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

[Maggi Young]

Welcome home, Anne!
Glad to hear your holiday went well ( though the hail sounds a bit nasty )   great to see you super photos and I hope that you now feel refreshed for your return to work in your beautiful garden.

[astragalus]

Maggi, since we came home to horrible heat and humidity, I'm staying out of the garden.  Many things have gone dormant, hopefully not permanently, the crevice gardens are doing well and for some reason the daphnes are starting to rebloom.  Everything is extremely dry and the westerners are loving it.
Here are a few more crevice plants from the Dolomites

    Potentilla nitida
    Valeriana supina
    Primula auricula

[ranunculus]

Lovely images, Anne ... it was a great pleasure to hike with you both in Della L'Erbe ... what a stunning scenic and floral destination ... a certainty for our next visit to these beautiful mountains.

[astragalus]

A pleasure for us too, Cliff.  If we're there at the same time next year I'll show you another place, equally enchanting.  In over twenty years, we've managed to go to some wonderful spots without going too far afield.

[Lesley Cox]

Such wonderful pictures Anne. Surely the best we've seen on the Forum of Eritrichium nanum and I was thrilled to see the Paedorota which I grew from seed once and had doing well until a very hot, dry summer killed it. It's a lovely thing and one day I hope to have it again.

[astragalus]

Thanks so much, Lesley.  The kudos go to Joe who does most of the photography.  Paederota bonorata does very well here in the garden and seems to be able to go dormant (usually) during periods of drought.  I've thought several times that I lost it and back it came with autumn moisture and lower temps.  It's asking a lot of alpine plants that can have an icy bath at almost any time of the year to adjust to lowland gardens with heat and humidity.  You have to love the ones that make the effort instead of immediately turing up their toes.  Have you tried Calamintha alpina (Acinos alpina?)?  It's been very successful here and will seed itself.  For some reason I haven't had great success in moving it except at seedling stage.  It has a very long bloom period as well.

[astragalus]

Another beauty from the Dolomites growing in a crevice.  It's growing in my crevice garden but doesn't look like this yet (the voice of an incurable optimist).

Silene acaulis

[Maggi Young]

You are not alone in hoping for a Silene acaulis in your garden with big flowers of that number, Anne - there are a lot of us about. 

[astragalus]

Another wonderful crevice plant in the Dolomites

Salix sp.

[astragalus]

A few plants bloom9ing now in the crevice garden.  Hope these go through.  I seem to be having difficulty posting pictures on the Forum.

[astragalus]

And another one, Zauschneria californica, just starting to bloom in the newest crevice garden on the back of the cliff.  Makes all the work cleaning out the natural crevices worth while.

[ichristie]

Hello everybody, I have been very busy this summer if fact I seem to have missed the summer however I have done some new raised beds in my garden, you may well ask do I need more garden to look after well some plants have grown bigger and needed moving and I have many new and exciting plants to find room for thanks to my friend Cyril. I have made a crevice garden at the south end of the island with a Lage Azalea in the middle along with a pink viburnum and other Rhodos to provide some shade for the north end of the island. I was very lucky to be offered some large Swedish peat blocks from our friend Bob Potterton who was speaking in Sweden, I picked these up at Lamberton last week so now what to build. I took my chain saw and cut the blocks (they are very dry and hard)into three pieces long ways this was just what I wanted to build a crevice with peat blocks the dust and loose peat was blown everywhere this pleased my wife no end as it got into everything.  I filled up the peat crevices with a compost mix one third John Inness two thirds peat added a little fertilised as I went, not sure if this may be wet in winter will have to wait and see. I have planted a backbone of small Azaleas and Rhodos with gentians soldanellas trilliums petiolarid primulas will add mpore in spring. I also placed two tree roots amidst this structure just to add some interest and planted some Cypripedium division from another garden. I am posting several pictures and will let you know how it goes I realis that the peat blocks will take a long time to get wet through but I hope by then that the plants will grow into them.  cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[ichristie]

More pictures these are the cut peat blocks to make a peat crevice, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[ranunculus]

I've still never been to your nursery, Ian ... you have just posted another enormous incentive to visit (as if I needed one anyway).  Excellent work sir.

[ChrisB]

What a lot of work Ian.  You need a rest - maybe you'll get one at the Discussion Weekend???