Flowering now May 2007

[David Nicholson]

I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together and am ready to do more BUT I have utilised all the stone I scrounged from a neighbour's skip and have you seen (a) the prices quarries want for relatively small pieces of stone, and (b) the price my local garden centre want for one piece of stone roughly 27cm x 18cm-£3.99. I need fresh sources of free stone!!!!!

[hadacekf]

Paddy
Your garden is simple beautiful. Many interesting plants. Thanks

[hadacekf]

Geir,
What fabulous und rare plants grow in a fantastic condition in your rock garden. Congratulations to your success! Thanks for your photographs.

[David Shaw]

Come along David (N), your not thinking of buying stone, surely - you 'aquire' it!

From your pictures I am not sure if your house is in a town or the country. If in the country there are plenty of opportunities, both legal & illegal of getting stone for the garden. Farmers with stone cleared from the fields or tumbled down cottages - try to find the farmer and ask first but you will rarely be refused. I don't know who buys stone from garden centres but have noticed how the baskets seem to keep emptying

[Paddy Tobin]

Franz,

Many thanks for your comments.

Like David, the thought of paying for stone is a thought totally foreign to me. When I need stone I walk the headlands of the fields around me and pick  up the stones which would have been thrown there after ploughing over past years. Also, field gateways have all needed to be widened over past years as machinery became bigger and bigger. This lead to piers and ditches being knocked and the stone being shoved to one side - another source of stone. Drain digging leads to more. Local roadbuilding to more still. Buying is out of the question.

Here is a trough in shade on the patio behind the house. It was once the basin of a 'water feature', one puchased at a local garden centre. It was always a nuisance to maintain the pump, keep it clean and running etc as the sump constantly ran dry because the wind blew the flow of water out of the basin. I thought using it for plants would be easier to maintain and far more interesting than a piddle of water in the corner of the patio - always made me feel like going to the toilet anyway. So, I dismantled it and planted it with miniature hostas. Also included are some from a nearby trough and one from the open garden, very small but not a true miniature - 'Golden Tiara'.

Oh, Lemon Delight is also in the open garden though it is a small one but I have bulked it up over the past few years.

When looking at the ones in the trough keep an eye to the gravel as it will give you a sense of proportion by which to judge the size of the hostas.

I will need a second posting to upload all the photographs.

Hosta trough
Hosta 'Cracker Crumbs'
Hosta 'Dawn'
Hosta 'Kakitan'
Hosta 'Lemon Lime'
Hosta 'Little White Lines'
Hosta 'Surprised by Joy'
Hosta 'Tiny Tears'
Hosta 'Wogon'
Hosta 'Lemon Delight'

[Paddy Tobin]

And the other ones. By the way David, I bought these from a firm from Devon to the best of my recollection - ordered them at the Chelsea Show the year before last.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

OK, Hostas are fine but...here is a plant with which I am really delighted and then some of its relatives.

Paddy


Podophyllum delaveyi flowers
Podophyllum delaveyi leaves
Podophyllum peltatum flower
Podophyllum peltatum leaves
Podophyllum hexandrum 'Majus'

[gmoen]

First of all, thanks for the nice comments on my pics.

David
You really said it; I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together and am ready to do more
To me those words says it all. Thats what make gardening such a great hobby to me. Of course I often see pictures of other gardens and plants that I admire, so there is always some new ideas to reach out for. And just to make one thing clear, pictures like yours David gives me inspiration to go looking for new botanical treasures for my garden.
My situation when it comes to grow alpines is quite unique. I live in a climate that are close to what many of the plants have in their natural habitats. Normally a lot of snow in winter with a following late spring and a lot of cold melting water. And not to forget that I pay about £ 5,5 for 1000 kg of stone. So the question is if not your results are more impressive than mine.

But in the end what matter is what you said. The main thing is that we all enjoy what we do, and keep on give each other inspiration to keep up the good work.

So to all of you folks out there; Thanks for all the inspiration thru the years........and please keep on.

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely plants and pics from everyone, never mind the rocks! I really love all those little limey yellow hostas, especially `Lemon Delight.' 'Kakitan' should be 'Kabitan.' though. And the Podophyllums are super. What amazing leaves on P. delavayi.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Lovely collection of Hosta's Paddy and that Podophyllum is a real stunner ! (completely unknown to me)  Always nice to hear how some features in a garden found their origin !  Hating to clean a water pump is as good a reason as any 

Always good to see newly started parts of gardens David !  We can use all the inspiration we can get !

As to Geir..... well you have me green with envy - you seem to have half of Jotunheimen in your front garden !  Marvelous.

Thanks all for sharing

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Here's some views taken over the last couple of weeks from my garden :

1 and 2 : Rockery at the front of the house
3 : raised bed at front
4 and 5 : scree at the back with Rhodos and Azaleas at the end
6 : detail of same scree with Phlox 'Tiny Buggles'
7 : rockery against the back of the house - slope facing east
8 : wooden trough with Campanula aucheri - with back lawn

[hadacekf]

Luc,
I am pleased to see your raised bed/rockery. It is wonderful and I enjoyed the tour of it. Thanks

[Maggi Young]

Even after your drought, Luc, your garden is looking very good!  A question or two.... do you not fear damage to the house wall from damp problems caused by the rock bed you have raised up the wall in pic # 7 ?  What is the tall, blood red tulip in the center of the scree pic #5?
Your rhodos look good, you must have been watering them well!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thank you Franz - coming from a connoisseur like you - compliments count double 

Hi Maggi - thanks for the compliment and answering your questions - I've got the house wall protected by waterproof plates - the feature has been there for some ten years now and no problems so far.

The tulip is T. wilsoniana.

I think the Rhodos (and we) were lucky that the soil contained a lot of winter moisture when the drought started so they coped quite qell - I only watered the bigger specimen just once.  I think that if we were to have a similar drought in July or August, dammage would be much more important.

[Maggi Young]

"I've got the house wall protected by waterproof plates ".
... would you explain a little more to me about this  method, please?  I think the effect of the raised planting is most attractive.