August 2018

[cohan]

Newly acquired plants (from Aberconwy Nursery a few weeks ago)

Fuchsia magellanica v. pumila
Potentilla x 'Tonguei'
Scutellaria laeteviolacea
Scutellaria suffrutescens 'Texas Rose’

Nice bunch! Like Maggie, love the colour of the Potentilla..

[cohan]

Hi Cohan,
Over the years I have had a pleasing amount of success with Eriogonum – E. caespitosum, E. ovalifolium, E. flavum and E. umbellatum to name a few.
I just love the wild plants of the High Plains of America and Canada.
I had many seeds in the past from Rocky Mountain Rare Plants.

When you say. . . “growing in a very tough spot in my garden!” Is that by choice or design?. . .  Please explain.

The spot was by design, with a bit of ignorance It was a few years back, and I had built some new rock garden areas, at the slightly higher end of the acreage which is generally drier, and also in front of some large spruce trees which makes it drier. Further, the erios are at the very top of a (built) raised narrow ridge-- rock and gravel and native clayey loam. So, they are quite exposed ( not super windy on the acreage due to trees all around,  this spot is protected from 3 sides, though can get some southeast winter winds which are only occasional here, but brutal), high and rather dry and get only slight snow cover for part of winter, compared to many other parts of the acreage! I didn't quite realise when building it just how exposed it would be, but they have done well (some years better than others, like anything else). This year while weeding, I rebuilt the back 'wall' of that ridge, which should make life just slightly easier for those erios...
here are a couple of shots of the re-work in progress--you can see it was very weedy and in need of the work! Don't seem to have got shots of the finished view from the back (north side, more or less straight up). The front also needs more plants-- a couple of things were too vigorous, so removed, and a couple of others didn't make it! It is just the erios at top and a nice -small- Pediocactus coming along slowly in front... recent shot of one of the Eriogonum ovalifolium var depressum from Alplains seed, with a bit more support/shelter from behind, and front slope shored up a bit , more rocks to protect soil/ condense moisture etc.

[cohan]

Just like last year, Pulsatilla tatewakii only blooms at this late time...

Maybe it wants all the attention!

[cohan]

Two Gentians in flower
Gentiana asclepiada - a nice pale blue form I bought at Cambo a few years ago
Gentiana loderi

Love that pale one

[Lampwick]

The spot was by design, with a bit of ignorance It was a few years back, and I had built some new rock garden areas, at the slightly higher end of the acreage which is generally drier, and also in front of some large spruce trees which makes it drier. Further, the erios are at the very top of a (built) raised narrow ridge-- rock and gravel and native clayey loam...................

Thanks for your reply Cohan.

You have given me - “much food for thought.” I really love how you have used those various size stones and boulders. . . And that tree branch!
My crevice garden isn't working to good for me. I'm going for your design! I think it looks more natural. Its like a scene on the Laramie Plans or South Pass Wyoming. I notice Leucogenes and others have used stones and boulders in a hap-hazard array, and it all looks so real.

Click on these two links, . . . I'm going for that effect!

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/Rare_Plants/profiles/TEP/eriogonum_ovalifolium_vineum/images/eriogonum_ovalifolium_vineum_hab_lg.jpg

http://science.halleyhosting.com/nature/basin/3petal/buck/eriogonum/ovalifolium/depressum/depressum12a.jpg

[cohan]

Thanks for your reply Cohan.

You have given me - “much food for thought.” I really love how you have used those various size stones and boulders. . . And that tree branch!
My crevice garden isn't working to good for me. I'm going for your design! I think it looks more natural. Its like a scene on the Laramie Plans or South Pass Wyoming. I notice Leucogenes and others have used stones and boulders in a hap-hazard array, and it all looks so real.

Click on these two links, . . . I'm going for that effect!

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/Rare_Plants/profiles/TEP/eriogonum_ovalifolium_vineum/images/eriogonum_ovalifolium_vineum_hab_lg.jpg

http://science.halleyhosting.com/nature/basin/3petal/buck/eriogonum/ovalifolium/depressum/depressum12a.jpg

Beautiful plants and shots.... I think crevice gardens can be natural looking, but it is tricky, I certainly don't like all that I've seen but there are some lovely ones... It wasn't an option for me in any case, since I was using local stones -- from piles and gardens we had here from years back, which were collected from cultivated fields, and supplemented with more  that roll down from the gravel roads, especially after road work a few years ago. There is no visible bedrock in my immediate area, all of our stones and gravel are glacial deposits, highly varied and mostly smooth, so my aim is more like moraines rather than high alpine crevices, which require more of one kind of stone, and generally more angular pieces-- I don't have those...lol. I do select stones of loosely matching type/colour for small groupings for effect-- then walk along the gravel road selecting small stones/gravel that matches for those areas!. I'll dig for a few more pictures that show some more of my rock use, and a few views of beautiful moraines I see in the mountains. 
As for the piece(s) of wood, there are a couple of factors there. As I've built more beds, my supply of stones has been spread thin, so I've used pieces of wood in many places to help give structure, hold in soil etc-- especially around outer edges of beds. Of course below treeline in the mountains one also sees branches and logs among the plants and rocks, so I wanted to emulate that in places just because I like wood, and pieces of wood can also be used to shade roots, block wind, hold heat etc (for plants from hot summer locales, I sometimes make the whole bed a heat sink via shape, angle stone and wood placement and colour etc). For plants from lower meadow or woodland/edge habitats, I often use elements of hugelkultur-- typically used more for vegetable gardens, it is roughly the practise of making raised plantings with soil mounded over  organic matter, such as wood. I generally use partly rotted wood so the bed is not too 'active', and besides helping raise the bed, the wood aids in building vital fungal  soils, retains moisture while aiding aeration, etc. Of course I do not do that in sections for plants native to very mineral soils.
1- a small native Erigeron or similar (annual? weed? which gently pops up here and there in the garden and pots, originally from a wetland site... I like the texture.. here with a Sedum cultivar; August 09, 2018
2- Papaver popovii with Cyclamen purpurascens in the background; August 12, 2018
3-Rhodiola rosea; wild seed Nfld, CA;  first seedling planted out last year to flower; August 09, 2018
4-Sempervivum marmoreum var erythraeum with Rosularia, Armeria etc behind; August 07, 2018
5-Sempervivum zeleborii;  wild seed, Bulgaria