Cushions

[astragalus]

Sigh................... I'm still waiting but the plants are growing nicely, though slowly.

[Tim Ingram]

I think Lesley made a comment about wanting to poke and prod cushions! There is a strong desire to do this even when going to the Shows when you should know better!! This is a beautiful thread. My best memory of such plants was in the Cradle Mtn/Lake St. Clair National Park in Tasmania where some huge cushions made up of three or four different species in a mosaic grow to several metres across - they must be hundreds of years old (unfortunately I only have slides). A friend in our Group once also gave us a lecture which finished with a succession of pictures of Azorella compacta which forms huge mounds in all shapes and sizes something like vegetable sheep in their 'personality'.

Franz's picture of Veronica caespitosa is wonderful. This I have tried to grow several times, along with relatives like bombycina, thinking that they would be well suited to our dry and warm climate in the south - but they haven't prospered and probably we lack the summer and winter extremes of heat and cold that many of these plants really need (my favourite place to live would probably be Denver! At least from a plant's point of view). Also plants like Erinacea grow quite well but have flowered only shyly if at all. Again we rarely approach the summer temperatures in the Mediterranean - I have seen it flowering superbly in a greenhouse in the Malahide Garden near Dublin.

[Jan Tholhuijsen]

One of the fish-box troughs, planted with 5 arenaria. Ground Mixture little fertile and permeable. Stand south / east until 2 o'clock sun, against the house. Third year. Every spring a bit of common bio fertilizer of DCM. In warm dry weather, every day during the watering of the annuals, they also get some between the pillows. Hard like a stone. During the winter (from November) a shelter.

Arenaria   tetraquetra subsp. Amabilis   
Arenaria   lithops   'Babi Lom'    (Czech cultivar. Babi Lom means Grandma's quarry)
Arenaria   tetraquetra     
Arenaria   lithops   
Arenaria   alfacarensis

[Jan Tholhuijsen]

continuation

The tetraquetra has become less in the middle, but usually recovered.
and a closup of the rosettes

[fermi de Sousa]

Jan,
these are fantastic.
How old were the plants when they were added to the crevices?
cheers
fermi

[Jan Tholhuijsen]

Jan,
these are fantastic.
How old were the plants when they were added to the crevices?
cheers
fermi

I think 1-2 years. They were about 3-4 cm in diameter.
The lithops bought in spring 2015 on sales day in the botanical garden in Brno Czech Republic.
The 'Babi Lom', the Alfacarensis and the tetraquetra Bought at Eva a Josef Holzbecherovi Czech Republic Spring 2015.
The tetraquetra subsp. Amabilis bought at Gert Hoek on the autumn sale 2015 in the Netherlands.

[fermi de Sousa]

Wow! They'd made good growth in just 2 years!
You're lucky to have access to such wonderful plants,
cheers
fermi

[Pavel]

Hi! I am new on forum and I want show you some plants from my rockgarden. More pictures on www.zlatekapradi.cz

[Maggi Young]

Welcome, Pavel!

[David Nicholson]

Some cracking cushions there.

[Pavel]

As in natural. Dianthus arpadianus have 1 m across  and 15 years old.