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

[Lampwick]

Erinus alpinus 'Mrs. Chas. Boyle'
I have just taken this photograph. I go along with what Maggi and others say about this little charmer! I have never found it to be the pernicious weed which some claim it is; even when it pops up in a patch of Sempervivum arachnoideum, or a Kabschia Saxifraga, as it is easily removed. There is a white form, and E. a. ‘Dr. Hanelle’ has flowers of a glowing carmine.

[Jon Evans]

I grow a wide mix of Erinus alpinus, from white through pale pinks to dark pink, but weed out the lavender ones because I don't like the colour.  I let them self-seed and simply weed out seedlings in inappropriate places.  It is very manageable, unlike the Wood Avens seedlings you can see, which are a perishing nuisance.  Let to their own devices the Erinus seedlings usually germinate in the autumn and flower the following May (at least in Southern England). 

[Jon Evans]

I should add that I am very glad to hear that some of this mix of colours are becoming established in Aberdeen.  I tried to send Maggi seed from the whites, but inevitably there will be a mixture, and I'm not sure they come true anyway.

Jon

[Tristan_He]

I'm at a stage in life  where the more enthusiastic self-seeders are more than welcome

I'll send you a mixed packet of mine Maggi! Campanula trachelium, Meconopsis cambrica, Digitalis purpurea, Pilosella aurantiaca, Geranium endressii. Alchemilla mollis, Lunaria annua, Hesperis matronalis (I see you already have a nice dandelion!). All very nice, and all rather rapidly become too much of a good thing. Mind you we have very light soil, so seeds seem to survive very well.

Seriously, I do like Erinus. It's just that it has a penchant for self-seeding in the choicest habitats in the rockery where it competes with plants that I would rather have there. Unfortunately that includes into the tufa itself, where it can only be killed by (a) hacking into the tufa or (b) weedkiller. Would be good somewhere like a gravel garden though. I may even try scattering some seed into thin grass.

[Maggi Young]

At a super talk last evening for the Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden the speaker, Helen Dillon, told us how valuable she finds  Hesperis matronalis for early colour in her borders - she sows it every year and uses about 60 to 80 plants!

[rgc]

Hi
Some pictures from my crevice garden. Two overviews plus some of its inhabitants: Oxalis laciniata, Primula pedemontana alba x hirsuta alba and Aethionema 'Warley Rose'.

The Kabschia Saxifrage have been disappointing this year.
Bob

[Maggi Young]

I should add that I am very glad to hear that some of this mix of colours are becoming established in Aberdeen.  I tried to send Maggi seed from the whites, but inevitably there will be a mixture, and I'm not sure they come true anyway.

Jon

 Oh yes, there are some whites among the "new" colours here, Jon - we are so pleased to have your new gene pool added  in the  mix. 

[Jon Evans]

A few pictures from my own garden the other evening.

First a Tulipa batalinii which has decided it fancies life as an iris 

The Erinus alpinus is just coming into full bloom, so there is a rash of flowers all over the crevice garden.

Along with the Erinus, another annual, Linaria alpina, seeds itself around gently.  Normally purple and brown, in the backlit from the setting sun it looks as though there is a touch of pink in it.

Finally a view across the bottom of the crevice garden, with Pulsatilla vulgaris seedheads, Veronica gentianoides (white clone I have forgotten the name of), and Paeonia x. smouthii among others.

[Maggi Young]

Evening sun light is  so lovely - delightful in real life and so atmospheric in photos.
The Erinus are still all in tight bud here.

[David Nicholson]

Nice setting Jon. My Veronica gentianoides are not out yet

[Lampwick]

I have recently bought a number of alpine plants from the following nursery’s for my new crevice garden.

Aberconwy Nursery
Meadow Farm Nursery
Parnham Bungalow Plants
Craigiehall Nursery

The first three were at the AGS show in Solihull on April 16 and Craigiehall Nursery is where I have received some wonderful plants during this last week and today.

I planted up a number of them a few days after the AGS show and have been sporadically planting others since.
They are all making noticeable growth and many are flowering.

Here are a few pictures. . .

[David Nicholson]

Lovely plants John.

[Lampwick]

And a few more. . .

[Lampwick]

Lovely plants John.

Thank you David    but I don’t deserve any credit - they more or less came out of the pots as you see them!
Admittedly, they have increased in size and buds have opened into flowers. I give credit to the nurseries for producing healthy robust plants; especially those from Craigiehall Nursery which were beautifully packed and a very good size!

It will be nice to see what they will be like this time next year when I can refer back to these posts wont it?

By the way. . . Why cant I grow Linum ‘Gemmell’s Hybrid’ like I did in the mid 1970s?
Over the past years it has never put out the abundant show of blooms it did back then. Others I have seen recently boast not much more than a dozen flowers at any one time.

This is how it grew for me 40 years ago. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it is from a 35mm slide taken on a Russian “Zenith” SLR camera.

[Maggi Young]

By the way. . . Why cant I grow Linum ‘Gemmell’s Hybrid’ like I did in the mid 1970s?
Over the past years it has never put out the abundant show of blooms it did back then. Others I have seen recently boast not much more than a dozen flowers at any one time.

This is how it grew for me 40 years ago. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it is from a 35mm slide taken on a Russian “Zenith” SLR camera.

Beats me - the darn thing has gone from here altogether.     Like yours, it used to do well.
One hardly sees it at all recently, I think.  (That's probably a cue for dozens of people to come tell us they have it a metre wide with ten thousand flowers!)