New beginnings...a rock garden in the Alps

[Ragged Robin]

Even in Paradise it's important to have a Garden of Eden to keep one grounded

[cohan]

there was (maybe still is, no cable tv out here) a canadian tv show called 'recreating eden' which featured stories about special gardens and their creation and history--usually, though not always, featuring people still living and gardening..
beautiful show, both for the gardens (canadian and international) and the insight into the people-how they started, what the gardens mean to them, etc..

[Katherine J]

you live in heaven!

If heaven looks like this, I want there as soon as possible! 

[Ragged Robin]

After all it is essentially an Alpine Garden so everything has to survive of its own accord but I do worry leaving the garden that is so much a part of life here in the Alps.

So many bulbs have come up this Spring that were planted last year and so they have been a success story so far but I thought this previously when I expected a group to multiply it has remained static or even reduced; it’s all a matter of finding the position and condition that is just right….

[Ragged Robin]

Narcissus spread better in the rockery than on the bank, competing with fast growing grass, although I do like the natural effect there in the wild with sunlight and views.  Snowdrops struggle somewhat but early Crocus are fine in this situation, appearing before the main growth....

[Ragged Robin]

...and a new Scilla slope is developing into a semi-shaded rockery, though some prefer to be amongst warm stones

[Ragged Robin]

It seems the early Crocus vernus (given by a Forumist) are happy on the sunny south facing slope and I hope they will multiply here together with Tommies on the next level.

[Ragged Robin]

Close by, Iris Reticulata Harmony grows on the rock garden dry slope and the situation seems just right as they receive a good underground flow of melt water in the Spring and then baking hot sun in the summer – Later I’m surprised to see the height of leaf spear growth but it bodes well for renewal of the bulb.

[Ragged Robin]

The butterflies and bees rush to the Eranthis hyemalis and Iris reticulata, some of the first flowers to appear, and then the Muscari latifolium took over in between. 

[Ragged Robin]

This is a first time for Muscari Valerie Finnis, which actually grew snake like leaves last Autumn and then held off flowering until real Spring sunshine forced it to do so – what a thrill it has been to see the flower heads change from tight green tinged blue to blue tinged green and finally dusky powder blue as they matured.

[Ragged Robin]

Now thickly growing Gladiolus byzantinus is marching down the top of the slope – I thought it had all but disappeared  - and above it Muscari neglectum and cowslips that I hope will scatter seed at will but they seem firmly entrenched in the spot where they were planted.  Typical that next door violets and cowslips have self seeded and abound before they strim them away!

[Ragged Robin]

With luck the slope that has Alpine meadow flowers threaded through it, until cut in August, will be even more floriferous this year and full of surprises.

[Ragged Robin]

Meanwhile it is really pleasing to see that all the bulbs (given by Forumists) in the nursery bed are doing well in leaf and even in tiny first flowering of Narcissus Bulbocodium conspicuous.

[Ragged Robin]

The new bed of Narcissus Jack Snipe together with Fritillaria uva-vulpis is forging ahead and I do like the combination of these two flowering together.  Further beds to be created higher up will act as a backdrop, if they like it there, with cyclamen and snowdrops and the whole area carpeted with Eranthis hyemalis once I have added more humus to the soil close to the fir trees – with which a love hate relationship exists….

[Ragged Robin]

The love part is that they attract birds of all sorts, particularly important in the bare winter months, the hate part is that they suck moisture out of the soil and are ungainly planted originally as a hedging screen from next door.  Still, they and the other evergreens provide some shade from the intense heat of the sun and add texture and new growth to the beginning of the season.  These elements exist in the rockery too and I particularly love the different colours and textures of the low growing Hebes.