Troughs

[Ragged Robin]

Yes please, your trough crevice construction looks wonderful lesley 

[Lesley Cox]

I'll post pics as things flower. You may remember I bought 6 troughs from Hokonui Alpines, way back in March but it is only in the last couple of weeks that the remaining 5 have been placed properly. They still have to have drainage, compost, rocks and plants added. But I'll get to it soon, now the weather is warming and the days are a little longer. I find I'm getting to be a wimp so far as gardening in very cold or wet weather is concerned. It didn't worry me years ago. Started after I came out of hospital last year.

[fermi de Sousa]

The second trough just finished planting today with Morisia monanthos (centre), Dianthus 'lionrock', Oxalis hirta and palmifrons, Calceolaria fothergillii and a campanula sp.

Hi Doug,
here's what O. palmifrons is like in our "trough" in the Rock garden,

cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

Fermi, is it this patch that you get flowers from? This is quite loose in growth - I guess it will grow to fill whatever space is available - or do you get the flowers from a potful where the growth is tighter and more contricted? I'd be happy with one flower, anywhere.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Lesley,
Yes, this is where I get an occasional flower on Oxalis palmifrons! From one spot about where the dry twig is lying on the right side. I've never noticed it flowering in a pot but we know it can! This pic was just to illustrate how much it can spread if left to its own devices!
cheers
fermi

[kiwi]

Fermi, removed the O. palmifrons and replaced with Campanula Zoysii x pulla (has any one have a photo of this cross in flower?) Thanks for the advice.

Just finished potting up my new NZ alpine trough - Celmisia argentea, C. spedenii, C. hectori, C. spectabilis minor, C. discolor, Clematis marmoraria, Ranunculus enysii, Craspedia robusta and last but not least, Leucogenes leontopodium.


Carmichaelia nana has put on an unbelievable show this season.

[Lesley Cox]

I'm sure there's a picture in one of the bulletins of the AGS or the journals of SRGC, maybe a few years ago.

[Maggi Young]

Wow, Doug, you'd get a medal with that pot of Carmichaelia for sure! 

[krisderaeymaeker]

Wow, Doug, you'd get a medal with that pot of Carmichaelia for sure! 

I agree with Maggi but I also like your trough Doug! Very good combination of black stones and silver leaves.
Also planted with some of my favorite plants.  Altough they are not easy to cultivate here in our climate. In prevoius years I even last them when I cultivate them in pot. Wich substrate you use to fill the trough ?
I tried some in my new peatbed but I don't think they survive our winter...?   

[Maggi Young]

Kris, here in North-east Scotland our New Zealand plants do best in our ordinary garden soil or in our raised beds and troughs which have basically the same mix as our potted plants.... 2 parts grit ( 6mm broken granite) 2 parts sand and 1 part leaf mould.

[Katherine J]

These beautiful leaves can even beat some flowers, Kris!

[kiwi]

Hi there, just potting up another trough of Clematis marmoraria so I took a shot of my mix.
My mix consists of -  1.5-2 parts composted bark : 1 part 5mm chip : 1 part crusher dust.
We get pretty dry in the summer hence I add the extra .5 compost depending on the plants natural environment.
I am pretty fresh in the alpine cultivation world, but I have had good success so far.

[Lesley Cox]

Here are a couple of pictures from my first Hokonui trough. It's looking reasonably established now, the Daphne petraea having flowered well and Campanula zoysii creeping about happily. I hope it flowers later.

Myosotis capitata, a native, insofar as the islands of the southern ocean are part of NZ.

and Myosotis 'Hokonui,' a delicious hybrid between M. capitata and another tiny native species, M. uniflora. It has soft yellow flowers and a luscious honey perfume, on a very small, tight bun-like mat. M. 'Hokonui' is the baby of Louise Salmond at Hokonui Alpines. This is my third plant, the others having succumbed to too much heat in summer but it likes this place on the cooler side of the trough.

These pics are of a hybrid which appeard here a couple of years ago, seedlings from Saponaria pumilio (which I believe should now be called S. pulvinaris though quite different from what I know as that species). Anyway, this is a very soft pink compared with the seed parent and has a slightly peachy colour from lutea, as well as the flowers being in little clusters of several per stem like the pollen parent. It is lovely and I'm thrilled it appeared here. I need a name for it I think.

Here are the parents, for comparison. Saponaria pumilio

and S. lutea

Don't know what's going on here. Pictures won't come up with the usual attachthumb code, so trying without.

[mark smyth]

lovely Myosotis. Are they weedy? My lovely tiny M. decumbens died in this years winter big freeze

[astragalus]

Lovely plants, Lesley.  Please keep posting as they keep blooming.  Marvelous to see what grows in a climate so different from mine.