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

[astragalus]

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.

[astragalus]

And in crevices on the back of the cliff.

    Erigeron scopulinus
    Edraianthus pumilio

[ranunculus]

Looking SO good, Anne ...

[Tim Ingram]

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.

[astragalus]

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.

[Tim Ingram]

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 à 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.

[astragalus]

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.

[astragalus]

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.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

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... 
It's great fun though, growing in tufa.

[astragalus]

Agreed, Luc.  The other thing is to try not to plant anything that likes the situation TOO well.

[astragalus]

Tufa crevice bed is 99% finished and planted.  Ready to start the second one.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Tufa crevice bed is 99% finished and planted.  Ready to start the second one.

How very promising !! 

[David Nicholson]

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

[astragalus]

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.

[Tim Ingram]

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.