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

[hamparstum]

Hello astragalus, I'm delighted with some of your successes: Astragalus lutosus and Lewisia "Little Mango". This is my first trial with Lewisias. I've got about 15 of them in their pots inside my cool greenhouse. They get only bottom watering all winter inside. However I do hope to place them out at one point. I can't tell from your picture if yours are growing flat or on an incline. Is Little Mango a L.cotyledon cultivar more adapted to garden conditions?. A single specimen of Astragalus kentrophyta is slowly growing, again with only bottom watering ,inside. Although I greatly appreciate those that grow specimens and keep their plants inside all their life, I'm interested to find ways how to cultivate these in the open. Thus your successes are so valuable in my quest. My seeds are from Alplains. Thank you. Arturo

[astragalus]

Many of my seeds were also from Alplains.  Lewisia 'Little Mango' is in a trough and on a slight incline  Many (most) of the astragali grown here are planted on sloped, very deep screes. The slope is to provide extra fast drainage and the mix itself is very open and drains very fast.  I take our natural clay and roll it into marble-sized balls, which are placed in the scree below the seedlings I plant.  The mix is so lean and drains so fast that these clay marbles are meant to supply mini reservoirs of moisture for the roots. Usually the marbles will be reached the year after planting if all goes well and the plant hasn't already died.

[astragalus]

Another nice one this Spring was Thlaspi bellidifolium.
A short time later Synthyris missurica (crossed with another synthyris, can't recall which one) came into bloom. I look forward to this one every Spring for its early bloom and deep blue.

[kris]

Beautiful Synthyris missurica Ann. I love the Astragalus lutosus. I have three groups of this plant .
This particular Astragalus  in picture #1 shown here is reblooming again. The first set of flowers produced two huge pods. Unfortunately  I did not take any pictures at that time.

[astragalus]

Very nice Astragalus lutosus, Kris. I was so surprised when it made seed pods this year.  Were you able to collect ripe seed?  A. lutosus has the longest bloom period of any astragalus I've ever grown.

[Rick R.]

Your stuff is just wonderous, Ann!  All these posts that you and others display are always much appreciated.

I take our natural clay and roll it into marble-sized balls, which are placed in the scree below the seedlings I plant.

Have you ever dug a year or more later, to see what has happened to the "marbles"?  In your very free draining scree, are they still intact, or have they "dissolved" into the surrounding scree?

I don't recall you posting Astragalus barbatus.  (I could be wrong.)  Do you grow it?

[astragalus]

Rick, I don't know Astragalus barbatus and have never grown it. Do you have a picture? Do you grow it?  The only time I would dig in the screes would be to remove or replace a dead plant.  The scree mix is so lean that if you dumped a bucket of water all at once there would be no puddle, even monentarily. The marbles are made from sub soil and it's a very sticky clay. It's quite possible they are still intact, I don't know.  It's also possible that they don't perform the function I had hoped, it was just an idea that seemed reasonable to try. Plants do very well in the screes during our extended summer droughts but maybe they would have anyway.

[kris]

Very nice Astragalus lutosus, Kris. I was so surprised when it made seed pods this year.  Were you able to collect ripe seed?  A. lutosus has the longest bloom period of any astragalus I've ever grown.

The plant produced two huge pods. One day I noticed one pod missing and immediately harvested the second one. I got 20 seeds from that.

[Rick R.]

Rick, I don't know Astragalus barbatus and have never grown it. Do you have a picture?

Bjønar Olsen has a nice pic on his old site (trillium.no), but I don't see it now on his chinesealpines.com.  It's a small one, like yours and Kris's wonderful A. lutosus, with purple flowers.  I bought seed from him, but didn't get it planted this year, so it will have to be next season.

[kris]

I love blue colours and Penstemon aridus  is a nice blue one.

[astragalus]

Kris, if you love the blue penstemons, try Penstemon uintahensis. It's quite wonderful. Have great pictures but unable to post them, sorry.

[Maggi Young]

John Richards has visited  Jiří Papoušek​'s wonderful garden  near Prague and reported in his  diary... ..

http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/diaries/Northumberland/+September+/920/


John's picture  of the new  crevice  garden in the front garden of Jiri's house -a work in progress 

[kris]

Kris, if you love the blue penstemons, try Penstemon uintahensis. It's quite wonderful. Have great pictures but unable to post them, sorry.

Sorry Anne I saw your post only today. I have Penstemon unithahensis and I love it . Penstemon nitidus is also heavenly blue.

[Maggi Young]

Kenton Seth is in Port Townsend, Washington..... he posted this ...

"Been a blast making one of the first big crevice gardens in WA for the amazing Far Reaches Farm
() www.farreachesfarm.com @far_reaches_botanical_conserve in Port Townsend this week. 

The whole story is blogged at
https://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR3bsgOcgZmJ1ygxPHtgp8AsFmA7u9jfdfjfHB4VevDqYzfr0anpAQOuCsE

[Maggi Young]

Unfortunately, as a  result  of  coronavirus pandemic, visits  to Scotland this year  for  SRGC events by  Paul Spriggs, Kenton Seth' Jacob Mares and Nick Courtens  have had to be  cancelled - however, we  can still get  a flavour  of  what they're  up to !
 Here  is  what Panayoti Kelaidis says about  Kenton Seth's recent blog about  his  work at the  Betty  Ford  Alpine  Garden in Vail, Colorado....
"The redoubtable, indomitable and just plain wonderful Kenton Seth is at it again: don't just click on this link to his blog post, be sure to watch the video at the end. This new crevice garden he built with Nick Courtens and Domenique Turnbull has got to be a masterpiece of the genre."

Link to the  blog : 

https://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-new-crevice-garden-in-vail.html?fbclid=IwAR20p_T-AfiKQB5uUW_zFEXWBjNqXTzGZG4efMIL7an2bbi6M39cZJdWJSw