Milan is a solitaire sticking to his small garden and job of car mechanic. He collected in local fields and forest smaller limestone pieces and put them together with divine talent for naturally looking outcrop. He had between two outcrops a path paved with concrete square desk and I asked him to put some layers of stones there; the effect is seen in one picture. He is slowly improving his assortment of plants. Pictures are from Calgary (The Fergusons).
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ZZ, it has been my pleasure to tempt you along this particular garden path! :-*
It seems our walk together is enjoyed by many others too which is a delight to me.
Your words to me are too kind..... for my eyes are green .... but it would be grand to be the subject of this fine song.... sung in this instance by Feodor Chaliapin, whose version is perhapsthe most famous........ with this wonderful chorus.......a Magnificent thought!!
Dark eyes, passionate eyes
Burning and splendid eyes
How I love you, how I fear you
Verily, I espied you in an ill-starred moment .....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAXTewbn6Vg&feature=related
or if you prefer it sung by a woman, here is Blanka Dosen....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKRxhZjwbzU&feature=related
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Your words to me are too kind..... for my eyes are green .... but it would be grand to be the subject
Zdenek - You can believe her. The darkness you have seen is the reflection of two large plates of chocolates before her. Moments (the ill-starred bit) later they would have been green again.
johnw
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Kata, your crevice pots are an inspiration.
I imagine they would be very heavy by the time the pot is finished. Do you place your pot before starting to add the soil and rocks?
Helen,
I can put it a few centimeters away, if I want to. ;D But I have a strong and helpful darling husband. 8)
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What an immensely interesting thread this is !!!
It really rocks !! 8)
Thank you - Thank you - Thank you !
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JOSEF JARMILAE HALDA
The most known foreign constructor of crevice gardens in USA is Josef Halda (the neighbour of Jaromír Grulich in Sedloňov).
He wrote monographs of the genus Primula, Daphne, Paeonia and Gentiana and he was one of the best Czech seed collectors.
Josef was the first man in human history building plenty outcrops with steep stratification (always in an angle about 45°) starting in 1970. I was his assistant with building show outcrops from granite stones keeping precisely three different angles of the rocks and their joints. I learned a lot. Josef pushed me to write articles about alpines and I platonically love his wife (top artist Jarmila).
During the Czech Conference he showed us one rock garden with his design in Orlické Hory (Eagle Mountains) where you can see action of strong frosts to the stones in the angles 45° in one picture.
This is one of more reasons that I keep vertical angle of layers, which are in this position frost resistant.
Josef stands with blue jeans in the middle of another photo but to show him better, I photographed his portrait (in the middle of the Primulaceae family) made by Jarmila Haldová.
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his portrait (in the middle of the Primulaceae family) made by Jarmila Haldová.
I like it! But it seems that he also had to do with snails. ;D
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I haven't planted my new troughs yet but before I do, I'm thinking a trip up country for some crevice-type rock would be a good idea.
you have somewhere limestone areas and this kind of rock is the best for friendly bacteria cooperation with saxatile plants. Ohoy Zdenek
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AN ELEGANT ENDING
Every clown must have the right sense to end his performance at the peak condition (after that great moment the vital vibrations are (by the physical laws) slowing down) and let the maximum of impression behind him.
Thanks to the international audience to give me support, which I badly need to write something sensible in a strange foreign language (I had only Czech and Russian at school) and somehow do my best. I let behind me tons of stones and minimum of flowers so something here is out of the balance.
Now there, in the end of the long rope for pulling the rock gardening forward, it is your own playground under sharp spade of our moderator (see Joe Halda´s skill for chopping every terror) and I must start my long journey to find some new and golden thread hidden in the distant mountains or somewhere in a deep crevasse in my mind.
One flower is here supporting my cordial thanks to the lucky owner of emerald green eyes.
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AN ELEGANT ENDING
Every clown must have the right sense to end his performance at the peak condition (after that great moment the vital vibrations are (by the physical laws) slowing down) and let the maximum of impression behind him.
Many thanks for an exceptional thread ZZ. I took this image on Sunday - I thought it seemed quite fitting!
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AN ELEGANT ENDING
Every clown must have the right sense to end his performance at the peak condition (after that great moment the vital vibrations are (by the physical laws) slowing down) and let the maximum of impression behind him.
Many thanks for an exceptional thread ZZ. I took this image on Sunday - I thought it seemed quite fitting!
Yes, it is illustrating the situation of the last song. Good day Zdenek
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I haven't planted my new troughs yet but before I do, I'm thinking a trip up country for some crevice-type rock would be a good idea.
you have somewhere limestone areas and this kind of rock is the best for friendly bacteria cooperation with saxatile plants. Ohoy Zdenek
Thanks for that advice Zdenek. I was thinking of schist actually, approximately the same colour as my troughs and superbly lichened and weathered. There's masses of it in an area just an hour or so away from me.
On the other hand I have a collection of limestone slabs which though too big for the troughs would make a good small crevice garden somewhere nearby. I think they were originally paving stones but never used and when we moved from our previous place we brought them with us "just in case." :) There are about 30 I think, overgrown but retrievable and well weathered already. (They've been sitting there for 12 years.) They are approx 10cms thick and about 60-80cms square, more or less. If the garden were not to be very high, they could be broken in half and so make twice as many of them. I have some limestone troughs too, carved out of the natural stone, quarried in blocks and a lot of long limestone bricks (to the top and right of the pic below)
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ZZ tells me the snow is beginning there, but here in Aberdeen the rain just gets heavier.... the sun was only out for a few moments earlier, so it is a pleasure to be cheered bu this photo from ZZ of two great gardeners, with rock in their souls....
Ron Beeston, (carrying the camera) and Rudi Weiss..... 8)
click on the photo to enlarge it, as usual.....
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ZZ tells me the snow is beginning there, but here in Aberdeen the rain just gets heavier.... the sun was only out for a few moments earlier, so it is a pleasure to be cheered bu this photo from ZZ of two great gardeners, with rock in their souls....
Ron Beeston, (carrying the camera) and Rudi Weiss..... 8)
With some delay, but just fitting to the picture above, here the promised pictures I made in 2006 at Pershore:
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next batch
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Thanks Luit ... excellent images.
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Very timely, Luit! Thanks!
These two pix just in from Alan Furness, via ZZ!!
Two photos from Pershore crevice garden in 2007
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it is a pleasure to be cheered bu this photo from ZZ of two great gardeners, with rock in their souls....
Ron Beeston, (carrying the camera) and Rudi Weiss..... 8)
I have greatly enjoyed this thread, thanks for ZZ for his dedication to the task of putting the thread together and much appreciated humour ;D ;D
How nice to see the picture of Ron here, and also to see he is now the latest member of the forum - we look forward to hearing from you in person Ron ;)
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... and this is how the Pershore crevice garden looked in May 2009 - sorry only one picture... :-\
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The whole thread is really valuable and of greatest interest. Thanks Luit, Alan and Luc for the great Pershore pictures. The troughs are very fine too, as well as the crevices. I especially like the trough with the Castilleja. There's a small WEED in there. Very comforting. :D
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I too have really enjoyed this thread and have been left, perhaps, a little overawed by the very scale of some of the examples ZZ has shown us and indeed of the likely cost of trying to create something like them here. Luit and Lucs pics of the crevice garden at Pershore though prove that a more modest project, in size and cost, is a distinct possiblity for next year :-X Anyone any rocks to spare? ;D
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I have greatly enjoyed this thread, thanks for ZZ for his dedication to the task of putting the thread together and much appreciated humour ;D ;D
This thread is pure "rock& roll" for us. The "rolling stones" are never farr off.
Stonerider, thanks for taking us back to "Stone Age" .This is fantastic.
Also many thanks to all the others ,for the beautifull pictures ....,some became even very lyrical.
ZZ even open a person's eyes .......
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... and this is how the Pershore crevice garden looked in May 2009 - sorry only one picture... :-\
Lucky shot Luc! I would pull out this white Achillea. It is too big for the size of this construction. Thanks ZZ
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I haven't planted my new troughs yet but before I do, I'm thinking a trip up country for some crevice-type rock would be a good idea.
you have somewhere limestone areas and this kind of rock is the best for friendly bacteria cooperation with saxatile plants. Ohoy Zdenek
Thanks for that advice Zdenek. I was thinking of schist actually, approximately the same colour as my troughs and superbly lichened and weathered. There's masses of it in an area just an hour or so away from me.
On the other hand I have a collection of limestone slabs which though too big for the troughs would make a good small crevice garden somewhere nearby. I think they were originally paving stones but never used and when we moved from our previous place we brought them with us "just in case." :) There are about 30 I think, overgrown but retrievable and well weathered already. (They've been sitting there for 12 years.) They are approx 10cms thick and about 60-80cms square, more or less. If the garden were not to be very high, they could be broken in half and so make twice as many of them. I have some limestone troughs too, carved out of the natural stone, quarried in blocks and a lot of long limestone bricks (to the top and right of the pic below)
In the opening article is a photo of Vojtech Holubec working with sandstone desks in Dortmund. One right corner is always seen. Do not broke these perfect slabs. ZZ
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IRREGULAR IGNEOUS ROCK (Post Scriptum to the Show)
I must share my spring (2009) struggle with nicely colored but badly shaped stones in Southern Austria near Graz. Fritz Kummert, the star of hybridizing Daphnes, gave me very limited space around his new alpine house.
We got lovely mineral sand-like soil and the local stone.
The only way how to work with this kind of stones is again to try to set them into layers of different width, parallel each to other.
Fritz got a lot of crevices (the rockwork goes around the alpine house) but I have fear that he will put taller plants there because he is gardener loving all unusual (curious) plants.
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ZZ, I'm not sure where you mean. I'd like to see this photograph as it will give me a better idea of how to use my slabs. Can you point me in the right directtion please? Perhaps a link? Thanks.
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I really like the second picture there, a glasshouse arising from the rock as if pushed up by some (quite gentle) earthquake. ;D
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Lesley, I believe these are the photos ZZ means from the pdfs listed at the beginning of this thread.... they show bigger pieces of limestone, like yours, being used in one piece, not broken up.....
...... the quality is not great, they are taken from the pdf scan of the Journal ::)
click to enlarge......
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Lesley, I believe these are the photos ZZ means from the pdfs listed at the beginning of this thread.... they show bigger pieces of limestone, like yours, being used in one piece, not broken up.....
...... the quality is not great, they are taken from the pdf scan of the Journal ::)
click to enlarge......
Thanks Maggi, it is the lower picture and it is not limestone but sandstone in Dortmund. ZZ
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Thanks, ZZ, I've made the correction. :)
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Thanks to you both. I did look at those but seem to have missed the lower one, or at least its significance. I see what you mean Zdenek about the right angles. Of course the rock work will be done by me and maybe Roger, not by Vojtech so the result won't be as good, but I see that such an arrangement makes for a sunny side and a perhaps damper, slightly shaded side, or at least away from direct heat.Two aspects making for a different or extended range of plants. I wish I'd done all this 40 years ago when muscles, back, knees et al, were all in better working order. :'(
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It has given me enormous pleasure to see posted images of Zdenek’s latest mind- blowing crevice creations and I am told that the task of planting up his latest example at Bangsbo Botanic Garden is a 2-year project. Pictures give a good idea of the forces employed in what is only the first stage leaving planting and infill or topdressing in the hands of the delighted (or awestruck) beneficiary.
It has been my good fortune to visit the Czech Republic on several occasions and to see unbelievable work by a growers who were pioneers in the work. I mention only two:
(First two images)
Ota Vlasek makes beautiful use of granite and the first two images try to illustrate the vertical stratification in relatively small outcrops. Perfectly matching “rotten granite” packed into crevices and for the topdressing give a perfectly natural look to this very large rock garden. Ota told me he had spent two whole days planting and packing an area of one square metre of the rock face.
(Second pair of images)
Milan Cepicka has filled his relatively small garden with limestone (I would guess about 20 tons) and I will let the camera speak for me. This is a case of art concealing the crevices and I think this man should placed in front of camera so that his skills may be captured as a master class
Returning home Zdenek employed basalt across the Irish Sea and Derbyshire tufa in my own garden (another story) but so far as I know sandstone elsewhere. I am not experienced enough to know of the whereabouts of the considerable amount of the crumbling, splitting sandstone (which Z would describe as flakes) required for filling purposes and the small amount
available from the quarry for the Pershore project was sufficient for only a little over half the task. Enquiries elsewhere were fruitless. I illustrate what we did achieve through the work of an inspired hand but unfortunately I left the scene before investigating alternatives, which included the possibly futile task of the breakdown of larger stone. A more satisfactory plan would probably be to follow Alan Furness’s route with a matching sandstone aggregate although I am waiting to see if the surprising choice of a standard potting grit by the AGS may prove the more satisfactory of all. My opinion is that the unselfish work and craftsmanship of a Czech master deserves in return all the art and skill that can be mustered to ensure that with age it look as if it was a natural creation.
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Ron and Joan, a very welcome to the Forum from Holland.
Now that you've made it up here at last ;D, I am hopeful to see many more comments and pictures.
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Ron and Joan, a very welcome to the Forum from Holland.
Now that you've made it up here at last ;D, I am hopeful to see many more comments and pictures.
Ian and I join with Luit in that hope. :)
It is terrific to have Ron and Joan joining us here......two more wonderful gardeners from whom there is much to learn!
These are super photos, showing just how natural the finished process can... and should.... appear.
How happy are those plants, nestling in their crevice homes? Their perfect growth, curving over the stones shows the reasoning for all the prior effort to make them these homes!
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Ron and Joan a very warm welcome from me to. Glad you have taken the plunge ;)
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CREVICE GARDEN IN A HAT
We must stress that Mother Nature has better ideas than human
designers.
Mother Nature sometimes designs quite interesting construction for forming our ideas. This one is made from vertically cracked basalt and has local name Hat Rock. The idea is that you can go round your outcrop, which has all possible aspects for different taste of plants. If you follow the Nature, do not construct it so high.
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It has given me enormous pleasure to see posted images of Zdenek’s latest mind- blowing crevice creations and I am told that the task of planting up his latest example at Bangsbo Botanic Garden is a 2-year project. Pictures give a good idea of the forces employed in what is only the first stage leaving planting and infill or topdressing in the hands of the delighted (or awestruck) beneficiary.
It has been my good fortune to visit the Czech Republic on several occasions and to see unbelievable work by a growers who were pioneers in the work. I mention only two:
(First two images)
Ota Vlasek makes beautiful use of granite and the first two images try to illustrate the vertical stratification in relatively small outcrops. Perfectly matching “rotten granite” packed into crevices and for the topdressing give a perfectly natural look to this very large rock garden. Ota told me he had spent two whole days planting and packing an area of one square metre of the rock face. I missed badly your juicy comment and top quality photgraphs. Ron. Thenks for your voice. ZZ
(Second pair of images)
Milan Cepicka has filled his relatively small garden with limestone (I would guess about 20 tons) and I will let the camera speak for me. This is a case of art concealing the crevices and I think this man should placed in front of camera so that his skills may be captured as a master class
Returning home Zdenek employed basalt across the Irish Sea and Derbyshire tufa in my own garden (another story) but so far as I know sandstone elsewhere. I am not experienced enough to know of the whereabouts of the considerable amount of the crumbling, splitting sandstone (which Z would describe as flakes) required for filling purposes and the small amount
available from the quarry for the Pershore project was sufficient for only a little over half the task. Enquiries elsewhere were fruitless. I illustrate what we did achieve through the work of an inspired hand but unfortunately I left the scene before investigating alternatives, which included the possibly futile task of the breakdown of larger stone. A more satisfactory plan would probably be to follow Alan Furness’s route with a matching sandstone aggregate although I am waiting to see if the surprising choice of a standard potting grit by the AGS may prove the more satisfactory of all. My opinion is that the unselfish work and craftsmanship of a Czech master deserves in return all the art and skill that can be mustered to ensure that with age it look as if it was a natural creation.
One English volunteer perfectly closed crevices with hammering flakes in Pershore but only in small section. Ron is very good in photgraphing!
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A very warm welcome from southern rock gardeners too, Mr and Mrs B. I remember with great pleasure the one visit to your Pershore nursery, in 1993 and am happy to say I still have most of the plants I was able to bring home with me at that time. Since then, the whole process of importing live plants as distinct from seed, has become an impossibility, which makes those from that time, the more precious.
Like the other forumists here, I do hope you will continue to post on the is Fabulous Forum. :)
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A message just in from ZZ.... he was not happy with the scan of an earlier photo showed.....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4656.msg125373#msg125373
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2009 : June Dougherty's garden
so has sent me this one in its stead.......showing the limestone side walls....
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I would like to add two photos illustrating the unfinished
work of Jaromír Grulich. He was talented in curving alpines into wood so
many people have decorated their walls with his art. Second picture is
the main cliff which he planted with a help of rope.
Hi Ho Zdenek
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Second picture is the main cliff which he planted with a help of rope.
Planted with amazing clumps of lewisias, I remember.
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Second picture is
the main cliff which he planted with a help of rope.
Hi Ho Zdenek
And ice axe and crampons? ;D
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Ref: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4656.msg126294#msg126294
I think that we can show one happy senior rock gardener
with new alpine house and a crevice bed. Austrian plantsman Fritz
Kummert just today send me interesting information about really small
Narcissus together with a cute photograph. My Czech bulletin Skalnicky
will share the pleasure with SRGC Forum and we wiil wish Stefi and Fritz
long lasting happiness.
Here is Fritz' comment on this little Narcissus:
Narcissus cantabricus DC. ssp. monophyllus
After information from Spanish Narcissus specialists there are more than one species involved in what is called Narcissus cantabricus. The naming of this species was from the beginning an error, de Candolle’s herbarium-sheet was labelled to hail from “Cantabria”, but no white hoop-petticoat grows in this region!
Flora Europaea ignores the subspecies monophyllus, which is found at the Puerto de la Virgen and around the Santuario de la Virgen in the Sierra de los Filabres. It is a plant of crystalline rocks; a typical companion plant is Cistus albidus. The soils in which subspecies monophyllus occur is typical very shallow and stony. We saw it on two occasions in full flower: 2000 end of February and 2009 end of March. The small spherical bulbs lie not very deep in the ground and possess in most cases only one thread-like leaf. The sight of thousands and thousands of these glistening white flowers is breath taking!
After my experience this small narcissus cannot be grown in the open ground, it is a plant for the alpine-house. Propagation takes place by division of the bulbs, which is slowly with some clones, or through seeding. Seed-set in the alpine-house is good after artificial pollination. It lasts at least three years from sowing to the first flower!
An Austrian Highland House-with Crevice Garden and Alpine House
Home made alpine house in Rollsdorf
Stefi and Fritz
Narcissus cantabricus ssp. monophyllus
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most impressive is the alpine house rising out of the stone! or i suppose, stone rising from alpine house? in any case, nice effect..
and the cliff in the previous message! wow, to have such a feature at home :)
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and the cliff in the previous message! wow, to have such a feature at home :)
Saves you some tiresome hikes in the mountains doesn't it Cohan.. ! ;D ;D
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I wish you could have seen the rocks in the area where yesterday Roger and I collected some small pieces for my new troughs. It was near Middlemarch, the beginnings of Central Otago and the landscape is typical of many parts, dry, brown and dusty with small to massive rock outcrops almost any one of which, if transported complete, would make an outstanding rock garden at home. Where we were the crevices were layered horizontally rather than upright but in the troughs, I'll try the upright kind. The rock itself is schist and tending toward being quite rotten with flaking even at a touch sometimes. I brought home pieces that are approx 30cms long in the main but as I unloaded them, I was sometimes left with slivers in my hand, a bare millimetre or two in width. I can use these to put between larger pieces and so make the crevices narrower.
I'd have taken more pictures but the wind was so gusty we could barely stand and poor Teddy was bowled over and blown along at one stage. When we went into Middlemarch to get some coffee we saw an elderly woman swept from her feet and crashing into a fence. A terrible day with frequent short bursts of driving rain and hail as well. The drive there and home again was quite frightening with Roger barely able to hold the car on the road sometimes.
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and the cliff in the previous message! wow, to have such a feature at home :)
Saves you some tiresome hikes in the mountains doesn't it Cohan.. ! ;D ;D
haha--more to the point, i wouldnt have to pay to bring stone in, and wouldnt have to move it around!
lesley, that's some fierce wind! good you were able to stay on the road!
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Plenty of rock here, just a transportation problem :D
I love the idea of incorporating the alpine house into a rockery - often glass house buildings themselves are so stark from outside and this one will blend in with the surrounding landscape - I look forward to seeing more of how this venture develops....
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Plenty of rock here, just a transportation problem :D
you just need to borrow one of those nice tame cows or oxen or a saint bernard to haul rocks ;)
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;D ;D ;D
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Zdenek visited this garden a couple of months before the first of the crevice gardens was started. A steep hill beside a small cliff had been terraced with stone walls so the side walls were already in place and the main crevice lines follow the exposed stratifications of the back of the cliff. The first crevice garden was finished by the summer of 2009 and planted with a wide range of alpines and rock plants, including a number of Daphne x hendersonii forms. The main problem has been deer walking over the garden this winter without enough snow to protect the plants so it has been covered with chickenwire for the duration.(http://)
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Plenty of rock here, just a transportation problem :D
Here is my transportation solution, I feed them properly to get them stronger and stronger.. ;)
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A great investment, Jiri, with added interest - do you work on a bonus scheme? ;D
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Welcome Anne to this magnificent forum ... your crevice garden looks beautiful ... but the deer droppings have been removed I see! ;D
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Plenty of rock here, just a transportation problem :D
Here is my transportation solution, I feed them properly to get them stronger and stronger.. ;)
hah! looks like the little one has a way to go yet before he can lift the big rocks ;)
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Hi Cliff, thanks for your nice comments. I'm sending a few other pictures of the crevice garden.
1. Looking down at the crevice garden towards tufa crevice garden
2. Next level up, the start of the second crevice garden
3. Phlox pulvinata
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Congratulations Anne ... you have beaten the 'posting' image demon and impressed us all with your exceptional crevice garden. Let's hope these are the first of many postings ... welcome once again.
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Anne- (for Cliff tells me that you are an Anne in real life and not an astragalus.....)
what grand photos of your very smart crevice garden.
Very alien looking rock for us in this part of the world, where granite rules.
There's something terribly neat about a phlox in flower, isn't there?
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Thanks, Maggi. Yes, my name is Anne and not Astragalus. My garden is located in the Hudson River Valley in New York State, but nowhere near the benevolent river influences. The site is steep, rocky, cold with harsh winds much of the time - a delightful place for a rock garden. Our western phloxes are among my favorites (behind all the glorious peas). If I can ever figure out a reasonable way to post pictures I'll send some of the phloxes. Do you grow many of the western ones in the UK? I've been admiring the plant pictures posted, really beautiful.
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Wow, some great rock work there Anne ! :o :o :o
Welcome to this amazing forum - we're all looking forward to seeing more pictures of this wonderful feature ! 8)
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Anne, the cushion phloxes are quite popular here.... in a crevice garden or trough setting or pot grown ( whether for exhibition or protecxction is certain areas)
The Mexican phlox need alpine house treatment mostly.
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Hi Maggi, everything here is grown outside (no alpine house or greenhouse). Unfortunately, the Mexican phloxes are not hardy. I'd love to hear the kinds of plants people are growing in their crevice gardens. The natural rock here (and the whole place is mostly rock!) is a very well-cemented sandstone nicknamed "greywhacky" by geologists whho had to "whack" it very hard with their hammers in order to break it. There must be close to 100 steps in the garden and they are all slabs of granite or rough slabs of limestoen, thus breaking one of the "rules" about using stone in the garden.
"Greywhacky" simply doesn't break evenly like granite. You can spend a lot of time working on it and end up with a pile of rubble.
1. "Greywhackie" rock in garden
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"Greywhacky" simply doesn't break evenly like granite. You can spend a lot of time working on it and end up with a pile of rubble.
1. "Greywhackie" rock in garden
Hello Ann, what I wouldn't do for a magnificent outcropping like your "graywhackie"... love the Epimediums at the base. Check out the epimedium thread if you like "eppies", as I call them. http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4769.0
Years ago when I lived in the Seattle, Washington area, I did grow a number of the Mexican phloxes outside in raised sand beds, they did fine. Haven't tried them here in Massachusetts, although I suspect they would not be hardy here, and they are harder to come by these days.
Whenever I travel from Massachusetts to Maryland to visit my wife's family, crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge, viewing the huge rocky bluffs on either side of the impressive Hudson River valley, I always wonder what it would like to live and garden in that area. I understand you're not directly facing the river, but just wanted to say, your photos of rock garden construction are inspiring, this is an excellent thread.
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Hi Anne,
Would it be possible to drill planting pockets intermittently up and down those vertical crevices? The small ferns are obviously establishing themselves and it is such a magnificent chunk of stone! The footprint would probably cover my entire garden. :D
We are SO looking forward to visiting you in three months time!!! :D
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It's "graywacke" (NB. sp.)... with the word derived from the German (not from anything about it's resistance to being "whacked"! ;))
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Mark, nice to hear from you. My garden is a series of stepped ledges ending in a small cliff. It faces WNW and is exposed to all the winds of winter. Windbreaks are not possible because of the amount of rock and lack of root space. We have some large trees but very widely spaced. I tried the Mexican phloxes when they were first popular - none survived the winter and after three years I gave up. I really prefer the phlox from the Rockies etc anyway.
Harold Epstein used to bring me epimediums every time he visited the garden and I'm very fond of them. Actually, this is a garden with very little shade and Harold always brought me wonderful shade plants (double trilliums, Iris gracilipes, Glaucidiums etc). Maybe he thought he ws giving me a challenge (he was!) but I was always nervous when he visited lest he find one of his gifts dead.
1. another part of garden - rock at sunset
2. Phlox borealis in "greywhackie"I
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Hi Cliff - Drilling this rock (however you spell it) usually ends up with a mess. There are a number of nice crevices and if I could only clone myself I would have the time to clean them all out and plant them. I did do that for a draba which worked out nicely. Still don't have the hang of posting more than one picture.
1. another part of garden - late afternoon April '08
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Anne, your lovely pictures are already attracting lots of interest and are adding to the myriad glories of this wonderful forum.
I suspect you are still using 'amend' images instead of 'Additional options' -'Choose file' - and 'More attachments' for further images up to a total of ten in any one posting?
The Phlox borealis image is particularly inspiring.
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Still don't have the hang of posting more than one picture.
Anne, I've sent you an email which I hope will be helpful to sort out the picture posting...... :D
The photos are amazing.... such a garden setting, with those phlox looking so very happy.... sigh!! :)
M
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1. another part of garden - rock at sunset
2. Phlox borealis in "greywhackie"
Anne, those outcroppings are massive, I'm envious. I think I have as much rock here, but it is all a few inches under the soil :o! The ledge filled with Phlox borealis is a fantastic sight. It is one of the best species of Phlox, better than P. subulata because it keeps such nice dark green foliage even after flowering. I grew it for years (originally from SRPN), where it grew side-by-side with Hypericum buckleyi, one of the south eastern dwarf woody hypericums. They both flowered at the same time and made a memorable yellow and pink combination. Both are long gone here, much of my rock garden plantings lost to neglect during those years where my two daughters were small and I worked too much and commuted too far and life was too hectic. Your photos are strong inspiration to start again.
Regarding Epimediums and Harold Epstein's choice woodland plant gifts, at least with Epimedium, I find many grow perfectly well in bright light to full sun. When I was working all these many years, I was rarely around to water the garden, so the "eppies" had to withstand dryness and neglect, which they do admirably. Even Iris cristata will grow and flower in full sun. Now Kirengeshoma, they're another story... and after a decade, finally found a spot where they don't collapse daily from heat and drought.
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Mark, I agree with you about Phlox borealis. It is one of the earliest things to bloom here and it's such a good doer. It has never been watered, is out in the blazing sun and takes wind in stride.
The epimediums seem to be very tough and the E.grandiflorums seed themselves nicely, doing your work for you. I wouldn't want to be without them and yes, they seem to do well in a lot of sun. The epimediums in the picture I posted take the full wrath of the afternoon sun and do OK, ditto dodecatheon meadia and Haberlea rhodopensis. The last was a surprise.
The story about "greywachie/greywacky/graywacke") was told to me by the geologists who mapped the rock here as part of a New York State mapping of rock formations. Perhaps it is apocryphal but I always liked the explanation and can attest to the difficulty of breaking the stone.
1. another part of the garden
2. more rock
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Dean Anne,
really nice crevices. Let me defend rock with you :), here are sample of my new garden under development, inspired by ZZ too.
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Anne, your rocks are quite spectacular and I love Phlox borealis in "greywhackie"I nestling on the ledge with roots tucked into the crevice. do you plant most things from seed because of thin soil? Congratulations on you efforts in such a challenging rock garden :)
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Terrific to see these gardens!! 8)
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It's "graywacke" (NB. sp.)... with the word derived from the German (not from anything about it's resistance to being "whacked"! ;))
Thought so. We have it here too, in the mountains behind the Canterbury Plains. It is frequently replaced in Otago (inland) by schist. All lovely stuff for a rock gardener. :D
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I do grow a lot from seed but not because of thin soil. It's difficult to explain the situation here. We've found fossil rocks with shells. This was all covered by a glacier which, when it retreated, left part of the stone as smooth as satin but with glacier scratches which you can still see. The middle part of the ledges was totally buried when I started gardening. I hit a submerged ledge with a pickaxe. When this happens, your shoulder and elbow immediately tells you you've hit ledge. I decided to explore and uncovered the buried ledges. They go straight down for a few feet and then you find that the water etc carved the ledge underneath at an angle. Following that angle (roughly 45 degrees if I remember correctly) for the length of the tool plus arm, you have about 8' depth of soil which was clay and rock and was all dug out and replaced.
This seems to be true of all the ledges. That area remains cool and must hold moisture because everything there has done well with no watering at all.
I just switched to digital in the last year and most of my photos are slides.
The following are the best I can find of the digital photos.
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Jiri, your pictures (and garden) are wonderful. Great that you have taken pictures as you go along, I'm always forgetting to do that. It looks beautifully planted. Can you tell me some of the things you have planted? And what has worked well for you? The best ideas always come from other gardeners. I think Zdenek has been an inspiration for many people and if this thread continues we may get to see more of their results.
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...here are sample of my new garden under development, inspired by ZZ too.
Inspiring! Great to see your new garden under construction. Sometime show us some closer views of plants growing in those crevices.
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The middle part of the ledges was totally buried when I started gardening. I hit a submerged ledge with a pickaxe. When this happens, your shoulder and elbow immediately tells you you've hit ledge. I decided to explore and uncovered the buried ledges. They go straight down for a few feet and then you find that the water etc carved the ledge underneath at an angle. Following that angle (roughly 45 degrees if I remember correctly) for the length of the tool plus arm, you have about 8' depth of soil which was clay and rock and was all dug out and replaced.
Anne, your garden and rock outcroppings are so natural looking and scenic, and beautifully planted. Your story about excavating and uncovering buried ledge has me totally stoked! I wasn't joking when I said most of my property has stone and ledge just a few inches to a foot below the surface. Years ago when I had a backhoe come in to dig a 200' long drainage ditch, they hit lots of ledge, and I had them put some of the largest chunks over to one corner of my property, the intent being to build a rock garden there one day. In the same location, there are areas of exposed ledge, and I have always wanted to excavate the area to reveal the ledge.
Now please don't laugh, but I have uploaded a photo taken almost 6 years ago from my deck (which was still under construction at the time), looking towards the part of the yard I describe, with some fairly huge ledge chunks are placed. I added an arrow on the photo to show the small area of outcrop. As soon as the spring thaw arrives, I need to start digging.
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anne, like everyone else, i find your natural stone outcrops amazing! no doubt the implacable stone drives you 'wacky' at times, but i'd happily have that problem :)
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Hi Mark, I'm so not laughing! It all sounds perfectly normal to me. It took me almost five years to dig out the middle ledges and I dumped the clay and debris over the front cliff. I can now drive the tractor on to what used to be empty air. I hit the ledge when I wanted to put two or three steps down to a lower level. Famous last words .."This looks like ledge ...let's just see where this goes". I'm not sure if it was gardening or mining, but it gave me three new levels. The soil was a sticky, heavy clay with lots of rock. All the rock was saved and the clay dumped. I'm not exactly weak but it was difficult to lift a full shovel of the clay when it was wet. Then I learned that the time to dig was when it was frozen. All the water became ice crystals and you could cut it with a hatchet like turves of peat. Big frozen slabs would be cut and thrown into the tractor wagon and dumped. All I had to do was wait for the ground to be free of snow. Unfortunately I spent a couple of years digging the hard way before this was discovered.
Your slabs of ledge look beautiful. Do you have a bobcat to move it? What kind of rock is it? Sounds like a wonderful project and I hope you will take pictures as you go along.
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I am not so lucky to have any natural rock here, but plenty of pebbles (so I carry all stones with my sons or alone on a small trailer). It should carry 500 kg, but I am quite sure it had sometimes almost double weight, as I couldn't resists to take all nice stones available. I have also layer of clay below, very good source of water in my dry environment, for plants rooting through crevice constructed above. I can confirmed that for example some daphnes they first have very very slow development, but later on they grow suddenly much faster. I don't have many pictures from this new garden and too many plants are still in pots, suffering from my poor treatment. I can confirm so far success in crevices with daphne cneorum (various forms), arbuscula, circassica, juliae, x hendersonii, x schlyteri, x sundermannii, x rollsdorfii, x susannae.
One picture shows troughs, better say pieces of troughs, raised on the wall to frame the artificial north slope to get some cooler positions. I am also trying to consider comfort for observing plants. Pieces of troughs are cheaper and also easier to transport. Later on all spaces will be covered by plants or stones.
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Lovely pictures Jiri, especially the Haberlea. I'm interested to see how you will manage thr transition from one level to the next in the side troughs, that appear to be broken, but as there are so many, I expect you made them like this deliberately?
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Stunning pictures of even more stunning gardens Anne and Jiri !! :o :o
Rock gardening in the true sense of the word !! ;)
I hope we'll see many more pictures as the new season comes round !
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Lovely pictures Jiri, especially the Haberlea. I'm interested to see how you will manage thr transition from one level to the next in the side troughs, that appear to be broken, but as there are so many, I expect you made them like this deliberately?
Lesley,
here is some development I managed to finish before winter. Very often not all 4 sides of trough are needed, as you can cover missing part with crevices. Or if trough is broken in 2 complete pieces, you can just put them together and don't need to drill drainage hole. I am saving money as often I pay just 50% or less. Also weight is much smaller. I love to went through antiques here and looking for suitable troughs. In a spring I will continue and add some better pictures.
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Jiri, your pictures are stunning. I'm very interested in your last pictures showing the construction in progress. Your crevice garden seems to slope downwards completely. What will be the effect on it of heavy rains? Or is the slope not that steep? It's always difficult to see from pictures. I'm attaching a picture of the site of my crevice gardens. The first garden would be almost at the top where there is a trough on the left. That sits on the front wall. The crevice gardens here are walled on all four sides. To the left by steeply sloping rock of the cliff, to the right by the small side walls of each terrace next to stone steps winding up to the top. The long sides are the retaining walls. I ran the crevices the long way because it mimics the natural crevices of the cliff. Because there is quite a drop from the back wall to the front wall, I made the building process easier by stepping down the crevice walls in only one place with my work path inbetween. That way both the front and back crevices are level, and everything can be reached with a little stretching. Above the topmost wall which you can't see in the picture is the back end of the cliff with huge crevices. That will be next year's project hopefully. I hope the picture shows everything better than my words even though you can't see the start of the first crevice garden which is now finished.
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Stunning rock work!
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Thanks, Mark. I think this picture would have been taken the end of April because Lewisia tweedyi is in bloom. It's a fairly early time in the rock garden unless you love things like Oxytropis multiceps etc
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Thanks, Mark. I think this picture would have been taken the end of April because Lewisia tweedyi is in bloom. It's a fairly early time in the rock garden unless you love things like Oxytropis multiceps etc
Well, I spotted the "tweedyi" right away. When I lived in the Seattle Washington area, it was a mere 2 hour drive to get up into the dry Wenatchee Mts (a spur off the Cascades), where there was lots of L. tweedyi, but in some strong yellow and peachy-yellow shades (the guys at Grand Ridge Nursery found forms that were yellow strongly tinged red). From there we'd move along to another area, and my wife and I would go "rediviva" spotting, along with Fritillaria pudica, Sisyrinchium douglasii, eriogonums and penstemons... all the good stuff, and astragali too, but the most memorable plant is Trifolium macrocephalum; dwarf but with enormous heads in orange shades rather than the more typical pink, but nearly ungrowable as I've tried it.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=trma3_003_ahp.tif
...and a pink form:
http://www.cwnp.org/photopgs/tdoc/trmacrocephalum.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40650891@N02/4106270426/
...excellent photo essay here:
http://wolves.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/big-head-clover-trifolium-macrocephalum/
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Loved the Trifolium pictures, Mark. The pink form is really two-toned which is lovely. My favorite is probably Trifolium owyheense - no picture, it got eaten by a critter. Isn't it amazing how they always find the best? How lucky to have seen Lewisia tweedyi in the wild. It seems easier here than L. cotyledon. Attaching a picture of a pink form of L.tweedyi which seems to be reliable here. Maybe you have seen ones redder or pinker than this in the wild?
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That's a stunning clover Mark. Ungrowable? I doubt if any NZ farmer would believe you? Me neither, looking at the state of my garden and driveway. ;D
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An amazing "rock" garden you have Anne !! ;D ;D
Simply stunning !!
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I'm very interested in your last pictures showing the construction in progress.
Anne, I see we have the same dreams :D
I have added few more pictures. Like you, I have in mind, that I have to be able to access plants without acrobatic positions on rocks in a future also. Each path is framed with first line of stones. They have to be carefully fixed in the soil, as they will support the others.It is better if the angle is little bit more then 90 degrees, going slightly backwards, so stone pressure the soil behind. After fixing first line, I add another one. I always put or hammer in crevice smaller stones having roughly the same thickness as crevice. If it is not solid enough I hammer there with rubber beater small stone slabs.In part next to troughs, I was able in 2 meters length to get upwards 1.5 meter.
Once all stones are fixed by smaller ones together and crevices filled with sand or soil, it is all very solid, similar effect like if you put together thin ropes or wires. You are right that in extreme positions sand can be washed away. I learned from ZZ to fill crevices there with clay. Other option could be piece of peat block used in Scandinavia or Scotland.
You have beautiful stones in walls , have you thought to change it in crevices too?
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Jiri, thanks so much for posting the photos, they explain everything you are doing. I can see many similarities and I see our differences too. So far, my path has no stone and may not. I always hope for seedlings and have found paths to be productive for this even when they are walked on all the time.
My crevice stones are set pretty much at 90 degrees. The side walls are the terracing stone walls and they are quite thick and deep and incorporate pieces of ledge here and there so I don't think they can move anywhere. The crevice stones themselves are like mini ice bergs. They are fairly large slabs and are set quite deep in the ground. Hopefully they will not move at all. I can see we try and make our crevices the same thickness through much of their length and also vary the thickness of the various lengths. I had a copy of Zdenek's little book with me when this was built and I kept referring to his illustrations and it was very helpful. Basically, every site is unique and requires unique solutions within certain parameters. It's what I love about seeing other gardens - learning how other people will approach the same thing. I'm not good about remembering to take pictures while working but have dug up some which may explain the split-level nature of the crevices on either side of the work path. You may notice some odd tools (like broken ski poles) but they come in very handy!I hope you will photograph some more this spring when everything blooms.
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Anne, I see rebar being used in your second photo. Is that just for temporary reinforcement until everything is backfilled?
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My dear Doctor McMark, deductive reasoning! Notice trench excavated in front of rebar for next stone
that will support the unstable one once backfilled.
John B
Anne, I see rebar being used in your second photo. Is that just for temporary reinforcement until everything is backfilled?
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Anne, I see rebar being used in your second photo. Is that just for temporary reinforcement until everything is backfilled?
Yes. Since a good part of the rock is buried it requires a deep trench - the rebar is perfect for this - also broken ski poles etc. I like to do three or four rocks in a row to get a feel for how it looks so it needs securing in the meantime.
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A Dozen Pages Celebration
A thread leading us through all the romantic corners filled with stones and plants, cemented together with the experiences of authors, is actually the spine in the body of every good club of rock gardeners. This thread uncovered and showed more examples of artificial rock outcrops than is available in any official handbooks and will be a modern guide for every new grower interested in this most intensive kind of rock gardening.
I now feel like an old male bull elephant going alone into the mountains to allow the new family of the youngsters and clever mothers to run the art of life themselves. The big change in this fat thread is the strong and well illustrated contribution of Jiří Papoušek (my best Czech disciple) and Ann Spiegel the modern American plants-woman. They are both perfect top growers and independent lateral thinkers with the strength to go their own way (the best way for their very different microclimates).
The construction of Jiri in his difficult flat garden is one which seeks for cooler north east and north west aspects for the accommodation of the true alpines. The framing of a natural outcrop with troughs is „modern art in rock gardening“ which could have followers or „old fashion aesthetic“ opponents. The important factor is his development of a functioning rock garden which pleases him and other knowledgeable grewers with his artistic achievement.
The construction of Ann is a luxurious crevice bed more suited to her impressive natural outcrop than the previous precisely made cascades of vertically stratified dry walls. The depth of the vertical crevices is superb; the mineral substrate used looks lovely and the flat angle of beds is functional against the intensive heat of sun in the local summer afternoons. The combination of the parallel pattern with the angle of the solid paths for access fits into the category of modern arts, which is open to the never ending discussion of bearded theoretics. Her entry into our theatre is a pleasant surprise showing the international community in this Forum that innovative American growers are not yet extinct.
I am anticipating seeing saxatile plants smiling happily at us from the crevices and fissures of both new constructions in the future. God bless this never ending thread and it´s followers.
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It's officially spring. The first plants are starting to bloom in the new crevice garden. This is the first: Douglasia montana
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That says it all really, about how good crevices are for so many plamts. :D
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It's officially spring. The first plants are starting to bloom in the new crevice garden. This is the first: Douglasia montana
Ann, that Douglasia is a beauty, seems to like its crevice home. Great meeting up with you at the NARGS ESW :D
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Thanks for the help with the trough, Mark. Currently in bloom in the crevice garden this crazy weather year: Phlox condensata, Phlox pungens, Oxytropis multiceps, Physaria eburnifolia etc. I'll have to get busy with the camera. These are all small plants (they have to be to plant them in these very tight spots) but they all seem to be doing well. The only disaster was the new pen I used for labels with "indelible, lasts for years" ink. All labels are blank and I'm depending on memory and visiting experts to i.d. some of the daphnes I planted last fall.
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It's officially spring. The first plants are starting to bloom in the new crevice garden. This is the first: Douglasia montana
What a wonderful way to welcome Spring, Ann, your Douglasia montana looks radiant :)
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So far so good, Lesley. Our winter was truly awful so maybe this has been a good first test - not enough snow, unseasonable hheat and rain in January, deer everywhere and a lot of cold. Here are some more early pictures (you can figure things have been forced and are ahead of schedule.
1.crevices April 19
2. Phlox condensata
3. Phlox pungens (great plant - will rebloom on and off until hard frost)
4. Veronica thymoides pseudocinerea
5. Oxytroppis multiceps
6. Phlox 'Betty' - a Dick Redfield microphlox named after his sister
Here's hoping I can remember how to do multiple pictures!
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Good grief! That only worked for the last picture. Back to the beginning
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crevices April 19
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Phlox pungens
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Oxytropis multiceps
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Sorry, the name on the last one is Oxytropis multiceps.
This one is the Veronica thymoides pseudocinerea
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Astragalus, when you have uploaded the first picture, click on "Additional Options" to the left of the window, then on (more attachments) to the right of the Browse button. That should do it. :)
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A beautiful Oxytropis and the little tight phloxes are brilliant.
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Great looking plants Astragalus !! :D :D
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Really interesting to see the plants in situ in the wider crevice photo and the detail of these plants looking so happy and healthy in close up 8)
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I like especially that Oxytropis and the Veronica, but all are beautiful. :)
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Magnificent Anne ... I can't wait to see some of them for myself in seven days time ... please keep them in such perfect condition. As you can tell from this posting we made it back to the U.K. from Southern Italy without any cat(ash)trophies and with 1300 images on the memory cards ... some memorable flowers, especially orchids but, unfortunately, the overriding memory of the Gargano National Park will be of a paradise being destroyed and ruined by litter and neglect.
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unfortunately, the overriding memory of the Gargano National Park will be of a paradise being destroyed and ruined by litter and neglect.
How sad......poeple can be really horrible, can't they? :'( >:(
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Here are some more early pictures (you can figure things have been forced and are ahead of schedule.
1.crevices April 19
2. Phlox condensata
3. Phlox pungens (great plant - will rebloom on and off until hard frost)
4. Veronica thymoides pseudocinerea
5. Oxytroppis multiceps
6. Phlox 'Betty' - a Dick Redfield microphlox named after his sister
Here's hoping I can remember how to do multiple pictures!
Ann, some beautiful plants there! I particularly like the western American phlox, so many choice pulvinate species, the blue color on P. pungens is fetching. Had to ask... with the photograph of Phlox 'Betty', I've been searching for the name of a "microphlox" with pink flowers, like a pink counterpart to the white 'Tiny Bugles'. It is hard in photographs to impress upon the viewer with just how cute and minute the flowers are on these microphloxes, but the flowers are in such profusion, they completely cover the mats. So, maybe my plant is 'Betty'. Is 'Tiny Bugles' a Dick Redfield plant as well? Do you think my phlox shown here growing in a trough is P. 'Betty'?
Please show us more goodies.
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Thats really interesting
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Mark, the only two phloxes that I know that were Dick Redfield's are Phlox 'Herbert' (named for Dick's brother) and Phlox 'Betty' (named for his sister).
I've heard of 'tiny bugles' but don't know if it was one of Dick's. All these microphlox are great because you can fit one in almost anywhere.
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Some more crevice pictures, but not many - am always forgetting to photograph, unlike Cliff whose camera has been surgically attached.
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And a few more:
1. preparing natural cliff crevices for planting
2. one being planted and prepared
3. too many more to go
4. Androsace lanuginosa, Genista depress, physaria sp
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Some more crevice pictures, but not many - am always forgetting to photograph, unlike Cliff whose camera has been surgically attached.
Beautiful Anne, what's the last photo showing pink buds on a cushion? Liked seeing the prep work for your crevice plantings. I tried Moltkia petraea from seed, but never got anything out of it... it's a very pretty thing.
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And a few more:
1. preparing natural cliff crevices for planting
2. one being planted and prepared
3. too many more to go
4. Androsace lanuginosa, Genista depress, physaria sp
Hmm, yes, there is a lot of work there......hope your back holds up, Anne! ;)
PS : Best not to mention Cliff's surgically attached camera..... it's not fair to mock the afflicted, bless 'im ;D ;) ;)
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Some more crevice pictures, but not many - am always forgetting to photograph, unlike Cliff whose camera has been surgically attached.
Beautiful Anne, what's the last photo showing pink buds on a cushion? Liked seeing the prep work for your crevice plantings. I tried Moltkia petraea from seed, but never got anything out of it... it's a very pretty thing.
Mark, that's Asperula sp. - the best I can do thanks to the indecipherable label written with special pen that withstands all weather - not so. That's basically a tear's worth of seedlings depending on my memory which is well honed for the peas but a bit fuzzy elsewhere
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Sore back or not, I'm WILDLY envious of those perfect and natural!!! crevices. The plants are pretty good too. :D
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Sore back or not, I'm WILDLY envious of those perfect and natural!!! crevices. The plants are pretty good too. :D
Re permanent pens. I used to use the Staedtler Pancolor F (Fine) in black and it lasted a full two years. Then they took out some environmentally unacceptable ingredient to make the Lumicolor pen as a replacement. It doesn't even last 2 months! So now I use an ordinary lead pencil, 6B.
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Regarding labels, I have found the best and most affordable writing instrument is #2 pencil. Over the years, I have used vinyl "pot stake" labels that I buy mail order from a company in Texas, USA. They worked well because they maintained flexibility for their lifetime. They were available in several colors, but the darker color green worked best, as pencil would fade less on the green labels than on the white ones. They were of a size that could be cut in half, to double the investment mileage; shown are some in their original uncut shape, and others that have been cut in half. I ran out of the green ones, and started using white ones of the same style. Since then I ran out of these labels entirely, now using a different type of plastic label... these work except for becoming brittle much more quickly... must place an order to get another bulk shipment of these to last another 20 years... their minimum order is a certain number of thousands of labels.
What's interesting is, just a couple days ago I brought in some original labels to remake them. See two labels shown at the bottom, the dark green one is still legible after 19 YEARS! The white label below is the replacement. Pencil on a matte plastic or vinyl label works, easily for a decade or more, never found an ink pen that was as reliable.
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19 years must be close to a record Mark. 8)
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Bloomimg now in the crevice garden - Convolvulus sp. It doesn't appear to be C. compactus or C. boisseri which are elsewhere in the garden. Can anyone i.d. this?
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Don't know, but a real beauty. :)
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Anne, have you seen the little piece in the March issue of International Rock Gardener on these convolvulus ? There may be some help there...... :)
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010Mar311270058840IRG_March_2010.pdf
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Thanks, Maggie, I did read this already and still was not sure . It certainly seems to be far less hairy than C. compactus and C.boisseri. The label is unfortunately a blank and it was a label which would mean it was a "bought" plant as against something grown from seed. I've looked over old catalogs from which it could possibly have been ordered and still no clue. Whatever the name, it's very nice and tight and the flowers are lovely. Here's hoping for a visit from some expert who will take one look and say "of course, anyone can see that that's such and such".
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After looking again and again at my mystery convolvulus and the pictures in the article it appears to look very much like Convolvulus phrygius. I don't know where I could have gotten it. I'll have to look again at old catalogs when I have some time.
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May I first say that having stumbled upon this thread via a Google search on rock gardens, how enthralled I have been by the content! What started out as a quick bit of research has had me glued to my computer for the past two days. There is no doubt in my mind that what you have all created here must be THE definitive guide on the subject, written from the only truly reliable source of information - collective years of genuine, practical experience (you can't beat that). As a rank amateur on the subject of rock and alpine plants, I have been sufficiently inspired by the thread to have a go myself at building a crevice garden. I have built and planted dry stone walls before, and several basic rock gardens, so I am hoping that experience will be of some help. The site approximately 5m x 3m, flat, and south facing, on the front lawn of the house, butting up to the wall below the living room window. It has continual full sun, and the patch of grass I am lifting to place the garden has always remained obstinately brown, due, I suspect, to it being on heavy clay, builders rubble, and sewage pipes all below a very thin layer of poor topsoil. Not ideal conditions for a lawn, but hopefully good ones for the crevice garden!
I intend to use pennant sandstone for the construction, and I am happy with my design ideas which will - hopefully and eventually - make it look like the house was built onto the crevice outcrop (nothing wrong with being ambitious - or is it optimistic?). I really do need advice, however, on the substrate to bed the rocks into, and the material to infill the crevices and plant the plants in. Options seem to vary between "sand", "gravel" and "soil", none of which are particularly helpful descriptions as all three of these come in many different forms. I know that whatever I use for bedding the rocks in needs to bind together secure them in place, and whatever I use to infill needs to be free draining, but at the same time provide nutrients for the plants and not wash away in the first shower of rain. I also hope to have a good supply of stone shards for hammering into gaps, and a gravel that matches the sandstone for the top dressing. Finally, I was thinking of putting a layer of geotextile under it all, but I suspect that this might cause more problems that it is worth, especially as the site does not suffer from overly invasive weeds. Any views on this?
Can I throw myself on your tender mercies and ask for the benefit of your far greater experience? I promise, in exchange, to post pictures of the work as it progresses.
Many thanks in advance for your indulgence.
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Ooops - forgot to do the signature thingy at the bottom.
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Hi Andy, a very warm welcome to you!
Your project sounds really interesting.... and darned hard work.... you do realise we'll all be looking for photos of progress etc??!! :D
I know that ZZ is in the USA at the moment at the NARGS meeting in Salida, so he probably won't be available to comment for a while, but there are others around here who have tackled similar building tasks so I hope they will be able to come up with useful tips for you.
I suppose, depending on the degree of the slope, that a fair amount of "shoring up" or terrace-type supports might be needed underneath the whole construction to anchor it? ???
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Hi Maggie
Thank you for the warm welcome. The project seems to have developed a life of its own and has gone from a simple garden project to terraforming. Still, never let it be said that I don't like a challenge!
The rocks will be, for the most part, vertical or leaning slightly back (according to the plan at the moment), so will need to be well secured. This will be achieved, at least in part, by using larger rocks buried deeper as periodic anchors, as well as rocks placed strategically at the bottom of the crevices to provide additional bracing. I am also considering using good old rebar... I also forsee at lot of trial and error...
Photos will be forthcoming as promised, just as soon as I stop panicking and start work!
Gulp
Andy
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Welcome to the Forum Andy. Of course this thread is the tip of an enormous iceberg and when you have six months with nothing else to do, it will be well worth delving back through them all, then there's the Old Forum. Life will never be the same. ;D
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Andy, like you I am starting out new to crevice gardening. As Maggie indicated Zedenik generously mentored me as I developed my garden structure. The process was valueable and Zedenik's guidance aided greatly. He is generous with his passion. I am going to piggy back on your note with a question of my own. My bed is filled exclusively with coarse sand. Only a few plants are inas our temperatures in Illinois have heated rapidly. I anticipate the sand to be cooler than air temperatures below the surface. This has not proven to be the case as temperatures 20 cm down are running 32 degrees C about the same as the air. This surprises and concerns me. I am interested in hearing from others of their experiences wonder if these sub-surface temperatures will be detrimental long run. Any and all advice welcomed
EdgewoodBob
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I'm very surprised too Bob, at that high a temperature at 20cms depth. Plant roots could just about cook. I understand that growth of temperate plants stops at 24-26 degC. (Stand to be corrected, of course). While not in a crevice garden, my experience generally is that plants survive hot periods better when their roots are well moistened, rather than dry. In other words, things will survive boiling better than baking or roasting! ???
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Maybe you're right, Lesley. I've been using a very coarse sand for years and now am using it in the crevice gardens. I've always found it to be a wonderful growing medium for plants that don't do well elsewhere in the garden. Also, the stone that makes up the greater part of the crevice gardens seems to help retain the moisture and the plants there are the last to show signs of distress in this horrible summer of heat, drought and humidity that we have been enduring here.
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Could anyone tell me the size of the crevice garden at Pershore (length x width) ? I've asked Pershore themselves obviously but I just thought someone here may know the answer off the top of their heads. It would save someone at Pershore going out to measure it!
Thanks
Paul
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Hello Paul,
I've checked the article by Ron Beeston on his work the making of the Crevice garden at Pershore with ZZ and a gang of helpers in "the Alpine Gardener" number 301 Volume 73 number 3 of September 2005 but the dimensions are not given there. Ian is just chatting on the phone with Ron who says h is best estimate of the size ias around 25 feet by 40 feet .... hope this helps!
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Thanks Maggi, very helpful and for reminding me of the reference for the article.
The reason for asking is that I have made a proposal to my mangers that the centre-piece of our celebrations at Wisley next year for the centenary of the rock garden should be to build a new feature so that in doing so we also leave something for the future. I would like this to be a crevice garden. I have been asked to provide an idea of cost before any decision can be made as to whether this is something that could be funded. So I am trying to work out the possible cost per square metre. To do this I need to know how much rock it takes to build a square metre of crevice garden. I was told that the one at Pershore used 10 tonnes of rock (can anyone verify this?) but what I don't know is the area that this created. hence the request for dimensions.
If this project goes ahead I may be looking for advice, never having built a crevice garden before! However, ZZs book is a great place to start and the other contributions to this forum also provide some insight.
Thanks again
Paul
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Yes, 10 tonnes is the amount mentioned in Ron's Article.
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If this project goes ahead I may be looking for advice, never having built a crevice garden before! However, ZZs book is a great place to start and the other contributions to this forum also provide some insight.
You could do a lot worse Paul than consult dear Anne Spiegel (Astragalus) who has constructed an incredible cliff/boulder/crevice garden in New York State which is one of the finest private alpine gardens that I have visited.
Edit by Maggi: See this thread http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=7206.0 where there is more of anne and Joe's garden
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Thanks everyone for their input, I really appreciate it. I have meanwhile become rather confused about sizes! For example, in ZZs book where he mentions the crevice garden at Montreal Botanic Garden, the caption under the picture on page 16 says this large crevice garden is 1.25 hectares (which is 12,500 square meters).Yet in the online article in the International Rock Gardener No. 4 (April 2010) it says this garden is just 150 square meters and used 60 tonnes of rock.. Or was this just for the part of the garden that was reconstructed? – it is not obvious.
Ron’s estimate of 25 by 40 feet for Pershore translates to about 92 square meters. Pershore say that they think the plan on page 10 of ZZs book is of the Pershore Garden (though it does not claim to be). But if so, that would work out about 50 square meters, barely more than half Ron’s estimate. I guess the only way to be sure is to do the 2 hour drive up to Pershore and measure it for myself!
If anyone out there who has built a crevice garden can give me a reliable figure for what weight of rock it took to build each square meter I would be very grateful. It would also be very useful to know what volume of compost it takes to fill the crevices per square meter. (I realise this will depend on the elevation, but if anyone has figures for their own constructions it would be most helpful.) If I can’t provide my managers with some possible costings that are at least roughly correct they won’t even consider my proposal to build a crevice garden at Wisley.
Paul
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I take it you have not yet had a response from Pershore, then, Paul?
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Ron’s estimate of 25 by 40 feet for Pershore translates to about 92 square meters. Pershore say that they think the plan on page 10 of ZZs book is of the Pershore Garden (though it does not claim to be). But if so, that would work out about 50 square meters, barely more than half Ron’s estimate. I guess the only way to be sure is to do the 2 hour drive up to Pershore and measure it for myself! Paul
Paul, it might be a good idea to contact ZZ himself as he managed the building of the rock garden at Pershore and therefore would know the figures (he's not been on the forum for a while, so maybe travelling somewhere). Another person who was involved with the project at Pershore was Alan Furness who has also built his own crevice garden so I am sure could give you some useful info.
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I'll contact Paul with some info to help, Diane.
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Thanks everyone for their input, I really appreciate it. I have meanwhile become rather confused about sizes! For example, in ZZs book where he mentions the crevice garden at Montreal Botanic Garden, the caption under the picture on page 16 says this large crevice garden is 1.25 hectares (which is 12,500 square meters).Yet in the online article in the International Rock Gardener No. 4 (April 2010) it says this garden is just 150 square meters and used 60 tonnes of rock.. Or was this just for the part of the garden that was reconstructed? – it is not obvious.
Ron’s estimate of 25 by 40 feet for Pershore translates to about 92 square meters. Pershore say that they think the plan on page 10 of ZZs book is of the Pershore Garden (though it does not claim to be). But if so, that would work out about 50 square meters, barely more than half Ron’s estimate. I guess the only way to be sure is to do the 2 hour drive up to Pershore and measure it for myself!
If anyone out there who has built a crevice garden can give me a reliable figure for what weight of rock it took to build each square meter I would be very grateful. It would also be very useful to know what volume of compost it takes to fill the crevices per square meter. (I realise this will depend on the elevation, but if anyone has figures for their own constructions it would be most helpful.) If I can’t provide my managers with some possible costings that are at least roughly correct they won’t even consider my proposal to build a crevice garden at Wisley.
Paul
Dear Paul, I am really pleased to hear about idea of crevice garden in Wisley. I have tried today to find out my stone consumption per square meter. One picture shows 1 m2 bordered with rope. Sorry I didn't take stones from crevices to have exact measurement, but I estimate it around 250 - 400 kg per m2. It fits to figures from Montreal (60 tons for 150 m2), 12 500 m2 is for sure the whole garden. Cunsumption is including smaller stones needed inside crevices, it is important not to underestimate it, as you need a lot of them.It is not enough to use just gravel, I hope that picture shows this little bit. As mediums I can highly recommend clean river sand. It supports so important roots development and as sterile material it also enables plants to establish after planting. Plus it is also very cheap material. In case of rain, you can also cover soil with sand and you can walk withou mud on you shoes. It also enables you to plant crevices even in case of rain, in case of time pressure. There is no problem with nutrition, as plant will root down through sand and quickly reach soil below crevice construction. I add some soil only for daphnes and dwarf conifers. Regarding roots temperature, this year we had around Prague 36 C degrees without any bigger problems for established plants. My experince is that wet sand in crevices is much cooler than air. It is because of no air circulation inside crevices, plus evaporating water cooles sand. Sand is able to abosrb huge amount of water and water has four times higher heat capacity then air. I can also mention watering savings, as there is much lower need to water, as crevices keep water inside for very long time and there is minimal space for evaporating.
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Hi Jiri,
Thanks for taking the trouble to estimate your rock usage and for your other helpful suggestions. Today I actually visited Pershore to see and measure the crevice garden for myself. The total area (minus paths) is actually 28 square meters. As they used 10 tonnes of rock, this works out atabout 0.34 tonnes (340Kg) of rock per square meter. This fits in with your estimate Jiri and also with the Montreal example, which worked out at about 0.4 tonnes per square meter.
I still do not know if senior managers at Wisley will go ahead with my idea. Some of the things they have said recently make me think they are backing away from the idea a bit. I hope not. I hope to have a clear answer from them within a week or so.
Paul
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Dear Paul, I am really pleased to hear about idea of crevice garden in Wisley. I have tried today to find out my stone consumption per square meter. One picture shows 1 m2 bordered with rope. Sorry I didn't take stones from crevices to have exact measurement, but I estimate it around 250 - 400 kg per m2.
it looks like there is a lot of progress in your garden since we last saw!
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I hope you get the go-ahead Paul. In my experience senior managers have this nasty habit of backing away just as the price estimates come in, and when work could reasonably be starting. Good luck for your project. It would add something extra and very interesting, to Wisley.
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The second crevice garden is finally finished. The last part is only partially planted because this has really been the summer from hell. Starting in the spring when we had record breaking days of heat, there has been nothing but that dreaded combination of heat (90s F), drought (2 months of no rain at all), and high humidity. Many of the western american plants simply go dormant but revive when some rain comes, the high desert plants thrive although some really dislike the humidity, and many other alpines simply go permanently dormant. Valeriana supina, thriving in the tufa garden at least 6 years, appears to be gone. It's one of my favorites. I'll do some planting in the new crevice garden in the fall and finish up in the spring.
Jiri's new crevice garden looks wonderful. The plants are really taking hold. More pictures, please, Jiri.
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I am really delighted to report that my proposal for a crevice garden at Wisley has now been approved and the funding provided. Zdenek Zvolanek has very kindly agreed to come and lead us on this project and will be with us from 1 November for a couple of weeks. I will write about it all as it happens in my Log so you can all follow the progress there.
Paul
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Excellent news Paul! Wish I could be there to help....
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Good news Paul. I look forward to seeing the finished article.
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I am really delighted to report that my proposal for a crevice garden at Wisley has now been approved and the funding provided. Zdenek Zvolanek has very kindly agreed to come and lead us on this project and will be with us from 1 November for a couple of weeks. I will write about it all as it happens in my Log so you can all follow the progress there.
Paul
Well done on your successful proposal, Paul.
I think you will find there is almost universal delight at the prospect: while there are some who are not much in favour of this style of growing there will surely be tremendous interest from visitors to the garden to see it there.
And to have ZZ himself involved.... a coup indeed ;)
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Looking forward to follow the progress of your crevice garden.
Angie :)
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Fantastic news, Paul, what an exciting venture - looking forward to seeing your crevice garden at Wisley progress :)
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Excellent news Paul and since it will be happening late this year, there will be more to see at Wisley for those visiting for next year's Conference. I'll get to see their pictures even if not able to take some of my own. Great that in these difficult financial times some institutions are prepared to fund what's really important. :D
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Work on the new Wisley crevice garden can be seen in my latest log, just posted today
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley
Paul
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One of the places the pre-Nottingham Conference Tour will go is to Wisley. Can't wait to see this crevice garden. What an amazing amount of work in just a few days. I'm used to doing this work with one other person and no machines. How I'd love to use those machines for even a day but I can see they're operating in a flat area, not on the side of a cliff. Any machine here would probably land in the lower garden in no time.
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Those of us lucky enough to be on the pre-conference tour got to spend the day at Wisley. The garden was spectacular but first on my list was the crevice garden. Paul et al have done an amazing job. It's huge as the pictures will show. The fun will be in the planting, because crevice gardens eat up plants. We also got to go in the propagation house and see some of the plants that Paul is growing for the crevice garden. It's a wide selection and I was happy to see some North American plants there as well. I have to give Paul a "10". He has accomplished so much in so short a time. The pictures are:
fornt of garden (I think)
middle of garden
back of garden
Aubrieta glabrescens (new must-have plant)
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Blooming today in the crevice garden.
1. Hymenoxys acaulis v caespitosa
2. Coronilla vaginalis
3. Aubrieta 'Marjorie Reynolds
4. Daphne x hendersonii 'Amyon Correvon'
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Also in the crevice garden, where ithas been warm but not too warm. Blooms are lasting as a result.
1. Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'
2. Androsace villosa
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A few more pictures of the plants in the new crevice garden at Wisley. Young plants, of course, but looking happy and doing very well. I hope Paul will continue to update us on the new plantings.
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Sorry for sending two of the same plant.(now fixed) I meant to include this lovely daphne. I'd love to see this garden in a couple of years.
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In my crevice garden at the moment.
Astragalus utahensis
Daphne x hendersonii 'Ernst Hauser
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In my crevice garden at the moment.
Astragalus utahensis
It's a small world... today a visitor was telling us that he had a nice plant of Astragalus utahensis to take to the Glasgow show tomorrow.... though he's not sure if the flowers will open in time.... and here is Anne showing us the same plant enjoying life in her American garden. 8)
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Maggi, I sure hope it makes it to the show. It's a wonderful plant - beautiful foliage and fabulous flowers. Then again, some years a plant will just up and die almost overnight. No particular reason - it's almost as if it woke up and realized that it was growing in the northeast and not the southwest.
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Astragalus utahensis on the show bench at East Cheshire AGS Show on Saturday last.
ASTRAGALUS UTAHENSIS
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Lovely, Cliff, was that Sam Sutherland's plant which won the Duncan Lowe trophy?
It was Sam who visited today... now wondering if it was another Astragalus he is hoping for tomorrow!? :-\ :-[
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Lovely, Cliff, was that Sam Sutherland's plant which won the Duncan Lowe trophy?
It was Sam who visited today... now wondering if it was another Astragalus he is hoping for tomorrow!? :-\ :-[
You read my lips which never moved Maggi. ;D
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was that Sam Sutherland's plant which won the Duncan Lowe trophy?
No, he won it with Androsace hirtella (http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/shows/results/shows2011/shows/cheshire/images/Robert_Rolfe/sizedDSC_1173.JPG.html)
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Quite right, Diane.... so long as one of us knows what's happening, eh?! :-[ :-[
The Astragalus was in a class for "an American" plant and was beaten by a big Trillium... is that right?
And it was the George Smith trophy which is a painting by Duncan Lowe... have I got my frightful memory sorted out now.... or should I go to bed early...... :-X
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The crevice garden as the daphnes start to finish blooming. Mostly blue and yellow now with penstemons, genistas and veronicas blooming.
Also Onosma nanum, quite lovely and condensed.
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Anne, your photos are lovely showing your crevice garden treasures in that light
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Thanks. It seems to be a great place for plants and what I like best is that the color keeps changing from one week to the next.
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Anne, what is the super blue Penstemon in Reply 234? A fabulous colour, on a neat plant.
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Lesley, that's Penstemon uintahensis and it's one of my favorites. I had difficulty keeping it in the open garden but it's doing very well in the crevice garden. The color is marvelous.
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I don't know how I have managed not too discover this remarkable thread for so long! Unfortunately in the far flung south-east rocks are not so easy to come by and I have concentrated more on building simple sand beds (they still grow plants really well!), but they lack some of the aesthetic appeal of crevice gardens, and definitely lack the romance of playing with rocks! We have had talks on the famous Czech alpine gardens and gardeners, and they must be the finest in the world notwithstanding some great gardens in the UK and US. Mine by comparison is relatively modest, though my interests are not, and a crevice garden now looms on the horizon!
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Welcome, Tim, it is good to see you here.
I understand your local difficulty with finding a good rock supply..... here in Aberdeen, the 'Granite City', this is not a problem for us - grantie and sandstone are quite easy to source.... it 's down to the state of your back really, as to whether you can cope with the construction work!
I have been interested to see your posts on your sand bed " Fun with a Sand Bed" on the AGS site,
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/inthegarden/Fun+with+a+Sand+Bed/531/ and I agree that this is a method that is much more accessible to folks than extensive rock work.
We have not made a pure sand bed in the body of the garden, as you have, but we have made sand beds, surrounded by vertical (part) slabs in a variation of our outdoor sand plunges, and these are proving a popular home for many plants here in Aberdeen.... mostly bulbs, in this the home of the Ian the "Bulb Despot" ! You can see more of our crevice beds and sand beds in Ian's Bulb Logs.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=bulb is the main page and an index is there too.
Also you will find quite a lot of discussion both here in this Forum and in the archived version of our previous Forum ( http://www.srgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi ) where such methods of growing plants have been shown to be both successful and fun!
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Welcome Tim, glad you found your way and good to see you here. You'll enjoy the participation I have no doubts.
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Many thanks - I look forward to it!
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Unfortunately in the far flung south-east rocks are not so easy to come by and I have concentrated more on building simple sand beds (they still grow plants really well!), but they lack some of the aesthetic appeal of crevice gardens, and definitely lack the romance of playing with rocks!
Tim, welcome to our forum. Have you ever seen the Utrecht Botanic Garden?
There they make amazing use of recycled building materials - old slates and roofing tiles, sewer pipes, paving slabs, etc - it may sound terrible but I was so inspired I came home and made up some troughs with slate, paving slabs and broken cement blocks.
After a few years it is difficult to tell that these are not made with stone.
I just nipped outside and took three of pictures of troughs : one using cement rocks, one with limestone marl and the other roofing slates. You can decide which if any you favour.
I really fancy making a crevice bed larger than a trough using a mixture of recycled materials- if only we had some space to put it.
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I really fancy making a crevice bed larger than a trough using a mixture of recycled materials- if only we had some space to put it.
Ian, I believe there are some quite large areas of the Highlands, as an example, where the population is sparse, and where you could put quite large acreage to good use. Of course you may have to protect from deer and perhaps the odd irate Gael.;D (I've just finished re-reading Arthur Ransome's "Great Northern?")
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Ian, Harry Jans has shown us slides of the Utrecht garden and it is really thought provoking. I wonder how many people have taken up the ideas? I remember particularly the angled long shallow troughs, weird but clever. But the plants grow brilliantly. I think it shows the wonderful benefit of experimenting and trying different things. I must admit my real dream has always been a tufa cliff a la Harry and some of the growers in Germany, and of course Roy Elliott. Lacking that I have seen a picture somewhere in an AGS garden of a huge tufa boulder planted up and surrounded by other plantings - really enticing. It's wonderful when you find a way to grow a plant really happily.
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Kaye Griffith at RHS Harlow Carr has planted a number of troughs in the Utrecht style. She has shown us photos in the forum of some, if I remember correctly.
This reminds me that Paul Cumbleton features Harlow Carr, and Kaye, in his recent Wisley log #4 of 2011
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2011May091304960462Log_4_of_2011.pdf
I agree, when one finds a way to make a plant happy it is very rewarding!
Wisley Log main page http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley)
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Ian, I believe there are some quite large areas of the Highlands, as an example, where the population is sparse, and where you could put quite large acreage to good use. Of course you may have to protect from deer and perhaps the odd irate Gael.;D (I've just finished re-reading Arthur Ransome's "Great Northern?")
Lesley, Ian is making plans to consult a lawyer tomorrow to find out what position is vis a vis land grabbing in the highlands..... he may also email Donald Trump and Mohammed al Fayed for extra advice ;) Though, in their cases, money changed hands... that's not going to happen with Ian. :-X ::)
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Here is Jim Almonds blog link with pictures of many of the fascinating re-cycled materials used at the Utrecht Botanic Garden:
http://alpineenthusiast.blogspot.com/2008/01/holland-dutch-alpine-garden-society.html
and this Flickr series also highlights many of the innovative structures, etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansvanderboom/4682580708/in/set-72157624231439908/
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Some more Utrecht links....
Sandy Leven's Utrecht article in the main site: http://www.srgc.org.uk/feature/utrecht/utrecht.html
Ian's posts from thre "old" forum;
http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/1078/10834.html
and some links from this forum
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=208.msg10886;topicseen#
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3430.0
:)
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Ian, I believe there are some quite large areas of the Highlands, as an example, where the population is sparse, and where you could put quite large acreage to good use. Of course you may have to protect from deer and perhaps the odd irate Gael.;D (I've just finished re-reading Arthur Ransome's "Great Northern?")
Lesley, Ian is making plans to consult a lawyer tomorrow to find out what position is vis a vis land grabbing in the highlands..... he may also email Donald Trump and Mohammed al Fayed for extra advice ;) Though, in their cases, money changed hands... that's not going to happen with Ian. :-X ::)
Well that gives us all much to look forward to. Why not a sand bed on the Trump land? I seem to remember Peter Korn had something of the kind. Shouldn't be too difficult to divert a small stream to keep the sand moist. So al Fayed's been up to similar tricks? Wasn't Harrods enough? What greedy people they and their kind are.
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May I add some pictures of a recycling wall like in Utrecht B.G. of [concrete] paving slabs.
Last Saturday we made a visit to a garden where such a wall was made and this wall is now almost 15 years old.
On the shady side there is a mix of Ramonda, Haberlea, Pleione limprichtii etc.
For those who are interested this garden is situated more than 4 m. under sea level!
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Very successful planting area and pleasing to the eye as well as being a good use of recycled materials.
The Pleiones look especially good.
As a person living up a hill, though, the thought of being lower than sea level worries me ! :o
Has your friend got a boat? ;)
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I constructed a new trough at the weekend and coincidentally this thread has recycled materials in it. I was going to post this next year just in case it didn't work but the opportunity has arisen so I will do it now.
Last Wednesday my wife and I visited the Explorers Garden in Pitlochry for the first time. We had a pleasant walk and the Meconopsis were coming to the fore. Another week or so and they would have been at their best. A lovely place and we will visit again. Met Julia.
More to the point - my wife MADE me buy some plants - mainly Lewisia's. So I had to find somewhere to put them. We had seen the Lewisia dry stone wall at Bodnant many years ago and I had tried to emulate it a couple of times. This time I decided to do something different. All my troughs are natural looking so I decided to do something a little more contemporary.
To the point.
Photo 1 - This was a Rhodohypoxis trough and I am aware that they are not necessarily hardy but they had flourished for for five years. This is the only one I found this week. Disappointing but an opportunity.
Photo 2 - This beam is wedged in the trough to ensure the front bricks don't settle in the compost.
Photo 3 - Layer 1. The bricks have small holes in them just at the height I needed them. The canes fit in the holes and are to ensure the next layer of bricks don't settle in the compost either. Roofing slates provide the back.
Photo 4 - Layer two in situ to see how everything fits.
Photo 5 - The first plant. The nurseries compost was washed from the roots and I then added my own mix and wrapped the root ball in thin card to ensure it stayed in place and allowed me to ease it through the holes in the bricks. The theory is it will eventually rot away.
Photo 6 - First one in place. All the plants had roots long enough to reach through the bricks and into the main compost area.
Photo 7 - Level one planted and ready for the top layer.
Photo 8 - Between the bricks I planted Sedum oreganum tenue
Photo 9 - Nearly done
Photo 10 - Completed.
Plant list - Lewisia cotyledon hybrids, Lewisia 'Little Plum', Dianthus 'Whatfield Magenta', Sempervivums 'Walcott's Variety and 'Fire Glint' Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco' and Purpureum, Sedum oreganum tenue.
I do hope this works. I will let you know how it gets on.
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Intriguing Graham ... please keep us up to date with developments.
I must admit that my wife was unequivocal; "That's not very pretty ... don't you get any ideas!"
It reminds me of a ziggurat in a rainforest (but perhaps that's just the gin and tonic talking)! ;D
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You know, Graham, I think in a few months that brick surface will disappear as the plants spread. Then the effect will be of 'invisible' tiers, I reckon. great fun.... love anything new like that!
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You know, Graham, I think in a few months that brick surface will disappear as the plants spread. Then the effect will be of 'invisible' tiers, I reckon. great fun.... love anything new like that!
Well that's the theory Maggi. I hope that they all settle in.
Cliff, we will see what your wife says when they have grown together and the Lewisia's are in flower next year. She wasn't seeing the bigger picture.
I have to admit to having to google Ziggurat, but you are right.
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I know someone, not so far away, who said:
"..given an ideal opportunity for a trough of miniature hostas and he goes and puts in Lewisia's! What on earth possessed him?" ;D
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As a person living up a hill, though, the thought of being lower than sea level worries me ! :o
Has your friend got a boat? ;)
No, he has not, neither his neighbour... ;D
But for their comfort they don't live too far from a former small island which lies above sealevel :) and is now a World Heritage site!
http://www.schokland.nl/pageid=23/EN.html (http://www.schokland.nl/pageid=23/EN.html)
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I know someone, not so far away, who said:
"..given an ideal opportunity for a trough of miniature hostas and he goes and puts in Lewisia's! What on earth possessed him?" ;D
Frazer,
Did you miss my hosta trough in this link.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3537.255
I perhaps didn't explain myself properly when we spoke. :-\
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That wall of ramondas and asplenium is exquisite! It reminds me of an old retaining wall half way up Snowdon, next to some old mine buildings, which is full of ferns in variety. Unfortunately I only have a slide. One of our members has a great ability to discover recycled materials for free and has a large raised bed made with similar concrete kerbstones. He also (curse him) discovered a source of tufa(!) in an overgrown garden - some people have all the luck!
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I constructed a new trough at the weekend and coincidentally this thread has recycled materials in it
Congratulations Graham on your lateral thinking for your new contemporary trough; incorporating those bricks for your collection of Lewisias. You've given me an idea for a small raised bed using these bricks in limited space. Looking forward to seeing how yours develops with some photos.
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I constructed a new trough at the weekend and coincidentally this thread has recycled materials in it
Congratulations Graham on your lateral thinking for your new contemporary trough; incorporating those bricks for your collection of Lewisias. You've given me an idea for a small raised bed using these bricks in limited space. Looking forward to seeing how yours develops with some photos.
Thank you Robin, and I am very interested to see how you develop your raised bed.
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Blooming now in the crevice garden, the tufa crevice garden and in natural crevices in the cliff. The colors change from week to week.
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Lovely images of beautiful plants Anne ... this time last year and we were heading for home after an amazing tour!
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Those Eriogonums are very moreish! (I use the word but can't find it in the dictionary). I haven't tried any yet in my sand bed but have previously grown them under similar conditions on a raised bed. The late Dr. Jack Elliott grew many species and stimulated us to grow more of them. At Wisley Paul Cumbleton has planted several on a raised sand bed near the alpine house and they make a great contrast to other plants. The smaller species are seen occasionally exhibited at AGS Shows but few people grow them. I shall look out for seed this autumn/winter.
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Cliff: Somehow it seems strange to look at the garden without the crouching camerman in view!
Tim, the eriogonums are marvelous plants. Look for seed of Eriogonum ovalifolium varieties. Just plant them in full sun and once established, don't water. During periods of drought when all gardeners are complaining and moaning, the westerners (eriogonums, penstemons, astragalus, oxytropis, trifolium etc) behave like they're in seventh heaven.
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Could I have a definition of "moreish" please? I've already learned "gob-smacked". Didn't realize another benefit of the Forum would be a volcabulary increase!
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Could I have a definition of "moreish" please? I've already learned "gob-smacked". Didn't realize another benefit of the Forum would be a volcabulary increase!
Hi Anne,
I could say; "Anne Spiegel's garden is particularly moreish" or "I can't get enough green beans - they are moreish" or (as Maggi might say) "This chocolate bar is moreish, I could eat another seven"!
Definition : Something that leaves one wanting or desiring more ... and more!
I have always presumed that this common expression (here in the UK) would be in the American dictionary, but unless it refers to the Moors (Moorish), then it doesn't feature in my Mac's New Oxford American Dictionary. I was gobsmacked!!!
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I was gobsmacked!!
So long as being gobsmacked didn't leave you banjaxed.
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I was gobsmacked!!
So long as being gobsmacked didn't leave you banjaxed.
Banjaxed? Explanation, please. Is it something like poleaxed??
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I was gobsmacked!!
So long as being gobsmacked didn't leave you banjaxed.
Banjaxed? Explanation, please. Is it something like poleaxed??
Poleaxed happens to the citizens of Warsaw ... Banjaxed to our friends in the capitol of Thailand.
Poleaxe tends to mean 'to cause great shock', while banjaxe means 'to ruin or incapacitate'. Anthrax is only for bunnies. :D
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Planted some years ago in a natural crevice and doing well, Anthyllis montana (yet another of the glorious peas).
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In the crevice garden this morning. Hopefully, the Onosma is setting seed and the unusual color will be reproduced in the seedlings. Three self-sown seedlings have been found.
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The Onosma definitely has that "full of seed" look to it that Boraginaceae get when they're going to reproduce. I'd be very hopeful in your position.
That Asperula is a real beauty. :P
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Not quite sure what the asperula is so I just call it "sp". So many different things come from Asperula sintenisii seed.
The onosma seedlings I found were from last year and they look really healthy. Maybe next year I'll transplant them and hope they duplicate the wonderful coral color the parent had this year. It was truly different compared to others I've grown.
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Picture of the onosma in flower in the tufa crevice garden.
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In the crevice garden this morning (too hot and muggy to garden).
Penstemon thompsoniae v desperatus
Convolvulus boisseri
and foliage close-up
Dianthus: tiny, small and largest (Dianthus pavonius)
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Fantastic plants Anne ! They sure seem happy where they are ! ;)
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Picture of the onosma in flower in the tufa crevice garden.
Wow!! Fantastic plant, beautifully grown!
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Thanks, Cohan. I'm hoping that the self-sown seedlings will have the same lovely coral color. This onosma gets woody quite quickly and I have no idea how to propagate it other than seed. Does anyone know?
In the crevice garden today. It's the start of convolvulus, moltkias, and acantholimons (not quite ready to photograph). Everything is quite dry now but not too hot, and most of the plants seem to like life in the crevice garden. I love it that the overall color schemes keep changing.
016 eriogonum ovalifolium - flowers starting to change color
026 convolvulus compactus - pink form
022 moltkia petraea
018 moltkia petraea close-up
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Look at all the promise of flower in the Convolvulus- that's one generous plant, Anne!
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Convolvulus coompactus and C. compactus - pink form, now in better bloom. Early because of early heat. Wednesday it will be 95F. No rain in sight. The convolvulus plants are usually the mid-June spectacle and can last for weeks.
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Beautiful! Love these guys.
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Superb plants Anne ! :o :o
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Look at all the promise of flower in the Convolvulus- that's one generous plant, Anne!
That's one clever grower! :D
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Just starting now, the acantholimons. The one I used to grow as Acantholimon androsaceum had better color and shorter stems, but I'm told this is the same plant.
Maybe hindsight embellishes things like color but my pictures (slides) still show shorter stems.
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The crevice garden is quieting down from the riotous colors of April and May. Now there are some repeat blooms on daphnes etc and a few new things coming into bloom. Then things will be relatively quiet until latter half of August when the zauschnerias will start making splashes of color I hope).
1. Heterotheca jonesii (crevice garden)
2. Heterotheca in scree
3. Daphne arbuscula sp starting to rebloom
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Beautiful plants Anne.
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Thanks, Cliff. Leaving Thursday for the Dolomites and hoping the deer will leave the garden alone during my absence.
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Anne, I don't "do" holidays.... but I could have been tempted to some garden sitting and deer scaring for you. ;)
Have a super holiday 8)
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Maggi, you'd have to be ready to be a "night person". We have motion detection lights that the deer are always triggering at night. Then I lean out the window and do "primal scream" to make them leave. I refrained from doing this during Cliff and Sue's stay with us!!
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Maggi, you'd have to be ready to be a "night person". We have motion detection lights that the deer are always triggering at night. Then I lean out the window and do "primal scream" to make them leave. I refrained from doing this during Cliff and Sue's stay with us!!
... If I'd have known about this I would have asked you to carry on, but wouldn't have told Sue ... ;D ;D ;D
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Anne, I'm a frightful insomniac so no problem. I also do a very good cat scaring scream so I am ideally suited to this task..... maybe next year?
Cliff, you are a bad man, a very bad man. :-X
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Maggi, you'd be very welcome! It would be a bit warmer than your weather has been (a big understatement).
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Not in my own garden but in my "other" garden in the Dolomites. Seen in a tiny indentation on a towering limestone cliff, an Androsace hausmannii the size of a 50 cent piece.
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Really, how could anyone see a perfect little plant like that and not be captivated and infused instantly with a desire to get an order in to the nearest Seed Ex and grow such little gems?
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Seen today growing in hairline crevices in a cliff in the Dolomites, Saxifraga caesia.
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These ones should also go in the Saxifragas in the Wild thread Anne. They are beautiful.
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Thanks, Lesley. I'll do that.
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Back home, over the jet lag and out in the garden examining deer damage. Maggi, I'm inviting you to come next year and be in charge of deer control (primal scream, etc) while we're away. They have been walking everywhere in the garden, including through the crevice garden. I'll even show you my secret stash of chocolate!
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Anne, your photographs show such wonderful detail of plants growing in different conditions in your garden, they make an excellent reference point as well as being hugely enjoyable to look at from every angle. :)
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Thank you so much. Right now everything is sweltering in the heat, but the eriogonums are relishing it. Their foliage looks fresh and very tight. In their native habitat, 20% humidity would be considered a sauna and here the humidity is 90%. It's amazing the adjustments many plants can make, isn't it?
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The crevice garden is fairly subdued at the moment in all the heat and humidity, but a few plants seem to be enjoying the extremes of sun and heat. Not surprisingly, they are North American westerners.
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Beautiful, Anne.
Our idyll in Corvara ends in the morning, so back to the heat, sun and humidity of a Lancashire summer!!! ;D
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Beautiful, Anne.
............... so back to the heat, sun and humidity of a Lancashire summer!!! ;D
Take it that was a joke Mr B or perhaps a certain closeness with the Grappa bottle last night :P
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Maybe a bit of both?
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Maybe a bit of both?
;D ;D ;D 8)
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Earlier I posted pictures of the crevices on the top of the cliff. After many, many hours, it looks quite different without the weeds and with new plantings started. The plants are quite young but happy so far. Everything up here will be covered with chicken wire for the winter as protection form the antlered rats.
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Also growing on top of the cliff now is Dianthus arpadianus. It bloomed heavily and was never deadheaded. Now I find that some of the stems appear to be making new little dianthus cushions at the top of the stems. Has anyone ever seen this happen? It's new to me. What does one do with them? Could I pin the stem down and try layering? Sorry for the quality of the p[icture. Have been having a little difficulty lately with the camera and taking good close-ups
Also a picture Of Onosma nanum in the regular crevice garden. It seems to be a happy plant.
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The crevice garden looks amazing, Anne. If viewers could only understand a modicum of the effort required to get those cliff top boulders clear of bramble and weeds to allow such precise and immaculate planting.
I would be tempted to peg down a couple of those stems but let the rest develop normally over winter and hope that they grow foliage down the stem forming individual buns over the cushion?
Greetings from an unusually warm Lancashire. Hope dear Joe is well.
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What a wonderful crevice garden, the very best kind with the natural bedrock (?) used and then giving way to some man and woman-made crevices. Nothing could surpass that first picture in the group. A great effort Anne if what Cliff says is correct, about the bramble etc.
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Cliff cannot speak highly enough about Anne's garden and I must say that every photo I have seen confirms to me that he is quite right to be so full of praise for it. It is a wonderful place, a real tribute to Anne's eye for detail and sheer hard work... and I always feel for her tribulations against the 'antlered rats'.
Yes, there is natural stone, yes the site is beautiful but human hands and heart have made it the glorious garden it has become and which we are fortunate to be able to share , if only by photographs.
An inspirational garden, in my opinion.
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Thanks, Cliff. Joe is fine and staying away from garden "projects" although he did help with leaves yesterday.
Lesley, it's wasn't just brambles, those thorny darlings, but also miles of poison ivy, which I find far worse. If it were not for the miserable itchy rash it produces, poison ivy would be the world's best ornamental plant - able to withstand any type of soil (not happy in the sand beds), can take any kind of weather, has lovely polished foliage with excellent fall color, can grow as a vine, ground cover or even shrub, the antlered rats don't touch it - AND - it's almost impossible to kill.
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Many thanks, Maggi. Please remember, the invitation to "garden-sit" is always open and it comes with a map to the hidden chocolates.
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All I want for Xmas is a cliff with crevices and reliefs! (No, not you, Cliff ;))
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All I want for Xmas is a cliff with crevices and reliefs! (No, not you, Cliff ;))
Well, that's a relief!!!!! :o
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All I want for Xmas is a cliff with crevices and reliefs! (No, not you, Cliff ;))
Well, that's a relief!!!!! :o
Hope so - you'd better paid a visit in summer to look at the cliffs ;D
[attachthumb=1] [attachthumb=2]
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Earlier I posted pictures of the crevices on the top of the cliff. After many, many hours, it looks quite different without the weeds and with new plantings started. The plants are quite young but happy so far. Everything up here will be covered with chicken wire for the winter as protection form the antlered rats.
I already looks absolutely stunning Anne !! :o :o
No wonder the plants are happy in the environment you manage to give them !!
Looking forward to see how things develop ! :D
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I believe I have definitive proof indeed that Zed Zed is IN FACT a "Stone Rider".... ;D
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Yup, it's definite!
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The lead singer of ZZ Topless :)
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;D ;D ;D
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There IS something you can do in the crevice garden in the winter (not technically here yet but might as well be).
You can start preparing for daily forays by hungry deer. The chickenwire goes up to the top of the cliff, and various rocks are placed to keep the wire from sagging on the plants. Deer are very fussy about where they place their feet. It may not look pretty but it's effective and has really become necessary.
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Another new crevice garden that I've been working on since September with a break due to an unexpected October snowstorm.
This one is at the north end of the cliff and was nicknamed years ago "The Last Outcrop", because I promised I wouldn't develop the garden beyond that point. I made no promises about the other end and have been developing that for the last ten years with many raised beds and crevice gardens. In the meantime, "The Last Outcrop" became a jungle of brambles, poison ivy, saplings and more poison ivy. The first picture shows it in October covered by snow.
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The crevices of "The Last Outcrop" are all sizes and mostly deep. All the junk is coming out and when I have an empty crevice I pour in wood chips that have been put through a chipper a second time to speed up decomposition. Most of them are half rotted already since they have been sitting for four years. I'm trying to get it all in before snow comes and stays but it's a big area and it may not happen. But at least half of it will be ready to sit out the winter and settle. It's fairly open north with an apple tree and a hop hornbeam to give some extra shade. It will be space for very different plants. It's been a lot of fun and a few backaches but I can't wait for spring to start some planting. A case of poison ivy in November, however, is not fun.
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Good grief Anne ... I can testify to JUST how much work you must have put in to clear 'The Last Outcrop' ... it's larger than my entire garden. Enjoy the planting, you have earned every second of it.
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Wow now that is what I would call big rocks very nice. We have problems this year with moss growing in the crevices despite the planting material being 75% sharp sand, never seen so much rain have had twice our annual rainfall over 4 ft (250cm) and yes it is still raining. We well remember last year when everything was buried in snow not sure which is best, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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Anne, you make me feel such a wimp that I'm complaining about over-the-road's cats padding about, now that Teddy is no longer with us. One had left a shallow indentation on many seed pots overnight and one sat in MY driveway and watched me from just a few metres away as I raked up strimmed grass today. I heaved a clod at it but it just sat there as if it had a right to.
Great news though for me, first seed up of Primula wollastonii (sown 9th June) and the first of Wim's Pinguicula grandiflora seed also. Result of several days of persistent rain I expect.
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I can IMAGINE the effort needed to clear the last outcrop... and that's without any knowledge of how tricky it must be to work with the poison ivy... my admiration for your work is tremendous..... but it is no less for the yearly effort you have to put in to spread the chicken wire to try to ward of the antlered rats!
No-one could ever call you lazy, Anne, that's for sure! :D
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Maggi, right now the garden is reasonably deer-proof. It's hunting season and they temporarily change their trails after our hunter (comes every year and bags his limit on our limited acreage!) kills a few of them. But then they come back after the season with a vengeance having picked up some of their cousins to swell the herd. That's when primal scream comes into play and I pray every day for very deep snow to help protect the plants.
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Cliff, I didn't know if you'd remember The Last Outcrop. They are large rocks but the weeds etc were so high they were difficult to see. The hardest part has been hacking out the trunks and roots of trres that seeded themselves into the crevices. Joe is bringing up chips from the long piles beyond the water garden and has been quite dismayed at the speed with which I use them up and say "more, please". In the spring I'll dig pockets and fill with my mix and plant. The winter should help settle everything and I'm also tramping the crevices down almost daily to really pack the rotted chips down. Think hellebores, epimediums, hepaticas, jeffersonias and ramondas. It may be too dry for many primulas, too bad. Can't wait to plant.
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Wow now that is what I would call big rocks very nice. We have problems this year with moss growing in the crevices despite the planting material being 75% sharp sand, never seen so much rain have had twice our annual rainfall over 4 ft (250cm) and yes it is still raining. We well remember last year when everything was buried in snow not sure which is best, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
We have had an incredibly wet year here as well. It's nice not to hear the voices of doom all the time about the reservoirs being too low. All the rocks of The Last Outcrop are covered with moss and lichens. Some of that should disappear with the clearing and more light and air as a result. I tried to save the little ferns I found - mainly ebony spleenwort and the little polypody ferns that populate the north face of the cliff.
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Lesley, too bad about the cats. I've had trouble before with cats - mainly using the sand beds as giant litter boxes. However, they made up for it with avid mousing and chipmunking. Never had a problem with those critters when we had the cats. Ranger, our dog, does not allow the presence of cats in his territory, or anywhere else if he can do anything about it.
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Ranger, our dog, does not allow the presence of cats in his territory, or anywhere else if he can do anything about it.
... Or delivery drivers ... or photographers for that matter! ;D
How could I forget 'The Last Outcrop' - the only part of your magnificent garden that didn't 'demand' to be photographed!
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I often think it would be great to see a time lapse photography of a garden in progress! Some of us would certainly look like tortoises by comparison with Anne and Peter Korn in Sweden! It must be wonderful to work with the landscape in this way - it reminds me of Dilys Davies, past President of the Hardy Plant Society, who talked on her garden in the Lake District and a cliff face which she abseiled down to plant. This is real gardening and so exciting to see.
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I am very very very impressed Anne !!!!! :o :o
Can't wait to see it planted !
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Hi Anne,
we don't have deer or bears to worry about here, but the echidna has been running rampant and digging up parts of the rock garden. He (Erroll) -or is it she (Edna)?- is quite capable of pulling apart some of the rockwork, though your "Last outcrop" may be big enough to defeat them! Unfortunately ants seem to love making nests in the rock garden and echidnas love ants!
cheers
fermi
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Fermi, every eden has its serpent, right? I've always had trouble with a kind of wasp in the sand beds. They are incredibly efficient tunnelers. They dig deep holes to bury their food supply and they do their digging right next to my plants that they use as markers. They can sever roots quite neatly and then the plant just collapses overnight. They come back every year, I fill their holes and place flat rocks here and there to discourage them but they're quite fixated that this is the only place to dig.
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Fermi, every eden has its serpent, right? I've always had trouble with a kind of wasp in the sand beds. They are incredibly efficient tunnelers. They dig deep holes to bury their food supply and they do their digging right next to my plants that they use as markers. They can sever roots quite neatly and then the plant just collapses overnight. They come back every year, I fill their holes and place flat rocks here and there to discourage them but they're quite fixated that this is the only place to dig.
Ann, I have these sand tunneling wasps as well. They seems attracted to open sand, so maybe the deterrant is to cover sand beds with pebble stone or gravel.
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Fermi, every eden has its serpent, right?
Yeah, we have them too! :o Nothing snakes like better than a large rock to catch the sun. The adage "Tread softly and carry a big stick" is here amended to "Stamp loudly but still carry a big stick!"
We have wasps that burrow to bury they prey, usually large spiders, but I haven't actually seen any disturbing plants in the Rock Garden!
cheers
fermi
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Great work, Anne! Getting saplings and tree roots out is bad enough here, I can only imagine what they are like in rock... and no poison ivy here, thank goodness-- raspberries, roses and gooseberries/currants are all I have to worry about!
the new semi-woodland outcrop should be very nice :)
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I know it's not the real thing but right now I'm hoping that Rhus typhina is poinonous too as we've have terrible, gale-force winds this last week and mine, still in a large pot got blown over. We heard a possum on Saturday night and wondered if it was worth going out with the gun but decided not. Next morning, the whole top has been eaten off the tree.
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Does anyone know where tufa rock can be bought in the UK without having to take out a mortgage?
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If you find a suitable supplier, please tell me. :D :D :D
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Steve - I think finding a source with having to take out a mortgage is the problem! I did find a stone merchants down in Southampton but can't remember the details at the moment. I held back from going ahead with ordering any because, as usual, I have to many projects on the go. But I never forget a wonderful tufa garden Alan Furness was constructing at the time of the 2001 Conference at Edinburgh, and wished I could just pick it up and put it in the back of the car!!
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http://www.milesstone.co.uk/price-list/ at Eastleigh in Hampshire Ł400 per tonne they have quite a big delivery area but they also use Palletline for longer delivery journerys.
Stonescapes, Cranleigh Surrey 01483 278328
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Hello,
This is my little, brand new crevice rock garden. Now it is only planted with some Saxifraga plants and Primula auricula hybrids, but I intend to plant it with many other species, mostly cushion forming species. Like Androsace, Draba, Dionysia, Arenaria and Acantholimon. Androsace and especially Dionysia I will try in the spot where there is a roof overhang. In this spot, direction East, hardly any rain will fall on the plants.
This is really a 'crevice garden' but you hardly see it, because I applied many little, marble stones and marble stone chippings to mask the crevices. The other rocks are some granite side-wall rocks, mainly slate side-walls and there are also some bigger marble (limestone) rocks which you see in the higher outcrop and in front.
The growing medium is one third limey soil and two thirds mixed chippings 2/16 mm (gravel 6/10 mm, grit 2/8 mm, lava 2/8 mm and limestone 8/16 mm).
I decided to make this little crevice garden, being inspired by the great crevice garden builders, like ZZ.
Greetings from Leiomerus ;)
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Hello Leiomerus, welcome to the forum.
Where do you live?
I have turned your first picture round for you.......
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Hello,
This is my little, brand new crevice rock garden. Now it is only planted with some Saxifraga plants and Primula auricula hybrids, but I intend to plant it with many other species, mostly cushion forming species. Like Androsace, Draba, Dionysia, Arenaria and Acantholimon. Androsace and especially Dionysia I will try in the spot where there is a roof overhang. In this spot, direction East, hardly any rain will fall on the plants.
This is really a 'crevice garden' but you hardly see it, because I applied many little, marble stones and marble stone chippings to mask the crevices. The other rocks are some granite side-wall rocks, mainly slate side-walls and there are also some bigger marble (limestone) rocks which you see in the higher outcrop and in front.
The growing medium is one third limey soil and two thirds mixed chippings 2/16 mm (gravel 6/10 mm, grit 2/8 mm, lava 2/8 mm and limestone 8/16 mm).
I decided to make this little crevice garden, being inspired by the great crevice garden builders, like ZZ.
Greetings from Leiomerus ;)
Hello, Leiomerus ;)
Fancy meeting you here too! Welcome to this wonderful forum...very nice crevice garden you have there!
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Thanks Maggi for turning my picture the right way.
I live in that big country Belgium with many roads, many strange politicians, few rock gardens and some little mountains in the South.
But there a some others Belgian people here too, like Wim. Hello Wim.
Regards from Leiomerus :D
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many strange politicians
We have lots of those, anyone like to import a few,? no CITES cert required. :-X
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many strange politicians
We have lots of those, anyone like to import a few,? no CITES cert required. :-X
Maybe we can arrange a swap, Michael ;) ::)
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Hello,
This is my little, brand new crevice rock garden. Now it is only planted with some Saxifraga plants and Primula auricula hybrids, but I intend to plant it with many other species, mostly cushion forming species. Like Androsace, Draba, Dionysia, Arenaria and Acantholimon. Androsace and especially Dionysia I will try in the spot where there is a roof overhang. In this spot, direction East, hardly any rain will fall on the plants.
This is really a 'crevice garden' but you hardly see it, because I applied many little, marble stones and marble stone chippings to mask the crevices. The other rocks are some granite side-wall rocks, mainly slate side-walls and there are also some bigger marble (limestone) rocks which you see in the higher outcrop and in front.
The growing medium is one third limey soil and two thirds mixed chippings 2/16 mm (gravel 6/10 mm, grit 2/8 mm, lava 2/8 mm and limestone 8/16 mm).
I decided to make this little crevice garden, being inspired by the great crevice garden builders, like ZZ.
Greetings from Leiomerus ;)
Like your new crevice Jan ! Please show us more when the plants start to grow and develop.
I think most of us start to build a crevice ....I build one myself previous year : http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=428.0
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But there a some others Belgian people here too
:) :) We have many Belgian friends here ...... you will not be lonely!
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I will certainly post some pictures in the future of the progress of this crevice garden, Kris. :)
When the time is ripe.
Nice crevice garden of your self Kris.
Belgians are everywhere.
The only drawback about a crevice garden is that you need a large amount of stones, and nowadays this is expensive stuff.
Hmmm, a new rock garden lasts longer than a new car ...
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Kris - I saw on your photos a vertical tufa garden, presumably inspired by Harry Jans wonderful garden. I don't know of anyone in the UK who has made this sort of construction? There seems a lot more imagination on the continent growing alpines in the garden than you find here! (Present company excepted). Any tips on making tufa walls like this?
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Leiomerus... hope your birthday is a good one... many happy returns of the day.... cute baby photo, by the way!
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Many thanks Maggi.
And by the way, the time I was born there were only pictures in black and white. Has some charm. ;)
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The only drawback about a crevice garden is that you need a large amount of stones, and nowadays this is expensive stuff.
Hmmm, a new rock garden lasts longer than a new car ...
But you can't attach it to a trailer to go and get more rocks. ;D
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Hi,
Here you will see two pictures of my sandstone rock garden, not really constructed for the crevices, but more to drill holes to plant mainly Saxifragas. It measures only a bit more than 1 square meter (120 cm - 130 cm), but it is 80 cm high, because most rocks stand upright. But it does have a lot of crevices too. It is unbelievable how many alpine plants can find a home in such a restricted space. I have made it last summer, so it has still a lot of 'growing potential'. :D
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Kris - I saw on your photos a vertical tufa garden, presumably inspired by Harry Jans wonderful garden. I don't know of anyone in the UK who has made this sort of construction? There seems a lot more imagination on the continent growing alpines in the garden than you find here! (Present company excepted). Any tips on making tufa walls like this?
Sure Tim ,it was my friend Harry who inspired me .....Not alone on making a vertical tufa garden but in generally ....on gardening with tufa !
For me ,the vertical tufa garden has one big problem. And that problem is that it becomes dry much easier . Tufarocks who lies on the ground have the advantage from capillary activity .But the vertical rocks are free and this means they dry out easy.
So this mean that such vertical tufagarden needs much more watering .Also because of that I started to fill up the space on the back with sand .But even then I need to water it on very regulary basic. The horizontal tufagarden needs much less care .
So my advice is to think about watering before building.
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But you can't attach it to a trailer to go and get more rocks.
Hi Lesley,
But a rock garden is too heavy to be stolen by thieves, and a car is sometimes so easy to be stolen ...
So, everything has its advantages and its disadvantages.
But only life has only advantages to make something of it because when you were created you had one chance out of maybe one million chances to be you. ::)
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Of course you are right. I wish that when I was MUCH younger I had made better decisions about so many things.
In your picture to the left of your posts, is that you many years ago or is it a new little person now? Very sweet either way. :)
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Ha... another compatriot 8)
Just discovered your pictures Leiomerus ! All looking good ! I wonder if the plants will do as well in their sandstone holes as they would in tufa !
It will be very interesting to see how your new projects develop !
Have fun in this wonderful Forum !
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Hello Lesley,
Yes indeed, it's me in the picture, starting to look at that big world we live in.
Ha, de Luc,
This kind of sandstone is very porous, but some pieces have a harder structure than others. It also has a lot of nutrients, if you break a stone you will find old sharkteeth and a lot of fossiles like shells. This sandstone was formed in the Ecoceen period, so very old indeed.
The Saxifragas I have planted in them seem to respond well.
You don't always need tufa to grow plants in. I even have drilled holes in the rocks of my big rock garden, and these rocks are very hard, they are marble rocks.
I will enclose a picture of Saxifraga Winifred, growing inside a marble rock. 8)
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Rocks from the Eocene are actually very young! :)
http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~macrae/timescale/time_scale.gif
Your plantings look very nice! Thanks for showing us. The presence of shells and other marine fossils in the sandstone suggest that it is pretty calcareous, likely calcite-cemented, so it likely provides similar conditions to tufa, though less porosity.
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Rocks from the Eocene are actually very young! :)
;D That depends on your definition of young and old and your reference points....if you look at how long humans populate this earth, rocks from the Eocene are very old, if you look at the age of the Earth, not that much...but I guess the last point of reference would be the best when speaking about rock, so than I have to agree with you, Lori, not that old at all!
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Hi Lori,
When I was 18, someone of 40 years old, was in my opinion 'old', now I'm 44 and I don't think I'm old, but young, ha ha. ;D
Interesting time scale you mentioned there, so the 'Eocene' is about 35 - 55 million years old. Thank you, I learn everyday.
About the composition of the sandstone : I looked it up : calcareous sandstone, made of fine quartsparticles, calcareous fossils, glauconite granules and it's calcite-cemented indeed . So you made a good guess. In my region they made a lot of churches with this sandstone from 'Balegem'. I only make rock gardens with it. ;)
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I've been trying to post pictures and keep getting "file too big", despite the pictures having been downsized per usual. The garden is at least 4 weeks ahead because of the crazily warm temperature. Things are starting to bloom although we now are getting deep frosts every night. Phlox 'Betty' is one of Dick Redfield's microphloxes. This one was named after his sister and is in the upper crevice garden.
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p.s. Prime bloom time for Phlox in this garden is May 10th in a typical year.
Androsace carnea
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I seem to have found a way to sneak the pictures on that I've been trying to post. This is a draba sp in its chicken wire prison. The antlered rats can't get at it but it's rather unattracive to see your plants this way. I have to take some of the wire off because Onosma caerulescens is budding and it needs more room.
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I like that little phlox, don't know microphloxes at all! I need to read the new book on the genus which has been so highly recommended. I haven't yet developed a crevice garden but hope to attend the Czech Rock Garden Conference next year and see the gardens made there. I would love to learn how to succeed better with some of the dwarf legumes, so various different growing conditions should be on the cards!
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The Phlox 'Betty' is quite different from what I have as 'Betty,' a subulata form. It is soft pink with a scarlet centre and is my favourite subulata, but surprisingly difficult to sell.
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Lesley, I think my Phlox 'Betty' is the real thing because it came from Dick Redfield. Maybe there's another phlox called Betty? Another microphlox of Dick's is P.'Herbert' named after his brother. They stay quite tiny in bloom.
The second picture I posted was of course Androsace carnea in the crevice garden.
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Tim, the best way to grow the wonderful peas is to wring the moisture out of your climate. If I can get them through the spring they tend to do OK because we can have long periods here of heat and drought. They revel in that but I'll never get them to look the way Utah and Colorado growers can.
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Everything in the garden is almost a month ahead in bloom and the crevice gardens have started to bloom. The last picture shows the back side of the cliff with some of the microphlox in bloom in natural crevices. Almost everything that has been planted in these natural crevices (some 40 plants), has come through our snowless winter with only three losses so far. I know this is a really nice group so I thank you in advance for not laughing at the picture of Eritrichium howardii with two blooms. As of yesterday the count had doubled with many more buds to open. This really is my favorite area of the garden.
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Sorry, there seems to be some difficulty in posting pictures right now. I'll try posting one by one.
Eritrichium howardii
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Here's more.
Androsace villosa
Oxytropis multiceps
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More plants in the crevice garden
Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'
Hymenoxys acaulis v caespitosa
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A few more plants.
DSC06152 -scree view
Onosma albo-roseum
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And the last.
Astragalus utahensis
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Great to see your garden waking up so well, Anne. Thanks for persevering with uploading the pix :-*
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Fantastic pix Anne ! :o :o Your scree view is sooooooooooo realistic !!
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Lovely set of pictures Anne. Wish I had your "artistic" touch with rock.
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It's glorious to see those peas! I have just spent a couple of days (well in between a few other things) chipping legume seed using a magnifying lamp my wife has for embroidery. They include Astragalus utahensis and Oxytropis multiceps, and if I manage to grow them anywhere near as well as your photos I shall be well pleased.
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Anne, I love your turn of phrase - "wring the moisture out of your climate." It says so much about needed conditions and is great creative writing as well.
And of course I love the plants in their habitat. That must be the nearest to a real mountain scree that could be found in a garden. You are so fortunate to have this.
Tim, must the pea seeds be chipped? Would an overnight soak in (starting as) hot water not soften the coats enough to let germination start?
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Lesley, I am indeed fortunate and I know it. It's worth all the effort to enhance a lovely habitat. It would, however, be nice to put the garden on a stick and elevate it a few thousand to get away from the humidity+ heat of the summer.
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Luc, the reason it looks so realistic is because it's real. I just cleaned out the natural crevices and put in rock chocks where needed to prevent the plants from sliding downhill every rain storm. It takes time for the roots to get anchored. I'd love to take the credit but I can't. The flat crevice work is mine.
Tim, Astragalus utahensis and Oxytropis are not only lovely peas, but they are among the easier ones and have a good life span in the garden if the weather cooperates reasonably. It seems to be difficult to get them to form viable seeds or even pods in my climate. That's where Alan Bradshaw's "Alplains Seed Catalog" comes to the rescue. His seeds germ inate very well and he has plants no one else seems to have.
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Work is continuing on "The Last Outcrop". I'm busy making soil with half-rotted chips as a component. Adding top soil (fairly neutral) and some sand rounds it out. A slow-release fertilizer is added at planting. So far, I've planted epimediums, hellebores (including "ivory prince" and "pepperminy ice" - this last is one of Marietta O'Byrnes hybrids), haberleas, dodecatheons, anemonopsis, hepaticas etc. There will be another round of soil mixing, grading . firming and planting tomorrow. Most of the plants have just been dug up from elsewhere in the garden with the exception of two named hellebores. The chips sat all winter and since there was no snow cover I was able to trample them down daily. I'm trying to remember to take pictures and have a record, something I usually forget to do.
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Don't know where to piut this picture of Rhododendron 'Aglo' in the rare year it didn't get browsed by the antlered rats. Usually it only has bloom on the toip where they can't reach.
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And some more pictures of the crevice gardens taken today.
DSC06198 Chamaecytisus sp.
DSC06199 Erigeron scopulinus
DSC06201 Hymenoxys lapidicola
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The garden is looking as wonderful as ever, Anne ... beautiful pictures.
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Finally, my latest project on the backside of the cliff beyond the highest crevice garden. It's nice to have at least two projects going at once. If you hit a problem with one and can't see a solution, you go to the other work site and after a few days or so a solution usually presents itself. It saves days of frustration and of course, in the meantime you're getting a lot done. This crevice project is using the rocks I couldn't move. I keep putting mix in and as each rock is set, it usually tells you which one to use next or which one you need to play with with a chisel and rock hammer. This last can be fun and leaves you with a lot of smaller pieces to use in various ways. These crevices will be a combination of large and small, and will slope downward to follow the slant of the cliff back.
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Finally, my latest project on the backside of the cliff ...... These crevices will be a combination of large and small, and will slope downward to follow the slant of the cliff back.
It's lucky I'm not of a nervous disposition ... I could be the butt of a joke here!!!!? ;D
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Anne - I was going to say looking at these pictures that your garden almost makes itself! But of course that is completely untrue. It must be marvellous though to have those natural rock outcrops leading the way and I love the crevice bed in the foreground of the last photo. One of the most well known gardeners in the UK is Dily's Davies, of Allium fame, and she had a garden in the Lake District with a cliff face which she abseiled down to plant! Really gives gardening some excitement.
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Tim, it's challenging but fun to work on large rock projects. I enjoy shaping some rocks but really prefer the challenge of finding the perfect piece for a particular spot. The crevice garden to which you referred is the upper half of the last one built. For some reason all the Daphne x hendersonii 'Ernst Hauser' didn't make it through our non-winter although they were fine elsewhere in the garden. But most of the plants are doing really well. There is really a third project which is the ongoing cleaning out of the natural crevices on the backside of the cliff. That's only about 1/4 done and I'm beginning to wonder if it will be finished in my lifetime! (LOL) And that's where I'm heading now to get some more done. They predict rain the next few days and that's not the time to be on sloped rock surfaces.
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Very nice, Anne! I know it has its own limitations and trials, but I sure envy you alll that rock :)
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Cohan, the rock seems to have added benefits which make the difficulties of working with it worthwhile. I find that I can carry plants through droughts better when they are planted in deep rock crevices rather than the open garden. Petrocallis pyrenaica, which already has finished blooming, has grown for years in a knife thin crevice. I cleaned it out to the depth of a large carving knife borrowed from the kitchen. That was as far as I could reach and I hadn't found the bottom. Yet it died in the rock garden proper in a long drought period. The rock seems to keep roots cool and moist and also protects them in the winter. I've yet to see anything heaved out of a crevice - not so in the rock garden this winter with all the thaw and freeze cycles we had.
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I just KNOW that Chamaecytisus is living on a mountain somewhere. ::)
Even ZZ must be envious of this rockwork and crevice garden. ;D
Well, one has to, doesn't one? I don't think either your backside or your butt Cliff, are any joking matter. :o
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Well, one has to, doesn't one? I don't think either your backside or your butt Cliff, are any joking matter. :o
I'm not commenting on this one. Cliff!
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Most people need trucks to bring loads and loads of rock to their home, trucks full of sand, little chippings, common soil to make a heap. Mostly you need a bulldozer. I costs a lot of money, work and time to make something which looks a bit like the real thing.
And some people are lucky and smarter and simply buy a place with a natural rock garden, but with still a lot of beautiful work .... ;)
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The lower crevice garden during the time of genistas and one of my favorite times. They have an affinity for stone and make waterfalls of yellow. Genista depressa will hug the contours and is wonderfully floriferous.
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Not used yet to this new system.
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Growing in a crevice is a good way to keep a plant in check. Asarina procumbens is welcomed in this dry garden. I'm aware it is considered a bit of a thug in moist gardens, but it's really lovely.
Also, great excitement because Erinacea pungens has finally bloomed after a wait of some years. Always a celebration when a new pea flowers.
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Superb Genista's Anne !! :o
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Absolutely glorious genistas, Anne.
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The genistas are stunning among the rocks and the fall of their stems is very lovely.
I imagjne the erinacea will just love your garden Anne, once it really gets going. It's very reliable too, flowering year after year no matter what the conditions are.
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Lesley, the erinaceas have been in the garden for a few years not doing much of anything. Having seen it in bloom in someone's garden once was enough to
keep me patient. It was so exciting to see buds this year on one plant. Where do you grow it? Soil type etc? I have it in full sun in a fairly lean, fast-draining mix. Perhaps this is not optimal?
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I think it must take a time to get into flowering mode. I have had a plant for four years or so and this year it is flowering for the first time - I hope it will go from better to better. The best plant I have ever seen was in a ground level raised bed inside a long dutch light greenhouse at the Malahide Garden in Dublin - you could hardly see the plant for flowers! Summer heat and dryness probably helps.
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Summer heat and dryness probably helps.
Hmmmm, summer heat and dryness....... no, sorry, I'm sure I should know what that means, but in Aberdeen it's an alien concept! ;)
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I have two very large plants now and they are both in hot, full sun troughs which are never watered except by rain. One is of limestone though the mix was not made limey and the other is hypertufa, both exceptionally well drained. In fact, the limestone trough broke in half corner to opp corner when we moved here and was put together again just by binding heavy wire round it and there's a gap of about a cm from top to bottom, right across, so no moisture is able to accumulate.
I think it was about 10 years before the first one flowered and perhaps 5 or 6 for the second. Both flower very well each year and if I can bring myself to suffer the pain, give good seed. It has to be collected very carefully and I use a pair of long-handled tweezer things, such as my doc uses to remove splinters of glass from a foot. The seed germinates reliably and quite quickly.
Talking of which, from a March sowing of Holubec's Anarthrophyllum desideratum, I have, so far, one seedling up, about a month ago. Its first true leaf is a sharp spine, so true to its common name!
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Thanks so much for the Erinacea pungens information, it's very helpful. Lucky you to have an anarthrophyllum seedling. All the peas I saw in Patagonia were fabulous and I'd be thrilled to be growing any one of them. Good luck with your seedling and may there be more soon.
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Hmmmm, summer heat and dryness....... no, sorry, I'm sure I should know what that means, but in Aberdeen it's an alien concept! ;)
Same here, certainly in the last few years!
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Such a wonderful time of year! My garden was open yesterday for the Garden Conservancy and I was lucky to have a number of professional garden people come. Marvelous to have people who know what they're seeing, and they made the six hours the garden was open seem like six minutes. A few pictures of
more things blooming and work progress on the back of the cliff (with apologies to Ranunculus!). Is there no one who can identify my gorgeous astragalus?
DSC06249 Astragalus sp.
DSC06251 Saponaria 'Bressingham'
DSC06253 Penstemon davidsonii
DSC06255 Anthyllis vulneraria ssp atlantis
DSC06259 Chamaecytisus pygmaea
DSC06258 Progress on back of cliff
DSC06257 and closer up
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Looking as magnificent as ever, Anne. That astragalus is to die for!!!
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Is there no one who can identify my gorgeous astragalus?
I haven't a clue what it is , Anne, but I love it - and it looks to be so happy with you.
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I haven't a clue what it is , Anne, but I love it - and it looks to be so happy with you.
I agree fully with Maggi, Anne ! ;)
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Maggi and Luc, so far it's growing larger and blooming better each year and I'm just trusting that that means it wants what I'm giving it - lean, fast-draining scree and full sun. But before it decides to leave the garden permanently, it would be nice to know what it is so I can look for seed. So far it has flowered each year but made no pods. Maybe this year?
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I have been intrigued by Anne's lovely Astragalus, which I thought was an American species and have been wondering where I have seen something like it.
Anne, might it be a Turkish species? Mojmir Pavelka has shown a little furry yellow species which he calls Astragalus pelliger... though I think that is not a fully accepted name... have a look at this plant from Dedegol Dag in the IRG #23 - page 7......
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2011Nov241322170676IRG_23_-_November2011_.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2011Nov241322170676IRG_23_-_November2011_.pdf) 8)
edited to add : and here is another pic from Mojmir - http://www.pavelkaalpines.cz/Photos/Turkey2010/astragaluspelliger2600mbolkardagturkey.html (http://www.pavelkaalpines.cz/Photos/Turkey2010/astragaluspelliger2600mbolkardagturkey.html)
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Astragalus pelliger (as in the IRG) is very nice and one wouldn't say "no" given the opportunity but I think Anne's is ever better, so furry, so silver, so compact. 8)
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Anne, Astragalus lutosus foliage looks very similar to your plant.
http://gilliamcountygarden.blogspot.com/2011/08/astragalus-lutosus-in-garfield-county_05.html (http://gilliamcountygarden.blogspot.com/2011/08/astragalus-lutosus-in-garfield-county_05.html)
The flowers and calyxes on A. lutosus aren't furry as in the yellow flowered plant you show.
Here's your plant of A. lutosus on the NARGS wiki.
http://nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php?imageId=3115 (http://nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php?imageId=3115)
Of course, a critical part of the ID will be the characteristics of the pods.
http://www.alplains.com/images/AstragLutos.jpg (http://www.alplains.com/images/AstragLutos.jpg)
Its dwarf, hairy, and yellow flowered, but the beautiful A. yunnanensis has a different overall look about it.
http://www.jansalpines.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=14788&g2_imageViewsIndex=1 (http://www.jansalpines.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=14788&g2_imageViewsIndex=1)
The Flora of China summarizes the size and distribution of the genus, finding an ID will not be easy!
About 3,000 species: ca. 2,500 species in the Old World, represented in nearly all parts of the N Hemisphere, ca. 500 species in the New World; 401 species (221 endemic) in 59 sections (two endemic) in China.
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You HAVE been busy Mark. The white-flowered lutosus is amazing. This, if I read rightly is Anne's own picture/plant? What incredible plants these pictured species are. So very beautiful. 8)
The pictures of lutosus in the wild, if I didn't know better I would say were our own Swainsona novae-zelandiae (I think it's called something else now) but its flowers are brownish or in the best forms, pink. Very rare nowadays too.
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Mark, it is most definitely not Astragalus lutosus. Since it hasn't produced any pods yet, which is often most critical to pea identification, I'm still at a loss. Attached are two close-ups taken today by Jim Almond, who is currently a house guest. The foliage appears to be much tighter than the Turkish astragalus although there are certain similarities.
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The attachments appear to be missing, Anne.
Please pass on my very best wishes to Jim, hope his lecture to the Berkshire Chapter is a stunning success.
He will be SO enjoying your magnificent garden.
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Maggi, Mark et al - One of the most distinctive characteristics of my mystery astragalus is the very inflated and furry calyx. This is definitely not a characteristic of A. lutosus or A. yunnanensis. I've grown A. lutosus - it is nothing like the mystery astragalus. Astragalus pelliger carries its flowers in a tight head. The mystery astragalus absolutely does not. This is not a characteristic that's apt to change depending on where it's grown any more than the pods will change. If you look at the pictures attached I've tried to show both the calyxes and the habit of growth. The foliage is quite tight, not sprawling. The banner petals are the largest part of the flower (apart from the calyx) and the "wings" are tiny, just large enough to cover the keel.
Thank you everyone for your interest and information. The list of "what it is not" is growing longer and longer. I'm hoping it will set pods this year since it's blooming so beautifully. It makes me very nervous to have only one plant.
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Anne, good closeup photos for further diagnostics. In my previous message, it was only the foliage that seemed close to A. lutosus, but clearly the flowers are very different; I was not suggesting that either lutosus or yunnanensis were an ID for your plant, just interesting diversions along the way of searching for an ID. The last item I posted, demonstrating the immensity of the genus as cited in Flora of China, indicates that finding an ID, without provenance of the plant's source, will be quite the challenge indeed, analagous to finding a needle in a haystack. Regardless, it's a wonderful plant, even without a known name.
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Yup, great photos, Anne.... it really is a very furry little thing. This is proving an intriguing hunt for an ID.
Let's not quit!
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The great thing is I am discovering a whole lot of other wonderful species (ref. Mark's message) along the way! Would it be worth trying to hand pollinate Anne? I know most peas are self-fertile but this one looks as though it either needs another clone or a helping hand.
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The calyces are as decorative as the flowers and the leaves themselves make the plant very fine, even if it had no flowers at all. I hope a name can be found. Was it from seed Anne from someone like Alplains?
I think we need a thread specifically for peas (Fabaceae) or do we already have one? (I fine the new Index a bit daunting. Scrub this. I must say that having followed a Forumist's tip and clicked Forum, I have no problem at all with the Index. Everything as before.
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Lesley, I'm fairly certain that it wasn't from seed because I only have one. Usually I'd come across a label without plant saying "Astragalus sp", meaning the seedling died without my noticing. I simply don't recall so I'm assuming it was a nameless gift from a nurseryman who dabbles in peas and knows that I love them. Right now it has 14 flowers and is indeed sensational.
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Well whoever he/she was, it was certainly given to the right person and the best possible home. I hope you can get some seed from it to distribute to other pea people. :D
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Doing lots of work every day on the natural crevices of the back of the cliff. There are at least seventy plants there now yet it still looks quite bare. Amazing how many plants it takes to fill a crevice garden. My mystery astragalus looks like it might be making seed - here's hoping!
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My mystery astragalus looks like it might be making seed - here's hoping!
In case it proves to be Turkish, Anne, this link may be of use :
https://picasaweb.google.com/Philippe.Rabaute/DigitalFloraOfTurkey02
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For some unknown computer reason, I'm not able to open the website link you sent, Maggi.
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That's odd , Anne. Just tried it again and it's fine for me.
Try this approach.. http://flora.of.turkey.pagesperso-orange.fr/ (http://flora.of.turkey.pagesperso-orange.fr/)
http://flora.of.turkey.pagesperso-orange.fr/Indexgenres.html (http://flora.of.turkey.pagesperso-orange.fr/Indexgenres.html)
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Thanks, Maggi. This one worked fine. Too hot and muggy to work in the garden so I'll be spending some time perusing the astragalus section of the site.
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What an incredible website Maggi. This will just encourage us to want to grow a whole lot more peas! I hope Anne is able to get seed on her plant.
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Tim, the mystery astragalus is trying to set seed right now. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of unseasonable heat and "mugs". This is usually death for the seeds forming. I opened one pod and it was empty and I looked at another and could see the condensation inside the pod, not good. I'm just assuming this is a drylander since so many of the astragali are.
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Work continuing on the crevices behind the cliff. Over 100 plants placed in the prepared crevices and now working on the next part. An earlier post shows the same area over a month ago. Many of the huge slabs of rock are now buried and will be part of underground crevices, providing cool root runs and excellent drainage.
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And this is the same area on April 20th.
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Getting better and better and better ... please invite me back to take more pictures!!! ;D ;D ;D
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Cliff, the welcome mat is always out for you and Sue. Work has been almost too fast. I finally outstripped my supply line. Leaving for the Dolomites in a few days so resupplying will probably have to wait until we get back. Too bad, I was really on a roll!
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A truly amazing garden you're developping there Anne !! Fantastic !
Have fun in the Dolomites ! :)
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Here in my "other home", the Dolomites and I tried to post a couple of plants growing in crevices. I'm using a bare-bones little laptop with no way to size the pictures. Will post pictures when we get home. Was hoping to escape the extreme heat back home but it's unseasonably warm here and you have to go pretty high to find a cold spot.
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Have a great holiday, Anne. If it gets too hot, come to Aberdeen and get chilblains by the seaside!
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Can Sue and I publicly thank Anne and Joe for visiting our chalet in Pedraces last evening to present a superb lecture to our lucky 'Wildflower Special' guests on 'Alpines of the Americas'. Our fortunate party (including Martin and Joan Rogerson and David and Judy Charlton) have enjoyed wildflower walks of the highest quality in glorious weather, superb food and wine and excellent evening lectures.
The meadows have been at their very best and the high alpines are just coming into their own. Life is exceptionally good in the Dolomites!!!!
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Lucky, lucky people!
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Lucky, lucky people!
I agree totally, Maggi. Today we took the cable car out of Arabba to Porta Vescova with seven guests and saw Eritrichium nanum, Ranunculus glacialis, Linaria alpina, Androsace alpina, Geum reptans, Gentiana verna, Gentiana acaulis, Senecios, Geum montana, Soldanella minima and alpina, Arenarias, Pedicularis, Thlaspi, Veronicas, Semps and Sax's in profusion. The sun shone dutifully for the fifteenth day on the run (just two thunderstorms at night) and life is as sweet as it can get.
Yesterday we took the chairlift out of Pedraces and saw meadows of indescribable beauty - swathes of Ragged Robin turning the hillside pink, Arnica everywhere, orchids by the hundreds of thousands (no exaggeration) and kaleidoscopes of colour at every turn.
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Back home from my "other" home, the Dolomites. Cliff and Sue were there at the same 5time and we managed a hiking day together.
It was a vacation of wonderful plants, people and weather. We were hailed on one time coming down on a lift - an adventure to be sitting on an open lift clutching backpack and poles while being stung by ice pellets. Photographed marvelous crevice plants and hope it gives some ideas. Surely the Calamintha alppina would be incredibly easy to try. (Maybe it's now Acinos alpinus?)
Androsace alpina
Arenaria sp.
Eritrichium nanum
Linaria alpina.JPG
Paederota bonarota + Calamintha alpina
Saxifraga paniculata
Saxifraga aizoides
dolomites 2012 2 066 -
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Welcome home, Anne!
Glad to hear your holiday went well ( though the hail sounds a bit nasty :P) great to see you super photos and I hope that you now feel refreshed for your return to work in your beautiful garden. ;)
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Maggi, since we came home to horrible heat and humidity, I'm staying out of the garden. Many things have gone dormant, hopefully not permanently, the crevice gardens are doing well and for some reason the daphnes are starting to rebloom. Everything is extremely dry and the westerners are loving it.
Here are a few more crevice plants from the Dolomites
Potentilla nitida
Valeriana supina
Primula auricula
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Lovely images, Anne ... it was a great pleasure to hike with you both in Della L'Erbe ... what a stunning scenic and floral destination ... a certainty for our next visit to these beautiful mountains.
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A pleasure for us too, Cliff. If we're there at the same time next year I'll show you another place, equally enchanting. In over twenty years, we've managed to go to some wonderful spots without going too far afield.
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Such wonderful pictures Anne. Surely the best we've seen on the Forum of Eritrichium nanum and I was thrilled to see the Paedorota which I grew from seed once and had doing well until a very hot, dry summer killed it. It's a lovely thing and one day I hope to have it again.
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Thanks so much, Lesley. The kudos go to Joe who does most of the photography. Paederota bonorata does very well here in the garden and seems to be able to go dormant (usually) during periods of drought. I've thought several times that I lost it and back it came with autumn moisture and lower temps. It's asking a lot of alpine plants that can have an icy bath at almost any time of the year to adjust to lowland gardens with heat and humidity. You have to love the ones that make the effort instead of immediately turing up their toes. Have you tried Calamintha alpina (Acinos alpina?)? It's been very successful here and will seed itself. For some reason I haven't had great success in moving it except at seedling stage. It has a very long bloom period as well.
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Another beauty from the Dolomites growing in a crevice. It's growing in my crevice garden but doesn't look like this yet (the voice of an incurable optimist).
Silene acaulis
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You are not alone in hoping for a Silene acaulis in your garden with big flowers of that number, Anne - there are a lot of us about. :(
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Another wonderful crevice plant in the Dolomites
Salix sp.
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A few plants bloom9ing now in the crevice garden. Hope these go through. I seem to be having difficulty posting pictures on the Forum.
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And another one, Zauschneria californica, just starting to bloom in the newest crevice garden on the back of the cliff. Makes all the work cleaning out the natural crevices worth while.
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Hello everybody, I have been very busy this summer if fact I seem to have missed the summer however I have done some new raised beds in my garden, you may well ask do I need more garden to look after well some plants have grown bigger and needed moving and I have many new and exciting plants to find room for thanks to my friend Cyril. I have made a crevice garden at the south end of the island with a Lage Azalea in the middle along with a pink viburnum and other Rhodos to provide some shade for the north end of the island. I was very lucky to be offered some large Swedish peat blocks from our friend Bob Potterton who was speaking in Sweden, I picked these up at Lamberton last week so now what to build. I took my chain saw and cut the blocks (they are very dry and hard)into three pieces long ways this was just what I wanted to build a crevice with peat blocks the dust and loose peat was blown everywhere this pleased my wife no end as it got into everything. I filled up the peat crevices with a compost mix one third John Inness two thirds peat added a little fertilised as I went, not sure if this may be wet in winter will have to wait and see. I have planted a backbone of small Azaleas and Rhodos with gentians soldanellas trilliums petiolarid primulas will add mpore in spring. I also placed two tree roots amidst this structure just to add some interest and planted some Cypripedium division from another garden. I am posting several pictures and will let you know how it goes I realis that the peat blocks will take a long time to get wet through but I hope by then that the plants will grow into them. cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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More pictures these are the cut peat blocks to make a peat crevice, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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I've still never been to your nursery, Ian ... you have just posted another enormous incentive to visit (as if I needed one anyway). Excellent work sir.
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What a lot of work Ian. You need a rest - maybe you'll get one at the Discussion Weekend???
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Ian - its just struck me that you need several gardens in different parts of the country to grow all the plants you want to grow! The peat bed looks great, and just the thing when we cut down an old conifer hedge on the shady side of the garden to give a new planting area - what chance of growing petiolarid primulas and shortias(?); David Sampson used to grow these very well. I might be better off visiting Scotland!
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Hello Cliff, we would be delighted to see you here in Kirriemuir maybe best to think about it in spring when plants are growing hard frost just now. Tim yes it would be great to have several gardens but it would take all my spare time (do not have any) but you are also welcome to visit. Chris I doubt if I will get a rest at the SRGC D.W as I am building another garden at the Hotel which will be interestin hope you might be around will probably need some help, cheers Ian.
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Hey Ian that looks great 8), can't wait to see it. See you both at the weekend.
Angie :)
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This is my new, small crevice garden, but nevertheless composed of a lot of stone. It is mainly a slope towards the south east, because I want the plants to profit from as much sunshine as possible. It is built next to my house, so it gets shade from noon till the sun gets up next morning. This is a very good place for Saxifrages and some little plants have already found a home in this crevice garden. 8)
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That looks wonderful. Must figure out a way to do one of these myself....
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Hello, your new crevice looks very natural I look forward to seeing it again once the plants grow, cheers Ian the Christie kind
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Thanks for your apprecitation !
This crevice garden is made with different stones, which came from an old rock garden that I dismantled . Some stones are a bit flat, others are little rocks with various shapes and even cobblestones were used. I don't know if 'cobblestone' is the right word, I mean stones that were used to build roads.
I also took some rocks and a big hammer and I smashed the rocks into smaller pieces. These small pieces were used for topdressing. I wanted the whole thing to look a bit like a scree.
I will surely post some pictures when the plants get bigger. I'm sure they love this spot, not only for being surrounded by rocks, but also because there is always a lot of wind here, next to the house, since I live in the country with a lot of open land. :D
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I have changed my new crevice garden a little bit. Now I have the disposal at some new stones, I replaced the rocks of which I thought they didn't fit, with better ones, so that the overall colour would be better.
The pictures taken, are of the rock garden in a wet condition, so you see very well the different colours of the stones.
I also added a new, lower construction next to the stairs. This I couldn't do the last time, because of some 'irrigation work' I had to do.
This slope is mainly planted with little plants of Saxifrages, the plants I love the most. ;D
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What a wonderfully natural home for saxifrages and the like. They will surely love the rocky places with tiny crevices and perfect drainage. And all this frim such a very young Forumist too. ;D
I have thought of getting a truckload of mixed size scree-like material and simply dumping it, planting where the material falls. Wonder how that would work?
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Thanks Lesley.
I don't think your idea would really work, it would be a nice scree, but the plants would not survive. They don't need much, but still they do need a little bit of growing medium like a good draining soil. ;)
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You are probably right Leiomurus. I seem to remember a few years back a Norwegian Forumist (can't remember his name and we haven't heard from him for some time) had done just that very successfully but he'd had the material tipped at the top of a slope and much of it fell down, in a natural way. When the plants were inserted I expect they rooted though the scree which wouldn't have been too thick, to the soil underneath. I'm sure Primula bella was growing and flowering nicely.
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Lesley, that was Geir Moen.... (gmoen)- who hasn't been round for a couple of months.... some pix here :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=474.msg12054#msg12054 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=474.msg12054#msg12054)
but I think the photos of the beginning part of his remarkable scree was in the old forum, now lost..... :'(
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You're right as always Maggi and thanks for the link. It gives an excellent idea of what plants are suitable for such places. Geir is a really good grower though, which helps.
As a matter of fact I remembered his name at lunchtime as I stood in a supermarket queue though I can't imagine what brought it to mind. I said the name out loud and got some very old-fashioned looks from those in front of me. Used to that nowadays.
David, your nice Dianthus is very like one which appeared here in a batch of seedlings from D. a. 'Joan's Blood.' All were true except one which was taller and a little smaller in flower and I think must have been pollinated by the nearby D. deltoides 'Steriker.' It is proving to be a very good plant with the same dark reddish green foliage and flowers of a hot magenta, going on for ages but has set no seeds. I'm doing cuttings from it.
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The great thing about plants is that they can tolerate a remarkable range of conditions. Some friends made a very crude scree using broken bricks and anything else available (sounds a bit like one of the constructions that Farrer railed against), but then filling in with sand and woodashes etc. A lot of plants have established in it, but not anything really choice. There is a great Volume of the AGS Bulletin (no. 2, 1933) almost totally devoted to screes with some pictures of the Botanics at Edinburgh and Branklyn in Perthshire, which both had amazing plants growing in them. Alan Furness' garden (simplistically) is almost like Lesley's description of piling a whole variety of different sized stones and rocks all together but done with great panache and skill - and can there be a better alpine garden in the UK? And then Robin and Sue White have simply planted in 4 or 5 inches of gravel over the soil (see an entry I have made on the AGS website). Alpine gardening is so much easier than people think, ha ha! Beyond that though it does become a real art form, which the crevice gardens can show, a little like the early days of the AGS when using rocks was as important as (or more than) the plants. Jiri's pictures of crevice gardens show that rather beautifully. (I should say I have a long way to go to emulate any of this!).
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Lesley, I don't think your idea is far off the mark at all. I'd just add another step. After you dump your mixed rock, throw shovels of mixed sharp sand and soil over everything and let the rains wash it down. If you're in a really dry area you would have to use a hard spray from a hose to make rain. You could do it in stages until you reached the consistency you want. I think it could work well and it would certainly be simple.
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I'd go a stage further than Anne and lay down a good layer/mound of sand before the rocks, as well as over the top to wash down.
If the underlying ground is well drained I think this could work well.
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Good idea, Maggi. Sand really helps with any freeze/thaw issues as well. OK, Lesley - get to work!
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In the crevice gardens today, a blooming phlox despite repeated frosts amd a nice onosma in the newest crevice section.
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And here's the onosma, sorry.
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Not sure where this picture belongs. It's part 1 of garden protection for the winter - marking the garden edges to keep the demolition guy (excuse me, I mean the snow plower), from removing the garden. The last time he removed the majority of the phloxes and deposited them 100 yards away with all the tap roots neatly severed. Part 2 will be placing chicken wire over a large part of the garden to keep the marauding antlered rats frustrated. It's the end of the hunting season and they will soon find their way back here.
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So your garden goes right down to the road Anne? A great treat for passers by but the snowman is a real danger. I hope the red markers work well. Maybe a slab of Christmas cake and a word to the wise as well?
So pleased these good ideas are coming BEFORE I need to take them on board, not afterwards. I'll have no excuses for poor results. ???
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Actually Lesley, this is a long sweeping drive that dissects Anne and Joe's beautiful property, leaving and joining the main road at points hundreds of yards apart ... the snowplough to clear this drive is a winter essential.
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Thanks Cliff. How lucky you are to have been there. :D 8)
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The great thing about plants is that they can tolerate a remarkable range of conditions. Some friends made a very crude scree using broken bricks and anything else available (sounds a bit like one of the constructions that Farrer railed against), but then filling in with sand and woodashes etc. A lot of plants have established in it, but not anything really choice. There is a great Volume of the AGS Bulletin (no. 2, 1933) almost totally devoted to screes with some pictures of the Botanics at Edinburgh and Branklyn in Perthshire, which both had amazing plants growing in them. Alan Furness' garden (simplistically) is almost like Lesley's description of piling a whole variety of different sized stones and rocks all together but done with great panache and skill - and can there be a better alpine garden in the UK? And then Robin and Sue White have simply planted in 4 or 5 inches of gravel over the soil (see an entry I have made on the AGS website). Alpine gardening is so much easier than people think, ha ha! Beyond that though it does become a real art form, which the crevice gardens can show, a little like the early days of the AGS when using rocks was as important as (or more than) the plants. Jiri's pictures of crevice gardens show that rather beautifully. (I should say I have a long way to go to emulate any of this!).
For me the rock garden itself, is as important as the plants. The plants are very beautiful as they flower, mostly also nice when they don't flower.
A rock garden nicely constructed is beautiful throughout the years and enhances the beauty of the plants growing in it.
This is a picture of the north side of my big rock garden, that side I totally renewed. There are almost no plants to see yet (only little ones, that you can't see), but I love these marble rocks, they look good even without plants. Actually it's a big crevicegarden, but you don't notice. Underneath the rocks there are hundreds of roof tiles, vertically arranged, so all the plants grow in crevices. 8)
There are big stones in your rock garden, Astragalus. ;)
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The large rocks are natural. The property is a series of stepped ledges and outcroppings ending in a small cliff. The wall are man (woman) made, but there is one huge rock I moved with the aid of gravity, a very long crowbar and every principle of physics I could remember.
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You must be lucky, Astragalus, the only natural stones I can find here are little boulders.
I must admit I am lucky too, they are dismantling the old little road in front of my house. A new road is needed.
Underneath the old road, there are tonnes and tonnes of rocks.
So I asked the workers in a friendly way if I could have some rocks.
'How much', they asked. 'A truck load ?'
No problem, the result you see in the picture.
15 tonnes of rocks for free ...
I gave them some alpines and they were as happy as I was with my stones.
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Looks like a wonderful start for something creative, Leiomerus.
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Oh yes, this will result in something creative (I hope).
I still have some space left for another rock garden ..... ;D
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A great Christmas present for a rock gardener Leiomurus. :D I like your rockfall in the previous picture you posted It looks very like some of the screes in our mountains. Just needs Ranunculus haastii and a few other plants like Leptinella dendyi to be the real thing! ;D
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I had a much smaller pile to start with - 2 years ago a friend was replacing a patio with a conservatory and kindly offered me the Yorkstone slabs. They've been sitting waiting for time to play with them until now! I also have a very small space to put them in. So here is my tiny crevice bed in construction.
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
The Big Rubber Mallet which workmen left in our garden 25 years ago, and which has helped to build everything we've ever built, had to come into play again to make sure the spinal stones were solid.
[attachimg=3]
After a few hours, it looked like we had done a terrible job of burying a Stegosaurus in the garden.
[attachimg=4]
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Hope I can get these photos to load OK -
After heavy rain overnight, we spent today getting joyously muddy, gradually building more on and back filling with my old spent bulb compost (in effect dirty sand!).
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Bad light stopped play by 3pm - we now have a whole herd of Stegosauri!
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Well done Anne, and is that Barry? Looking forward to seeing the completed dinosaur graveyard ;D and subsequent planting. Roger has been saying "no" to my limestone slabs but I'm determined to move them as they have so much potential for rock garden projects. They've had so much potential for 25 years! Time to get on with it.
PM on the way.
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Yes, that's Barry wielding The Rubber Mallet. I have a much smaller one to play with..
I deliberately killed off the grass in autumn so the sight of the dead patch right outside my living room window would shame me into getting on with it.
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Thanks, Lesley.
A nice project, Annew.
If you want some advice, for the finishing touch, I would use some stones in another way. I hope you have some left.
Just smash the stones into small pieces of different calibers and use these as top dressing. In this way, the whole thing will look more natural.
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Thanks - yes, I am saving the smaller stones to do just that. ;)
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It will be great to see this planted. Please post lots of pictures.
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I'm hoping to sow a lot of seeds directly, after it has had a month or 2 to settle, but I have a tray of alpines ready and waiting!
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As I was reading today I remember the seeps on rock cliffs and scree slopes in the Oregon and Washington Cascades. Has any one tried to replicate a moist spring, seep, type crevice garden? It sounds like a fun challenge. Water features are common in many gardens here in Oregon and a modified water garden could do the trick with just a trickle of water verses a stream of water.
Winter is here in force now with 28 inches of snow at my cabin now and will not see soil for another 3 to 4 months. Lots of time to plan.
bob
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Snow, beautiful snow at last. Only 8" covering the garden so far but it's a step in the right direction. 2' and up makes the deer flounder and they will keep out of the garden because it's so steep.
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This is my new crevice garden, full of rock and waiting for some plants.
It's not that big, but I have found a spot to try out my new stones that I got from the people that are building the new road.
It's a pleasant stone to work with; of course it's easy if you have a big pile to choose from.
Anyway, I like the result. I hope the future plants will too. ;D
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That looks good- I like the way the path through can also be used for some planting.
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That looks fabulous, Leiomerus! Very natural! Once again, I'm tempted to pull up my old beds and redo them. ::)
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Thanks ...
I couldn't wait to plant some Saxifrages on the north side of this little crevice garden. These Saxes are amongst my favorites and so they deserve to grow in this new creation. A picture of little plants of Sax. 'Allendale Charm', 'Your Song', 'Laka' and 'Cumulus' planted today between the rocks.
Also an ordinary primula my son Lucas (5 years old) squeezed between the rocks of the path beneath the rock garden.
I hope he also will love rocks and plants.
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Your son, Leiomurus, once he sees his little plant growing happily, will soon get the "bug" we all suffer from and be a keen gardener in no time at all.
I like that path too Maggi as it shows what is clearly now a garden and not just a pile of rocks. I'm looking forward to seeing the new spring plantings and how they will soon colonise this scree or moraine. :)
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Expertly done, Leiomerus ! Looks superb !
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It really does look good! I like the way you have blended into the path.
I'm cracking on with my stegosaurus bed too. For a few weeks I think I had the only crevice bed with a moat!
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Great projects Anne and Jan. I like both constructions but I must admit that I love crevice gardening....
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Thanks everyone !
I do my best for my plants because they do their best to flower in unnatural circumstances (the weather), so in return I try to give them a natural home that also protects them. If the 'home' looks good, it's a bonus. ;D
I hope the plants will respond with marvellous flowers ..... and prosperous growth. 8)
I even put a Dionysia for a while in this rock garden to take a picture and it looked good over there.
Of course I didn't leave it there ..... :o
a little plant of Dionysia 'Ewesley Theta' :
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It looks very happy...
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It certainly does look happy, as if it was born for that very position. ;D
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Hmmmm, maybe I might try a rooted cutting of Dionysia 'Monika' in this crevice garden.
I will plant it in a really small crevice and see what happens. ;D
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An update on my crevice bed, now known as the Steggerhorn. The top layer of sand has been applied, and a few plants put in where needed to plug a gap in the ends. I'm intending to wait for another settling period, then plant up (I'm going to need more plants!), top dress with gravel, then with the remaining broken up stones, as I don't think there will be enough of the latter to top dress purely with that. I hope it will still look OK. Lastly I'll direct sow the seeds I got from the exchanges. The labels are temporary; when I've finished planting, I'll take photos of the 4 aspects and label the plants on the photos, before removing them.
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It looks great, Anne! The pictures are very tiny - it would be nice to see bigger versions and really appreciate that design. I have a rather poor excuse for a crevice bed and should redo it one day.
On the subject of Dionysia, I thought this was very interesting:
http://www.wrightmanalpines.com/blog/harvey/2011-07-17/growing-dionysia (http://www.wrightmanalpines.com/blog/harvey/2011-07-17/growing-dionysia)
Some more amazingly natural looking stonework!
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It looks great, Anne! The pictures are very tiny - it would be nice to see bigger versions and really appreciate that design. I have a rather poor excuse for a crevice bed and should redo it one day.
Crumbs, Lori, We've been trying to get the forumists to post smaller pictures, and Anne has taken the hint- please don't encourage them to go backwards!
Anne's pix are a perfect size to open within screen size and of a large enough file size to allow them to be further blown up by holding control and scrolling up if a larger picture is desired - I reckon the detail to be viewed there is pretty good! :)
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It looks like tufa they've used for the Dionysias?
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Looks very promising Anne !
Winter doesn't seem to be able to stop you ! :o
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Smashing job Anne, it looks great. You were so lucky to already have the stones to hand though. I fancy having a go at something similar and as we were passing a quarry last week I popped in to have a look. A couple of tons of mixed size rockery stone would likely cost me in excess of a couple of hundred Ł's and delivery and off loading another hundred (a return trip of around 40 miles). Perhaps I could ask Luc if he could scrounge some for me from the Belgian mountains :P
I think I saw an article in an AGS Bulletin some time ago written by Richard Horswood about a crevice bed he constructed from broken concrete paving slabs he got from a garden centre. I must ask him more about this next time I see him. Would lack the texture and the differing thicknesses of real stone though.
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It's amazing how a (rather refined) pile of stones can look so exciting! It looks very good now 'stegosaurus' is bedded in and it fits a corner of the garden like that to perfection. Must have been fun to make.
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Crumbs, Lori, We've been trying to get the forumists to post smaller pictures, and Anne has taken the hint- please don't encourage them to go backwards!
Anne's pix are a perfect size to open within screen size and of a large enough file size to allow them to be further blown up by holding control and scrolling up if a larger picture is desired - I reckon the detail to be viewed there is pretty good! :)
OK, ignore that please! ;) Yes, the photos can be scrolled to a larger, perfectly viewable size (... not something I was even aware of before... Live and learn!)
Yes, definitely tufa for the Dionysia in the Wrightmans' link.
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Thanks, Lori! :-*
On the subject of Wrightman's - they have all sorts of videos and interesting things on the site - well worth a look around for those who don't know it.
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Lovely crevices there Anne and it will be great to see them planted. Let us know how the direct sowing goes especially with smaller plants. I haven't had much joy with it except with Gentiana verna. Saxes, androsaces, primulas and many others have not germinated that way. It would save so much time and energy - and space - if they would. Lessen root disturbance too of course.
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This comes under the heading of "Too soon old ..... too late smart". I found someone with a very serious backhoe and hired him for a few hours. In an hour he did a season's worth of digging and preparing on the back of the cliff for the rest of the crevice garden. Then he moved all the rock I had planned to move plus huge slabs of rock up to 2 tons that I had never planned to move because I didn't think it was possible. Now I can concentrate on filling the spaces left with mix and making many crevice gardens.
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Moving rock in.
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More rock
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And more plus gardener celebrating
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... And there's me telling everyone who attends my 'Alpine Gardens of Eastern USA and Newfoundland - NARGS Tour 2010' lecture that your amazing garden has been created by backbreaking toil and human effort! LOL.
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Well, G.B., up to now it has been and I have the scars to prove it!!! To Joe's dismay, the new crevice gardens will be at least twice the planned size.
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Well, G.B., up to now it has been and I have the scars to prove it!!! To Joe's dismay, the new crevice gardens will be at least twice the planned size.
... And utterly magnificent like the rest.
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Wow, Anne! That is a terrific advantage to your next project. You'll be able to concentrate on the finer points instead of getting a linament rub for your back!
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Well done Anne ! I bet you can't wait to plant it !... I for one can't wait to see the results ! :D
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Nice bit of kit. ;D
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Nice bit of kit. ;D
That's Anne's blue pullover ... you should see her red one, David! :D
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;D ;D ;D
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Can I have one of those? Please? :-*
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Spring is finally here. Each morning the ice in Max's water dish is thinner and this week it will be in the low 60sF or upper 50sF. Great time for planting and plants are starting. Most things are weeks behind. Just a few pictures of things starting in the crevices.
DSC07343 - Copy Astragalus utahensis.JPG
DSC07348 Astragalus utahensis.JPG
DSC07349 - Copy Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'.JPG
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And a few more. Astragalus zionis is not impressive in flowering but the pods are wonderful. I'll try and hunt up a picture showing the pods.
The Oxytropis is loaded with buds. The last picture shows the next area I'll be developing. The gravel was finally delivered and I'm raring to go.
DSC07351 Phlox kelseyi 'Lehmi purple'.JPG
DSC07353 Astragalus zionis.JPG
DSC07355 Oxytropis multiceps.JPG
DSC07354 Future crevice garden.JPG
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And I thought I had a large rock garden.
How large is your last wonderful project, Astragalus ?
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I don't really know how to measure it since it will go up the back of the cliff too. It's a large enough area that I'll be tackling it in more manageable sections to keep it from being overwhelming. I also have to plan my access routes so every part can be reached safely.
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Work started now on the future crevice garden. Also, Phlox pulvinata in one of the crevice gardens. This is a really satisfactory plant. It has tight growth, pristine white flowers (occasionally an icy blue), and looks good throughout the season.
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I think I could get a "thing" about North American Phloxes :P
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Understandable, David. There is a wide range of foliage and bloom and some of them are excellent garden plants with a little extra preparation. Others require very specific placement, or object to northeastern summer conditions, or it's almost impossible to find the seed. I think they're all worth trying. Sun is a prerequisite for most of them, meaning sun for a good part of the day.
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Understandable, David. There is a wide range of foliage and bloom and some of them are excellent garden plants with a little extra preparation. Others require very specific placement, or object to northeastern summer conditions, or it's almost impossible to find the seed. I think they're all worth trying. Sun is a prerequisite for most of them, meaning sun for a good part of the day.
Thanks Anne. I think you are right about the difficulty of getting hold of seed. As far as I can remember there were no Phloxes listed in either the SRGC nor the AGS Exchanges.
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Thanks Anne. I think you are right about the difficulty of getting hold of seed. As far as I can remember there were no Phloxes listed in either the SRGC nor the AGS Exchanges.
Try Alplains - they have Phlox http://www.alplains.com/ (http://www.alplains.com/) I bought some seed from them this year, not Phlox, good service, took a while to arrive but owner kept me informed. Good germination so far - though I didnt buy Phlox, more Delphinium
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I used to get phlox seed from Rebecca Day-Skowron when she ran her seed business. The seed was expensive and you would get a small amount of seed but every one would germinate - really amazing seed. Alan Bradshaw of Alplains supplies wonderful seed of some really rare species. I wouldn't count on finding it in Society Seed Exchanges. I can remember collecting phlox seed, an arduous chore. So much bloom, such prickly foliage, so little seed. I understand why it's relatively expensive.
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More happenings in the crevice gardens.
Eriogonum thymoides' pink buds opening to cream with yellow stamens.
Top of the cliff with Phlox borealis spilling over from a crevice and Onosma caerulescens starting to flower in a crevice beneath it.
Oxytropis multiceps having a great year in the crevice garden
Every day something new is happening. What a great time of year!
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Forgot the last photo - Oxytropis multiceps.
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Great plants as always Anne....I stil enjoy this topic very much. The new crevice garden looks exciting.
The Oxytropis multiceps looks super ! :o
Here in my little crevice some flowering plants to : Androsace muscoidea
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In the same crevice : Saxifraga retusa
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Vitaliana primuliflora subsp. assoana
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Beautiful plants, Kris
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Kris, I grow Vitaliana primuliflora, a marvelous plant, but don't know the one you showed. How do they differ?
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Kris, I grow Vitaliana primuliflora, a marvelous plant, but don't know the one you showed. How do they differ?
Hi Anne ,this subspecies grows in Southern Spain more exactly in the "Sierra Nevada" .
It is always densely tufted with grey keeled leaves. Later in the season and when not in flower it has a very grey appearance .
Sometimes you can read that it is not reliable in flowering . It is the first time that it's flowering for me after 3 years of cultivation.
I am quit happy with it because it makes this nice grey cushions to.
Maybe ( i am not shure )it withstand better dry conditions because of his Spanish roots ?
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Another Vitaliana that has settled into a 12 inch pot here in East Lancashire ...
Vitaliana primuliflora ssp praetutiana
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Construction on the back of the cliff was going great guns until I had to stop and tidy up for a garden visit. It was all blue sky, sun and cool breeze for the day and we had over 100 people, some of whom had to be restrained from going into my work area because they wanted to see the plants "up close and personal". April was so cold and dry everything was really slow getting started. Eritrichium howardii has only a few blooms but is still budding and the genistas are just starting, very strange.
DSC07375 - 1st area being developed back of cliff.JPG
DSC07376 - Slowly developing back of cliff.JPG
DSC07378 - Copy Back of cliff.JPG
DSC07379 - Copy Back of cliff.JPG
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And a couple of close-ups I couldn't resist.
DSC07377 - Onosma caerulescens + Penstemon uintahensis.JPG
DSC07380 - Copy Aubrieta 'Marjorie Reynolds'.JPG
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Looking magnificent, Anne (as always).
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Oh, this Penstemon uintahensis - because when I see my own puny plant!
Penstemon acaulis (in the greenhouse)
Salix reticulata
Petrocallis pyrenaica
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Lovely Penstemon acaulis, one of those plants that doesn't seem to last long in the garden for me. Where do you grow your Petrocallis pyrenaica?
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Petrocallis pyrenaica grows in my garden without any protection on a tuff, but it is a very slow grower. I have the white blooming variation, too.
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I find it lasts much longer planted in a crevice - in a trough it literally seemed to bloom itself to death. The fragrance is wonderful.
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Petrocallis pyrenaica grows in my garden without any protection on a tuff, but it is a very slow grower. I have the white blooming variation, too.
Humm , must try it here in my tufagarden !
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Vitaliana primuliflora subsp. assoana
Can't get anough of it ..........
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A view of the smal crevice ....
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Androsace lehmanniana 'Gotëborg Yellow'
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That androsace is a real winner.
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Yesterday in my alpine house:
-Townsendia alpigena var. minima
-Linum cariense
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A crevice plant par excellence - Campanula andrewsii ssp. hirsutula - a ubiquitous species from the cliffs and walls of the Peloponnese in Greece.
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Yesterday in my alpine house:
-Townsendia alpigena var. minima
-Linum cariense
Ebbie, that Linum cariense is.... wow !! :o :o :o
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The garden was open for the Garden Conservancy while everyone was having a fabulous time at the Czech Conference - very poor timing but a commitment is a commitment. During the open garden one visitor pointed out that there was lots of room in the crevices for more plants. My reply was that as an optimist I was leaving room for growth. Actually it's a bit overplanted with the idea that a few things might die, and thanks to the antlered rats they usually do. Lately there have been many moose sightings in our county (would be 10 times worse in the garden!). The Edraianthus montenegrinus is a beautifully dark purple flower, similar in color to E. serpyllifolius.
DSC07401 - Copy Penstemon uintahensis.JPG
DSC07403 - Copy Eriogonum ovalifolium.JPG
DSC07415 Edraianthus montenegrinus - Copy.JPG
DSC07413 - Copy Androsace villose v jaquemontii.JPG
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Beautiful, Anne.
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Two gesneriads and a campanulaceae:
- Haberlea rhodopensis
- Ramonda nathaliae in blue and white
- Symphiandra wanneri.
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One of the nicest things about Symphyandra wanneri is its habit of seedling itself, sometimes in places where you couldn't possibly plant it. If it stops raining I'll take some pictures of some of them. Symphyandra hoffmannii didn't do the same thing and it is no longer here.
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Some self-sown seedlings of Symphyandra wanneri and a picture of Lewisia rediviva alba. I finally found (made) a little overhang in the crevice garden and the lewisia has decided it likes it there. It has come through two winters. I included the Asarina procumbens because it looks great against the rock and because in a dry garden it's not a thug.
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One of the nicest things about Symphyandra wanneri is its habit of seedling itself, sometimes in places where you couldn't possibly plant it. If it stops raining I'll take some pictures of some of them. Symphyandra hoffmannii didn't do the same thing and it is no longer here.
Yes, so is it. There are often nice surprises. My shown above Symphiandra wanneri (or it's Symphiandra ossetica?) has likewise seeded itself on a tuff.
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Con Edison, which supplies gas and electric to New York City, always used to have signs around their street work projects saying "Dig we must for a growing New York". I think I might need this sign for the "big project", building crevice gardens on the back of the cliff.
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There are over 120 plants in the natural crevices on the back of the cliff but they don't seem to photograph very well. As individual plants, yes, but not as an overall view. Yet the eye sees lots of color. Makes you appreciate more what a gift your eyesight is.
These are just some individual pictures of things in bloom now.
DSC07456 - Copy Penstemon hirsutus pygmaeus.JPG
DSC07459 - Copy Acantholimon ulicinum on back of cliff.JPG
DSC07461 - Copy Convolvulus suendermanii.JPG
DSC07465 - Copy Oxytropis multiceps seed pods.JPG
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Erinacea pungens forming pods.
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Wonderful as ever, Anne ... I can tell how much progress you have made over the brow.
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Con Edison, which supplies gas and electric to New York City, always used to have signs around their street work projects saying "Dig we must for a growing New York". I think I might need this sign for the "big project", building crevice gardens on the back of the cliff.
Wow !! That will make one hell of a crevice Anne !
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Anne - I am really excited to see that Convolvulus flowering as it is one of the species I brought back from the Czech Republic. I will certainly be happy if it flowers like that (C. boissieri only flowers quite shyly for us). I have a nice little crevice between two blocks of tufa...!
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Tim, what you can't tell from the picture is that Convolvulus suendermanii is planted in a crevice on a slope. The crevice is v-shaped and the top of the vee is filled with gravel. I've done that with a lot of the crevices on the back of the cliff so that the plants won't be recessed and can be seen better. Convolvulus boisseri blooms pretty well here as does C. compactus. I have difficulty with C. assyricus, both in flowering and longevity.
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Tim, Convolvulus suendermannii is here absolutely hardy and requires no special demands. I think, other Convolvulus-Species are more difficult.
My Convolvulus suendermannii has been growing 14 years now without any protection in my rock garden. Here are two pictures from previous years (this year it is not yet blooming).
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Looks wonderful. Hope mine will do as well.
Tim, some pictures of convolvulus for you. C. compactus seems to like lime very much. It will develop very woody roots in time.
camera 1 160 Convolvulus compactus in '09.jpg
convolvulus compactus 002 C. compactus a year later.JPG
DSC03145 C. compactus, pink form.JPG
DSC03142 C. compactus still expanding in lime bed.JPG
005 C. boisseri in crevice bed.JPG
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Ebbie and Anne - I'm lost for words; what tremendous plants! They certainly give me something to aim for...
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A local farmer happened to mention that he had a one ton weathered limestone rock in his field. It was scored with deep grykes. Off I set in my van and it was loaded with a little difficulty into it.
I then got it out of the van and manoeuvred it into position in the garden. I can assure you it's never going to move again! Heavy isn't the word.
There's no alpine nursery in this country so to make it presentable for now, I tore up a load of Sea Pinks from the front garden and stuffed them into the crevices. I put back some of the protruding bits of rock that had been knocked off during the manhandling.
I can take my time and decide what I'll eventually put into it but the Sea Pinks will do temporarily. The bits of railway sleepers underneath will be covered in time by the heather.
(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/scattery/Third%20album/001_zps5bd9555e.jpg) (http://s77.photobucket.com/user/scattery/media/Third%20album/001_zps5bd9555e.jpg.html)
(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/scattery/Third%20album/005_zps3c265f0f.jpg) (http://s77.photobucket.com/user/scattery/media/Third%20album/005_zps3c265f0f.jpg.html)
(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j49/scattery/Third%20album/006_zps6758541e.jpg) (http://s77.photobucket.com/user/scattery/media/Third%20album/006_zps6758541e.jpg.html)
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Your rock makes quite a lovely display.
A few plants blooming now in the crevice gardens. The unusual thing about the Oxytropis multiceps is that it is reblooming and still has seed pods. The rebloom is a first. The first picture has Moltkia petraea in the background and Linum spathulifolium in the foreground. It makes a wonderful picture for the eye, not sure if the camera catches it. Cliff Booker needs to be here photographing again!
DSC07501 - Copy.JPG
DSC07504 - Oxytropis multiceps.JPG
DSC07507 - Moltkia petraea.JPG
DSC07505 - Centaurea pestalozzae.JPG
DSC07506 - Centaurea biokevensis.JPG
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I'm heading for the airport as we speak ... !!! :D
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Great, Cliff. I'll get the popovers started and of course, there will be a huge supply of green beans for you!
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Great, Cliff. I'll get the popovers started and of course, there will be a huge supply of green beans for you!
Green beans for a has been then? :P ;D
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Green beans for a has been then? :P ;D
Only just recovered (slightly) from this very hurtful barb ... :'( :'( :'( ;)
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Te He ;D ;D ;D
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Maggi, I recommend adding textual names for Anne's post, so that those fine plants can be found in a forum text search, worth reminding users about this too.
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Some flowering plants in my little crevice ...
Veronica oltensis
Campanula dasyantha 'Superba' (with Helichrysum milfordae)
Campanula rupicola
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How lucky that campanulas grow so beautifully for you. Not many do well here because it's so dry.
Today was a very long work day building more crevices behind the cliff. The most fun was starting to plant after finishing for the day.
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And a couple more pictures.
Maggi, the original post bounced because I included a picture taken vertically. Apparently that must take more KB? I resized it like the others but it was still over 200 kb. I'll try resizing again.
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Not very good at this, hope it works. They are among the few saxes I grow. Like the campanulas, they prefer more water.
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Maggi, the original post bounced because I included a picture taken vertically. Apparently that must take more KB? I resized it like the others but it was still over 200 kb. I'll try resizing again.
I don't know, Anne - it shouldn't I don't think but I have found some very strange things happening when I resize pix in my machine lately.
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I've come to the conclusion (with my pictures anyway) that pictures with lots of small flowers in a big area, like a meadow scene or even one with lots of small stones makes a big original file and when I resize with Microsoft Picture Manager to 640 x 480 it is over 200kb. I tried compressing with the same program and found it came out too small to see much.
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Campanula troegerae one of the most beautiful bluebells (actually whitebells).
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Campanula troegerae one of the most beautiful bluebells (actually whitebells).
Very nice Ebbie ! One of the best and you manage to grow it on the way it should grow , congrats !
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How lucky that campanulas grow so beautifully for you. Not many do well here because it's so dry.
Today was a very long work day building more crevices behind the cliff. The most fun was starting to plant after finishing for the day.
In some years (not this year so far )I have the same problems to Anne ....For this crevice I choosed a spot with more shadow .
But even then I can't grow al of them. I think a lot of Campanula's like a more loamy gravel and more moisture .
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I agree, Kris. Many campanulas really don't like drying out. It stands to reason that if astragalus and other dryland plants like it here, the more traditional alpines may ask to be in someone else's garden.
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I agree, Kris. Many campanulas really don't like drying out. It stands to reason that if astragalus and other dryland plants like it here, the more traditional alpines may ask to be in someone else's garden.
But we are lucky Anne ......there are so many others who like it here or at your place......And we enjoy your dryland crevice very much. Here we could not grow many of them , Astragalus e.g. is a real challenge here without winterprotection ....
But we keep trying anyway ...My conditions or something between your very dry conditions and the ideal conditions for most campanula's ....But sometimes there are opportunities ........and I am so happy to discover and learn and this forum and this topic is very usefull .
I think that Campanula troegerae is a good choice for a dryland crevice . We see them growing in Turkey and I suppose that both troegerae and choruhensis are good choices for the dryland ? I don't know if you ever grow this both species ?
I agree , they are not blue ......... :-\
Anyway , I am also agree with you ....we have to accept our limits to ......
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Thank you for your kind comment, Kris.
It is true, Campanula troegerae is a good example of a drought-loving bellflower. It is in my alpine house and is almost kept as dry as Dionysia. But also for plants from the Alps such as Campanula morettiana it is too wet outside here.
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Campanula finitima growing on the wall of my trough.
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What a beauty, Franz.
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Campanula finitima growing on the wall of my trough.
Very nice Franz and it is indeed a good example of another drought loving Campanula ...
I think we did see this one also on our trip in NE Turkey .
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Well, I will definitely have to try these campanulas in the crevice gardens. Thanks, Kris, Franz, and Ebbie. Do these examples have any relief from the sun? Here it is not only drought and dry conditions, but heat and sun all day, and then very cold winters. It's amazing the array of plants which will endure such conditions.
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It does not like wet and grows best in a vertical position
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It does not like wet and grows best in a vertical position
That's the way they grow in Turkey to Franz .
Here a white form of Dianthus alpinus in my crevice .......
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Well, I will definitely have to try these campanulas in the crevice gardens. Thanks, Kris, Franz, and Ebbie. Do these examples have any relief from the sun? Here it is not only drought and dry conditions, but heat and sun all day, and then very cold winters. It's amazing the array of plants which will endure such conditions.
Ok, just one to convince you more Anne .........
The same that Ebbie showed us .........
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And his neighbour ......Helichrysum milfordae . Always very shy in flowering .......
And one view from above .....
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Kris,
A perfect crevice garden.
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Kris,
A perfect crevice garden.
I agree, Franz ... superb.
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Kris,
A perfect crevice garden.
I agree, Franz ... superb.
Thanks for the compliments Franz and Cliff 8)
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Kris, your crevice garden is beautiful. The helichrysum is lovely but would never make it through the winter here. I've tried several different ones and they don't survive, too bad. No one can grow everything unless they have alpine houses and greenhouses at their disposal.
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And just one for today .........A tiny Hypericum imbricatum .
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Kris, your crevice garden is beautiful. The helichrysum is lovely but would never make it through the winter here. I've tried several different ones and they don't survive, too bad. No one can grow everything unless they have alpine houses and greenhouses at their disposal.
Thanks Anne .
I agree on your quote Anne , we al have our limits .....I must admit that I lost this Helichrysum several times in the past. This one is in the crevice now for two years and it get some winterprotection . (glas)
Each year I say to myself that I need to stop with this winterprotections ....It is a lot of work and the garden looks terrible in the winter. I already have less and on one day I am sure I have not any left .....
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I keep discovering more alpine hypericums I haven't heard of - I do like that H. imbricatum; they seem a very underrated genus.
Peter Korn showed Helichrysum milfordae growing well on one of his sand beds, and also flowering well. He said that it does best planted near to a high water table - and his winter temperatures can be pretty low. I must admit I grow it with glass cover in winter, but it doesn't flower well for me. I wonder if they grow it in places like Tromso where there must be persistant winter snow cover?
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Kris, I don't provide any winter protection, only protection from deer. If it were a white flowered ranunculus, I would probably do anything to try and keep it, though. We all have our exceptions! The only one I can grow is Ranunculus pyrenaica (spelling?), and it may be that the only reason I can grow that one is because it seems to be able to go dormant when the garden gets dry and then reappear in the spring. There is no high water table in the garden. What there is, is very, very deep crevices (in some cases up to 5'), and there must be some moisture retention there although I doubt the roots go that deep. The one exception to that might be Claytonia megarhiza, whose roots seem to go on and on.
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I keep discovering more alpine hypericums I haven't heard of - I do like that H. imbricatum; they seem a very underrated genus.
Agree Tim , this Hypericum kazdaghensis is also a very rewarding thing wich flower for a long period .
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The very rewarding Phlox pulvinatum . So far the best Phlox here . I would like to grow others but struggle in wintertime ....
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Saxifraga pseudovaldensis .
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Kris, Phlox pulvinata is one of the easiest of our western phloxes to grow. Another easy one is Phlox kelseyi. It comes in white and various named purple forms (P.k.'Lehmi purple', and P.k.'Lehmi midnight'). The really great thing about P. kelseyi is that it will have repeat flushes of bloom when it's happy. It does fine in troughs, crevice gardens, just wants good sun. I think you can get seed from Alan Bradshaw of Alplains Seeds. Phlox condensata is another winner but is not quite as easy to make flower the way it should. Try as many as you can find, they are all wonderful.
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Kris, Phlox pulvinata is one of the easiest of our western phloxes to grow. Another easy one is Phlox kelseyi. It comes in white and various named purple forms (P.k.'Lehmi purple', and P.k.'Lehmi midnight'). The really great thing about P. kelseyi is that it will have repeat flushes of bloom when it's happy. It does fine in troughs, crevice gardens, just wants good sun. I think you can get seed from Alan Bradshaw of Alplains Seeds. Phlox condensata is another winner but is not quite as easy to make flower the way it should. Try as many as you can find, they are all wonderful.
Thanks again Anne and we wish you and Joe a fine holiday in the Dolomites ....Like the gentians you showed us !
I grow some P. k. "Lehmi Purple " but it not resemble the colour I have seen on some pictures ? ???
Maybe it was grown from seed ....The Phlox condensata is indeed beautiful but I lost it twice .
But nevertheless I wan't to try more species and it looks a good idea to order some seeds .Alplains looks a good source to me ....
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Kris, I've always had really good luck with Alplains seed. He offers a very wide range. I'd certainly try Phlox condensate again. It's a bit more difficult but when you have some success it's worth all the effort. Here it likes a very sunny crevice and it's in a fairly windy spot so there's good air circulation. I'd suggest Phlox borealis if you want stunning color very early. It is a hot pink and the earliest to bloom here. Another suggestion would be Phlox diffusa from the Pacific Northwest. It has many pale color forms, all sorts of pastels.
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Thanks Anne !
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Convolvulus compactus in a crevice build with tufarocks .It is not growing in the tufa-rocks but between the smal crevices ....
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very nice Kris. Is tufa freely available in Belgium, it's a rare as rocking horse manure here?
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" rare as rocking horse manure here?"
Love that one. I'll put it next to banjaxed and gobsmacked, although this is one that would be understood in the U.S.
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very nice Kris. Is tufa freely available in Belgium, it's a rare as rocking horse manure here?
:D :D :D
I like that expression to Anne ......
But ....about your question ... No, it was not available in Belgium anymore for many years . But previous year Portier Alpine nursery arranged 1 full truck of this stuff . For the moment he is almost sold out.
The Convolvulus is from my first tufa-crevice. Those rocks came from my friend Harry Jans ...
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Unusually, Mr. Nicholson actually used the polite version of this common (very 'common') UK saying. I won't sully this wonderful forum by quoting the Yorkshire form!!! ;D :o
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;D :-X :P ;D
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Kris, your Convolvulus compactus is wonderful. But it is certainly very sensitive to moisture?
My plants are not necessarily bonded to rocks. But with me they are between small rocks.
-Campanula pulla
-Delphinium, the species I don't know
-Commelina dianthifolia.
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Kris, your Convolvulus compactus is wonderful. But it is certainly very sensitive to moisture?
Thank you Eberhard !
I plant it in a mix of pure sand and grit .....so a realy free draining mixture . In this way and between the crevice I have no problem with moisture .
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Thanks Kris. I think I'll try it this way, too.
What do you do in winter? Is sufficient covering with a glass plate?
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Thanks Kris. I think I'll try it this way, too.
What do you do in winter? Is sufficient covering with a glass plate?
Hallo Eberhard .
Must admit that I did not covered it previous winter ...And we had first a modest winter and then suddenly a very late winter with heavy frost and not much snow ..
But it was not a very wet winter as I remember wel . But I did covered it some years ........(only with glassplate , frost is no problem ! ,he had minus 15 two years ago ) Depends , on the other hand I want to reduce that covering thing in the near future . Its to much work and it looks not so good .
Wish you good luck , I think you might succeed .... 8)
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This is the same as you with me, Kris.I cover in my rock garden also barely. It would here maybe usefull for the protection of the beautiful silver foliage.
After 4 years Asyneuma compacta blooms the first time, but only with a single inflorescence. Not to be classed as a floriferous plant!
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After 4 years Asyneuma compacta blooms the first time, but only with a single inflorescence. Not to be classed as a floriferous plant!
Did never see one single flower in cultivation on this one in my time as alpinegardener Eberhard . Until july 2013.....A friend of the VRV has also some flowers on his plant. Maybe not a floriferous plant but as it is a difficult plant to get in flower it is stil a great performance ...
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In flower now in one of my crevices : Campanula zoysii .
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Superb.
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Superb.
Thanks Cliff , the only question is .......longelivety ....?
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Kris, it's wonderful. The only question really is how do you keep the slugs away from it?
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Kris, it's wonderful. The only question really is how do you keep the slugs away from it?
Thanks Anne . For the moment the slugs are less or more under control ...(almost afraid to say this very loud ....)
The only reason for that is the fact that we have very warm weather now and that I use the blue stuff since the beginning of march .
But I have to watch carefully once the rain comes back ....especially in the spring and autumn.
And I have to admit that I lost many zoysii's in the past due the invasion of slugs ...
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Kris,
Congratulate you on this difficult Campanula!
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Kris,
Congratulate you on this difficult Campanula!
Thanks Franz !
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Two older plants in a dry stone wall:
Acantholimon albanicum and Trachelium jacquinii ssp. rumelianum.
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Superb, Ebbie!
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Beautifully grown and a wonderful combination. Was the trachelium grown from seed? And if so, do you remember where you got the seed?
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Thanks Cliff and Anne.
Was the trachelium grown from seed? And if so, do you remember where you got the seed?
I bought the Trachelium 16 years ago as a young plant. Unfortunately, there is no seeds here.
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Two older plants in a dry stone wall:
Trachelium jacquinii ssp. rumelianum
Stunning plant Eberhard ! I did not see this plant before in the Flemisch gardens but it deserves to grow more !
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Yes Kris, Trachelium jacquinii ssp. rumelianum is a good rock garden plant. It is robust, simple and long-lived. Its flower is a magnet for bees and bumblebees. On the other hand, it requires space and looks after flowering somewhat messy.
I planted the Trachelium into a granite wall. But I think limestone would be the better material.
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Thanks Eberhard ! Maybe a bit to big for my smal garden but it is so useful for the late flowering and attracting the bees .And it is a beauty...
Stil have to think about it .When I tolerate these Acantholimon .....
This is a Acantholimon between a crevice in tufarocks. The original label is somewhere down there .... ;D
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Part of a new crevice garden with tufa rocks .....
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In a vertical position between two tufarocks ....Campanula fragilis.
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Oh yes, Campanula fragilis. For me, along with Campanula morettiana the finest alpine bellflower. And this grows with you outdoors? Here it has probably a chance at most in the alpine house.
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Oh yes, Campanula fragilis. For me, along with Campanula morettiana the finest alpine bellflower. And this grows with you outdoors? Here it has probably a chance at most in the alpine house.
Must admit that I lost it in some years and this is a new planting Eberhard.
But I choose a new spot now . This new spot is more protected and I planted it more in a vertical position . Another thing ....I filled the crevice between the tufarocks with a very lean mixture .There is no peat or compost involved .I choose a very mineral soil .
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This one grows slow but wel in my crevice ......Daphne jasminea ...It is a late flowering Daphne and is flowering for the moment .
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Must admit that I lost it in some years and this is a new planting Eberhard.
But I choose a new spot now . This new spot is more protected and I planted it more in a vertical position . Another thing ....I filled the crevice between the tufarocks with a very lean mixture .There is no peat or compost involved .I choose a very mineral soil .
Much success with it Kris! Please report again about it. That interests me.
Daphne jasminea ist also a beauty.
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Kris, does this come through the winter for you without protection? It is one of the loveliest of the small daphnes and I wish I could grow it, but it is definitely not hardy here.
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This thread is a source of much enjoyment to me, such lovely stuff from you all.
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This thread is a source of much enjoyment to me, such lovely stuff from you all.
:D 8)
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Much success with it Kris! Please report again about it. That interests me.
Daphne jasminea ist also a beauty.
Thanks Eberhard , I keep you al informed !
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Kris, does this come through the winter for you without protection? It is one of the loveliest of the small daphnes and I wish I could grow it, but it is definitely not hardy here.
Here it is hardy enough without protection Anne .(must say so far ....because it looks like the winters are change a bit last years and it seems we getting harsher winters )
But it is protected by a fence against the coldest eastern winds. I hope I am able to grow it the next years ....
We only saw it once on his natural habitat in Crete when we are walking in a gorge.
Yes you're right , it is a lovely plant and rewarding because of the late flowering .
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Lucky you, Kris. Here, Daphne arbuscula forms do very well as does Daphne hendersonii. All the ones I've tried have been excellent. Almost all the small daphnes grown here have second seasons of bloom, which is very welcome.
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Oh yes Anne I am happy with it ....but I would like to grow al the beautiful Astragalus,Oxytropis ,Phlox you grow so wel ...
As you write before , we have al our problems and could not grow everything ...
Here some pictures from my first tufacrevice and from another one I renovated this year .
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Blooming (or starting to bloom) in the crevice garden now. Couldn't read the label for the zauschneria, but it's a really deep red-orange- now discovered the name
1. Zauschneria californica 'Etteri'
2. Petrophytum hendersonii
3. Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'
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This started blooming while we were still in the Dolomites and is just now beginning to go over. Seems to enjoy sun and scree, where it will ramble through rocks, and the crevice garden. My favorite of this genus is Collomia debilis v larsenii, growing on very steep screes. It is soboliferous and the flowers are white with pale tones of blues. It's a gorgeous thing.
1. Collomia debilis
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This started blooming while we were still in the Dolomites and is just now beginning to go over. Seems to enjoy sun and scree, where it will ramble through rocks, and the crevice garden. My favorite of this genus is Collomia debilis v larsenii, growing on very steep screes. It is soboliferous and the flowers are white with pale tones of blues. It's a gorgeous thing.
1. Collomia debilis
Humm beautiful Anne , never saw it here in gardens . So maybe we could not grow it here ?
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Kris, Collomia debilis v larsenii used to be grown by Wim Boens, perhaps still is - he can tell you how well it grows in a Flemish garden, eh?
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Thanks Maggi , what a memory! You are very good :-*
But stil did'nt see any in a Flemisch garden ;D
Hummm , must ask Wim . See him in a couple of weeks .
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Wim: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=2069.msg53746#msg53746 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=2069.msg53746#msg53746)
Natalie grows it in Moscow : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10681.msg280282#msg280282 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10681.msg280282#msg280282)
Zdenek Rehacek grows it : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=3463.msg95309#msg95309 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=3463.msg95309#msg95309)
Dave Toole in New Zealand : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=225.msg6456#msg6456 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=225.msg6456#msg6456)
Christine has seen it in North East England: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=3600.msg94854#msg94854 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=3600.msg94854#msg94854)
Roma has seedlings coming on in N.E. Scotland: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=6490.msg278237#msg278237 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=6490.msg278237#msg278237)
and it featured in at least one IRG : www.srgc.org.uk/.../2010Nov261290804873IRG11_November2010.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/.../2010Nov261290804873IRG11_November2010.pdf)
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Thanks again Maggi ! Great to see al those pictures from the forum ...better then any "encyclopedia " , Wikipedia and al other sources !
The one Zdenek grows is realy outstanding !
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Humm beautiful Anne , never saw it here in gardens . So maybe we could not grow it here ?
I certainly think you could grow Collomia debilis. Give it a rocky scree where it can ramble through the rocks, which is the way I saw it growing in the Wallowa Mountains. The C.d. v larsenii might be more difficult. It seems to be a snow melt plant, and I've seen it only on very steep slopes, probably meaning perfect drainage. It also is fairly solitary, adapting itself to where there is very little competition. It has stayed with me as long as three years (not long enough).
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Maggi, the link you provided for Zdenek's plant of Collomia debilis v larsenii was perfect. It shows the leaves so well. They always make me think of birds' feet. The plants I've seen (MT. Fremont and Mt. Baker in Washington) were suffused with an almost ethereal blue. Difficult to describe, but unforgettable.
I've i.d.ed the picture I put on of Zaushneria sp. It's Zauschneria californica 'etteri'. Are you able to put that on the picture?
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I've i.d.ed the picture I put on of Zaushneria sp. It's Zauschneria californica 'etteri'. Are you able to put that on the picture?
Hi Anne, I've edited your post to add the name of the Zauschneria californica 'Etteri'
N.B. It is possible for forumists to edit their own posts by clicking the "modify" button by that post - the text box will be opened and you can work from there.
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Thanks, Maggi. Sorry, I didn't know that.
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No problem, Anne - lots of folk miss the modify button.
Have you seen the Thermopsis pix from Doug Logan here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10586.msg282054#msg282054 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=10586.msg282054#msg282054) - very attractive to astragalus fans, I think!!
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Thanks so much for the link, Maggi. That is a sensational plant. Anyone would admire this but for a Fabaceae fan, this is a real treat. I wonder what the altitude was. Funny, I always think of Thermopsis as a yellow-flowered plant. This one was a real eye-opener.
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Wow ..... :o Stunning !
Thanks Maggi ....again something to talk about with Robin and Clint ....
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Daphne petraea 'Persebee '
Second flowering later in the season ....Likes the crevice ...
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Some overviews from this parts of the garden ...
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Everything looks very happy in your crevice garden. Looking forward to lots of pictures next spring. The daphne is stunning.
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Everything looks very happy in your crevice garden. Looking forward to lots of pictures next spring. The daphne is stunning.
Thanks a lot Anne . It is a very rewarding method of alpine gardening ....
The plants need some time to establish because I go for a very lean mixture and I am happy when they grow slow but stay compact. So I expect that this crevice is even better in 1 or 2 years .
I am happy to post more pictures in spring :)
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How hardy is Zauschneria californica "Etteri"?
Is it available in Europe?
Found only one nursery on the net.
@ Astagalus
Do you leave your plant outside during the winter?
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Yes, the plant is outside during the winter. It is planted in a deep crevice in the crevice garden in a very lean mix which drains very quickly. It is a young plant which has only come through one winter so far. I can't vouch for the hardiness because last winter was a non-event here. I think we were only briefly below 0F, which is extremely mild. I have found that crevice planting seems to extend the hardiness of plants at least one zone. The roots seem to be protected by the stone. The zauschnerias are wonderful in the garden (dry, full sun) because they bloom when not much else is happening in the rock garden (August, September, and October and November during a mild fall).
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Isn't 'Persebee' a little gem? It hasn't done it previously for me but this year it flowered really well in the autumn and I thought that was that, nothing for the spring but it's now COVERED in buds so like yours Kris, mine is a twice-a-year flowerer. Excellent value.
I hope you won't mind this little boast, last year's bloom in the spring. I had a second plant the same size but it was in the one trough I had to empty to move and it died except that later, I found a small layered piece which had and still has greenery so I'll try it again in a trough, the other still in a pot but needing a bigger pot now. :)
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Wow :o fantastic plant Lesley ! It seems that they have more flowers when they are potgrowing.
Like many other plants .But I also like the natural settings in a crevice or trough .....We can have it all.
Maybe you can succeed with the little green shoot .
But I am agree , this is great value for money .....2 times flowering ......
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Some Androsace's in the crevice with "Ardenner -rocks ". No flowers , but for the people who love cushions and Andro's ........
Picture 1 - 3 : A. selago in a vertical position .
4 = A. mariae
5= A. muscoidea
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Also this very smal A.tangulashanensis survived the heatwave and the extreme dry period ...
In the tufacrevice : A x marpensis
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Wandering around the crevice gardens out of season always brings a few surprises and today was no exception. The nicest surprise was finding that Physoplexis comosa, which I thought I had lost, was making a comeback. The zauschnerias are really a lifesaver at this time of year, usually blooming until hard frost. The arctotis has not bloomed but the foliage is gorgeous. The Penstemon debilis bloomed in season so it was quite a surprise to see new buds.
1. Physoplexis comosa
2. Penstemon debilis
3. Zauschneria latifolia prostrata ( not sure, label almost illegible)
4. Arctotis adpressa
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And a couple of more. This zauschneria has the best color I've seen.
1. Zauschneria californica v etteri
2. Daphne x hendersonii 'Ernst Hauser'
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Oops, forgot the Zauschneria.
1. Zauschneria californica v etteri
2. Zauschneria sp
3. Gentian asclepidea
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It's a warm Sunday afternoon, I feel lazy and so I've been catching up on my web reading ......
Kenton Seth who is always worth reading, (even tho' he says he hates alliteration, which as you know I adore!) has a super blog on crevice gardens here : http://kentonjseth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/crevice-garden-crazy.html (http://kentonjseth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/crevice-garden-crazy.html)
Kenton is getting enthusiastically into building such gardens himself and he also shows some of the great work Mike Kintgen is doing at Denver Botanic Garden.
( and look out for the pic of a Maggie, a "garden supervisor) - a rather smart Shar Pei!
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Wonky and wonderful! Alpine crevice gardening looks hale and hearty across the pond - or even the rivulet to mainland Europe! What an enjoyable blog - thank you Maggi.
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Reached my 2013 goal and a bit more. Right after I finished setting the last stone yesterday, we had a heavy rain which cleaned off the stone and helped settle the mix. Will be planting like crazy in the spring and spending the winter poring over seed lists and catalogs.
1. Crevices back of cliff as of June 15th, 2013
2. Crevices back of cliff as of today, September 22, 2013
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Just superb, Anne.
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Also, when planting, all the crevices get tightened up with thin pieces of stone. It's makes planting much easier to do it then.
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Thanks so much, Cliff. Hard work, but worth it. When are you and Sue coming back to our neck of the woods?
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Great job Anne ! It is such a joy to see this work of art .
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Thanks so much, Cliff. Hard work, but worth it. When are you and Sue coming back to our neck of the woods?
As soon as possible, Anne ... we enjoyed New York State and the beautiful Eastern seaboard immensely.
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When are you and Sue coming back to our neck of the woods?
Wait in line Anne. Our turn next. ;D
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Wait in line Anne. Our turn next. ;D
Yes, the Bookeroos are visiting New Zealand in November - and then it's our turn - Cliff -with Sue, is the SRGC Travelling Speaker early next year - in Aberdeen in February 8)
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Many thanks, Kris. I'm waiting for your pictures next spring!
Good grief, G.B., what a schedule. Maybe I should email your upcoming hosts with your menu preferences??!!
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Good grief, G.B., what a schedule. Maybe I should email your upcoming hosts with your menu preferences??!!
;D ;D ;D :P :-X :-*
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WHAT? He needs feeding????????? Oh crumbs- yes, I was forgetting the Pudsey Piggery!
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Reached my 2013 goal and a bit more. Right after I finished setting the last stone yesterday, we had a heavy rain which cleaned off the stone and helped settle the mix. Will be planting like crazy in the spring and spending the winter poring over seed lists and catalogs.
1. Crevices back of cliff as of June 15th, 2013
2. Crevices back of cliff as of today, September 22, 2013
Great job Anne - it simply looks gorgeous !!!
What a treat it will be to plant it up !!
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Thanks, Luc. Next spring is going to be so much fun because there's a lot of crevice planting space waiting. If our good weather holds for a few more weeks it might be possible to get a good start on another section.
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Yes, the Bookeroos are visiting New Zealand in November - and then it's our turn - Cliff -with Sue, is the SRGC Travelling Speaker early next year - in Aberdeen in February 8)
All this attention he's getting, he'll think he's treacle and everybody wants a lick! ::)
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All this attention he's getting, he'll think he's treacle and everybody wants a lick! ::)
Oh molasses!!!! :P :P :P
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I showed this before when it was just starting to bloom. Here it is now and almost prime. We're lucky that we have yet to have a killing frost so it may have time to even get better! It's planted in a crevice between two huge hunks of ledge and is very happy. So far not browsed by deer, unlike some of the daphnes. It's too early to put up the protective wire screening and hunting season hasn't started yet.
Zauschneria californica 'etteri'
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Superb. :o :o :o :o :D
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Superb. :o :o :o :o :D
I can only agree, Cliff !!
It's truly gorgeous, Anne !!!
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Thanks, Cliff and Luc. So far I've tried four different dwarf zauschnerias and really like them all. Three of them are in the crevice garden and the fourth hangs over a wall. They are Z5 plants and this garden has always behaved like a Z4b garden. No Z6 plant ever survived and Z5a was really questionable. The main reason is that the garden is very windy, especially fall to spring, and is on the "cold side" of the hill, facing NW. Maybe the zauschnerias are thriving due to global warming? It's been a while since we've had a winter with "normal" cold, which here should be -20F, with possible dips below that.
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That's gorgeous, Anne! What species are the dwarf zauschnerias?
Zauschneria garrettii has been hardy here in zone 3 since 2004 (or maybe 2002 - looks like I bought 2 plants, according to my records). The cultivar is 'Orange Carpet' and it stays very low here, though I'm not sure if the species in general would be considered dwarf? I tried Z. californica but only once and in a trough, where it didn't winter over.
Love seeing your garden!!
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Lori, Z. garrettii 'orange carpet' is considered dwarf, growing almost like large ground cover. I tried that one first because Z. garrettii was supposed to be the hardiest of the lot but much too large for my rock garden. Z. g. 'Siskiyou Dwarf' has survived here and has bright orange flowers - stays under one foot. Z. californica 'etteri' is definitely my favorite so far. The flowers are a blood orange-red and very shiny. Z. latifolia prostrata might be the best of the bunch if it would only flower better. The growth habit is wonderful. It's planted in a wall and is oozing over and under the rocks in the wall, but not much in the way of bloom yet. Z. garrettii is supposedly Z5, I'm really surprised to hear you say Z3. Maybe that's why these cultivars are doing so well. There's another one called Z. g. 'Wayne's Select' that has silver foliage. Hope to get that one in the spring.
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Lori, you might try tht zauschneria again in the ground instead of a trough. My experience here has been that you lose at least one zone when planting in a trough, unless it's super insulated during the winter. If I'm not sure about the hardiness I put it in the ground where it can be better insulated against the cold.
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Thanks for the info, Anne. I will definitely try more of the smaller Zauschneria, now that I have rock gardens to plant them in. (The Z. garrettii 'Orange Carpet' is not in a rock garden - it's just out in the front yard on a south-facing slope; I moved a few pieces of it around last year, finally, and they have survived as well. It is very pleasing to have bright orange flowers so late in the season here!)
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There are big crevice gardens, small crevice gardens en even very, tiny small crevice gardens like this one in a simple plastic pot.
It is really a 'crevice pot' because the little rocks are sunk into the compost as deep as possible, so most touch the bottom of the pot.
In this way there is more planting space, it looks nicer, you need less expensive growing medium, the plants will of course love to grow between the rocks, I also believe most love to grow together like in nature, it's easy to transport if necessary, there are more 'micro climates' .....
This one provides a little home for two Primula primulina, two Primula integrifolia, two Androsace neuwirthii and one Silene acaulis.
Of course, most are not fast growing, so the pot will be fine for several years. ;D
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There are big crevice gardens, small crevice gardens en even very, tiny small crevice gardens like this one in a simple plastic pot.
Was this inspired by the trough demonstrations in Tabor?
Might be something we could try here - it would be more portable!
cheers
fermi
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Hi Fermides,
Not really, I always make my own recipes. ;D
I'm also lucky to be able to choose between a lot of rock of different calibers and a lot of small ones ....
But I must confirm that all the plants in this crevice pot come from the nice Czech people. ;)
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I do like your crevice garden in a pot. Will you sink the pot in sand or something during the winter? Or is this not an issue in your location?
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Was this inspired by the trough demonstrations in Tabor?
Might be something we could try here - it would be more portable!
cheers
fermi
Even if not more potable. ;D
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I do like your crevice garden in a pot. Will you sink the pot in sand or something during the winter? Or is this not an issue in your location?
Thanks.
When it freezes a little bit, I will not do anything. I do cover them now till March next year. When it will freeze for a long time, I will put the pots in my unheated veranda.
A trough isn't plunged either and the plants mostly come through the winter unharmed, which is normal since they come from the mountains. Of course, pots are much smaller, so they will freeze more.
I'm also planning a new crevice garden, or I must say I have already begun.
This picture is from the spot where the crevice garden will be, but now it's a complete chaos, because the stones I will use were already on the particular spot. :o
Of course, when the stones will be arranged, there will still be some chaos, but more a chaos with order .... ;D
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I'm also planning a new crevice garden, or I must say I have already begun.
This picture is from the spot where the crevice garden will be, but now it's a complete chaos, because the stones I will use were already on the particular spot. :o
Of course, when the stones will be arranged, there will still be some chaos, but more a chaos with order .... ;D
Another great new project - we'll look forward to seeing that!
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I hope you will photograph your new crevice garden project as you go along, something I often forget to do. I look forward to seeing the "process".
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I promise to do that, but it should stop raining ....on the other hand the rain is good to wash the stones and see their colors better.
;D
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Ok, a promise, is a promise ...
Here we go. ;)
In this picture you will notice there's still a lot of work ahead, but the first stones come in place.
Still a big chaos, but I like some chaos, even if the chaos is gone, there is still some in my mind ... ???
It's like a big puzzle, and you must get puzzled to start with it.
Although there is 'something' in your mind, you never know where you are about to get.
You only have a vague picture.
The best thing to manage it, is to start without thinking and let your 'unconscious rock garden mind' do most of the job.
;D
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Here a lot of chaos has vanished.
Most of the stones are arranged, some will be lucky and stay in place.
Others will be moved, depends on my 'unconscious rock garden mind'. ;D
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This picture shows the new crevice with all the crevices filled with some rock garden compost.
I made the mistake to use a lot of red 'mine stone' chippings into my mixture, the red color doesn't match with the grey stones.
But by applying a lot of little broken rocks with a rather big calibre, this problem is solved.
Making the top dressing was the most work.
I had to break a lot of little rocks with a heavy hammer to have sufficient top dressing.
I always do that when I make a crevice, these are the only chippings that correspond with the bigger rocks.
If you get some chippings from a garden centre, they hardly ever match. You better make your own.
It has some advantages : when there are rocks with a more brown color, you look for a little rock with the same color to break and you use the chippings in the neighbourhood of that particular rock. 8)
The two other pictures show my 'breaking rock', my hammer and the resulting chippings. This is the only way to do it.
Also good for my muscles....but you must 'watch for your eyes'.
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Leiomerus... the man who brakes rock with his bare hands !!! 8)
Great job Leio ! I'm sure it will look smashing when finished !!
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Looking good, Jan. You will save lots of money from a fitness club membership with all that work.
But perhaps your back will need some massage.....
[attachimg=1]
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Thanks Maggi and Luc The Great Channel Hopper.
I only to my best for sake of those poor plants that must cope with a climate that totally isn't theirs.
I have a very good back, but a massage would be fine, but I prefer something else than a cat.
::)
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I have a very good back, but a massage would be fine, but I prefer something else than a cat.
::)
Of course, I understand.........
[attachimg=1]
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So, let's go on ...on the rocks ...
1/ Picture 1 : Here I have used the garden hose in order to settle the compost in a quicker way.
By the way ; this crevice garden is called 'Crevice Garden Number 4'.
2/ Picture 2 : The same crevice with some chippings broken by my self.
Of course, the end result will be different, because my 'subconscious rock mind' told me to change some things. ???
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1/ This is CGN4, almost in it's present state. With all those self-made chippings, what a work !
I've made some more outcrops, so it looks better.
I couldn't go very high, it's already a natural slope and I didn't want to hide the natural stones from the house, because they have practically the same color.
Of course, maybe next week, I will suddenly think that some features must be changed, or maybe not. It all depends ...
There are already some conifers to be seen.
Today I have planted 18 Saxes in this crevice. This crevice will be an Allendale crevice, (with some minor exceptions) only Saxes from Mr Fairbairn.
The other crevice will be devoted to Saxes from Karel Lang.
2/ Here you see a little bulb bed. There are only bulbs where you see the chippings. There are some step stones, otherwise I break my legs to reach the water tab of
the garden hose. The big rocks you see, will be removed when I'll have more bulbs.
This bed is the division between CGN4 and CGN3.
3/ This is Crevice Garden Number 3, located next to Crevice Garden Number 1.
The 'borderline' is indicated by the little Phlox you notice in front.
CGN1 is now 1 year old and is made of many different rocks. Of course planted with mainly Saxes, but also some Androsace, Primula and even some Dionysia.
The originally little plants are growing well.
4/ This is a view taken from CGN1.
Now the whole east side of our house, is rock garden.
My wife is very pleased. I don't need a ladder anymore to clean the windows. I simply stand on top of the crevice and I can reach every window.
Now she likes me to do it.
In the past she needed a ladder. ;D
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1/ Here you see, from left to right :
my chameleon rock garden (with many different stones, marble, sand stone, cobble stone, 'Ardennes' stone, green stone from Switzerland etc)
CGN4
CGN3
CGN1
My dog looking at the crevice, or rather very interested in the nice male dog passing by ?
2/ and 3/ The crevice seen from some different angles.
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Of course, I understand.........
(Attachment Link)
My back if FINE. ;D
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Many thanks, Kris. I'm waiting for your pictures next spring!
I think you don't have to wait that long Anne ....
Pictured yesterday in my crevice ..........Callianthemum kernerianum .
Don't tell Cliff ....
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Woo, Kris, so many buds in January!
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Yours is so much further on than mine, Kris ... must be the underground heating? ;D
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:o
Yours is so much further on than mine, Kris ... must be the underground heating? ;D
Oops to late , the master of the buttercups find it .....
It is a very good clone Cliff (a clone from Welsh plantsmen .... ;D)
No heating Cliff only our warm attention ......... ;)
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Woo, Kris, so many buds in January!
Here it is always very early Maggi .
They get no sunshine in winter in this part of the garden .But it is protected against the coldest winterwinds . We had offcourse a very mild winter so far ........
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Kris, it looks wonderful. Please post a picture when the buds open. Nothing will show in the crevice garden before April (assuming no snow). But it is early April these last years, it used to be mid-April. Is your crevice garden in a protected area? Mine is exposed to wind all the time.
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Ian Bainbridge sent this link :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25975251 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25975251) asking " is this extreme rock gardening??!"
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:o
With hindsight, perhaps not the best place to build a house?!
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... if only it had been a tufa rock... :P
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Kris, it looks wonderful. Please post a picture when the buds open. Nothing will show in the crevice garden before April (assuming no snow). But it is early April these last years, it used to be mid-April. Is your crevice garden in a protected area? Mine is exposed to wind all the time.
Thanks Anne. I try to post pictures when the buds aren open ! We had a very warm winter so far. In comparision with last 3 years it was very warm .....We even had no frost . This is rather unusual and tricky to......When weather changes some problems may be expected .......
Also this piece of the garden is protected against cold eastern winds.
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Ian Bainbridge sent this link :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25975251 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25975251) asking " is this extreme rock gardening??!"
So - not the first time it's happened as the pic showing a third boulder that's been there a few years! Thoughts of "the gods playing lawn bowls"!
Won't help the re-sale value ;D
cheers
fermi
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Maybe they'll get the message and move...
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Good to have a car in one of those boulder pictures. It shows very clearly, the relative size of the boulder! :o
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I think you don't have to wait that long Anne ....
Pictured yesterday in my crevice ..........Callianthemum kernerianum .
Don't tell Cliff ....
An update .........what you think ?
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And more ......
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Congratulations, Kris. They just look like they'll get better and better, such lovely plants.
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Congratulations, Kris. They just look like they'll get better and better, such lovely plants.
Thanks Anne , it is also very important to grow or get the right form/clone and only good suppliers make the right selections.......In this case the good breeding was made by Keith Lever ....Yes I love this plant to and it brings a lot of joy those days . With thanks to the knowledge from Mr. Lever and his family.
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See Kenton Seth's pix of his own crevice gardens and the fantastic work of Mike Kintgen at Denver Botanic Garden (http://www.botanicgardens.org/our-gardens/mordecai-childrens-garden) here : http://www.kentonjseth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/my-big-fat-czech-crevice.html (http://www.kentonjseth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/my-big-fat-czech-crevice.html) 8) 8)
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Sorry Kris, I somehow missed the updates above. I must have been invading Scotland). They are looking beautiful. My own pots are just about to come into full flower this week, weather permitting, some three weeks after yours in Belgium. Are yours under cover or do you have more hot air than me? (Go on Mr Nicholson … jump in on that cue). ;D
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Are yours under cover or do you have more hot air than me? (Go on Mr Nicholson … jump in on that cue). ;D
Never one to miss an opportunity! That's an impossibility ;D
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Kenton Seth's blog is very interesting but I have to remark that many of us who are now to be classified as (almost) old, find the pale writing on black background, very difficult to read. I probably need new glasses but even so....
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Two in bud in the crevice gardens. Too early for flowers, still getting frost. You can see a few rain drops on the furry leaves of the Astragalus loanus. This will be the first flowering of the astragalus. It also has beautiful seed pods.
Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'
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A few days later and the astragalus is blooming with many buds still to open.
1.Astragalus loanus
2.Veronica thymoides v pseudocinerea
3,Phlox pulvinata
All are in the crevice garden on the back of the cliff which is steep, so they get two-way drainage. All my western phlox have started blooming (P, condensata, P.hoodii, P.kelseyi, P.nana, P.pungens and P.pulvinata).
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That Astragalus is a little gem, Anne. I do hope you get a bumper year of flower with all your fabulous phlox.
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Maggi, the western phlox are always the first and they have started to bloom, but in general, the garden is way behind this year. The Magnolia soulangeana is blooming on schedule but the flowers have been hit with frost and not looking great.
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A few days later and the astragalus is blooming with many buds still to open.
1.Astragalus loanus
2.Veronica thymoides v pseudocinerea
3,Phlox pulvinata
All are in the crevice garden on the back of the cliff which is steep, so they get two-way drainage. All my western phlox have started blooming (P, condensata, P.hoodii, P.kelseyi, P.nana, P.pungens and P.pulvinata).
Fabulous Astragalus, Anne !! Awesome !
I never succeed to grow them out here ! :-\ Too wet I suppose !
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Thanks, Luc. This is the first time I've bloomed this one. My mix is very, very fast draining but this one has the added benefit of being planted in a steeply sloping site. That seems to have been the difference because I've lost the others which were planted in flatter places. It's a xeric plant and too much wet is usually fatal.
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Two in bud in the crevice gardens. Too early for flowers, still getting frost. You can see a few rain drops on the furry leaves of the Astragalus loanus. This will be the first flowering of the astragalus. It also has beautiful seed pods.
Great plant Anne ! I once try it here but as Luc already told ....I suppose it is to wet here . But sure I want to try it again ...
Here an update from my crevice ......I did not see the Saxifraga flowering this year because I was in Peru in March....
So I start this update by mid april.
Two forms of Androsace muscoidea .
And the first flower on Paraquilegia .
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One week ago ..........Androsace mariae and Pulsatilla albana .
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Kris, all are wonderful plants and so nicely sited. The foliage on Paraquilegia is outstanding, but I don't think it will grow here. Please be sure and post pictures of your yellow Astragalus vulneraria when it blooms. I'm sure that it's my mystery astragalus.
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I don't know why Paraquilegia wouldn't grow there, Anne, when it is hardy here in much harsher conditions.
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Much too dry, I think. Has your Astragalus loanus started budding yet? It's gorgeous in bloom, the first time it's bloomed here.
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Much too dry, I think. Has your Astragalus loanus started budding yet? It's gorgeous in bloom, the first time it's bloomed here.
Well, I'm just speculating, but it looks like your area normally gets more than twice the annual precipitation here (~40 inches vs. 16 - and a good proportion of ours runs off as snowmelt while the ground is still frozen). I've only had one plant of Paraquilegia sp.(possible garden hybrid) and only since 2010, but given my "survival of the fittest" conditions, it must be pretty tough. If you haven't grown it before, maybe it's worth a try? ;) My brief experience with it doesn't present a great example but it does spectacularly in Stephanie F.'s garden here in Calgary (what doesn't? :o), forming large clumps, blooming extravagantly and self-seeding happily!
No, my Astragalus loanus is just starting to put out new leaves - no sign of buds yet. It bloomed near the end of May last year. The second, wimpy seedling is looking committed to survival now - perhaps it will bloom this year. We're under snow again here, and may be until mid-week - last snowfall, I hope?
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Lori, I wasn't thinking so much of hardiness as I was of the conditions here - unreliable snow cover, humidity and summer mugs, full sun, wind and summer drought in a garden that can't be watered. That's asking a lot of an alpine. i never even considered trying it, but maybe someday.
Astragalus loanus is turning out to be a beauty. It survived the summer mugs for two years, I'm hoping it will make seed pods this summer. The leaves are covered with fine silver hairs and the flowers are huge. Astragalus detritalis is just starting to bloom now, a nice hot pink.
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Astragalus loanus really is special Anne - I am really envious having tried to grow some of these amazing legumes and like Kris and Luc with very limited success. They are worth any effort when you succeed with a plant like that! I have good hopes of Astragalus utahensis which has grown well in a pot in the past and maybe can gradually learn more of what they need. A proper crevice and tufa/hypertufa garden beckons!
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You must have a look at the show photos from Nairn and Glasgow, Tim, to see Sam Sutherland's Astragalus utahensis - a big plant full of flowers. It will give you hope ;)
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Kris, all are wonderful plants and so nicely sited. The foliage on Paraquilegia is outstanding, but I don't think it will grow here.
Thanks Anne , I think you are right about the Paraquilegia .Drought is one of the enemy's of this plant.
I have planted it on the coolest place in the crevice where only some evening sun is shining.
It is also protected against dry winds in summer or cold winds in winter (eastern winds) who destroy this plants in late winter.
Even in winter I thinks it is important that it never dry out completely. (but not to wet to )
I did see it growing in China in damp places and high mountains where temperatures never get that high ... Not a xeric thing in my opinion .......
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More resistance to drought : Campanula rupicola . This Greek one is growing very wel in a more Sunny spot of my crevice .
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Anne and Kris, thank you for showing us your fine plants
in such an excellent condition.
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Anne and Kris, thank you for showing us your fine plants
in such an excellent condition.
It is a pleasure to do Rudy . Only sharing gives pleasures .
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Last year I planted some young Androsace pubescens in different places and positions . Always away from the sun ............Already this spring the first flowers showed up.
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Kris, I really like your Androsace pubescens. The only one I do well with is Androsace villosa, but I like it very much.
Photographed this morning in the crevice garden.
Astragalus detritalis
Astragalus iodanthus
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And two more. The perfume of daphnes is everywhere now as they are flowering more and more.
Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'
Daphne x napolitana 'Bramdean'
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Kris, I really like your Androsace pubescens. The only one I do well with is Androsace villosa, but I like it very much.
Photographed this morning in the crevice garden.
Astragalus detritalis
Astragalus iodanthus
Trying to make us jealous with these formidable (for us ungrowable) Astragalus', Ann ?? ;)
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Absolutely not, Luc. I'm always hankering over the plants that you grow with such seeming ease that I can't grow well. Primula and campanulas come immediately to mind, also the Kabschia saxes ... the list could go on and on. I admit a tremendous fondness for all the pea plants, but many of them are difficult for me to keep for a long time.
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Absolutely not, Luc. I'm always hankering over the plants that you grow with such seeming ease that I can't grow well. Primula and campanulas come immediately to mind, also the Kabschia saxes ... the list could go on and on. I admit a tremendous fondness for all the pea plants, but many of them are difficult for me to keep for a long time.
We always seem to think the grass is greener on the other side of the mountain, don't we Anne ! :o
Let's learn to live with what we have ! :D
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That's wisdom, Luc. When I first started rock gardening I tried all the "classic" alpines and had a large plant cemetery. Then I grew as much seed as possible and tried a much wider range of plants, discovering plants that liked the conditions here. I've learned to love the plants that perform well. No two rock gardens are the same.
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That's wisdom, Luc. When I first started rock gardening I tried all the "classic" alpines and had a large plant cemetery. Then I grew as much seed as possible and tried a much wider range of plants, discovering plants that liked the conditions here. I've learned to love the plants that perform well. No two rock gardens are the same.
More wisdom Anne ...We al have to discover the possibilitys and the potential of our garden and rockgarden.
Nice pictures and plants again you showed us......
Sometimes we have to try a few times more , I have some promising results with some Phlox that I could not grow in the past.
I hope to post more pictures from creviceland ....
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A late flowering Saxifraga without a second name ......but with nice flowers. Discovered by Harry Jans in a Czech collection many years ago.
In a tufacrevice : Androsace x marpensis
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Beautiful plants, Kris.
Today in the crevice garden.
Onosma caerulescens
Penstemon nitidus, growing next to crevice garden
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Wow, that Onosma is wonderful. The finest Onosma that I know.
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I agree, Ebbie. It gets woody very quickly as it gets older and here, large sections of the older plants will die off in the spring. But it makes a tremendous amount of seed and every year I will find a few seedlings from the left-over seed I didn't collect.
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Penstemon nitidus looks to be lovely little plant Anne and not one that seems to be freely available in the UK.
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Penstemon nitidus looks to be lovely little plant Anne and not one that seems to be freely available in the UK.
I having been sending seed for it to the seedex since I joined, so keep an eye out for it!
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Thanks for that Lori, will do.
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Today in the crevice garden:
-Carduncellus rhaponticoides
-Thymus richardii ssp. nitidus 'Peter Davis'
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The Carduncellus is beautiful. Where did you get the seed?
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The Carduncellus never makes seeds here. My plant was grown from "Wurzelschnittlingen" (sorry, I don't know the English word. I mean pieces of the root). That should work without problems.
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The Carduncellus never makes seeds here. My plant was grown from "Wurzelschnittlingen" (sorry, I don't know the English word. I mean pieces of the root). That should work without problems.
Root cuttings, Ebbie.
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Oh yes - root cuttings. Very simple. Thanks Cliff.
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Pictured today in my nearest equivalent of a crevice bed:-
Scutellaria indica
Erigeron chrysopsidis 'Grand Ridge'
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Love the erigeron, David, but I wasn't very good at getting it to stay permanently.
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I have the same experience, Anne - I've tried it a number of times and couldn't ever keep it any longer than 2 or 3 years... I was wondering if it is short lived ??
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Today in the crevice garden:
-Carduncellus rhaponticoides
Ebbie, Carduncellus are wonderful plants. The plant you showed is probably Carduncellus pinnatus, which is flowering here too. The (in my eyes) real C. rhaponticoides I have never seen the last ? 30 years when I lost it somehow. I know that Eugen Schleipfer has sold the plant you showed under this name several years ago.
Here a pic. from an old dia of the original Carduncellus rhaponticoides.
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I have the same experience, Anne - I've tried it a number of times and couldn't ever keep it any longer than 2 or 3 years... I was wondering if it is short lived ??
In his "Alpine Plants of North America" Graham Nicholls says it is prone to sudden collapse and his have never lasted more than 3/4 years. He says it is easy from cuttings though.
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Ebbie, Carduncellus are wonderful plants. The plant you showed is probably Carduncellus pinnatus, which is flowering here too. The (in my eyes) real C. rhaponticoides I have never seen the last ? 30 years when I lost it somehow. I know that Eugen Schleipfer has sold the plant you showed under this name several years ago.
Here a pic. from an old dia of the original Carduncellus rhaponticoides.
Thank you Luit. You are right. It is certainly the prickly and feathered Carduncellus pinnatus (maybe forma acaulis). It is also true that the plant I purchased from Eugen Schleipfer years ago.
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Ebbie, Carduncellus are wonderful plants. The plant you showed is probably Carduncellus pinnatus, which is flowering here too. The (in my eyes) real C. rhaponticoides I have never seen the last ? 30 years when I lost it somehow. I know that Eugen Schleipfer has sold the plant you showed under this name several years ago.
Here a pic. from an old dia of the original Carduncellus rhaponticoides.
Oh yes they are Luit ! Thanks for this information Luit , very interesting !
Most go to find this plant again , even that pinnatus is wonderful Ebbie.
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Another flowering plant from my crevice is Androsace globulifera .
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I have the same experience, Anne - I've tried it a number of times and couldn't ever keep it any longer than 2 or 3 years... I was wondering if it is short lived ??
That's possible, Luc. I've seen huge mats of Douglasia laevigata in the wild and it took a bit of exploring to realize that the mat was formed of multiple plants. It appears to seed into itself. It certainly doesn't make big mats in my garden. Probably many of the plants on a rock gardener's "want" list are short-lived in nature. I'm always fascinated on how growers with alpine/green houses improve on nature. Their plants often look better without being subjected to nature's fluctuating affections - they live without droughts, floods, tearing winds etc., amazing.
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In his "Alpine Plants of North America" Graham Nicholls says it is prone to sudden collapse and his have never lasted more than 3/4 years. He says it is easy from cuttings though.
I certainly bow to Graham's experience. I loved visiting Graham's garden and seeing the plants from the American West that he was growing. Also keen in my memory is the ginger cake Iris served at tea - fabulous!
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More color in the crevice gardens. Everything quite late.
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Wonderful pictures, Anne ! Androsace villosa is to die for !! :o :o
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Luc, I think maybe I should only whisper this but Androsace villosa seems very happy here and the last couple of years has started seeding itself. Don't you just love plants that do your work for you?!
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Wonderful pictures, Anne ! Androsace villosa is to die for !! :o :o
I agree with Luc ! :o :o :o
In the tufacrevice : Helichrysum sessilioides - Cheilantes fendleri - Linum cariense.
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Lucky you, Kris. I've never been able to overwinter the Linum cariense.
In bloom well now and I'm hoping to be able to get seed this year,
Astragalus barrii
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Wonderful plants, folks!
Astragalus barrii is a cute one - reminds me of our native Astragalus gilviflorus, with the flowers peeking out of the cushion of leaves.
Linum cariense is a bit of a mystery to me. It seems to winter over here, but after a few years, when it's just getting quite nice, it's kaput! What's up with that, I wonder?
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When Claude Barr discovered Astragalus Barrii he was in the midst of a colony of A. gilviflorus which is somewhat similar. A. gilviflorus has larger flowers that are stemless, though. I find it very very difficult to keep.
Linum cariense is a mystery to me as well. It does so well in the beginning you think you have a winner, but perhaps the winter combination here of cold, wind and often no snow cover does it in. A pity because it's so lovely in bloom.
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Lucky you, Kris. I've never been able to overwinter the Linum cariense.
In bloom well now and I'm hoping to be able to get seed this year,
Astragalus barrii
It is only the second year that I am able to overwinter it in the garden Anne ...I put it in a very tight crevice between two tufarocks wich I filled with a mix of sand and grit .
The Astragalus is again very nice ! I want to try this one in the near future in my warmest parts of the tufacrevices .
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Linum cariense is a bit of a mystery to me. It seems to winter over here, but after a few years, when it's just getting quite nice, it's kaput! What's up with that, I wonder?
I think that many Linums are not so long living anyway .......Maybe this is a bit the same in nature , I don't know.
Many years I could not overwinter them in the garden but I keep trying because I had seeds (from different seedlists) and cuttings from my plant in the greenhouse. And now after about 4 or 5 failures I find a spot that maybe is better. Or I have a clone that is better ?
But we need more years of succes to have a party .....
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Kris, it doesn't take that long for me to have a party! If a plant seems happy and blooms well, have the party quickly because you never know what the next year's weather will decide to do. Also, photograph often, maybr every day, something I forget to do. Good luck on the linums, I think they're all special.
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Kris, it doesn't take that long for me to have a party! If a plant seems happy and blooms well, have the party quickly because you never know what the next year's weather will decide to do. Also, photograph often, maybr every day, something I forget to do. Good luck on the linums, I think they're all special.
:) :) :)
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Here's Astragalus gilviflorus from some time ago... it met its demise by rabbit. (Edit: Oops, no, that's not right. I'm wronging maligning rabbits - it was actually killed when ants burrowed under it.)
[attach=1]
And a couple of Linum cariense in the season before their untimely exits... >:(
[attach=2] [attach=3]
Anyway... ::)
Here's Astragalus loanus, forming buds. Ditto for Eritrichium howardii with one flower open:
[attach=4] [attach=5]
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After a tip from colleagues at Kew, we found at Wisley that Linums grow (and flower) much better and live a bit longer if you feed them more regularly than you might typically do for most alpines. Seems they are rather greedy! So a weekly liquid feed (low nitrogen, high potash) right through the growing season is what we did.
Paul
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Thanks for the tip, Paul. They're worth an extra bit of effort.
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Nice pictures, Lori. The Astragalus loanus looks great, you'll have a lot of flowers. So far, my plant is developing a seed pod, but only one despite the copious flowering.
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Your Astragalus are a show!
Concerning Linum cariense I think that it is simply too wet outdoors. My plant I have for now 6 years and it makes no problems and blooms every year rich. But there is protected of the rain in my alpine house.
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Wow!
Certainly not too wet here (with 16" annual precipitation)... I'll try to remember the feeding tip!
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Your Astragalus are a show!
Concerning Linum cariense I think that it is simply too wet outdoors. My plant I have for now 6 years and it makes no problems and blooms every year rich. But there is protected from the rain in my alpine house.
Ebbie, your linum is wonderful. I know there are some people who apparently shun yellow in the garden, but oh, what they are missing.
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Lori, I just checked this morning and there are now 3 pods on the Astragalus loanus. Life is good.
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Ebbie, your linum is wonderful. I know there are some people who apparently shun yellow in the garden, but oh, what they are missing.
Yes, I agree with you. That glossy yellow of Linum cariense is also particularly beautiful.
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After a tip from colleagues at Kew, we found at Wisley that Linums grow (and flower) much better and live a bit longer if you feed them more regularly than you might typically do for most alpines. Seems they are rather greedy! So a weekly liquid feed (low nitrogen, high potash) right through the growing season is what we did.
Paul
Very interesting Paul , many thanks for the tip !
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Your Astragalus are a show!
Concerning Linum cariense I think that it is simply too wet outdoors. My plant I have for now 6 years and it makes no problems and blooms every year rich. But there is protected of the rain in my alpine house.
:o :o :o Great Linum Eberhard !
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Nice pictures, Lori. The Astragalus loanus looks great, you'll have a lot of flowers.
I agree with Anne . Al nice and healthy looking plants . They look also very natural Lori .
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Rain and humidity and it's only May, yuk! Keeping a careful eye on the pods of Astragalus loanus and hoping the weather will dry up soon so they don't rot.
More plants in the crevice beds every day.
Penstemon davidsonii menziesii v microphyllus
Penstemon spatulatus
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These are great crevice "filler" plants, just easy doers that act as connectors. I'll put in more of them little by little and they won't interfere because they are not planted in long crevices where they could run. Since these crevices are finite, time will tell if the plants will be successful long term. The crevices are deep but not particularly wide. Just another ongoing experiment. My garden seems to be full of those.
1. Veronica oltensis
2. Erigeron scopulinus
3. Globularia repens 'nana'
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Another really nice crevice plant that seems happy.
1. Arenaria tetraquetra
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It's also genista and cytisus time in the crevice garden. They are planted in many places and they really punctuate the rock with marvelous color.
1. Genista depressa at top of cliff in natural crevice
2. Genista depressa in crevice garden
3. Penstemon sp
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A marvelous range of plants, Anne !
I'm also a big fan of the Veronica oltensis - I have it in a tufa crevice and it spreads gently over the tufa rock, rooting into the tufa ! A gorgeous cliff dweller !
The Penstemons are just as attractive !
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Luc, that's a good idea. I never thought of V. oltensis in relation to tufa. Isn't a rock garden Forum a marvelous idea?
Very, very busy here. I'm going to try some before and after construction pictures. (They'd be better if I remembered to photograph while working). These are before and after pictures of the crevice gardens at the top of the garden. Countless loads of mix and countless rocks set with the natural slabs of ledges acting as the "bones" and basically directing what I do. It's more an act of listening than an act of
creating. The last two pictures were taken today. In the last picture you can see some rebar - that's marking the presence of a piece of ledge which is only 10" down. It will tell me what I can plant there. In an unwatered garden it would be easy to fry some things with so little depth of soil.
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More pictures of rock. And then plants. The dianthus is planted in a natural crevice on the back of the cliff. The globularia is happily creeping
and covering multiple crevices. It has eaten several plants on the way but obviously it's the survival of the fittest. The plants that can't protect themselves are planted out of harm's way.
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A few more. The Astragalus loanus pod is very fancy. It's actually red but is so covered with white hairs that you can't really tell. The Collomia debilis is a marvelous plant. I've seen it in the Wallowa mountains above treeline growing in absolute rubble with no visible soil. It just kept popping up out of the rubble so it must have a very extensive root system like the gem of the genus, Collomia debilis v larsenii.
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Absolutely stunning, Anne … I can only guess at the time and effort involved … and when all this is added to the 'Alpine Eden' that you had already created … then "Wow,Wow,Wow"!!!!
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Crikey, Anne, is that how it's done?
Think I'll give up on my modest outcrop. ???
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That's a rock garden of my dreams .... Saw similar ones last year in the Czech Republic .... Wonderful!
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At last I have got around to mapping my mini-crevice bed so I can take out the labels, and take photos. Only lost 2 plants during the winter, what there was of it.
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Can't compete with these wonderful real life examples of crevice gardens but here are a few pictures of our display at the Kent Garden Show last year - 1. Deliberations. Mike and Hazel Brett, Peter Jacob (with the red hat - it was a cold May last year!) and, with his back to the camera, Paul Lewis who provided all of the troughs and a great deal of inspiration. 2. Half completed. 3. The crevice bed - over-planted I know but essentially for display. 4 & 5. The troughs.
These really are great ways of growing plants but I don't think too many viewers cottoned on to them. We are not doing this in 2014 but maybe another opportunity might arise in the future, and it was very stimulating for all of us who were involved.
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Very nice Tim!
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Took some pictures before the rain started. Something new is happening daily, such an exciting time in the crevice garden.
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Beautiful images (and , of course, plants), Anne.
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Cliff, the clouds were gathering and it was just about to rain. Seems like it's a better time to photograph. The sun seems to wash the colors out quite a bit.
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Good to see lichens getting established on your rocks. Usually a sign of unpolluted air and gives an impression of age to your structure.
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The lichens have been there forever. A Geologist once visited and immediately said the same thing, 'you have really pure air'. The rocks that were uncovered during the digging out of the rock garden have also acquired lichens. One steep slab of rock has a sheet of moss despite full sun all day. It's rather treacherous to be on it even when it's dry. One visitor thought I should be growing things on the moss.
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Tim, I loved your 'crevice trough'. Who gets to take that one home?
We had to remove a slate roof and I now have a lifetime supply of slates for troughs. Tufa has gotten so expensive now that you're very careful where you use it. Mine mostly goes into the tufa garden with new plants.
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Tim, do you have a list of the plants in the big 'crevice trough'. I tried but even under magnification couldn't read all the labels.
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Anne - unfortunately the big crevice trough was put together in situ so we had to pull the whole thing apart at the end of the Show. We distributed all the plants between us! I haven't got a list but will have to look on the original image I have if there is anything that particularly stands out.
Amongst the more choice plants are Anchusa caespitosa, Lewisia rediviva, Saxifraga 'Southside Seedling', Lithodora oleifolia, Leptinella atrata dendyi, Dianthus microlepis and Verbascum 'Letitia'. Quite a few of these came from the superb alpine wholesale nursery W.H.G. Mann & Son in Essex, very close to where the Essex AGS Group meet, plus a whole lot of things we grew ourselves. I've written about it in more detail on the AGS website (if I remember rightly somewhere under 'Any Other Topics' and 'Local Groups').
This is something I could imagine doing on a bigger (but still relatively small!) scale at the Chelsea Show but it is impossible without quite a bit of support and we still have our own garden to manage too. Your garden just looks so inspiring - you must say if you are ever visiting the UK; it would be great to learn more about it.
This is another neat little pairing of plants from the display - Lewisia & Zaluzianskya. The great thing about doing this is the freedom you have to associate plants and make a picture, but of course it is instantaneous so not really realistic in terms of how a garden develops more slowly over time. I can imagine that you deliberate for a long time deciding on the best spot for many plants!
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Tim, those are some great plants you put in that trough.
Yes, I do spend a lot of time thinking about siting the plants, because they will probably have to stay there forever, (or as forever as alpine plants get).
I played hooky once and went to Nottingham for the Conference and it was spectacular. Once I got over the guilty feeling of leaving my garden at that time of year, I had a fabulous time, met wonderful people, some of whom I had "met" on the Forum. Went on the pre-conference garden tour and that was so amazing. I would love to come again another spring, both to see the English gardens again and to see the Scottish gardens I missed. The plant show was incredible. We simply don't have shows like that in the U.S.
Please tell me something about the plant you showed, Zaluzianskya. I recall seeing that in a pot at the AGS Pershore Headquarters, but never learned anything about it. Anything you can tell me about habit, hardiness and culture would be greatly appreciated.
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What an absolutely incredible rock garden you have, Anne! I love seeing these photos!
Tim, stunning displays, as well!
Astragalus loanus is blooming heroically this year, and I suddenly "get" why rock gardeners might seek it out!
[attach=1] [attach=2]
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Dear Anne, Zaluzianskya ovata grows on partially shaded cliff faces at quite high altitude in the Drakensberg (see Hilliard & Burtt - The Botany of the Southern Natal Drakensberg), so it should be pretty hardy, probably similar to some of the Diascia species like D. integerrima and vigilis which we have found hardy with us. The flowers are rather wonderful with their red reverse, only opening early and late in the day. We haven't grown it long enough to test it properly in the garden but I'm not sure that many gardeners have found the genus that long lived. I wonder if it has been grown at Denver? (Almost certainly I would have thought).
I am smitten by Astragalus loanus that Lori and you have shown - only seen this once or twice at Alpine Shows but it's very subtle compared with some of the more colourful species. Really must keep trying these until I find a way of succeeding with them!
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One steep slab of rock has a sheet of moss despite full sun all day. It's rather treacherous to be on it even when it's dry. One visitor thought I should be growing things on the moss.
Mosses are a wonderful group of plants which can stand complete dessication for months and rehydrate in minutes. Bryophytes are not generally welcome in pots though.
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Lori, maybe this is just the year for Astragalus loanus. Great pictures and I hope you get lots of pods for seed. I'm down to two pods because we have been having grey, wet, dismal weather and this often occurs when the astragalus and oxytropis pods are forming. The result is predictable and the pods will turn to mush although the plant usually survives - very frustrating, because A. loanus had such a bumper crop of flowers this year. Your plant really looks fabulous. Do you grow Astragalus gilviflorus in your garden? I think you said that it grew nearby.
Tim, that Zaluzianskya ovata is a lovely thing. I've not been able to get Diascias through the winter so far, so the hardiness for me would be questionable. We are in a microclimate because of the garden being exposed to so much wind and frequently without snow cover. It's great in one way because most alpines suffer without air movement,
but in the winter they usually have some snow cover and are protected. I would imagine that it's been tried at DBG because they have pioneered so many South African plants.
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Mosses are a wonderful group of plants which can stand complete dessication for months and rehydrate in minutes. Bryophytes are not generally welcome in pots though.
I think mosses are lovely, but not to navigate on! It grows in full sun and wind on a very steep section of the back of the cliff and I don't know why it only grows there. I can maneuver on either side of it but I basically stay off it even when it's dry because it's possible to reach in from each side and remain in one piece. I've learned the hard way not to work on rock when it's at all wet - put moss on top of that and you really have the 'slippery slope'.
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V bright, sunny day fro a change. Bad for photography but I had to take a couple anyway. The Penstemon debilis is an absolute gem to my eye. The leaves are really blue. It grows in a geographically retricted area and one that is extremely hostile, if not perilous, to seed collectors - in a steep sliding scree atop perpendicular cliffs and below other perpendicular cliffs. The seed collector in this case was Alan Bradshaw of Alplains Seed Catalog. I hope everyone is well acquainted with this catalog. P. debilis actually put out some flowers in the fall and then the temperatures bottomed but it survived and has many, many buds. You can see the effect of our recent damp and rain on the leaves but it's still beautiful.
1. Penstemon debilis
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More in the crevice garden, this one on the back of the cliff.
Arenaria hookeri.
Asperula sp.
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Absolutely superb, Anne.
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I love your posts Anne, always something different, always something new to learn.
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Lori... Do you grow Astragalus gilviflorus in your garden? I think you said that it grew nearby.
I had it some time ago, until it was undermined by ants and died (as I'd mentioned a couple pages ago). It's native but not locally.
Enjoying the photos... the diversity of your plants is wonderful!
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More in the crevice garden. The dianthus is planted in a steep crevice on the back of the cliff in full sun.
Dianthus arpadianus
Eriogonum umbellatum ssp porteri
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This is certainly becoming dianthus time. They seem to like full sun in the natural crevices on the back of the cliff. The labels were lost to deer. A couple of them are even fragrant. It's also convolvulus time. The one shown is in a crevice on the back of the cliff and looking happy. This site gets sun all day long and a lot of wind as well.
Dianthus sp.
Dianthus sp in cliff crevice
Dianthus sp.
Convolvulus suendermanii
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The convolvulus is astonishingly beautiful. I bought this plant last May from Ota Vlasák but unfortunately haven't kept it - it will be top of my seed list next season! Isn't it a problem? Once you see plants growing where they are so well suited you just have to make a garden that gives them the same. We have a dream project of removing an old leyland hedge and replacing it with a tufa (or hypertufa) and/or crevice garden, and this would be just the place for such plants.
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Sounds like a plan, Tim. Hope you can get started on it soon. I really like all the convolvulus, especially C. boisseri, the foliage is so beautiful and the flowers are the whitest white possible.
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I really like all the convolvulus, especially C. boisseri, the foliage is so beautiful and the flowers are the whitest white possible.
Oh yes me to Anne . Here they like the most sunny places in the tufa -crevice garden. The smal crevices between the tufarocks I filled up with a mix of sand and grit. No other stuff ............
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The convolvulus seem to like things very lean so you have the perfect idea, Kris.
Arenaria is pictured growing in a trough but it is also in bloom in the crevice garden. It's very interesting how this starts growing in cultivation. In its native haunts, it forms a dome. Some of them get sizeable and must be at least 50 years old. In the garden, it often starts out life with a lumpy shape (sometimes almost a mat). After a few years it starts to bulk up instead of spreading and it will form a small dome. It's very floriferous.
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Luit, could you make use of a piece of root of Carduncellus rhaponticoides? Mine is doing very nicely and it is easy from root cuttings, as is C. pinnatus of course. Let me know. I admit to some small experience now of sending small plants around the world successfully. :D
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Delighted to see Penstemon spathulatus in such gorgeous bloom. I have really good mats of it, even to about 30cms across and maybe 4 years old but never a flower yet. Maybe it's soil is too rich? Any suggestions Anne?
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Lesley, I grow it in a very lean mix that's fairly rich in minerals, no humus. I've seen it in the Wallowa Mountains and it's beautiful there. In the garden it seems relatively easy. Maybe your mix is just too rich.
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Thank you Anne, I'm sure you are right. I have several small potted plants - I think they were originally from Ratko seed - so I'll try a couple potted in a harder mix and at least one in a biggish trough with a scree-type mix. I can't resist that super blue. :)
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Lesley, if you can't resist the blues, try Penstemon nitidus and Penstemon uintahensis. I think those blues could fairly be described as electrifying. When you see them bloom, you can't tke your eyes away.
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The crevice gardens are continuing to please. Every day's morning tour finds something to photograph. You can't photograph much beyond 9 a.am because the sun is so bright the photographs are totally washed out. Lately, of course, we haven't seen much sun - just too much rain. The potentilla and helianthemum are in a crevice at the top of the cliff - nice size for distant viewing.
1. Campanula betulifolia in newest crevice garden
2. Potentilla davurica mandschurica and Helianthemum num. 'Annabel' (maybe)
3. Helianthemum num. 'Annabel'?
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Some more at the top of the cliff - Moltkia petraea starting and Acantholimon sp. Also Centaurea bilkevensis, Moltkia petraea and one flower of Leontopodium nivale (very disappointing).
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A few more at the top of the cliff.
1. Bolax glebaria
2. Moltkia petraea
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Just seen Moltkia petraea growing and flowering in profusion on the crevice planting a Wisley. And really like the centaurea - both of these are plants we must grow. (But we can't provide such beautiful rockwork!)
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I saw the Wisley crevice garden before the Nottingham Meeting, when it was quite young. They had put in many plants but crevice gardens typically swallow up the plants because of the amount of rock. The new ones always look empty. I'd love to see it again, it doesn't take long for happy plants to reach a size you can actually see at a distance.
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Getting better and better, Centaurea bikovensis.
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Getting better and better, Centaurea bikovensis.
Remarkable plant again Anne !
Here some flowering plants from the last few weeks .......(in the tufacrevice and my other crevice )
Edraianthus graminifolius (seeds bought as E. jugoslavicus)
Acantholimon saxifragiforme
Phlox pulvinata
Phlox opalensis
Convolvulus compactus
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Getting better and better, Centaurea bikovensis.
Hi Anne,
I've just ordered this from a mail order nursery in the Blue Mountains, NSW!
lynnsrareplants.com.au (http://lynnsrareplants.com.au)
Looking forward to seeing it get as nice as yours,
cheers
fermi
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Fermi, I really think you'll enjoy this one. It gets better each year and accepts drought with the foliage still looking fresh.
Kris, your plants are looking marvelous. Congratulations on the phlox!
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In the lowest part of this crevice this Gentiana saxosa is flowering for the moment.
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Isn't that a lovely plant! It is flowering now in our garden in deep gritty sand next to a raised bed. I must make sure to collect seed of it because in the past it never proved long lived. I don't think many of the other NZ species are often grown, so maybe they are more tricky?
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Kris - you show us so many good plants from your lovely garden - thank you!
Tim - we find G. saxosa to be short-lived too - rather sad about that.
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My Gentian saxosa is also just coming into flower, but as you can see it is surrounded by seedlings from last year's flowering. So hope to have lots of flowering plants next year.
Bob
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That is a very cheerful sight, Bob. It's liking life with you for sure!
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Kris - you show us so many good plants from your lovely garden - thank you!
You are most welcome Maggi , as you know .....everything for the SRGC ;)
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My Gentian saxosa is also just coming into flower, but as you can see it is surrounded by seedlings from last year's flowering. So hope to have lots of flowering plants next year.
Bob
Oh that's interesting Bob . Does it make seed from only one plant ? Have to keep an eye on it ......
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Isn't that a lovely plant! It is flowering now in our garden in deep gritty sand next to a raised bed. I must make sure to collect seed of it because in the past it never proved long lived. I don't think many of the other NZ species are often grown, so maybe they are more tricky?
Hello Tim , the basic components of this crevice are also sand/grit with some extra bims and a very smal amount of clay . But for this one I added a bit of leaf and peat . In some years we have some very dry periods here in summer.....(and much heat ) It is a very difficult one to grow here and it is the first time that I could achieve such result. But I agree with you , I love this plant !
And I hope for seedlings like in Bob's garden !
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Oh that's interesting Bob . Does it make seed from only one plant ? Have to keep an eye on it ......
Yes, they are all from one plant. In fact there are quite a few more seedlings beyond the boundary of the photo.
Bob
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Yes, they are all from one plant. In fact there are quite a few more seedlings beyond the boundary of the photo.
Bob
Ok thanks , then I watch it carefully .... ;)
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All those seedlings from such a fine plant. Usually that only happens with weeds.
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A few things flowering (or not) in the crevice garden. Zuaschneria californica v Etteri has been flowering gently sinc the end of July, way ahead of schedule. Hopefully, the heavier bloom is yet to come. Also Zauschneria californica 'Wayne's Select', new to the garden this year and much sought after for its silery foliage. Sharp eyes might spot the single bud showing so far. These plants are really for late August and almost til frost.
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This is Daphne x hendersonii 'Rick Lupp', which is supposed to have arching branches and is just starting to show this characteristic. The foliage is quite wonderful, maybe it will flower next year.
I'm hoping in time the branches will arch over the rock for a very different daphne effect.
The Petrophytum hendersonii is just coming into bloom. It is very nicely starting to run along a narrow crevice.
*** This has been reidentified by Phyllis Gustafson and Panayoti Kelaidis as Petrophytum cinerascens. The foliage of P. hendersonii is bluer and the flowers are short, rather tubby and not on arching stems like this one.
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Reblooming for the third time in the crevice garden, Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'. Nice tidy foliage and growth, came originally from Harvey Wrightman.
Astragalus amphioxys 'San Felipe' reblooming.
Hedysarum candida has had a great year. The flowers were enormous (pale cream).
Also, more progress on the new crevice beds on the back of the cliff. Someday this might get finished. Looking forward to spring planting.
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Oops.
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*** This has been reidentified by Lori Skulski and Panayoti Kelaidis as Petrophytum cinerascens.
My goodness, I doubt I could have been part of that realization - not sure I'd recognize the genus, let alone the species! :o
Everything is looking wonderful, as always, Anne!
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Thanks, Lori. Actually, it was Phyllis Gustafson who correctly i.d.ed my plant.
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Kenton Seth, that enthusiastic young American gardener, is working ofn a new crevice project in Colorado - Paul Briggs from the Vancouver area has been across getting involved too - read all about it is a series of posts in Kenton's blog - starts here : http://kentonjseth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-apex-project-day-1.html (http://kentonjseth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-apex-project-day-1.html)
(Yes, I know the text is white on black TSK! - but make the text larger - makes it easier to read -and stick with it!- It's mostly photos........ ;) )
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Anne (astragalus) : I saw this, and thought of you! ;) ;D
"Jeff de Jong gives a workshop on Designing a Deer-Resistant Garden" Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 1pm 28th September http://hcp.ca/events/deer-resistant-garden-workshop/ (http://hcp.ca/events/deer-resistant-garden-workshop/)
I also saw this and thought of you - something that would surely keep deer away, even more so than young Max :o ;D
[attachimg=1]
He's a hybrid black wolf, it seems. As to what he eats - answer to that is "whatever he likes" I reckon.
Definitely a way to keep any crevice garden deer free.
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Thanks, Maggi. I think Max would do a great job were it not for the leash law we have in our town. If we fenced the place to keep Max in bounds that would work as well. But we would have to win the lottery first. We live on rock and it would be incredibly expensive to fence, requiring dynamite to make most of the post holes. The only place we have fencing is down at the road where the stream garden is - it has been a joy gardening behind an 8' high fence and no deer inside. I always overplant figuring the deer will eat a large percentage - at the stream garden I may have to thin out the plants!
A beautiful and very impressive wolf hybrid. Here they are not even legal in a lot of states. We have coyotes here but they don't make a dent in the deer population, though they might take care of an injured deer or fawn.
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Why not a few electrified wires.Not expensive to install and easy to do as a DIYjob.
It works here but be aware the highest wire has to be 7'or 8'( with a spacing of about 2') otherwise they jump over it!
On rocks you can either drill a 1''hole and hammer the iron rod in it or glide it in one of the hole of half a concrete block and mortar it on the rock.
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Zauschneria californica v Etteri has been flowering gently sinc the end of July, way ahead of schedule. Hopefully, the heavier bloom is yet to come. These plants are really for late August and almost til frost.
Well, look what I found in Twitter :
[attachimg=1]
a lovely tweet from Panayoti on a the aforementioend Zauschneria 'Etteri' in Anne's garden 8)
I'm a bit late in finding it - the SRGC twitter timeline used to show several days worth of "stuff" but now it only seems to be a few hours so it can take a bit of searching to find such gems!
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Panayoti was here a couple of days and saw my Petrophtum "hendersonii" which turned out to be P. cinerescens. He told me that the latter is actually much rarer. The zauschneria is still blooming. We've had only light frosts so far.
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Flowering in my crevice garden at the moment;
Celmisia hectorii hybrid (ex Hokonui Alpines)
Celmisia semicordata hybrid (ex Hokonui Alpines)
Celmisia brevifolia
Anaphalioides bellidioides This plant was propagated from a cutting collected locally from the Otago Peninsula.
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Lovely plants David.
Isn't this Forum a brilliant resource? I've spent a very dreich afternoon re-reading every post on this thread and have made a note of over 100 species and am now plodding through The Plant Finder to find any possible UK suppliers. Would it be news to say that so far in the "Who May Have It" stakes Aberconwy Nursery is leading by a country mile?
So many brilliant plants and so much high quality rock work to see especially from Anne Speigle, Leiomerus, Kris De Raemaeker, Ebbie, Anne Wright and Ian Christie to name a few. Speaking of Ian Christie, in September 2012 he showed that he was in the early stages of working on a new crevice bed built over peat blocks. We never saw the finishes article Ian, it's time for more pictures.
Why have I listed enough plants to fill the Wisley Crevice Garden? Well, I'm extending a rock bed I built last year and will be including a small crevice bed in it so am going to need a few plants! Now to the Troughs thread.
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Lovely plants David.
Isn't this Forum a brilliant resource? I've spent a very dreich afternoon re-reading every post on this thread and have made a note of over 100 species and am now plodding through The Plant Finder to find any possible UK suppliers. Would it be news to say that so far in the "Who May Have It" stakes Aberconwy Nursery is leading by a country mile?
So many brilliant plants and so much high quality rock work to see especially from Anne Speigle, Leiomerus, Kris De Raemaeker, Ebbie, Anne Wright and Ian Christie to name a few. Speaking of Ian Christie, in September 2012 he showed that he was in the early stages of working on a new crevice bed built over peat blocks. We never saw the finishes article Ian, it's time for more pictures.
Why have I listed enough plants to fill the Wisley Crevice Garden? Well, I'm extending a rock bed I built last year and will be including a small crevice bed in it so am going to need a few plants! Now to the Troughs thread.
Happy that we could inspire you a bit David. Can't wait to see your new crevice on this forum.
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Thanks, David and Kris,
The crevice garden is really a big experiment. I had some help from Dave Toole with the initial design and construction but the substrate I chose was a calculated gamble. It is crushed, weathered basalt from a local quarry that contains a lot of fines and clay. It seems to have worked on the whole. Unsurprisingly the plants that are flourishing best are those that grow on stony riverbeds and some are beginning to become a bit weedy notably Geranium brevicaule, Parahebe lyallii and Anaphalioides bellidioides. However most of what I have planted seems to be growing though I have had a few failures. I have another rock garden that is basically a raised bed of soil where I have planted some of the larger shrubs and herbaceous species that are not strictly alpines. It contains mainly hebes and a couple of Celmisia mackaui plant which are all doing well. (and seeding prolifically). I also have a collection of alpines in big clay pots ( 5 species of dwarf Carmichealia and some more Celmisias plus a few odds and ends. It is very much a matter of moving the different species around around to see which site and style of cultivation suits them.
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Hello Dave yes it is time to show how the peat crevice has done but first some pictures from the last few months will be in several batches, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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A few close ups of plants in the Peat crevices, Ian
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Next few, Ian
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Great images and great plants Ian!!!
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Great images and great plants Ian!!!
Sure , great ! Very interesting and thanks for sharing those pictures Ian. I like this idea and sure I want to use it ....
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A wonderful show, Ian ! Some cracking plants there as well !!
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Thanks Ian, some lovely stuff there. Primulas to die for.
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Hello thanks everyone for comments, I should have said that the peat blocks came from Sweden Bob Potterton kindly delivered them to Ron at Lamberton then we picked them up on a very windy day the car was full of peat dust for weeks Ann was not amused. I cut the blocks into slices with my chain saw so that I had more material to work with the original large size as we got them would not have worked so well. I will post more recent pictures once the rain stops have had lots of problems with moss growing now has anyone any ideas how to get rid of moss have tried several methods, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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Great plants Ian in a nice setting.
Phil Pearson of Issaquah, Washington grows some fine Saxifrages and swears by Wet and Forget to treat moss and algae. I haven't tried it yet but I intend to soon! Apparently it originated in New Zealand so it must be good. ::)
http://www.wetandforget.co.uk (http://www.wetandforget.co.uk)
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David L hasn't mentioned it here but he rightly reminded me recently that the NZ gentians are all now Gentianella. Darn it!
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Hello Lesley hope to see you soon when you can show me a few in flower. I post some pictures from today of the crevice garden and the Peat crevice been a super day hope it stay s for a while. Cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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A few more, Ian
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Next lot
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Last few, Ian
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You will have a magnificent time, Ian … and a helicopter flight as well … wow!
Please pass on our very best wishes to all our wonderful southern hemisphere friends … and enjoy your time in those splendid alpine haunts.
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Things are wrapping up for the year despite the warm weather off and on. It's mostly removing all leaves so the chicken wire can be put over the garden. Bambi has been very active but our hunter got an 8 point stag yesterday, unfortunately just a drop in the bucket. The hoof prints are all over the garden including all the crevice gardens. There was a big print between two Eritrichium howardiis, right next to the one that seeded itself in a piece of tufa. It has yet to bloom. In my late afternoon tour today (which explains the picture colors - a very gold sun slants in from the west at this time of year). Mostly leftover blooms now but two interesting finds - pods have formed after the 2nd bloom on Oxytropis multiceps, and one bloom on a gazania which hadn't bloomed at all.
1. Gazania
2. Daphne velenovskyii 'Balkan Rose'
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Elsewhere in the crevice garden:
1. Eritrichium howardii self-sown in tufa and almost a victim of Bambi's hoof
2. Oxytropis multiceps pods forming after second bloom this year
3. Zauschneria sp (probably 'Siskiyou Dwarf')
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Nice update Anne . A bit envy to see your Eritrichium :o
Here a little trough. For this trough I use the same rocks as the ones I used for my crevice.
The target was to build a very smal crevice in a trough .........
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That's very nice Kris! We have been promised two large 'Butler' sinks and must try something similar next spring if we can find some suitable rock.
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Looks very natural Kris.
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Thanks Tim and David . :)
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Kris, your trough is wonderful. I also like the way you seem to have integrated the trough into the garden, it looks very natural. I think the large troughs are the best for plant survival in a cold climate.
What are the measurements? You seem to have found room for a lot of very good plants. Do you protect it in any way during the winter?
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Hi
In the last couple of days, I have made my first attempt at building a (very) small crevice garden. The scans are attached with some trepidation. Two views, the front which is south facing (but does not really get much sun at this time of year due to neighbouring houses) and the side.
The stones (rocks seems too grand a word) used to build the crevice are the re-use of some flat and relatively thin stones that I have been using as stepping stones around the garden for many years. (Bought round stepping stones from a garden centre to replace them in the rest of the garden.) The compost is 50% of my quite light garden soil plus 50% horticultural coarse grit.
Having a lack of patience, I added a few plants to see how they would get on. They are:
a Primula marginata 'Adrian Evans' that was displaced by the building of the crevice;
offsets from Saxifraga paniculata cartilaginea;
offsets from Saxifraga 'Grace Farwell';
offsets from Sempervivum arachnoideum;
a Gentian saxosa seedling (I have lots);
Raoulia australis.
More compost has still to be added to most of the crevices and I intend to do the main planting in (very) early spring.
Bob
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Good for you, Bob. Can't blame you for getting right to it an planting a few things you had to hand - a very natural reaction.
I'm quite surprised the rain has been off long enough for you to get into the garden lately - seems a very soggy season to me. ;)
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Well done Bob, looks good.
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Nice start, Bob. You'll be so amazed at how many plants your crevice garden will hold.
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Thanks Anne, David and Maggi for the comments.
Maggi, it has been sunny here in Stirling all day. Hope that does not mean frost tonight. I have some half hardy Fuschia plants that survived last winter outside and which are still in full flower. Do not remember that before at this time of year.
Bob
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I've been noticing in the gardens round about here that the half-hardy fuchsias are still flowering really well.
It's getting very nippy here tonight- already some ice on the roof of the car so we are in for quite a frost . Hope you escape it.
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Kris, your trough is wonderful. I also like the way you seem to have integrated the trough into the garden, it looks very natural. I think the large troughs are the best for plant survival in a cold climate.
What are the measurements? You seem to have found room for a lot of very good plants. Do you protect it in any way during the winter?
Thanks Anne. Sorry for the late reply , we where on holiday the previous week. I used the same rocks as the ones I used for my crevice .
Actually this is my smallest trough. I try to give dimensions later on . Last two winters where very warm here but in cold winters I wrap this trough with bubble foam when severe frost with no snow is expected. Yes I give this trough a cover but I do this as late as possible. I just putted a cover on them this weekend. And already in mid february or end february at latest I remove this cover. Offcourse depending on the situation wich can be very different from year to year. This trough is mainly devoted to Androsace , because I can't grow the most of them in the open garden.
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Why not grow Crocus as a creviceplant ?
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As I proceed through my 70's I can't help thinking about what I've never grown and how long I might be able to continue my gardening interests before time catches up with me. With this is mind I'm now growing far fewer bulbous plants than I used to and trying to grow more alpines. Over this year I've developed a new rock bed the end of which will be a small crevice which I have yet to finish but aim to complete so that I can buy some plants, to add to those I'm growing from seed, at the South West AGS Show at the end of March 2015. Here's one from seed, and apologies for the fuzzy picture, struggling to open fully in the very wet and grey days typical in a maritime climate, Androsace albana, I think?. Sown October 2012 from AGS Seed Ex 11/12-1303. I note from Smith and Lowe that this will probably die after flowering, should have read that before I sowed them :(
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There are so many great Androsaces, perennial and monocarpic - have you seen the examples from Franz Hadacek's collection in the IRG of September 2014? http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2014Sep251411672305IRG57.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2014Sep251411672305IRG57.pdf)
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Finally a free day to spend covering a large part of the garden with chickenwire. It has to be raised off the ground or the deer will walk all over it. I've been using the u-shaped wire supports from old political signs, but as the garden keeps growing (when I'm not looking), I no longer have enough. This year I had to get quite creative as you will see.
First, a picture of what happens when the garden is not covered.
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We had some old wrought iron chairs etc waiting for me to paint and make some seats, etc. They have now been put to work. I also have used the iron chairs from the terrace despite protests from my husband. I pointed out that they sit outside all winter anyway so they wouldn't be hurt by a temporary change of location. Also upended all my work buckets to keep the wire raised. The garden now looks rather strange but it will stymie Bambi. Even the back of the cliff is now protected, and that was difficult. Sharp eyes will see the daphne still with small flowers under the wire (D.velenovskyi v 'Balkan Rose').
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Amazing bit of ingenuity Anne, I respect your motivation and hard work. I have heard some reports that wolves are being reintroduced into the Northern United States, to bring the ecosystem back into balance. Do you have wolves there?
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Don't I wish! We don't have wolves yet - they would make a huge difference in the deer population and in a short amount of time you would never see deer in the open. With predators around they would have to revert to their earlier habits. We have coyotes but they're much smaller and would only be able to handle a disabled fawn. I've heard that mountain lions are slowly moving eastward and that would certainly make a difference. In the meantime it's impossible to garden here without resorting to fencing or some sort of winter covering. The biggest frustration is finding pieces of plants left here and there, even acantholimons are not safe from their daily raids.
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Paraquilegia anemonoides growing wel in my crevice .
[attachimg=1]
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A delicate beauty, Kris. 8)
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I like 8)
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Thanks Maggi and David .
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In a crevice between two tufarocks : Silene nivalis
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I like that too Kris ;D
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I like that too Kris ;D
A wee little beauty I would say ...But a difficult plant , it is already my fourth attempt David....
It failed in tufarocks and in pot and in another crevice .....But it seems that this place fits better , at least I hope so .....
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This photo ( via Facebook) from Mike Kintgen of the Denver Botanic Garden shows the Crevice Garden at the Childrens' Garden there - one year after construction
[attachimg=1]
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This photo ( via Facebook) from Mike Kintgen of the Denver Botanic Garden shows the Crevice Garden at the Childrens' Garden there - one year after construction
So nice Maggi , thanks for sharing . I think it wil inspire al crevice fanatics....
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Magnifico 8)
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We have lots of those, anyone like to import a few,? no CITES cert required. :-X
They're invasive, aren't they?
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This photo ( via Facebook) from Mike Kintgen of the Denver Botanic Garden shows the Crevice Garden at the Childrens' Garden there - one year after construction
(Attachment Link)
Where the heck was that when I was out there last year????
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Carlo, it is above the parking garage. I was there 2 weeks ago.
Actually the garden was there 2 years ago when I was there
but I think the crevice was still to be built.
DBG is a premier site.
John B
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Wonderful and colorful, and you'll never have to worry about positive drainage.
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This photo ( via Facebook) from Mike Kintgen of the Denver Botanic Garden shows the Crevice Garden at the Childrens' Garden there - one year after construction
(Attachment Link)
Looks gorgeous, Maggi.
Thanks for sharing !
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In for a brief rest because a new project was started today, a tufa crevice garden at the back of the cliff. It will join the rest of the crevice garden when finished. Two of the rocks are already planted thanks to our recent tufa workshop that Elsiabeth Zander talked about in her blog.
This is just the result of one morning, so very early stages. In my head, it is completed and flowering of course!
Elsewhere in the crevice garden, Onosma caerulescens has started, and all the daphnes are beginning to open.
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Wonderful Anne … I can picture the spot and can only imagine the work that will be involved and the sheer pleasure that you will get from all that effort … the onosma is glorious.
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You gracing us with your presence in the UK at the moment Mr B or swanning off in some European, or other, hot-spot ;D
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You gracing us with your presence in the UK at the moment Mr B or swanning off in some European, or other, hot-spot ;D
Here for a couple of weeks, Mr N., before visiting Italy twice more this year (and above the Arctic circle in Norway) … but, to your chagrin I suspect, we are heading down to your neck of the woods VERY soon with lectures in the Cotswolds and in Dorset during the coming week.
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In for a brief rest because a new project was started today, a tufa crevice garden at the back of the cliff. It will join the rest of the crevice garden when finished. Two of the rocks are already planted thanks to our recent tufa workshop that Elsiabeth Zander talked about in her blog.
This is just the result of one morning, so very early stages. In my head, it is completed and flowering of course!
Elsewhere in the crevice garden, Onosma caerulescens has started, and all the daphnes are beginning to open.
Very promising Anne , looking much forward to see the development of this part . This Onosma looks great .
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Last shots of the day. Worked on the tufa crevice garden and it's coming along well. Much time being spent tamping in the mix and tufa crumbs saved from cutting the stone, and then watering it in. Everything here is like dust. By tomorrow I'll be able to go back to tamping. This is in lieu of letting it settle for a year. I'll keep putting more mix and crumbs in before planting.
Finally quit at 5:30, too tired. Wish there was some sort of law that said gardeners don't have to make dinner during garden season! Yawn.......................
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Looks good Anne , I am sure that it wil be great ......after al the hard labour .....
It is really pretty working with tufarocks .....
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]
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Kris, your tufa garden is beautiful. Can you please tell me some of the plants that have been successful for you in and next to tufa?
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Wow!!!
A very impressive-looking tufa garden Kris!
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Thanks Steve and Anne . Off course I wil share those information with you and this great forum Anne . Come back on this soon .....
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Planted on the top part of the tufa garden early this morning and covered it with some screening because it's in full sun. Won't be able to plant again until this evening.
Leaving in two days for the NARGS Annual Meeting in Michigan and questioning my sanity. I hate to be away for 5 days at this time, but it will be worth it.
Posting some daphne pictures even though not yet in prime bloom. The air on top of the cliff is heady with their scent, just wonderful. The second pic ture seem to be another form of D. velenovskyi. It differs from 'Balkan Rose' but is also lovely.
Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'
DSC00755
Daphne x napolitana 'Bramdean'.JPG
Phlox 'Lehmi purple'.JPG
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Super plants Anne !
Have fun on your trip ! 8)
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Wonderful, Anne … we can smell them from here! Have a great time in Michigan, lots of photos please.
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Forumist Koko (KK) is in Ann Arbor, for a start ..... hope you can have a forum get-together 8)
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Thanks for the heads up, Maggi.
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Top part of the new tufa garden partially planted. Other plants in bloom in the crevice gardens.
DSC00793
Daphne x hendersonii 'Fritz Kummert'.JPG
Daphne 'Rick Lupp form'.JPG
Hymenoxys lapidicola.JPG
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And some more, such an exciting time of year, full of surprises both good and not so good.
Phlox borealis at top of cliff.JPG
Phlox griseola.JPG
Daphne 'Maisie Larae'.JPG
Astragalus spathulatus - white form.JPG
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Some wonderful plants you have there, Anne and your excellent photographs really do them credit.
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Thanks, that compliment means a lot because I took the photos. Usually Joe takes them because good photography takes more patience than I have.
Another great little plant below., Astragalus barrii.
And of interest is two kinds of foliage on plants of Lomatium grayi. Same plant but one has much more dissected foliage. That one seeds itself under the plant's skirts. The other one, with the coarser foliage, self-sows in the general vicinity of the parent, and more plentifully. Guess I'll never know why.
Astragalus barrii.JPG
Lomatium grayi.JPG
DSC00729.JPG
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The Phlox borealis and the Onosma in the foreground are especially wonderful! But the two Astragalus are superb!
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This is just the result of one morning, so very early stages. In my head, it is completed and flowering of course!
Elsewhere in the crevice garden, Onosma caerulescens has started, and all the daphnes are beginning to open.
You did this in one morning? It would have taken me weeks! :o
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And what amazing and wonderful plants to follow. Thanks so much for these Anne. I remember with deep pain, watching the Americans, Danes, Swedes and others packing up their Daphne plants in the Czech Republic while we NZers could only weep quietly into our glasses, knowing we could never have them.
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Thanks so much, Ebbie.
Lesley, the tufa crevice garden is not finished yet. Due to impatience I planted part of the top third. It won't get disturbed by the next step in construction. Which will be immediately after the Meeting in Michigan. They will be selling tufa there but I can't very well bring it on the plane.
I can sympathize with your plight re: the daphnes. You should have seen me at Nottingham where there was no one to do a phyto. That meant no buying plants at the wonderful sale, not to mention at Robin White's garden where he was selling some wonderful daphnes. I wasn't willing to risk smuggling them home. Too law abiding, I guess.
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Superb series, Anne !
Your Phloxes (and many other plants) keep amazing me ! Respect !!!
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Yes Anne it's a terrible burden being a basically law-abiding person. How much fun we could have if we were not!
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Thanks for the heads up, Maggi.
Anne,
We will be looking forward to a exciting week. I will be helping out on registration on Thursday. If you see a gray haired asian, that will be me!
Keeping our fingers tightly crossed to see a kind side of mother nature for the event.
Koko
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As a far away NARGS member, I'll be thinking of you all, Koko and Anne, Malcolm, Bobby, Matt M etc etc! Have fun!
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Hi
Last November, I started building a south facing crevice garden and posted my first effort in this forum a few months ago on 23rd November. Since then, I have extended it and the result is attached. Its planting includes a dozen Kabschia saxifrage plus aethionema, androsace, primula marginata, sempervivum, lewisia, other saxifrage and some dwarf primula, dianthus and aquilegia amonst others. The plants are all still small, but will hopefully develop and give a good display next spring.
Managed to take the picture in a break from all the rain we have been having.
Any suggestions for improvement, warmly welcomed.
Bob
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That's looking well, Bob. Amazing how these little plants are so weatherproof, isn't it?
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Looks good Bob, very good.
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Friends in the Hampshire AGS group had a visit to Wisley this weekend - they had a grand time - including beingshown round the "backroom" areas by Curator Colin Crosbie.
I've pinched this photo by Paddy Hinton Parmee of part of the crevice garden -
[attachimg=1]
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More from the crevice garden where everything is blooming at once because of the heat. The Cytisus x kewensis is establishing itself in a very deep crevice between 2 huge pieces of ledge which seem to protect it. The hedysarum is not in bloom yet but the buds are so beautiful I had to take the picture. The astragalus and oxytropis are actually in a trough but couldn't find the trough thread, sorry. Astragalus barrii has been in bloom for 3 weeks and just keeps getting better. It likes the heat much better than I do!
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Fabulous, as always, Anne! What charming buds on the Hedysarum!
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So beautiful …
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An astonishing array of plants Anne in a fabulous lay out !!
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Many thanks Luc, Cliff, Lori. I think the hedysarum buds are just as wonderful as the flowers. Wish we had a long cool spring this year so that things would last, you wait so long for the garden to wake.
Paeonia mlokowitschii and Paeonia tenuifolia only lasted a matter of days and they were gone.
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One of the great creviceplants, Genista depressa. This one is being attacked by an asperula planted above. The second picture is Eriogonum umbellatum v porteri, a true alpine and one of the easiest to grow.
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Long work day w/perfect working conditions. Rained last night, cloudy most of the day. Tufa crevice garden#1 is 98% done and planted - just need to add tufa crumbs and mulch. Pictures show it almost completed and preparation started for tufa crevice garden #2. This is a lot of fun to do. Have already started cutting pieces of tufa and it's quite irregular and unexpected so the plan just evolves according to what the stone shows me. Very different. Junellia micrantha survived in a trough so I bought one in bud to put in the tufa garden, heavenly fragrance.
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And in crevices on the back of the cliff.
Erigeron scopulinus
Edraianthus pumilio
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Looking SO good, Anne ...
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Isn't Edraianthus pumilio a good plant! The equal of any choice androsace, or even astragalus ;). Just the perfect combination of foliage and flower. It grows well and self seeds in our sand bed. The Hedysarum is a great looking plant too - will be really interesting to see the flowers when they open - it reminds me a little of Ebenus, and these legumes are fascinating and so little grown. I've just planted some seedlings of Aquilegia jonesii in the sand bed and tufa - what chance that these might grow away and flower?? Other aquilegias, like campanulas and edraianthus grow really well here.
Very exciting to see what's happening in your garden Anne - I could wish we were surrounded by rock too.
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Tim, I agree with you about Edraianthus pumilio - it's really a winner but I have to admit to liking E. montenegrinus even better because it has such a deep color. The hedysarum starts blooming at the base of the bud and will have many flowers this year, cream color if I recall and a wonderful contrast to the fantastic foliage. I've seen Aquilegia jonesii in nature growing in limestone rubble very happily. I've never seen it in cultivation completely approximate the deep color nor the size of the flower, and that certainly includes in my own garden. Probably Cyril Lafong grows it to perfection, but for lesser mortals, not too likely.
What are you growing in tufa? I need more ideas for the next tufa crevice bed, please.
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Anne - we only have a couple of pieces of tufa and are growing just a few plants such as Helichrysum coralloides, Dianthus 'Conwy Silver' and one of the very small daphnes in them, so I can't give much advice - but Jiri's wonderful tufa cliff in the Czech Republic is filling up with so many interesting plants. If we could find a source of tufa, plants like saxifrages, choice primulas, gesneriads, rock ferns, Physoplexis, and a host of other plants would find their place (almost like an Impressionistic painting). So if anyone is interested in importing tufa from Canada ŕ la Waterperry let me know ;). In the sand bed the tufa gives a sort of focus and the combination of the two works very well even on the smallest of scales like this.
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That's a real color feast, wonderful. I think the difference is that mine can't be watered through the summer heat. I have to hope that roots establish quickly although we have been having drought conditions at the very time of year that rain can be counted on. My tufa garden will have a number of dryland plants as a result. Time will tell how well it will work.
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Calandrinia caespitosa - happy so far but will have to see what happens. The plant came from LaPorte Avenue nursery in Colorado, where Karen Lehrer and Kirk Fieseler have been propagating some Patagonian plants, such as Junellias. I loved seeing this calandrinia in nature, so primary in color.
I put this one in the new tufa crevice bed.
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That's a real color feast, wonderful. I think the difference is that mine can't be watered through the summer heat. I have to hope that roots establish quickly although we have been having drought conditions at the very time of year that rain can be counted on. My tufa garden will have a number of dryland plants as a result. Time will tell how well it will work.
It's a matter of trial and error to find out what works and what doesn't Anne. Sometimes, things go wrong when you least expect it and on other occasions plants that are supposed to hate lime establish wonderfully on tufa. Nature has it's own rules and plants don't read books... ;D ;)
It's great fun though, growing in tufa.
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Agreed, Luc. The other thing is to try not to plant anything that likes the situation TOO well.
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Tufa crevice bed is 99% finished and planted. Ready to start the second one.
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Tufa crevice bed is 99% finished and planted. Ready to start the second one.
How very promising !! :D
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A new member is crying out for help on an Edraianthus pumilio ID issue and hasn't had a reply yet and I'm sure some of the regulars on these pages might be able to help.
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=13212.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=13212.0)
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Calandrinia caespitosa appears to be making seeds so hopefully it can be kept going. Sorry, not a good picture.
The Hedysarum candidum is now fully in bloom, a bit floppy after a brief heavy rain, but still gorgeous.
The last is a lovely penstemon from seed which turned out to be misnamed. Don't know the species.
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Here's a great picture I've just been sent by Andrea Patey in response to my 'Comment' in the latest RHS Garden. This is a crevice garden made by her brother, Terry Hatch, over from New Zealand and making use of a whole lot of left-over tiles. If that doesn't turn a lot of gardeners over to 'rock' gardening I'll become a bricklayer ;). Just brilliant I think.
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That's a great new garden bed! Terry Hatch is part of the well-known "Hatch Clan" of New Zealand gardeners and nursery owners, Tim.
Fun to see him "doing his thing" in the UK as well!
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Yes the name rang bells and Andrea mentioned his nursery 'Joy Plants'. It was really nice to get such a quick response to the 'Comment' I wrote (and to know that 430 000 RHS members give or take a few might read it!).
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Quite so! I noted from the RHS "Annual Review 2013/2014" https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/pdfs/about-the-rhs/mission-and-strategy/past-annual-reports/rhs_annualreview_2014 (https://www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/pdfs/about-the-rhs/mission-and-strategy/past-annual-reports/rhs_annualreview_2014) that RHS Membership was 414,699 for 2013 and the 2013/14 income was Ł71.94m which is a mind boggling amount.
I wonder how many more members ( and dosh) they'd get if the publications such as The Garden and The Plantsman were for sale to non-members?
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Another nice astragalus in bloom plus the first color change for the flowers of Eriogonum umbellatum ssp porteri. There aren't that many truly alpine eriogonums and this is a great one with many color changes as the flowers mature plus the leaves turn a deep burgundy when the weather gets cold again.
1. Astragalus monspessulans
2. Eriogonum umb. ssp porteri
3. Centaurea pestalozzi
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Much as I loved Andrea's picture of a crevice garden, this is the real thing :). So lovely to see those plants growing outside Anne - I think the centaurea is one that Jon Evans showed in his pictures from the Wimborne AGS Show, with a comment that it was difficult. The answer: make a really good crevice garden! We've got the eriogonum growing in the sand bed but so far it is very small - would very much like to grow more of this genus.
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Tim, the eriogonum shown is pictured in its first color change from bright yellow. It will keep changing until it turns a deep rusty red. It's a true alpine and amenable to rock garden culture. All in all, just a great plant.
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Ian is very fond of Eriogonums and has raised several from seed but they have never performed well here - I think the climate is not good enough in summer to ripen them for flowering.
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Maggi, they really need dry air, which I don't have during the summer either. But the one constant here is air movement - this tends to be a very breezy garden most of the time. I think that helps getting away with humidity if the air is moving.
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Such a wonderful time. Things keep popping into bloom and every day is exciting. Moltkia petraea is starting and it has also self-sown into some crevices, lovely.
I've made a good start on the second tufa garden and now have to wait until August for the rest of the rock to come so that I can finish it. It's partly planted where there will be no future disturbance when I'm back to constructing. It's terrible when you outrun your supply lines. First, a whole day was spent cutting tufa and laying it out, so the building was really easy and thus speedy.
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Here is the crevice bed I have been working on since last fall.
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A nice accidental combination in the upper crevice bed. The moltkia seeded itself there. Plants think of things gardeners miss.
1, Moltkia petraea and Centaurea biokevensis
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Really lovely Anne! Ian Christie remarked elsewhere about Ian Y's short piece on the Beechgrove Gardening programme being (an all too short) breath of fresh air for those of us who love growing alpines. I would dearly love to see a programme on your's and some of the other N. American rock gardens and nurseries. It would be like gardening programmes eventually discovering the fresh air of the mountains: 'The Land above the Trees'! (Maybe I am waxing too poetic? :))
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That would make for stunning television, Tim … I could recommend at least twelve more beautiful gardens and I'm sure that Panayoti and Mike Kintgen could add a further fifty or more (both private and public) - all crying out for recognition, exposure and commendation. With the right presenter, an in-depth analysis of the history, location, design and, most importantly, the plants of the chosen gardens this could make for ground-breaking television. There are so many wonderful gardens (not necessarily 'alpine' in every case) in the States and Canada that this could run and run.
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My wife has been busy cleaning up and rearranging an old rock garden. Now for some grit sand and some plants.
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A good start Ralph, I'll be interested to watch the progress.
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I've been working on a new extension to my rock garden, a little grotto of sorts for plants which require a bit of protection from the hot afternoon sun. A step became a seat, a place to sit and enjoy the garden. By chance this flat topped rock which forms a pillar on the outside of my seat makes an excellent table for a cup of tea or coffee! Not that I have time to sit and drink tea while in the garden. Too much to do! But one can dream can't one?
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Great feature, James !! I like it !!
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Nice stone and stonework, Jamus. 8)
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Nice stone and stonework, Jamus. 8)
Just what I was thinking, too. I like a nice rock.
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Here's another view, it'll look better once all the plants grow.
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Excellent work, Jamus - a good crevice garden should look as good empty as it does when fully planted and "furnished" with plants!
I'm always surprised when people say they "loathe" vertical crevice gardens or that such rock work is "not natural" - I guess those folks haven't seen this sort of thing :
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In a country as ancient as Australia we are quite used to seeing exposed rock tilted and folded and lifted into all kinds of angles and configurations. Nothing would surprise me. The adelaide hills where I live is what's left of a very ancient range.
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Here's another view, it'll look better once all the plants grow.
Wow! :o Looks fabulous right now!
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A good start Ralph, I'll be interested to watch the progress.
Now ready for some plants.
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I'm always surprised when people say they "loathe" vertical crevice gardens or that such rock work is "not natural" - I guess those folks haven't seen this sort of thing :
....... or the limestone pavement on top of Malham Cove back in God's own acres:-
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pavement+on+top+of+malham+cove&rlz=1T4GGNI_enGB505GB505&tbm=isch&imgil=ddY0BDo98F6KsM%253A%253BWajhL8fP3TWjfM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.yorkshirewalks.org%25252Fdiary08%25252Fdiary259.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=ddY0BDo98F6KsM%253A%252CWajhL8fP3TWjfM%252C_&biw=1536&bih=721&usg=__dTHU5EtFyboYB2po3lFC4JBNeaY%3D&ved=0CCsQyjc&ei=RQeLVd_DBuSz7gaYuoOwCg#imgrc=ddY0BDo98F6KsM%253A%3BWajhL8fP3TWjfM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.yorkshirewalks.org%252Fdiary08%252Fmalham1%252Fc3909a.JPG%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.yorkshirewalks.org%252Fdiary08%252Fdiary259.html%3B750%3B351&usg=__dTHU5EtFyboYB2po3lFC4JBNeaY%3D (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pavement+on+top+of+malham+cove&rlz=1T4GGNI_enGB505GB505&tbm=isch&imgil=ddY0BDo98F6KsM%253A%253BWajhL8fP3TWjfM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.yorkshirewalks.org%25252Fdiary08%25252Fdiary259.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=ddY0BDo98F6KsM%253A%252CWajhL8fP3TWjfM%252C_&biw=1536&bih=721&usg=__dTHU5EtFyboYB2po3lFC4JBNeaY%3D&ved=0CCsQyjc&ei=RQeLVd_DBuSz7gaYuoOwCg#imgrc=ddY0BDo98F6KsM%253A%3BWajhL8fP3TWjfM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.yorkshirewalks.org%252Fdiary08%252Fmalham1%252Fc3909a.JPG%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.yorkshirewalks.org%252Fdiary08%252Fdiary259.html%3B750%3B351&usg=__dTHU5EtFyboYB2po3lFC4JBNeaY%3D)
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Quite so, David, doesn't get much more natural than that.
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I have a ton of seedlings raised from seedex seed growing nicely and I'm wondering if people can discuss the best stage of growth for planting out into the rock garden. These are destined for my crevice bed; the question is, is it better to let them grow on into strong little plants in the tubes or carefully nestle them into their ultimate home and let the establishment happen in situ? I imagine there will be advocates for both options...
Below are pictures taken today of Penstemon virens, Penstemon hallii and Erigeron compactus as examples.
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Your examples, penstemons and erigerons, are both very tough customers that do well in the conditions here, so I'd have no qualms about planting them out at an early stage (as I do with everything, though, successfully or not. ;) ).
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Thanks Lori. I have enough to try it with plenty of backups in tubes, so nothing to lose really.
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Jamus,
I took a look at your rock work. It looks fantastic!
Be very careful with Astragalus. I keep thinking they are going to take hold and then they give up. I am going to experiment with direct seeding in the crevices. Many Astragalus seem the prefect plant for our climatic conditions. So far, for me, it is getting them established that is the main road-block to my success with them. Maybe you, or someone else, has the secret to their successful establishment in the garden?
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Not yet Robert but I'll try. I have one tiny seedling up so far and it looks very fragile, like it's hanging on to life by the barest thread. I'll keep you posted.
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Most here will be aware of D'Arcy and Everest the alpine nursery (http://www.darcyeverest.co.uk)- a family run nursery, established for over 20 years growing all their own stock of unusual alpine and specialist plants. They have just been at RHS Hampton Court Show with this super display of alpines, which really packed a lot into a small area and will, I hope, have given inspiration and enjoyment to all who saw it.
- in the beginning
[attachimg=1]
-the finished effort
[attachimg=2]
- but this is what I really wanted to share with you - this is a 1 metre diameter container, forming the centrepiece of the display - complete with a note of the plants contained therein
[attachimg=3]
Super, isn't it?
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Nice work! I love the graphic with the labeling. I do that type of thing for work material.
Here's a pic I took today at a favourite spot. The ultimate crevice garden plant, Eucalyptus camaldulensis!
https://goo.gl/photos/b3AjV5xxsEBEvRtR7 (https://goo.gl/photos/b3AjV5xxsEBEvRtR7)
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Friends in the Hampshire AGS group had a visit to Wisley this weekend - they had a grand time - including beingshown round the "backroom" areas by Curator Colin Crosbie.
I've pinched this photo by Paddy Hinton Parmee of part of the crevice garden
[attachimg=1]
.... and here is a short video from Paddy Parmee taken today of the Wisley Crevice Garden https://www.facebook.com/sonygirl717/videos/vb.652323340/10153009874203341/?type=2&theater (https://www.facebook.com/sonygirl717/videos/vb.652323340/10153009874203341/?type=2&theater) Many thanks to Paddy for taking the time and trouble to take the film and share it with us :-*
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Amazing how plants have taken hold. When I visited before the Nottingham Conference, it looked almost empty although many small plants had been planted.
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Now ready for some plants.
Progress.
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Looking good, Ralph.
About the stage I'm at - minus the plants. ::)
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Here's my effort. I recently had to relocate my rockery due to weed problems. We have finally walled and gated off the front garden properly, and as our soil is already very stony, I used a lot of material from there, as well as stone left over from some changes we made to our house a few years ago. I also reclaimed the tufa from the old rockery. I'm reasonably pleased with the result, though I think there are too many plants and it's a shame I didn't have access to machinery to move in one or two really massive boulders.
I'm a firm believer that since mountains are vertical (or at least, sloping), so should rockeries be. I also think that the rocks should be at least as prominent as the plants - unfortunately it's always tempting to add one more plant... I love to see small pieces of alpines planted in crevices that they can work their way along - they look great once they establish.
I think I will lose the Daphne 'Arnold Cihlarz' unfortunately. :( Still, worth attempting to transplant it.
[attachimg=1]
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Yep, that's a real mountainside!
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Very nice rockwork and planting, Tristan - and the wall behind is rather smart too! 8)
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The wall is nice isn't it? Chap who works under the name of Snowdonia Walling - we've really liked his work. Shame to cover some of it with a rockery really!
I'm pleased with the overall effect too. Being able to use the local stone is a real advantage because it means I can get hold of the same stuff in different sizes. A big problem with bought in stone is that it tends to be rather evenly sized - and it's usually really hard to get smaller stones or gravel to match.
I have collected up small stones from elsewhere in the garden and added them to the rockery - these have the necessary sharp points and miscellaneous sizes which look like they have been weathered off using frost, rather than the rounded river gravels you often get in garden centres.
I've also added topsoil covered with slate chippings to the crevices on top of the coping, which creates a good environment for tougher plants like Sempervivums, Sedums and Dianthus (our native Sedum anglicum looks great there and this year was absolutely covered in white flowers - if it was an Androsace or something it would be a show winner! They are really establishing well there, though it's been a wet summer - we'll see how they cope in a drought. I also like to jam Sempervivums and things like Lewisias into crevices into stone walls, with some extra soil.
The main problem is that I always want more plants!
Tristan
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This rock garden reminds me of one from a few years back, posted by Geir Moen and he said it was made by backing a lorry up to the right place and having the gravel and rock simply tipped out down a slope. The garden was where the material landed. It looked like natural scree and he was growing some fantastic plants in it. I remember Primula bella et al.
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It's a really good facsimile of what you can see in the mountains. Very nice construction and the background wall is lovely. There should be a large number of plants that will love this.
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Thanks all... I love the idea of just tipping material out of the back of a truck! I did try to give things a tad more structure than this but am limited by the size of rocks I can cart around. I have also tried to keep different rock types seperate.
The dwarf Rhodys and Salix boydii from the old rockery gave some instant height and have transplanted none the worse. I've also jammed some cuttings from these into likely spots.
I'm very fortunate to have Aberconwy Nursery nearby which is a great source of plants. I also grow quite a bit from seed.
Primula bella looks gorgeous! Does it ever turn up in the seed exchange?
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This rock garden reminds me of one from a few years back, posted by Geir Moen and he said it was made by backing a lorry up to the right place and having the gravel and rock simply tipped out down a slope. The garden was where the material landed. It looked like natural scree and he was growing some fantastic plants in it. I remember Primula bella et al.
I fear the photos of Geir's construction of his garden - with lorry loads of stone that he bought for around Ł5.5 per 1000kgs - were lost with the demise of the old forum. You can see the result growing well though, here :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=474.msg12054#msg12054 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=474.msg12054#msg12054)
Geir is away from home at the moment, but I will ask him if he might be able to repost the photos of he construction of his scree on his garden slope.
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I showed the construction of this covered rockery in my Ardivachar blog, but it's probably better suited here.
To recap: the base was filled with sandy soil with 20mm chippings worked into the upper surface for extra drainage. Rocks were then laid, contours and raised areas were filled with sand. The surface was treated with a thin layer of John Innes compost with 50% extra grit. As planting progresses, a top dressing of grit will be applied.
Chris' Arivachar diary is here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11519.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11519.0) and the post mentioned above is reposted back there : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11519.msg338386#msg338386 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11519.msg338386#msg338386)
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Chris' Arivachar diary is here : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11519.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11519.0)
Thanks Maggi. The relevant bit is at the end of page 8.
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Progress.
Plants settling in well: Dianthus myrtinervius in bloom.
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Plants settling in well: Dianthus myrtinervius in bloom.
John, I fear that may be an imposter. It looks awfully like maiden pink. Seed of D. deltoides has been doing the rounds in the seed exchanges wrongly labelled as D. myrtinervius for a while now. See also
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=13443.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=13443.0)
True myrtinervius should look something like this
http://www.greekflora.gr/el/flowers/0843/Dianthus-myrtinervius (http://www.greekflora.gr/el/flowers/0843/Dianthus-myrtinervius)
I think Plant World Seeds sell it.
Sorry! Tristan
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I got it from Rob Potterton, so if it's not D. myrtinervius he's selling a wrongly described plant.
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It really is time we had a modern Dianthus monograph, isn't it?
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True myrtinervius should look something like this
http://www.greekflora.gr/el/flowers/0843/Dianthus-myrtinervius (http://www.greekflora.gr/el/flowers/0843/Dianthus-myrtinervius)
Sorry! Tristan
Please note that the link given above is to is to photo of Dianthus myrtinervius subsp. caespitosus
For Dianthus myrtinervius - a pic from Leif & Anita Stridvall ex Macedonia : http://www.stridvall.se/flowers/gallery/Caryophyllaceae_1/342_27 (http://www.stridvall.se/flowers/gallery/Caryophyllaceae_1/342_27)
and
http://www.botanickateplice.cz/foto/foto/4302.jpg (http://www.botanickateplice.cz/foto/foto/4302.jpg)
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Thanks Maggi. You're quite right. I couldn't find a reliable photo of the type form, or a description.
Do you think the two pictures in your links are the same species? Hard to tell I know but the Czech one is more deltoides like. Certainly they don't look the same.
I really think we need that monograph!
Best, Tristan, finally enjoying some warmth in Wales.
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Ralph's plant is a lot more compact than all the Dianthus deltoides I have here. I mostly have the darker forms, which I prefer, but they are all taller plants in flower and with the foliage keeping more close to the stems.
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Hi Maggi, yes it does look more compact than deltoides usually is. But the foliage and flower shape are very similar, and it's only just coming into flower. Would be interesting to see when it's fully out.
Tristan
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Constructing a home for alpine plants - cross posting this here
Film with Christoph Ruby about how one can make an alpine garden at home.
I am very pleased to have been sent,by Hans Joschko, this link to a short film from German TV - it is about the construction of a garden for rock plants- a project to bring the alpine home of these plants into a private garden. The piece films Christoph Ruby ( familiar to some from his pieces for the IRG e-magazine) who is director of the Botanic Garden of Hof, making and planting a fine little crevice garden.
It is less than 6 minutes long and cleverly produced. Using time-lapse we see the construction and is you watch it a couple of times you will get the drift, even without knowing any German!
Here is the link :
http://www.br.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/querbeet/querbeet-felsspaltengarten-alpinpflanze-100.html (http://www.br.de/mediathek/video/sendungen/querbeet/querbeet-felsspaltengarten-alpinpflanze-100.html)
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Thanks, Maggi, a very enjoyable video. (If only building with rock could really be done that quickly.)
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I photographed this lovely natural rock outcrop in the Barossa Valley North of Adelaide on the weekend.
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Jamus, your lovely natural outcrop reminds me (slightly), of my own not at all natural outcrop on Mt Clarendon (an old concrete washtub). The Saxifraga grisebachii 'Wisley is one of 15 plants on the mountain at present but there's room for about as many again, including some tiny bulbs. I'm going to Hokonui Alpines tomorrow to remedy that! ;D
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I don't know why but in the processing to bring down the size, the first image went from colour to black and white. I can't get it back again, except perhaps by reprocessing the original?
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I don't know why but in the processing to bring down the size, the first image went from colour to black and white. I can't get it back again, except perhaps by reprocessing the original?
Crumbs- no idea how to fix that ! I thought yourwere being !"arty" , Lesley, it's rather fetching.
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Well it is quate nace Maggi, so I'll leave it.
Off into town to deliver 15 Richea scoparia to a local GP!
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Everything is mossy here at present. So much rain since autumn, we're still just about swimming!
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Two plants blooming for the second time. Silene uniflora 'compacta' in the newest part of the crevice garden, and Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose' in an older part. The last is a surprise because we have had no rain for months and the bloom is going to be heavy. This is just a plant that wants to please and it's wonderful to hav daphne fragrance at this time of year.
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I'm amazed that anything is still blooming in the crevice garden. No rain for months, very hot weather and still there are a few plants in bloom.
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Astragalus,
Around here we sometimes call it 'Wayne's Silver', however I have heard both names used. Does it set viable seed for you? I have never seen viable seed on ours. I would certainly like to grow some F2 seedlings. Our plant has been in the ground for many years now, however no flowers yet this year. It is a late bloomer for us, but this is getting late and not even a flower bud yet. ???
It is 40 C right now and the Epilobium varieties are still holding up for us despite very little irrigation this summer. Rain? We rarely get rain during the summer here at the lower elevations.
Thank you for sharing. I am intrigued by your variety of plants!
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Robert, the Zauschneria 'Wayne's select' (which may well be 'Wayne's silver' since it has silver foliage), is just starting to bloom. This is the first year it shows a lot of buds. I hope to be able to collect seed this year and if I get enough, would be happy to share. Some years we have early hard frost - hard to believe when it's so hot right now.
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Astragalus,
I checked this evening and there are finally flower buds on the 'Wayne's Select' in the garden here. If you get viable seed I would be thrill to get a few. Thanks. :)
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In the crevice garden but not in bloom - a Daphne x hendersonii simply called 'Rick Lupp' and one which he doesn't recall according to Harvey Wrightsman. The foliage on this one is wonderful, and the growth habit quite different to my eye. The branches lengthen and then start arching. It would look good planted above a rock so it could spray over and down. The bloom is typical but nice.
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I don't understand the new system?
The picture I posted was above the maximum allowed (211 instead of the max 199). Not hugely large and my understanding was that the Forum had a new program that would resize for correct?you automatically. Is this
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In the crevice garden but not in bloom - a Daphne x hendersonii simply called 'Rick Lupp' and one which he doesn't recall according to Harvey Wrightsman. ............................
Google recalls it Anne!?
http://www.wrightmanalpines.com/plant/daphne-x-hendersonii-ex-rick-lupp (http://www.wrightmanalpines.com/plant/daphne-x-hendersonii-ex-rick-lupp)
Later edit: Ah, I see, according to the above it's 'ex Rick Lupp'
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Thanks, David. Here it is in my garden. I resized it again and it's not in flower but the picture shows the branches starting to arch. Harvey's picture shows it in bloom and you don't really see how idfferent the branching is.
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I don't understand the new system?
The picture I posted was above the maximum allowed (211 instead of the max 199). Not hugely large and my understanding was that the Forum had a new program that would resize for correct?you automatically. Is this
Anne, the new system primarily resizes for pixel size - not KB size - see here :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg340846#msg340846 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg340846#msg340846)
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I have moved some more posts on posting photos to the relevant thread - please continue to use that:
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg340846#msg340846 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=65.msg340846#msg340846) Thank you.
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(https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/12002257_1711523649092114_3011453025681062360_n.jpg?oh=9fe9d8575aed5f52008570593cc0adb2&oe=568E0BB3)
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Photographed late this afternoon with the sun quite low. The Astragalus utahensis is the biggest excitement, not just because it had a second bloom, which it has never done before - but also there are now 3 seed pods developing. In all the years I've grown this, it has never made seed pods. It has also become the largest I've ever grown. Of course, we had no rain for 10 weeks and now after a paltry rain last week we're back into drought mode. Can't do much in the garden because it's like dust.
DSC01589 Sedum cauticolum v lidakense
DSC01592 Astragalus utahensis -
DSC01595 seedpods
DSC01591 Zauschneria 'Siskiyou Dwarf'
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Anne,
I have been busy dealing with other matters and was delighted to see your posting. The weather must not always be so conducive for the dryland Astragalus species? I guess this has been a banner year for them.
Do you grow any South American dryland species such as some of the Adesmias?
It is still like dust around here too, 32 C or more every day. :( I will be glad when the rainy season gets started, this should be very soon now. The forecast is for cooler weather at least.
I look forward to more photographs from your garden.
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Robert, our weather has cooled a little bit, thankfully, but still no rain and the forecast is for a warm and dry autumn. At this rate, the astragalus seed pods may have time to mature. I'm trying to grow Junellia macrantha from Patagonia. It's still alive after 3 years but that's all I can say. I think the South American plants may have difficulty with our cold winters and lack of reliable snow cover. The adesmias and arthrophyllums and astragalus that I saw would all be high on my list of plants to try.
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The adesmias and arthrophyllums and astragalus that I saw would all be high on my list of plants to try.
Anne,
Such species are high on my list too. I look forward to comparing notes as things progress. :)
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I remember many Adesmia (and other) species from Argentina but unfortunately I didn't find any seeds. I would love to try some in my rockery!
The first is Adesmia corymbosa, the second is A. parvifolia. The two next is quite similar to parvifolia and the last one could be corymbosa.
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Trond,
Adesmia, and many others, are species worth experimenting with here in California. It is much easier for me to be proactive with California Native species right now, and there is certainly a tremendous number to work with even locally.
Thank you for sharing the photographs. More ideas beyond Chileflora.
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Chileflora don't have seed of Adesmia parvifolia nor any of the other compact alpine species of Adesmia, otherwise I would have been tempted to place an order today! Stunning plants and photographs Hoy, thank you for posting.
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Trond. great adesmia pictures. All the ones I saw in Patagonia were yellow. One was really tiny and grew at 10,000 feet along with a superb astragalus. Our trip was between Nequen and Mendoza, very dry area for the most part. Adesmias were everywhere. and a few were very compact (and very thorny).
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Progress.
A few months later...
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Readers will remember the work of Zdenek Zvolanek to help create a super crevice garden at RHS Wisley - On the VRV forum there are some photos from June 2015 which show the progress of the Crevice Garden etc .... enjoy!
http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=1926.0 (http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=1926.0)
( You will also find a link to another VRV thread of a Wisley visit in 2011)
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Loved the update on the Wisley Crevice Garden, Maggi. It was so new when I saw it.
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From Eugen Tarasov on Facebook :
"It is an axiom that the ideas for the rocky gardens we derive from natural rock formations. The ideal scheme: saw -liked, fixed, reproduced...
But reverse the course of events, when any garden creation, erected by inspiration, later finds its counterpart in reality. It is a holiday, granting the understanding that the work was relatively faithful.
Illustrations - 1) sandstone rock garden composed in 2010 at Moscow area, and 2) a small part of Swartberg mountain range at southern Africa in 2013." Eugen Tarasov
[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]
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That's beautiful Maggi, a lovely natural formation and an uncanny similarity to the human formed outcrop. I encountered the misinformed prejudice against vertical rock work at an open garden recently. They had a small rock garden and I commented to the owner how I liked a particular section of it with some tall stones standing in a group. I said to him, "I like how you've positioned those stones, they feel very natural". His response took me aback; "Oh I don't know how natural it is when you start balancing stones up like that". Huh? Do these people go around blindfolded? Or just filter what they see through their preconceived ideas of what should be?
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Jupiter, there's a place in New Mexico (Cochiti Canyon, I think), where the canyon floor is littered with black "Apache Tears" (obsidian),
and the sides of the canyon have enormous boulders of some kind of hard rock balanced upon very high rock formations ending in a very skinny point. The lower rock is much softer and has eroded at a different rate, thus making a scene which looks quite impossible. You're walking way at the bottom, just waiting for these huge boulders to come crashing down. Sorry, no picture.
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Jupiter, there's a place in New Mexico (Cochiti Canyon, I think), where the canyon floor is littered with back "Apache Tears" (obsidian),
and the sides of the canyon have enormous boulders of some kind of hard rock balanced upon very high rock formations ending in a very skinny point. The lower rock is much softer and has eroded at a different rate, thus making a scene which looks quite impossible. You're walking way at the bottom, just waiting for these huge boulders to come crashing down. Sorry, no picture.
Would this be it, Anne?
http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/content/nm/en/prog/NLCS/KKTR_NM.html (http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/content/nm/en/prog/NLCS/KKTR_NM.html)
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I think that must be it, Cliff, although when we hiked there the thing that lingered in your mind was the huge boulders on top and apparently some of those have fallen now. It is a quite spectacular place and I still have a little basket filled with obsidian I scooped up (while keeping an eye out for rattkesnakes).
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This one also wouldn't look natural for some, if I'll be to reproduce it in the garden (at smaller scale of course).
Flower Pot Island, in Bruce pen., Ontario.
[attachimg=1]
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Exactly! I must confess to being rather irked when people complain of things not being "natural" - certainly, a thing can be well done, or messed up, but to say something doesn't exist in nature is usually to make a big mistake - the natural world is FULL of amazing things, rock formations or otherwise, that are quite extraordinary - and perfectly natural!
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Here in Australia we have a lot of exposed rock; it's an ancient land! No one should be surprised to see rocks at any angle or stacked in any interesting way. My Dad sent me this photo he took while searching for driftwood in his home of kangaroo island. The scene reminded him of my crevice garden. A bit bigger scale though! I told him the salt spray would severely limit plant choices when it came to planting it out! ;D
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Nice rock!
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This one also wouldn't look natural for some, if I'll be to reproduce it in the garden (at smaller scale of course).
Flower Pot Island, in Bruce pen., Ontario.
(Attachment Link)
Gabriela, we saw these wonderful "flower pots" on our way to Prince Edward Island years ago. Incidentally, P.E.I is another place to see wonderful rock (at North Rustico). And I've seen pictures of the Pancake Rocks in New Zealand. The rock formations in Utah are really incredible as well - look up "slick rock". I'm sure Cliff could provide a picture of the "devil's staircase". I agree with Maggi - "natural" covers a lot of territory.
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Gabriela, we saw these wonderful "flower pots" on our way to Prince Edward Island years ago. Incidentally, P.E.I is another place to see wonderful rock (at North Rustico). And I've seen pictures of the Pancake Rocks in New Zealand. The rock formations in Utah are really incredible as well - look up "slick rock". I'm sure Cliff could provide a picture of the "devil's staircase". I agree with Maggi - "natural" covers a lot of territory.
I could Anne, if that particular laptop full of images was more accessible at the moment … I'm sure Google would provide hundreds of photos of same.
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Gabriela, we saw these wonderful "flower pots" on our way to Prince Edward Island years ago. Incidentally, P.E.I is another place to see wonderful rock (at North Rustico). And I've seen pictures of the Pancake Rocks in New Zealand. The rock formations in Utah are really incredible as well - look up "slick rock". I'm sure Cliff could provide a picture of the "devil's staircase". I agree with Maggi - "natural" covers a lot of territory.
P.E.I. will be on the travel list then :) With our dollar being as it is now, there is not much chance for traveling outside anyway. In Utah I've only been in the Wasatch Mts. - amazing rock scenes. Hard to choose only a few, so these are really just the first ones that came up; there are more pictures with rocks in the folder than with plants!
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[attach=2]
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Here in Australia we have a lot of exposed rock; it's an ancient land! No one should be surprised to see rocks at any angle or stacked in any interesting way. My Dad sent me this photo he took while searching for driftwood in his home of kangaroo island. The scene reminded him of my crevice garden. A bit bigger scale though! I told him the salt spray would severely limit plant choices when it came to planting it out! ;D
Very nice by the water rockery!
Along the Georgian Bay (Ontario) there are also places with amazing rocky shorelines. Sometimes there are also plants ;)
[attach=1]
Occasionally, you can hike around on massive rock formations without 'touching land' for a couple of hours.
[attach=2]
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P.E.I. will be on the travel list then :) With our dollar being as it is now, there is not much chance for traveling outside anyway. In Utah I've only been in the Wasatch Mts. - amazing rock scenes. Hard to choose only a few, so these are really just the first ones that came up; there are more pictures with rocks in the folder than with plants!
(Attachment Link)
(Attachment Link)
"Slick Rock" formations are near Moab, I believe, which is in southern Utah. It's quite incredible, and not far from natural rock bridges formed over the years. Weather and erosion play fantastic tricks.
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Just up the road from here the Central Otago ranges of New Zealand have numerous schist formations called tors on their summits .....
Then on the East Coast of the South Island of NZ natural crevice gardens just about 'par excellence'.
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Fabulous crevice gardens. Looks like someone was at work with a giant chisel and a ruler, they are so precise.
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Fabulous crevice gardens. Looks like someone was at work with a giant chisel and a ruler, they are so precise.
I think their beauty is enhanced by the non existence or at the most minimal vegetation clothing the rock. I'd be happy to create exactly the same in our garden as a salute to the 'gods of rock' however if that was the case I'm sure my 'planting fingers ' would be very itchy ...... ;) ;D
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Jan Tholhuijsen wrote : " The new crevice garden of Vladimir Valenta, with our good friend Paní Stašková "
http://www.caroveniky.com/INDEX.htm (http://www.caroveniky.com/INDEX.htm)
Yet another stunning example of a Czech rock garden - these people are the Masters!
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That really is amazing.
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When building a crevice garden, I am sure that you should plan it all out carefully and do it all in one go. Unfortunately, not the way I have done it.
In autumn 2014, I built a small crevice garden and showed a picture on this thread on 23rd November 2014. Then extended it and showed a picture of the extended crevice garden on 6th May 2015.
Made a further extension last autumn and I have now begun to plant up the new parts. Not much colour just now, but the Kabschia saxifrage in the older parts have lots of flower buds.
Picture of crevice garden version 3 is below.
Bob
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I'll look forward to seeing it again soon Bob, when the saxifrages are in flower. I suffer a permanent state of Kabschia saxifrage deprivation as we have so few here and may not import plants.
Looks like a nice sunny day in Scotland. :)
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Hi Lesley
We are lucky in Britain and seem to be able to assume that if a plant is available commercially anywhere in the world then we can buy it here.
It was a lovely day here in Stirling and after a few hours gardening, I was able to sit out in the sun. First time this year. However, from David's post I gather it was horrible weather down in Devon.
Bob
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Spent the day working on my new (extension to my) crevice beds. I haven't mulched with any gravel and chippings yet but I'm happy with how it's going... I definitely think I'm getting better at it; looking back at the first and second crevice beds I like this one a lot better, and the second was better than the first, so that's progress! I'm itching to start planting!
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Looks great. Nice stone!
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You are making a great job of that, Jamus 8)
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Bob and Jamus have both made good features for alpines. If anything (I try not to criticize as I am a poor gardener) I would remove the labels. They detract from the effect. My attempt at a "rock garden" as a site for alpines was a mistake. I placed three squares of rocks in the area 12 ft. x 12 ft. and that took up too much space. Over the years the addition of small chippings as a top dressing has resulted in a "scree" instead of rocks. I mention this so that other people do not make this mistake. Does it matter that we may forget the names of plants, after all, they are there to be enjoyed. We could make a sketch with the plants on but then it becomes too much trouble to keep altering it. Well done both, I hope the gardens give many years of pleasure.
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A possible solution to the label issue is a nail with a number painted on the nail head. The gardener would then have to keep a notebook of names corresponding to the numbers. This method does have some advantages: the nails are fairly easy to hide, and they are much smaller than labels. I've seen troughs where this was done quite effectively.
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Why not just draw a "map" of the trough and write the plant names on it? Or take a photo and do the same? No nails to be lost then. Either is easy enough to do with a trough.
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I'm with Lori, and take a photograph of all my troughs and label the photo with the plant names.
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I love labels. My wife hates them.
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Jamus rockery beds are absolutely gorgeous!
I also don't like labels sticking out and I started to do like Matt last year for a small rock area first. In a large rock garden it might be a bit more problematic though; would involve a lot of 'data keeping'.
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I don't like labels either (they get pushed right into the soil by and large) and also tend to be in the habit of shoving pieces of things into handy crevices in the rockery. This looks nice but the result is that I have quite a few things without a label. Saxifrages and houseleeks are the worst as they often grow in places where a discreet label is hard to accomodate - so a fair few 'white flowered ?Allendale something or other' and 'sort of vaguely like paniculata but probably a hybrid encrusted thing'. I don't think I'll be applying to hold any national collections!
I have now started to keep a spreadsheet listing everything I know I am growing. Helps to narrow it down a bit at least.
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I don't like labels and I forget most names and I am too lazy to make any kind of files to keep track of my plants ;)
Anyway I remember the Name of this common sax. It is the first to flower on my rock/crevice roof garden!
Saxifraga oppositifolia, collected by myself.
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I have now started to keep a spreadsheet listing everything I know I am growing. Helps to narrow it down a bit at least.
I have done that for many years. It will help if you give location names to certain areas (east garden, front yard, etc.). Then you can narrow it quite a bit more. For troughs I list all the plants in a single trough on one or multiple tags and put them all in one place in a discrete part if the trough. Can you find them in the pic below?
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I like the map idea too and I'll be doing that. I was thinking I might overlay a grid like a street directory and then just have a list, B6 - Saxifraga paniculata, C2 - Raoulia parkii, and so on. Yes I like that idea.
I'm itching to get back out into the garden and continue with the crevice beds. I have Erodium daucoides germinated from SRGC seedex, so quick!
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We just had snow here so everything is covered up for almost the first time this winter. A number of plants were budded due to the premature warmth in March so who knows what will happen. All the flowers and buds on Magnolia soulangeana are shot - it happens two years out of three so it's not entirely unexpected.
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I use these labels and they seem to blend in OK. (Can't stick 'em into my Tufa, though. :( )
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I don,t know if the same applies to Magnolia but the buds and flowers of Camellia are affected if they thaw out too quickly after a frost. Planting these species where they don,t get early morning sun may prevent this. Re-siting affected plants may not be possible if they are too large.
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From ZZ - the Stone Rider ....
"The Eastern Czechia (Czech Republic) has available softer stone (called here opuka) suitable for building crevice gardens. My picture is from nursery of Mr. Valenta, specialist od dwarf conifers and Daphnes. There is time of yellow cushions of Vitaliana (Androsace) primuliflora in the large nursery."
[attachimg=1]
The second photo from Mr. Valenta crevice garden shows rare Pinus monosperma, a pine with only one needle
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The work materials are ready and waiting and the crevice garden has started to bloom about 3 weeks ahead of time. The Veronica armena seedlings put in two years ago are the first of the veronicas to bloom - usually they are the last among the veronicas. The Western phlox are always early but are two weeks ahead of themselves, and all the daphnes are completely budded.
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All the photos were taken early in the morning. When the sun is high the veronica is a softer blue but still intense.
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Looking so good, Anne … where on earth do you find your energy? Can't wait to see this extension to your already magnificent garden.
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Flowering in the new tufa crevice garden at the top of the cliff - Draba acaulis. It's furry, makes a perfect dome and is floriferous. Does anyone know anything about this? Such as where is it found in nature? It seems happy here in tufa, but is not growing in the tufa itself. The mix is limey, but not very, about 7.8.
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Hi Anne,
http://encyclopaedia.alpinegardensociety.net/plants/Draba/acaulis (http://encyclopaedia.alpinegardensociety.net/plants/Draba/acaulis)
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Thanks so much, Cliff. A book I don't have yet, Joe would be surprised. (LOL)
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The AGS Encyclopaedia is all online on their site, Anne. I've had the two volumes since it came out - it does not get much use.
There is still a lot that is as lacking on line as it was in the print version - I have always found it to be frustrating to use.
A good point is that the sections for Dionysia has been updated online, as has, recently Primulas - by Paul Ransom and John Richards respectively. You'd never know to look at the site though - no proper announcement of these improvements has been made to let folk know. :-\
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Thanks, Maggi. I'll add that to my search list. I was almost sure the draba was from Turkey.
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Yes, Turkey, from the Ala Dag - where a good many great plants live!
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A bit more on Draba acaulis:
http://www.turkiyebitkileri.com/index.php?dil=tr&id=2&familya=24&cins=767&tur=5477#image-20 (http://www.turkiyebitkileri.com/index.php?dil=tr&id=2&familya=24&cins=767&tur=5477#image-20)
http://www.tubives.com/index.php?sayfa=1&tax_id=851 (http://www.tubives.com/index.php?sayfa=1&tax_id=851)
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Thanks, Lori.
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Drama species flowering under the bench
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sorry not Drama but Draba
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Never make a drama out of a crucifer.
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Drama species flowering under the bench
Good Lord!
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my computer do auto correction all the time. If some phrases are not familiar it replaces with the familiar one. Draba became drama . I should have previewed it. My mistake.
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my computer do auto correction all the time. If some phrases are not familiar it replaces with the familiar one. Draba became drama . I should have previewed it. My mistake.
Hi Kris, I didn't intend to criticise you in any way, my computer also has auto-correct and gets me into all sorts of trouble … I was simply making a (hopefully) humorous pun about the old saying; "Don't make a drama out of a crisis".
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Hi Kris, I didn't intend to criticise you in any way, my computer also has auto-correct and gets me into all sorts of trouble … I was simply making a (hopefully) humorous pun about the old saying; "Don't make a drama out of a crisis".
Uhuh, OF COURSE it is the "auto-correct" that gets you into all sorts of trouble :P
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I took it as a joke. I didn't understand the pun.English is still my second language.
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The crevice garden is starting to look very colorful. Flowering about 3 weeks ahead for most plants, the result of the truly weird up and down temperatures, snowless winter the garden has had to endure. Many older treasures succumbed, unfortunately.
1. Astragalus sericoleucas
2/3. Crevice garden views
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Looking great, Anne.
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Well constructed and good plants.
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The crevice garden is heady right now with the scent of daphnes, which are blooming well ahead of schedule, along with everything else. Photo#3 is of daphnes that sulked for a few years and now are adjusted and bloom like crazy. Planted 10 years ago and labels lost during their long period of sulking.
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More daphnes
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Wow, Bramdean (if that is what it is) is magnificent.
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More bloom in the crevice garden
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Rain is letting up so work beckons. Two more from the crevice garden.
Sorry, don't know how to modify the picture caption, which should not be 'white form', just Astragalus simplicifolius
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Magnificent!
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Those fortunate enough to attend the SRGC Discussion Weekend this year will surely have a real treat in Anne's talk - what a wonderful garden she has - with superb plants.
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Lincolnshire nurseryman Rob Potterton (http://www.pottertons.co.uk/) has shared these photos of the crevice gardens at Wisley - they are looking well settled now, are they not?
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[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]
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Looking very good, as is Anne's garden.
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Thanks, David. But what an amazing difference a few years makes to a crevice garden. In 2011, the Wisley crevice garden was newly planted and very sparse although there were many plants. Crevice gardens really seem to eat up plants even huge ones like this. Nice to see things taking hold.
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The crevice garden is just bursting now. Penstemons have started and I've been too busy to photograph. The convolvulus had started and it's usually prime by mid-June. The garden is open May 21 and there will be nothing left at this rate.
People visit the garden expecting to see everything that was in a talk bloom at once, which of course it never is - but at this rate it soon will be.
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Another good daphne for the garden, Daphne x napolitana 'Meon' blooming now in the crevice garden. This one has taken a few years to settle in and now seems to be growing well.
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The crevice garden is just bursting now. Penstemons have started and I've been too busy to photograph. The convolvulus had started and it's usually prime by mid-June. The garden is open May 21 and there will be nothing left at this rate.
People visit the garden expecting to see everything that was in a talk bloom at once, which of course it never is - but at this rate it soon will be.
I particularly liked the Astragalus detritalis Anne, such a rich colour, but can't help feeling it would finish up as little more than a pile of mush in my garden. Managed to buy a few more Daphnes from Keith Wiley at last Saturdays AGS Show in Exeter. Small plants but hopefully they will live and grow.
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I particularly liked the Astragalus detritalis Anne, such a rich colour, but can't help feeling it would finish up as little more than a pile of mush in my garden. Managed to buy a few more Daphnes from Keith Wiley at last Saturdays AGS Show in Exeter. Small plants but hopefully they will live and grow.
Lucky you. The daphnes are probably totally different from the ones available here.
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Lucky you. The daphnes are probably totally different from the ones available here.
Anne, the Daphnes I bought were:-
D. x susannae 'Tichbourne'
D. x hendersonii 'Ernst Hauser'
D. jasminea x velenovskyii
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David, the first two are in the garden and are really good, but the D. jasminea x velenovskyi is completely new to me. Since both are low growers it should be really interesting. What do you know about it? The D. jasminea 'Delphi form' is in the garden but has not yet shown that it will get through a really normal winter, i.e. very cold.
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Anne, I really know very little about Daphne jasminea x velenovskyi and so far I haven't found anything on the Internet. There is no mention of it either in Robin White's book. As I said I bought it from Keith Wiley last Saturday so it is possibly a cross that Keith raised himself. Although I relabeled it when I planted it in my garden I think there was some information on the label that came with the plant. It's in the dustbin at the moment but I will rescue it tomorrow.
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Anne, from Keith Wiley's label:-
"Prostrate habit. White flowers from pink buds. Midway between the parents in foliage and flowers"
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Now ready for some plants.
Coming along nicely. Mostly Aubrieta in bloom but other things getting established.
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Coming along very nicely Ralph.
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My new raised crevice bed/wall.
This is my very first attempt at crevice gardening and after trawling through the all the great posts on the subject here in this great Forum . . . . I decided “to have a go!” ;D
As mentioned in a previous posts, I have difficulty bending and squatting, but I can stand for hours. Although I do get backache, which mostly, I try to ignore!
The dimensions of the new bed I have built is 15ft 8inches long x 2ft 5inches wide x 2ft 5inches high. (all sizes are inner dimensions) I also have a spare adjustable computer chair which will afford me some comfort when maintaining this raised bed.
I will include a few photos for your perusal . . . But please be kind! ::)
I have tried to create valleys and peaks and what is possible with this, is that I can put plants in sun or part shade, but of course all you good folk know this. These are all new young plants shown here. Some I have recently bought whilst others are young cuttings of my own.
I will try and keep this page updated with my progress.
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and a few more . . .
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Looks pretty good to me John and will be even better by the time your summer has finished and there's a little more growth. Some great plants there. That little Clematis marmoraria looks right at home, just the kind of place it likes to grow.
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Lovely job John.
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Coming along very nicely Ralph.
Thank you David. Flowering now are Oxalis 'Ute', Aubrieta 'Valerie' and Aubrieta glabrescens.
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Does anyone offer seed fro Aubrieta glabrescens?
In the crevice garden it is starting to be penstemon time. One of my favorites with true blue flowers is Penstemon uintahensis.
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This species is popularly grown in rockeries or alpine gardens; and it occasionally becomes naturalised outside of its native range, especially into crevices and rock walls.
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Both Ian and I are very fond of Erinus alpinus, Franz. I think it is sometimes overlooked as not being rare enough - but it has a real charm to it. We're getting some colour variation here now, thanks to some seed from a kind English friend who gets several colours in his garden.
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I have seen it covering a small hill near the cairngorms. I think it is also planted at Inchnadamph. Some people think it is alright to introduce foreign plants which then become weeds, out-competing native species.
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Hmm.. introduce Erinus alpinus to your rockery at your peril, it is an enthusiastic self seeder, especially in tufa. Pretty little plant though.
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I'm at a stage in life where the more enthusiastic self-seeders are more than welcome - but Erinus is not at all bothersome here in that respect- and any that may find their way to an unsuitable place are easily removed.
Their flowers really repay close inspection - delightful!
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So glad to hear that Erinus alpinus is such a good doer and spreader and so easy for everyone. It certainly doesn't behave that way here. I thought it was finally established (after many efforts), but it didn't make it through the dreadful up and down winter. Maybe I should just spread the seed and see if anything happens?
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Yes, Anne, I would just scatter theseed where you'd like it - it's what we did with the coloured strain we got from Jon E.
Jon, from much further south in the UK than us, finds it tends to flower for him in its first year but it takes a couple of years at least to get going here.
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Erinus alpinus 'Mrs. Chas. Boyle'
I have just taken this photograph. I go along with what Maggi and others say about this little charmer! I have never found it to be the pernicious weed which some claim it is; even when it pops up in a patch of Sempervivum arachnoideum, or a Kabschia Saxifraga, as it is easily removed. There is a white form, and E. a. ‘Dr. Hanelle’ has flowers of a glowing carmine. :)
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I grow a wide mix of Erinus alpinus, from white through pale pinks to dark pink, but weed out the lavender ones because I don't like the colour. I let them self-seed and simply weed out seedlings in inappropriate places. It is very manageable, unlike the Wood Avens seedlings you can see, which are a perishing nuisance. Let to their own devices the Erinus seedlings usually germinate in the autumn and flower the following May (at least in Southern England).
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I should add that I am very glad to hear that some of this mix of colours are becoming established in Aberdeen. I tried to send Maggi seed from the whites, but inevitably there will be a mixture, and I'm not sure they come true anyway.
Jon
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I'm at a stage in life where the more enthusiastic self-seeders are more than welcome
I'll send you a mixed packet of mine Maggi! Campanula trachelium, Meconopsis cambrica, Digitalis purpurea, Pilosella aurantiaca, Geranium endressii. Alchemilla mollis, Lunaria annua, Hesperis matronalis (I see you already have a nice dandelion!). All very nice, and all rather rapidly become too much of a good thing. Mind you we have very light soil, so seeds seem to survive very well.
Seriously, I do like Erinus. It's just that it has a penchant for self-seeding in the choicest habitats in the rockery where it competes with plants that I would rather have there. Unfortunately that includes into the tufa itself, where it can only be killed by (a) hacking into the tufa or (b) weedkiller. Would be good somewhere like a gravel garden though. I may even try scattering some seed into thin grass.
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At a super talk last evening for the Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden the speaker, Helen Dillon, told us how valuable she finds Hesperis matronalis for early colour in her borders - she sows it every year and uses about 60 to 80 plants!
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Hi
Some pictures from my crevice garden. Two overviews plus some of its inhabitants: Oxalis laciniata, Primula pedemontana alba x hirsuta alba and Aethionema 'Warley Rose'.
The Kabschia Saxifrage have been disappointing this year.
Bob
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I should add that I am very glad to hear that some of this mix of colours are becoming established in Aberdeen. I tried to send Maggi seed from the whites, but inevitably there will be a mixture, and I'm not sure they come true anyway.
Jon
Oh yes, there are some whites among the "new" colours here, Jon - we are so pleased to have your new gene pool added in the mix. 8)
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A few pictures from my own garden the other evening.
First a Tulipa batalinii which has decided it fancies life as an iris :)
The Erinus alpinus is just coming into full bloom, so there is a rash of flowers all over the crevice garden.
Along with the Erinus, another annual, Linaria alpina, seeds itself around gently. Normally purple and brown, in the backlit from the setting sun it looks as though there is a touch of pink in it.
Finally a view across the bottom of the crevice garden, with Pulsatilla vulgaris seedheads, Veronica gentianoides (white clone I have forgotten the name of), and Paeonia x. smouthii among others.
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Evening sun light is so lovely - delightful in real life and so atmospheric in photos.
The Erinus are still all in tight bud here.
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Nice setting Jon. My Veronica gentianoides are not out yet
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I have recently bought a number of alpine plants from the following nursery’s for my new crevice garden.
Aberconwy Nursery
Meadow Farm Nursery
Parnham Bungalow Plants
Craigiehall Nursery
The first three were at the AGS show in Solihull on April 16 and Craigiehall Nursery is where I have received some wonderful plants during this last week and today.
I planted up a number of them a few days after the AGS show and have been sporadically planting others since.
They are all making noticeable growth and many are flowering.
Here are a few pictures. . .
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Lovely plants John.
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And a few more. . .
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Lovely plants John.
Thank you David ;D but I don’t deserve any credit - they more or less came out of the pots as you see them!
Admittedly, they have increased in size and buds have opened into flowers. I give credit to the nurseries for producing healthy robust plants; especially those from Craigiehall Nursery which were beautifully packed and a very good size!
It will be nice to see what they will be like this time next year when I can refer back to these posts wont it?
By the way. . . Why cant I grow Linum ‘Gemmell’s Hybrid’ like I did in the mid 1970s?
Over the past years it has never put out the abundant show of blooms it did back then. Others I have seen recently boast not much more than a dozen flowers at any one time.
This is how it grew for me 40 years ago. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it is from a 35mm slide taken on a Russian “Zenith” SLR camera.
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By the way. . . Why cant I grow Linum ‘Gemmell’s Hybrid’ like I did in the mid 1970s?
Over the past years it has never put out the abundant show of blooms it did back then. Others I have seen recently boast not much more than a dozen flowers at any one time.
This is how it grew for me 40 years ago. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it is from a 35mm slide taken on a Russian “Zenith” SLR camera.
Beats me - the darn thing has gone from here altogether. :'( Like yours, it used to do well.
One hardly sees it at all recently, I think. (That's probably a cue for dozens of people to come tell us they have it a metre wide with ten thousand flowers!)
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I can't grow 'Gemmell's Hybrid now either and have lost the last two or three plants bought in recent years yet way back in the day I could grow it easily and well and found it easy from cuttings too.
I have spent much of this cold day today looking right back to page 1 of Philippe's Haut Chitelet Alpine Garden thread. Incredible plants there of the Helichrysum (and many other wondrous things too).
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Maybe it's beginner's luck? Or possibly the first time you grow something the mix is new and fresh. As the garden matures the patterns of shade and moisture change as well.
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Maybe it's beginner's luck? Or possibly the first time you grow something the mix is new and fresh. As the garden matures the patterns of shade and moisture change as well.
Hello Anne,
I must start by saying how much I enjoy viewing the lovely pictures you post on the pages of this Forum of your Hudson River Valley garden. :)
I know nothing of the intricacies of plant or animal breading, but browsing Google comes up with “much food for thought” about the loss of hybrid vigour.
If I understand correctly Linum X ‘Gemmell’s Hybrid’ was a cross between L. elegans and L. campanulatum by a Scottish nursery in the 1940’s.
Now, the first generation cuttings produced a good flowering plant, as did several generations afterwards. But move on 30 plus years to the 30th or 40th generation cuttings and you get the sad plant of today!
I read it is the same with some crosses of sheep, pigs, trees and other plants.
I understand little of this and would welcome a more learned and layman explanation.
Why, for example, has this not happened with Salix X boydii? ::)
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I have seen some pretty sad looking Salix x boydii about , John.......
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Now, the first generation cuttings produced a good flowering plant, as did several generations afterwards. But move on 30 plus years to the 30th or 40th generation cuttings and you get the sad plant of today!
I read it is the same with some crosses of sheep, pigs, trees and other plants.
I understand little of this and would welcome a more learned and layman explanation.
Why, for example, has this not happened with Salix X boydii? ::)
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That's food for thought. Certainly this has happened here with some of the gentian hybrids, Now, after making divisions, they are planted else where in the garden in freshest mix with different neighbors. Time will tell if this helps.
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A few more additions to my crevice garden. :)
Dianthus alpinus 'Pudsey Prize' - I first bought this in the early 1990’s but it never survived with me.
I’m trying again, but this time I will give it acid conditions, as advocated by some of the eminent gurus on this Forum.
Geranium farreri - another plant which was just fleeting with me.
Mimulus cupreus 'Whitecroft Scarlet' The first time I bought this (many years ago) it did have scarlet flowers, but this shows a definite orange colour. Is it a variable plant?
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I have seen some pretty sad looking Salix x boydii about , John.......
Well mine (a smaller one in a trough) looked very sad after a rabbit climbed up and grazed it to surface level. Nothing was visible at all except the disturbed compost but over this autumn it has sprouted from below ground level and is growing (slowly) with multiple stems.
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Amazing what lessons animals can teach you. Deer taught me that many penstemons can be severely pruned and will come back tighter and flower heavily.
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Do you cover your mimulus during winter? never succeed in the garden
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Do you cover your mimulus during winter? never succeed in the garden
Hello Yann, 8)
It is many years since I have grown Mimulus, and I have only ever grow M. naiandinus and M. cupreus ‘Whitecroft Scarlet’.
They stayed with me for only two or three years. I would overwinter cuttings in a cold frame and grow them in cool, moist conditions.
Although I did do well with M. naiandinus, (which was then called ‘Andean Nymph’) by growing it with its face in full sun but with it’s feet on the north facing side of a big hypertufa rock.— That was in the mid 1970’s!
Here it is. . . http://portraitsofalpineplants.com/POAP_LARGE_032.htm (http://portraitsofalpineplants.com/POAP_LARGE_032.htm)
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One of the most common causes of loss of vigour in specific clones is virus infection. This may or may not be visible.
Salix is naturally a much longer lived plant than Linum or Gentiana, so it's likely that it will have more defences against viruses and the things that spread them (aphids, leaf hoppers etc). As a result it may accumulate (and hence lose vigour) viruses more slowly.
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Convolvulus compactus blooms this year particularly abundant
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Convolvulus compactus blooms this year particularly abundant
Beautiful - that would never survive outside here.
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Convolvulus compactus blooms this year particularly abundant
That is a beautiful plant Franz and a superb photograph, the lighting is perfect! Each glossy dark green leaf stands out, with the light catching the edge if each one . . . Magic! 8)
It’s on my list of “must try plants!”
Maggi . . . Why couldn't we succeed with it here in the UK? Does not Austria have winters as cold as we do? And I believe Franz grows it in his crevice bed!
Oh yes! Take a brows through Franz lovely website and take a look at Linum ‘Gemmell’s Hybrid’
and then go back to that quote you made a few posts back? (That's probably a cue for dozens of people to come tell us they have it a metre wide with ten thousand flowers!) I think there might be a glimmer of hope for us don’t you think? ;D
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I would love to think there is hope for you and these plants in Staffordshire, John - but it is the summer wet that kills off many of these gorgeous plants here - as I know only too well. #sigh#
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Amazing what lessons animals can teach you. Deer taught me that many penstemons can be severely pruned and will come back tighter and flower heavily.
Rabbits love penstemons too, the larger ones such as 'Blackbird,' 'Garnet' and their like. Pruned and grazed to the ground and yes they come away well, very bushy and flowering profusely. Some have been eaten to the roots and knocked right over but still survive when covered and stamped on.
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Convolvulus compactus blooms this year particularly abundant !
It is true the humidity in the summer, but also in winter is the death for many rare plants.
Thanks for compliment
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Here are my Erinus, flowering their
evil pretty little hearts out. They do seed around though, as you can see :-\
(I do like them really but I hate weeding tufa)
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Coming along nicely. Mostly Aubrieta in bloom but other things getting established.
Getting better and better: Dianthus time now.
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Back from the Dolomites and into an awful heat wave. Oh, for those wonderfully cold early mornings in the mountains. It will be in the 90s for a week with humidity, really brutal. The crevice gardens had only one casualty. Everything seems to be surviving heat and drought pretty well. Flowering is mostly gone but there is still some leftover seed.
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Another acantholimon in seed.
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Sorry, I reposted the wrong acantholimon.
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My seedling of Hedysarum is still alive! Also, daphnes are starting to rebloom in the crevice garden.
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What growing medium do you use in your crevice garden?
At Wisley they used sand but had problems with watering.
The summers here are much warmer and there is very little rainfall (if any),So pure sand is not an option
But the winters are very wet and I cannot put a pane of glass over most of the plants
I tried several mixtures but those that are fine in summer are not in winter and vice versa
Any ideas?
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Pure sand is useless. It holds neither water or nutrients and washes out when watered.
I use a mix of gritty sand and sterilised loam. I think the best mix depends on the vertical angle of the crevice garden and the stone you are using. More vertical locations will take a higher proportion of soil, because there will always be good drainage due to the slope, and because too sandy a mix will wash out. I'm afraid I am not very precise about this though - I just mix it until it looks right. I also vary the soil depending on the plant - Primulas get quite a heavy soil for example. When planting into a vertical wall I use pure loam.
Even in areas of high winter rainfall such as here, many alpines can survive because water at the roots is flowing, not ponded (I don't exactly know why this is so important, but it seems to be - aeration perhaps?).
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Thank you Tristan
I'll use slate and the stones will be vertical.
What do you think of this mixture : 1/3 grit, 1/3 sand , 1/3 loam ?
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Depends on the size of the grit relative to the width of your crevices John. Grit can get stuck in crevices and so make it difficult to backfill them properly. This can in turn result in air pockets. Probably 50:50 soil and sand will work for most things, maybe even a lower proportion of sand. I tend to use builders sharp sand which has a mix of grain sizes, so there is still a little gritty material.
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Eriogonum pulchellum (formerly E. ercium v pulchellum) is still in bloom in the crevice garden. This one looks quite different from most eriogonums. It looks almost like a tiny shrub. The flowers are whitish with a hint of pink. It reminds me of E. wrightii subscaposum, which blooms on long arching stems (but the plant is still under 1 foot), and also has white flowers.
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Eriogonum pulchellum (formerly E. ercium v pulchellum) is still in bloom in the crevice garden. This one looks quite different from most eriogonums. It looks almost like a tiny shrub. The flowers are whitish with a hint of pink. It reminds me of E. wrightii subscaposum, which blooms on long arching stems (but the plant is still under 1 foot), and also has white flowers.
Interesting Eriogonum, I wouldn't have said it is one, at least not from the 'distance'. The flowers are also turning reddish when fading? I really like this 'chameleonic' feature of Eriogonums.
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Panayoti Kelaidis of Denver Botanic Garden writes :
This remarkable young man (Kenton Seth (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011532281552)) has achieved a lifetime's work already in rock gardening...a great inspiration to us in Colorado!
I think the inspiration goes wider than that!
See PK's blog for a good reason :
http://prairiebreak.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/garden-meister-and-crevice-crafter.html (http://prairiebreak.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/garden-meister-and-crevice-crafter.html)
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Photos of Kenton are by PK and Bobby J. Ward and of the start of a Kenton Seth garden build at the JC Raulston Arboretum, photo again by author B.J. W.
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Oh to be able to start again from scratch with a younger body.
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Very nice crevice garden. I particularly like the ample bare areas of rock which are so important in a rock garden, and which I never have the restraint to maintain (because, y'know, I could fit more plants in!).
I think it could do with an extension to cover that ugly car park and tennis court though....
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Incredibly, despite repeated frosts, there is still some bloom in the crevice gardens. Some of the flowers such as Astragalus utahensis are darker than normal due to the cold but as the day warms up even that changes. Just the craziest Fall ever - basically no rain, days often far warmer than normal, but still frquent frosts.
1. Astragalus utahensis
2. Phlox pungens
3. Daphne x susannae 'Anton Fahndrich'
4. Path next to crevice gardens continuing to grow.
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A few photos of my new(ish) crevice bed, getting established and doing very well. I moved more seedlings in today and everything is looking good. Fingers crossed the weather is kind to my babies.
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Seems you are fortunate to have some tree cover for your garden which should provide some protection from the hot sun for your little plants - though the trees will use a lot of water , too. How are you set for irrigation?
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Hello Jamus,
Very nice pictures of your plant. Great colors and fantastic contrasts between rocks and plants. I'll keep my fingers crossed for your new shoots and look forward to more photos.
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The game of light and shadow is also noticeable to me. Large trees are often beneficial. For me it is an old plum tree.
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Very beautiful achievement Jamus. We are pleased to see how plants will evolve.
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Maggi you're right, there are pros and cons to the trees, but in our harsh climate they are overwhelmingly positive. I am pretty sure you can't imagine the intensity of the Australian summer sun, coming from Aberdeen! It is brutal. The rock garden gets 3 or 4 hours full sun in summer, in winter it's a lot more because the Gleditsia are deciduous. I didn't plant them, they were in the garden when we bought the place, but they really are ideal for the job. They cast light dappled shade, are deciduous, deep rooted and the leaves when they do drop are small and shiny and blow off the garden easily (relatively) and don't smother things. Irrigation is me with a pump connected to the rainwater tank and the hose. I love hand watering. If I don't have time I run a sprinkler for an hour.
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As a red-haired girl, living in Libya where it sometimes hit 40 degrees C was bad enough, Jamus, I'm content to be back in chilly Aberdeen! The prospect of an Australian summer is beyond me!
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I confess I sadistically enjoy watching Europeans recoil from the Aussie sun. ;D It's the expression of disbelief that I find funny. The classic are the English tourist who arrive and head straight to the beach, and a few hours later find themselves in hospital with heatstroke. Welcome to Australia!
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After years of failures and gaining experience I finally managed to build myself a rock garden that looks somehow nice not just to me. :D It is basically thanks to photos I found on the beginning of this topic, that inspired. Here is the sweet fruit of that inspiration. There will be a few flowering plants, but basically the rocks and miniature trees are what makes it look nice.
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Superb construction, Chis.
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Hi Chris,
that could easily be the top of a mountain somewhere!
Excellent work,
cheers
fermi
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I am happy that you liked my construction, I am very proud of it. It filled an empty space with something pleasant for an eye. Today I made some new photos with less unattractive background.
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That looks fantastic Chris. Very artfully constructed. I hope you give us updates as the plants grow and full out.
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I always thought the uppermost crevice gardens were relatively safe from deer, and they would never walk at the edge of the cliff. The rapidly melting snow meant I could finally get up there only to find the same devastation I saw farther down. They came, they ate, they left pieces of plants and their special calling cards, which I'll have to clean up. Talk about adding insult to injury! It's now obvious that covering the entire crevice garden with chicken wire in the winter is essential. Very disheartening. The list of daphnes they ate is long. They especially like the treasures, all of the wonderful small daphnes like D. hendersonii and D. susannae. It will be a test of their recuperative powers although a couple have not a single leaf or branch end left.
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From ZZ : "4 kilometres from our village is big Celtic menhir (placed by group of artists 20 years ago). It is nicely erected limestone slab 3 metres high. I have one remark: we crevice rock gardeners place minimaly two stones - just to have one crevice or three stones to obtain two crevices for planting saxatiles. photo by Zdena Kosourová, 30th April, 360m above sea level. "
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But this is also a rock that has perfect stratifications for chiseling a crevice or drilling some planting holes down a natural stratification line.
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The end of the acantholimons and the beginning of Zinnia grandiflora. These are tachnically not in the crevice garden but close.
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I built my first crevice garden yesterday :D .
I have read everything I could find about creating a crevice garden the last couple of months (including this whole thread) and finally have one in my own garden.
I am now planting a lot of small plants in the crevices and top dressing.
The rocks are covered in dust in the first images. The turn dark grey with rust when wet and lighter gray with rust when dry. The top dressing will be with canadian slate (also grey and a but of rust). The soil mound is loamy soil with extra sharp sand added and bewteen the crevices is a mixture for nutrient poor roofgardens with lava.
I hope my plants will love it as much as I do and am looking forward to springtime
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Oh yes! You will have a lot of pleasure from that crevice garden. The Rock is very attractive, which is a great start of course!
And a warm welcome to you!
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Nice job.
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Well done, looks like a good place for a bigger investment of several Euros
for suitable plants. Good luck and welcome at the forum.
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Well done Olga !! :D
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Thank you all for the kind comments.
The plants are in, I am glad there still is space for more though I will have to be selective ;D . There are saxifragas (still want some silvers), dianthus, sempervivum, androsace and some more challenging like a paraqueligia.
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This amazing crevice garden in progress is part of Tony Avent's garden in North Carolina. It is called the Juniper Level Crevice Garden and is made from reclaimed slabs of concrete, that have been carefully cut with a saw. To begin, it is hard to believe that this is concrete, especially in the areas where plants have been placed. Michael Peden is responsible for one part (already planted) and Kenton Seth started the second part which is being continued by Jeremy Schmidt and his crew. This last part has great "movement", to my mind really important when building with rock. This latest part makes me think of waves curling in on a beach. Pictures in this case are better than words.
1. Close-up of "wave" of crevices.
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More on Tony Avent's amazing crevice garden in progress.
1. Long view of "waves" of crevices
2. Future "seep" showing protruding slab
3. The other side of the "seep" rock
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More of this crevice work still continuing.
1. Jeremy Schmidt working on extension of crevices
2. Future extension planned on tremendously long bank, varying occasionally in height.
This is really becoming a work of art and using such a humble material, cement. Who knew cement could look like this? And this is before the softening influence of plants and weather aging.
The caveats are of course heavy material (like rock is light!!), and the need of a saw with a diamond blade. Apparently, once the first part of the cut is made it will make a clean break with a small amount of chisel work. Cant wait to see this garden finished.
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Brilliant work there, thanks for posting it Anne. Presumably because of the material being used lime haters will not be able to be planted?
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David, I would assume that's correct. I've never known of any cement that didn't leach lime eventually. I think the real boon is that it's easily available from old sidewalks being torn up, old foundations. Just a brilliant way of repurposing. They have at least 40 meters more of bank to be turned into crevice gardens.
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Pic from ZZ- of Martin Brejnik's garden, where silver cushions of Ptilotrichum spinosum have been planted for all season effect.
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I like this form of a Crevice Garden especially well. It is a successful combination of natural scenery and Crevice Garden. Not very architecturally and strictly formally. With heights and depths. Fantastically. A great work.
Thanks for this inspiration... Maggi. I have to do my arrangement next year anew formed. I will try to move some of it.
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This is my garden. Very stony and natural as I like it.
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My new Alpine Garden with dolomite stones.
Last year in july I buildt my little alpine garden with dolomite stones, got from Allgäu.
For this I needed big technic and needed some time to find the right places for the stones.
The spaces between the stones I filled with selfmade special soil mixes for the alpine plants.
After planting I covered the soil with dolomite gravels.
The plants grow well and flowers this year good.
Next spring there grow more geophytes too.
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A reminder of an RHS Wisley video from 2011 of ZZ with Paul Cumbleton about the building of the Wisley Crevice garden...
https://www.rhs.org.uk/videos/Gardens/Wisley/2011/The-Crevice-Garden (https://www.rhs.org.uk/videos/Gardens/Wisley/2011/The-Crevice-Garden)
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A new thread on the Canadian rock master. Paul Spriggs : http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=16015.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=16015.0)
This photo by Zdenek Zvolanek is of a crevice outcrop garden the daughter of the late Joyce Carruthers made in her garden in British Columbia - Crevice gardens are big in North America!
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I am very pleased to have been given permission by Eugen Tarasov, from Moscow, to share with you these photos of his. They are of natural rock formations in various places - the diversity is quite something - some formations that one would scarcely think possible!
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in the Caucasus
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Crimean rocks
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Min Shan
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Yunnan rocks 1
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more of Eugen's photos .....
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Monte Negro
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Sichuan
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Tien Shan
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more Yunnan rocks
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This is a most extreme formation -
sorry, cannot find note of who took/where is the photo
- thanks to John for finding the info: Folded Carbonates flysch in Basque Country, France.
Photo credit: Thibault Cavailhes
http://www.geologyin.com/2016/09/10-amazing-geological-folds-you-should.html (http://www.geologyin.com/2016/09/10-amazing-geological-folds-you-should.html)
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Maggi, one thing noticeable about crevice formations in Nature - they are not overplanted. It makes it pretty easy to photograph because they are separated usually by a lot of rock. You can see a plant following the line of a crevice, making a kind of "mono-planting". And you rarely see more than half a dozen genera (and that's a lot), inhabiting the same crevice area. It always seems to be a limited habitat. Rock gardeners in general always want to grow as many plants as possible (I'm certainly in that category), but sometimes it's good to have repeats of the same plant in a given area, especially crevices, because the end result seems more natural. My opinion, lots of room for disagreement.
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Maggi here's the info.
Folded Carbonates flysch in Basque Country, France.
Photo credit: Thibault Cavailhes
http://www.geologyin.com/2016/09/10-amazing-geological-folds-you-should.html (http://www.geologyin.com/2016/09/10-amazing-geological-folds-you-should.html)
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Excellent, John, thank you!
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Fantastic rockscapes. Mother nature always does it best!
Anne: I agree that the natural crevices hold less species in general, but one needs to have a very large rock garden, like yourself, to be able to imitate them well. But is true, and most times it can be only one species scattered over a large area, especially in case of those producing seeds in large quantities.
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Gabriela, it's true that most of us want to imitate Nature in our rock gardens and it's also true that Nature operates on a vast scale and makes it almost impossible to imitate exactly. Our crevice gardens have to be smaller, and most of us want to plant every available inch. I do like to see multiples of the same plant following a crevice line if possible. That's the way I see it so often in Nature and I do try and do that here in certain areas here. Walking in the mountains shows us plant combinations and new crevice ideas to try and that's always challenging and fun. You might say we are in the midst of a crevice garden craze, but surely one of the main reasons for that is that so many plants do incredibly well in them.
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You might say we are in the midst of a crevice garden craze, but surely one of the main reasons for that is that so many plants do incredibly well in them.
They sure do Anne ;D.
Here's a small river sand crevice bed completed and planted out early last year . Residing as we do in a woodland setting where good light is limited this area is one of the sunnier positions , probably receiving about 6 hours of sunlight during the height of summer .....
January 2017. Initial placement of limestone with strata lines.
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Currently 12 months on, the bed has a well established look with a wide mixture of NZ alpines such as Leucogenes ,South African bulbs including Rhodohypoxis which over time will start to take over the bed if I let them , North Americans such as Silene petersonii , European Physoplexis comosa ,Asian Geranium farreri as well as South Americans like Calceolaria arachnoidea which unfortunately has proven to be too vigorous and will need to be removed which begs the question does anyone know whether it will take from cuttings ?.......
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Cheers Dave.
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Dave, I'm so impressed with what you are growing in your crevice garden. Most of your treasures are plants I could only dream about. You're growing what you like and in Nature your plants grow in many different areas. You've just illustrated why it's always a little amusing to me when visitors comment on the "naturalness" of my garden where you'll find high desert plants growing with alpines, with plants from the Himalayas, with steppe plants, with meadow plants, with plants from Turkey, with daphnes, etc. Nothing could be more unnatural. For me they are all unified by my desire to try different plants, but I suppose a purist would find some of the combinations a little strange!!
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I like your bed, Dave.
Astragalus.... at the beginning I divided different geographical regions in my Alpinum. But since you soon reach your limits, I have planted most of the new plants together. There are only special regions where I am consistent... New Zealand comes first. ;D
More important is the location for the plants... because a private garden is not infinite... unfortunately
Thomas
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Thanks Thomas.
Anne I can't grow all the plants I like as there are too many species and not enough time ;D........
It's interesting that as I walk around the numerous woodland beds looking at an almost chaotic scene ,my eye keeps returning back to the rock gardens I've created where there appears to be a sense of order ,almost a calmness .
There has been good growth in the rockeries but nothing as rampant as elsewhere in our unseasonally hot weather of the last few months and I suspect because there is a greater emphasis on scale when planting out in rock gardens ,if there was this would be noticeable.
Campanula Maie Blyth this afternoon.
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Cheers Dave.
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A beautiful campanula. What can you tell me about it?
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Hello Anne
Lesley gave some background on the Forum back in March 2017 which I've copied and posted below .
" Dates are a little hazy now but we believe it was in approximately 1978, 79 or 1980, an alpine gardener from Timaru in the South Island of New Zealand and whose name was Maie Blyth, raised a batch of seed apparently from the AGS seed exchange and which reached her as Campanula morettiana. The seedlings were not that but seemed to be C. carpatica. One was selected as a compact form and Maie propagated this and eventually sold some but without a name. After a time Maie became ill and eventually died and local rock gardeners felt the plant was special and worth naming so gave it her name as a way of remembering her and the many little plants she had distributed from her tiny nursery. So Campanula 'Maie Blyth' came into being.
C. 'Maie Blyth' is cushion-like in full growth and flowers as a total cover when well grown. The texture of the flowers is thick and wax-like and each lobe has a dint or "crimp" in it which is unlike any other carpatica form."
Cheers Dave.
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Thanks for the info
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Trying to post pictures. Photographing with ipad and phone and have had a problem trying to download them here. Astragalus lutosus is such a favorite of mine that it is my photo on Facebook. For the first time it has made seed pods in the garden and I collected the seed. The foliage is absolutely beautiful. Each leaf folds up on the sides and looks like it has a silver edge, very fancy. What you are actually seeing is the edge of the silver hairs that cover the underneath of each leaf. It's planted in the upper crevice garden which is exposed to sun all day and is one of the windiest spots in a windy garden. It has relished this dreadful summer of heat and drought. Most of our summer rainfall comes from thunderstorms, which are very hit or miss, usually miss.
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This is a photo of Astragalus lutosus with seed pods forming. It continued to bloom for weeks and make seedpods at the same time. All in all, just a wonderful plant
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What a beauty, Anne!
Thanks for posting,
cheers
fermi
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Hi Dave,
I’ve got this campanula here, it came with a label of Campanula Royal Wave. Got it 2013 from Edrom Nursery here. Dunno much about its origin, but it has similar habit and appearance to the one you show.
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Horrible winter like everyone else. 70F in January for 5 days and then plunged to -18F in fewer than 36 hours! Spring was very cold and flowering delayed. There were some nice surprises - like Edraianthus niveus.
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Toolie, Campanula 'Maie Blyth' is a lovely plant. Do you know if it has made it across the ditch? I wonder. I'd love to try it here but my garden would probably be a death sentence for the poor thing. Last summer was particularly harsh here in terms of drought and I took some losses in the rock garden.
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Toolie, Campanula 'Maie Blyth' is a lovely plant. Do you know if it has made it across the ditch? I wonder. I'd love to try it here but my garden would probably be a death sentence for the poor thing. Last summer was particularly harsh here in terms of drought and I took some losses in the rock garden.
Sorry I don't know if it is in Aussie Jamus.
While it has never set seed for me , I find it easy to propagate from spring cuttings .....
It coped well with our unseasonal dry last summer in various positions/soil mixes as well as in a sand bed.
Cheers Dave.
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Spring here was cold and grey. It kept snowing on and off, and many of my pictures are on the dark side reflecting the weather. Despite that, there were many nice plants that made it through the winter and bloomed well, although weeks later than normal.
Lewisia 'Little Mango'
Arenaria hookeri
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Hello astragalus, I'm delighted with some of your successes: Astragalus lutosus and Lewisia "Little Mango". This is my first trial with Lewisias. I've got about 15 of them in their pots inside my cool greenhouse. They get only bottom watering all winter inside. However I do hope to place them out at one point. I can't tell from your picture if yours are growing flat or on an incline. Is Little Mango a L.cotyledon cultivar more adapted to garden conditions?. A single specimen of Astragalus kentrophyta is slowly growing, again with only bottom watering ,inside. Although I greatly appreciate those that grow specimens and keep their plants inside all their life, I'm interested to find ways how to cultivate these in the open. Thus your successes are so valuable in my quest. My seeds are from Alplains. Thank you. Arturo
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Many of my seeds were also from Alplains. Lewisia 'Little Mango' is in a trough and on a slight incline Many (most) of the astragali grown here are planted on sloped, very deep screes. The slope is to provide extra fast drainage and the mix itself is very open and drains very fast. I take our natural clay and roll it into marble-sized balls, which are placed in the scree below the seedlings I plant. The mix is so lean and drains so fast that these clay marbles are meant to supply mini reservoirs of moisture for the roots. Usually the marbles will be reached the year after planting if all goes well and the plant hasn't already died.
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Another nice one this Spring was Thlaspi bellidifolium.
A short time later Synthyris missurica (crossed with another synthyris, can't recall which one) came into bloom. I look forward to this one every Spring for its early bloom and deep blue.
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Beautiful Synthyris missurica Ann. I love the Astragalus lutosus. I have three groups of this plant .
This particular Astragalus in picture #1 shown here is reblooming again. The first set of flowers produced two huge pods. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures at that time.
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Very nice Astragalus lutosus, Kris. I was so surprised when it made seed pods this year. Were you able to collect ripe seed? A. lutosus has the longest bloom period of any astragalus I've ever grown.
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Your stuff is just wonderous, Ann! All these posts that you and others display are always much appreciated.
I take our natural clay and roll it into marble-sized balls, which are placed in the scree below the seedlings I plant.
Have you ever dug a year or more later, to see what has happened to the "marbles"? In your very free draining scree, are they still intact, or have they "dissolved" into the surrounding scree?
I don't recall you posting Astragalus barbatus. (I could be wrong.) Do you grow it?
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Rick, I don't know Astragalus barbatus and have never grown it. Do you have a picture? Do you grow it? The only time I would dig in the screes would be to remove or replace a dead plant. The scree mix is so lean that if you dumped a bucket of water all at once there would be no puddle, even monentarily. The marbles are made from sub soil and it's a very sticky clay. It's quite possible they are still intact, I don't know. It's also possible that they don't perform the function I had hoped, it was just an idea that seemed reasonable to try. Plants do very well in the screes during our extended summer droughts but maybe they would have anyway.
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Very nice Astragalus lutosus, Kris. I was so surprised when it made seed pods this year. Were you able to collect ripe seed? A. lutosus has the longest bloom period of any astragalus I've ever grown.
The plant produced two huge pods. One day I noticed one pod missing and immediately harvested the second one. I got 20 seeds from that.
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Rick, I don't know Astragalus barbatus and have never grown it. Do you have a picture?
Bjřnar Olsen has a nice pic on his old site (trillium.no), but I don't see it now on his chinesealpines.com. It's a small one, like yours and Kris's wonderful A. lutosus, with purple flowers. I bought seed from him, but didn't get it planted this year, so it will have to be next season.
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I love blue colours and Penstemon aridus is a nice blue one.
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Kris, if you love the blue penstemons, try Penstemon uintahensis. It's quite wonderful. Have great pictures but unable to post them, sorry.
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John Richards has visited Jiří Papoušek's wonderful garden near Prague and reported in his diary... ..
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Northumberland/+September+/920/ (http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Northumberland/+September+/920/)
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John's picture of the new crevice garden in the front garden of Jiri's house -a work in progress
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Kris, if you love the blue penstemons, try Penstemon uintahensis. It's quite wonderful. Have great pictures but unable to post them, sorry.
Sorry Anne I saw your post only today. I have Penstemon unithahensis and I love it . Penstemon nitidus is also heavenly blue.
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Kenton Seth is in Port Townsend, Washington..... he posted this ...
"Been a blast making one of the first big crevice gardens in WA for the amazing Far Reaches Farm
() www.farreachesfarm.com (http://www.farreachesfarm.com) @far_reaches_botanical_conserve in Port Townsend this week.
The whole story is blogged at
https://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR3bsgOcgZmJ1ygxPHtgp8AsFmA7u9jfdfjfHB4VevDqYzfr0anpAQOuCsE (https://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR3bsgOcgZmJ1ygxPHtgp8AsFmA7u9jfdfjfHB4VevDqYzfr0anpAQOuCsE)
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Unfortunately, as a result of coronavirus pandemic, visits to Scotland this year for SRGC events by Paul Spriggs, Kenton Seth' Jacob Mares and Nick Courtens have had to be cancelled - however, we can still get a flavour of what they're up to !
Here is what Panayoti Kelaidis says about Kenton Seth's recent blog about his work at the Betty Ford Alpine Garden in Vail, Colorado....
"The redoubtable, indomitable and just plain wonderful Kenton Seth is at it again: don't just click on this link to his blog post, be sure to watch the video at the end. This new crevice garden he built with Nick Courtens and Domenique Turnbull has got to be a masterpiece of the genre."
Link to the blog :
https://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-new-crevice-garden-in-vail.html?fbclid=IwAR20p_T-AfiKQB5uUW_zFEXWBjNqXTzGZG4efMIL7an2bbi6M39cZJdWJSw
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New from Kenton J. Seth - https://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-flame-in-tinderbox-crevice-gardens-in.html?fbclid=IwAR1dxPfeT1VaeOTD8-36UXfihUFwa_DSmIjlJB0yAII2dvfTutSIu0SSsJU
- includes further links of interest.'
Kenton Seth and Paul Spriggs have finished writing their book on crevice gardens - all that is needed now is a publisher.
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And anyone may book for this event : https://www.nargs.org/nargs-rocks-crevices-gardening-vertically-and-horizontally-virtual-study-day
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https://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-this-first-crevice-garden.html
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Crevice Garden built in British Columbia for Dr Hans Roemer by Paul Spriggs
From Paul Spriggs (who has just written a book with Kenton J. Seth about Crevice Gardening -which is eagerly awaited).-
"Today we built a small crevice garden for my rock gardening mentor Dr. Hans Roemer. Ive learned so much from him over the past 22 years, its the least I could do..."
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"Its hard to tell but the water container filled to the top with water in this picture. it is quite deep.and intended to hold fish. ..... ...i know what youre thinking... 'how is that square form 'natural'?... well I personally would have used a kidney shaped tub, but this was the shape that Hans wanted. I personally have a 'no straight lines' policy in my designs as they rarely occur in nature. the edges will be softened and hidden by planting soon. "
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It's great to see Paul do this for Dr Roemer - a man held by many of us in high regard.
More from Paul Spriggs on this garden for Dr Roemer....
"Today we built a small crevice garden for my rock gardening mentor Dr. Hans Roemer. Ive learned so much from him over the past 22 years, its the least I could do..."
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Hans Roemer and Reilly Tatrow
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Paul asks that this is shared ....
"please do (share) in the name of educating people on how to do it right! 2 basic concepts that are often ignored... height and drama!"
Article in IRG from Hans Roemer: https://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010Oct071286446410IRGApril_.pdf
A Conversation with Hans Roemer: https://ecoreserves.bc.ca/2012/03/15/a-conversation-with-hans-roemer/
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Kenton Seth (USA) and Paul Spriggs(Canada) have written their long-anticipated book on crevice gardening published by the excellent Filbert Press, entitled 'The Crevice Garden - how to make the perfect home for plants from rocky places' and the book is open for pre-ordering - see the link below - for only Ł23.25.
https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-crevice-garden-how-to-make-the-perfect-home-for-plants-from-rocky-places/9781739903909
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Publisher
Filbert Press
Publishing Date
21 April 2022
Hardcover : 224 pages
ISBN-10 : 1739903900
ISBN-13 : 978-1739903909
From the little I have seen of the book so far, I am very excited to get it into my hot little hands!
Many of you will already know of the talents and skills of these two remarkable men - the number of terrific garden builds they have been a part of, both individually and together, is growing all the time, and this book gives some of the clearest information on the subject available anywhere. Kenton and Paul have learned from the best, and are well-equipped to pass on their experience to others in this book.
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This book will be a game-changer! Can’t wait to see it.
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A short video about Paul Spriggs and his approach to rock gardens ....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0suSSY0CDw
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...and another tip for all those who receive Canadian TV (Vision TV) programming... the complete episode (30 minutes) will be broadcast tonight. 6pm pacific time. 🤘
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I cannot remember if I posted this before or not - no matter, it bears repeating - Bobby Ward introduces a super talk by Paul Spriggs :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsRmniYrs-E
( There are adverts, but not a real problem!)
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Rocking all over the world with rock gardens, flowers surviving snow then sunshine plus a book review of 'The Crevice Garden' in #BulbLog
https://www.srgc.net/documents/bulb%20logs/220413104237BULB%20LOG%201522.pdf
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Latest Bulb Log includes review of great new book by Seth and Spriggs 'The Crevice Garden ' - a must for all lovers of rock plants, regardless of their ambition to have a crevice garden!! Available to Alpine Garden Society members at discount, too!
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The Crevice Garden ISBN: 9781739903909 by Kenton Seth and Paul Spriggs, subtitled “How to make a perfect home for plants from rocky places”, published later in April 2022 by Filbert Press, priced at Ł25.
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