Crevice Gardening ......in defence of rock.....

[t00lie]

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  .

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.



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 ?.......







Cheers Dave.

[astragalus]

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!!

[Leucogenes]

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.

More important is the location for the plants... because a private garden is not infinite... unfortunately

Thomas

[t00lie]

Thanks Thomas.

Anne I can't grow all the plants I like as there are too many species and not enough time  ........

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.


Cheers Dave.

[astragalus]

A beautiful campanula. What can you tell me about it?

[t00lie]

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.

[astragalus]

Thanks for the info

[astragalus]

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.

[astragalus]

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

[fermi de Sousa]

What a beauty, Anne!
Thanks for posting,
cheers
fermi

[ChrisB]

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.

[astragalus]

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.

[Jupiter]

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.

[t00lie]

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.

[astragalus]

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